A Scholar's Quest for Home and Identity
Experience the remarkable story of a Romanian-born, Hungarian-speaking Jewish professor. From Vienna to Columbia and Harvard, he navigates a life marked by rootlessness, seeking comfort and purpose. His journey unfolds against the backdrop of five decades, two continents, and significant political and cultural changes.
As we follow his pursuit of a home, we gain insight into the critical developments of post-1945 Europe and America. Markovits's emigration experiences, first from Romania to Vienna and later from Vienna to New York, shed light on the challenges he faced.
His journey offers a panoramic view of the forces shaping the latter half of the 20th century. Despite America's flaws, he finds it a beacon of academic excellence, intellectual openness, cultural diversity, and religious tolerance—qualities that Europe lacked.
Explore the complexities of identity, culture, and the universal search for belonging in this captivating narrative.
Andrei S. Markovits is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Karl W. Deutsch Collegiate Professor of Comparative Politics and German Studies; Professor of Political Science; Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures; Professor of Sociology at the The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Foreword
Michael Ignatieff
Preface and Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Origins: The Virtues of Rootlessness
Chapter 2. A Paean to Tante Trude (Who Might or Might Not Have Been a Nazi)
Chapter 3. Four Friendships: Discovering America in Vienna
Chapter 4. Daphne Scheer, Real Madrid and Internazionale Milano (Inter Milan): The Personal Meets the Political
Chapter 5. The Rolling Stones Play Vienna (Resulting in Bodily Harm to the City’s Jews)
Chapter 6. Arrival in New York: The Dream Meets the Reality
Chapter 7. Columbia 1968: How the World – and Andy – Changed in a Single Year
Chapter 8. Kiki: Big Politics and Little Andy
Chapter 9. The Grateful Dead: My American Family
Chapter 10. Harvard’s Center for European Studies: The Interloper Finds a Home
Chapter 11. Dogs: The Rescuer Rescues Himself
Chapter 12. Germany: Admiration for the Bundesrepublik, Discomfort with Deutschland
Epilogue
