Book Reviews: Catching Up on Reading...
A roundup of book reviews as 2024 comes to an end.
Rather than several individual reviews, I’m just going to round them up in this newsletter. Take into account my finishing Gangsters vs. Nazis over the weekend, I’m now behind on five book reviews. A few will be covered now before I get even further behind.
While I did read Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric! after seeing A Complete Unknown, I’m not writing a formal review. Instead, I wrote my thoughts in my review of the film.
Before I dive into the book reviews, I do have some news. I have completely migrated off of Substack after moving Dugout Dirt to a Managed WordPress with a dedicated URL. The plan is to hopefully monetize the site through ad revenue. As a newsletter, it just never became profitable. I still need to upload some photos and format the book reviews but other than that, it’s completely up and running. The past week and a half has been rather productive to say the least.
Chanukah has been keeping me busy with no shortage of Chabad events/lightings to attend. It’s not that I intended to eat Chinese food for three nights in a row but that’s the way things worked out this year. I heard a new saying to describe this time of year and honestly, it isn’t wrong: Gentile Chol Homoed. Seeing as how I started getting auto-responses on December 20, it’s safe to say that Hollywood is shut down through New Year’s. This is one of the reasons why I’ve been turning to year-end anniversary reviews. I try to review closer to the anniversary but this doesn’t always happen. For instance, my piece on the Major League Baseball: All-Century Team ran this morning rather than in October because of the chagim taking over my schedule.
Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn by Daniel Gordis
The quote from Amb. Dennis Ross on the cover is not an understatement. This is essential reading and really serves as a basic primer to one’s understanding of Israel and the country’s history. Before diving into the modern-day history and there is quite a lot, Gordis briefly offers the biblical history up through the fall of Judea for the third time. Much has happened between Judea’s fall and the birth of the Zionist movement in the late 1800s.
The book was first placed on my radar when I learned that filmmaker Matthew Mishory was adapting it into a documentary series. I’m not sure of the status at the moment, given the war, but I have high expectations after reading the book. It’s an award-winning book so that speaks to just how excellent it is. You name it, Gordis covers it.
Israel is over 400 pages but I read it at a rather brisk pace during the start of the chagim. There’s so much to take in and learn about. And again, if you must read one book on Israel, make it this one. But if readers find themselves wanting more, there are plenty of opportunities for further reading.
Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City by Andrew Lawler
If you’re a fan of Indiana Jones, Under Jerusalem is going to be right up your alley. The book reads like an Indiana Jones thriller. In fact, I started reading it around Yom Kippur. After reading about the possible locations of the lost Ark of the Covenant and whether an archaeologist may have found it, I did the next best thing: watch Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Lawler covers the whole of Jerusalem and the archaeological history that started in the 1860s when a French senator uncovered a stone casket in Jerusalem. A century and a half later, the digs and excavations are still fascinating even though some have come with their downsides. Excavations near the Kotel have led to riots.
Given its biblical history, nobody can develop land without first excavating for the archaeology. There have been discoveries through the years that have stalled development plans because then developers have to take into account the history. Nowhere is this truer than at the City of David. It’s currently a national park but there is something being discovered or excavated almost all the time.
The Kotel and Temple Mount is considered a flashpoint site. People have their various opinions on performing excavations in this area. Some excavations have been forced to stop, if only to attempt to maintain the peace. There are people of the belief that the Ark is hiding somewhere in the Temple Mount. But because of the current status quo, we might never know until Moshiach comes.
I cannot recommend Under Jerusalem enough—it’s a fast-paced thriller with a side of Indiana Jones.
Impossible Takes Longer: 75 Years After Its Creation, Has Israel Fulfilled Its Founders’ Dreams? by Daniel Gordis
If you’ve noticed, I had a recurring theme in my book reading during October. Because of Tishrei and the Jewish chagim, I took a break from baseball to read books about Jewish and Israeli history.
The paperback came out around the start of the Jewish new year. It couldn’t have been timelier with its updates on both the judicial overhaul and October 7. Gordis’s previous book, reviewed above, works as a companion to this book and I’m glad I read it earlier. Like anything with the State of Israel, no single book is going to ever be enough to offer everything. And yet, Gordis did his best with Israel. As for Impossible Takes Longer, it starts with the Israeli Declaration of Independence and takes things from there.
There are numerous subjects here that Gordis could focus on. What he ends up focusing on are a list of things mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. While the Israeli Knesset passes Basic Laws, the state has failed in its failure to adopt a constitution. If only.
Gordis, ever the historian, asks some solid—and sometimes, yes, even tough—questions in whether Israel has fulfilled the dreams of its founders. How does one even determine if Israel is a success? Does it mean comparing Israel to other countries or simply to the founders and their dreams? He explores the achievements, the failures, and contradictions while ultimately reaching a conclusion that Israel is a success even as it’s fallen short in some areas.