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A Texas Greenhorn in Berlin and Moscow, 1928: Travel Diary of Joseph S. Werlin & History Lessons from My Father
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About A Texas Greenhorn In Berlin And
Product Description Joseph Werlin's diary pages are full of remarkable observations of France, Germany, Russia, and America in 1928. Allowed into Moscow on a study visa, Werlin's keen eye for observation and documentation provides firsthand insight into the early days of Stalinist rule. During his travels, Werlin refers to himself as a "Greenhorn,"acknowledging his innocence as a first-time international traveler and recording his memories with a student's youthful eagerness. Together with Werlin's diary, his daughter, Joella Werlin, has compiled correspondence, news articles, and other historical documents to reveal her father's life story, as well as a rare insight into European, Russian, and American history. Joseph Werlin received his PhD in Russian history from the University of Chicago and later became Professor of Sociology at the University of Houston. Review "Joseph Sidney Werlin visited Weimar Germany and Soviet Russia in 1928 to better understand the origins of the Bolshevik revolution . . . . What he saw was a continent in transition, with a vibrant Jewish life and democratic politics in Germany, a militarized society and culture in Poland, and radical social reforms in Russia. His intelligence and curiosity, professional training, and personal background as a second-generation Jewish American made him a keen observer and commentator . . . . Lovingly prepared by his daughter and featuring unique personal documents and archival materials, this book invites its readers to join Joseph Werlin on a fascinating intellectual journey." -- Alexey Golubev, PhD Assistant professor of Russian history University of Houston "The book seems to have something for every history buff: Russia, Germany, Mexico, Judaism, anti-Semitism, the Depression of the 1930s, academic life under the constraints of political turmoil. The correspondence between the writer and his fiancée adds additional validity . . . and is imbued with warmth and passion. . . . [Werlin] captured very well the dark and tumultuous years of post-NEP Moscow: the squalor, the housing crisis in the city, the misery of communal living, the pitiful state of the citizens, the introduction of cooperatives, the treatment of the Russian Jews. He projects effectively the image of the country ravished by the October Revolution . . . . Joseph Werlin said, 'It will not be easy for me to forget my first impression of Moscow.' It will be equally hard for me to forget my impressions of reading his diary!" -- Dr. Rima Greenhill Stanford Humanities Center Fellow (2019-20) and Senior Lecturer in Russian Language Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures "I was engrossed by this remarkable letter-diary as soon as I opened the book. Twenty-seven- year-old Joseph Werlin had such openness to experience, such an eye for detail, such intellectual clarity, and such earnest humility that I liked him immediately and envied the fiancee who, in 1928, received Werlin's riveting, caring, and candid accounts of living in Berlin and Moscow." -- Peggy McIntosh, PhD Founder, National SEED Project on Inclusive Curriculum, Wellesley Centers for Women Author, On Privilege, Fraudulence, and Teaching as Learning (Routledge, 2019) "As Joseph Werlin, still a graduate student, is traveling in Europe, and in time, towards his future marriage, his family, his career as a professor, there are traveling with him our ever-contemporary historical questions. About nations, or about humans we meet in consulates and trains, in universities and apartments. About our borders between people. Or about your borders of governing for your own good, or the good of many. About our tribal stories. About your identity, or your prejudice. About anti-Semitism. About the Wandering Jew in Berlin, Warsaw, Moscow, Chicago. Or the wandering borders of our understanding. . . . One of the history lessons gets its finishing shape from a snapshot in front of the Monument to the Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Like Joseph Wer
