Walking Since Daybreak: A Story of Eastern Europe, World War II, and the Heart of Our Century

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For thousands of years, the windswept plains of the eastern Baltic attracted migrant tribes from all over Eurasia. These peoples lived together, sometimes uneasily, sometimes at peace, forging the multiethnic cultures of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. The last two centuries have brought one army after another to the Baltic, led by Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm, Tsar Nicholas, Hitler's generals, and Stalin's field marshals. In the wake of World War II, the multiethnic cultures of the Baltic splintered, and millions of citizens, including Canadian historian Modris Eksteins, born in Latvia in 1943, were sent into flight.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Part History and part autobiography, Walking Since Daybreak tells the tragic story of the Baltic nations before, during, and after World War II. Personal stories of the survival or destruction of Modris Eksteins's family members lend an intimate dimension to this vast narrative of those millions who have surged back and forth across the lowlands bordering the Baltic Sea. As Eksteins's two-pronged narrative approaches its huge climax, the reader learns yet again that in historical catastrophes blame and praise are nearly impossible to assign.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Eksteins, author of the noted Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age (LJ 2/15/89), begins this new book in his native Latvia. The reader is given a history of the author's family that is often difficult to follow as it jumps from the Middle Ages to Stalin and back. The wartime story of Eksteins's family is told in between paragraphs of historical and present-day events. A strictly autobiographical approach might have been clearer than this jumbled narrative style, which conveys events that are confusing enough in themselves. By the end of the book, Eksteins's goal is still unclear. This title may have some appeal to subject specialists, but given the style and the enormity of all the author tries to cover, it would be hard going for general readers. Not a necessary purchase.--Mark E. Ellis, Albany State Univ., GA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Part history, part memoir, this unconventional account of the fate of the Baltic nations is also an important reassessment of WWII and its outcome. Acclaimed for his study of WWI (Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age, 1989), Eksteins, a professor of history at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, here combines his role of historian with that of autobiographer, rapidly shifting among events before, during, and after WWII. First he provides the drama of his family history (clearly presented, with a literary sensibility, though at times overwritten); the pivotal character is Eksteins's maternal great-grandmother Grieta. The tale of this Latvian chambermaid, made pregnant and then rejected by her Baltic-German baron, serves as a mirror of Latvian-German relations over the centuries. In addition, the family history opens up the subject of displacement, with a heavy focus on the fate of DPs in the postwar years and the struggle and hope of the immigrant experience. A history of the Baltic nations is squeezed in as well, with special emphasis on these nations' vulnerable position between Germany and Russia, with an eye to WWII. Finally, at the book's core is a serious questioning of our culture's attitudes about the outcome of the war. Eksteins argues that, in a postmodern age, we must write history that doesn't dictate but provokes us with "layers of suggestion." In the post￯﾿ﾽCold War era, he contends, we must face the realities of the war and the fact that 1945 "is not our victory, as we often like to think; 1945 is our problem." Given this statement, Eksteins's treatment of the Holocaust will be closely scrutinized. The author goes about things in his ownway: while the Jews are noticeably absent from his examination of the Baltic communities, he gives the Baltic Jewish situation separate and bold attention; Eksteins discusses the "willing executioners" among Hitler's conquered subjects. A multifaceted study of the Baltics and WWII, provocative and ambitious, that evokes the enormity of the loss and destruction caused by the war.