Messages From A Lost World: Europe On The Brink

As Europe faced its darkest days Stefan Zweig was a passionate voice for tolerance peace and a world without borders In these moving ardent essays speeches and articles composed before and during the Second World War one of the twentieth century's greatest writers mounts a defence of European unity against terror and brutalityThese haunting lost messages all appearing in English for the first time and some newly discovered distil Zweig's courage belief and richness of learning to give the essence of a writer; a spiritual will and testament to stand alongside his memoir The World of Yesterday Brief and yet intense they are a tragic reminder of a world lost to the 'bloody vortex of history' but also a powerful statement of one man's belief in the creative imagination and the potential of
humanity with a resounding relevance todayAt a time of monetary crisis and political disorder of mounting border controls and barbed-wire fences Zweig's celebration of the brotherhood of peoples reminds us that there is another way The Nation One of liberalism's greatest defenders New Republic Zweig's impassioned pursuit of personal freedom seems more relevant than ever Newsweek These essays few in number but rich in content reveal the essence of Zweig's thought Messages from a Lost World is ably translated from German into English for an American readership by Will Stone making it an extraordinary and highly recommended addition to community and academic library collections Midwest Book Review In pieces from the 1920s and early 30s Zweig takes it as a moral imperative to champion the
cause of peace by reminding his readers and listeners that humanity could no longer afford the sort of belligerent nationalism that had led them into the Great War Inside Higher Ed While it is disheartening to read these pieces today knowing how Zweig's life ended it is inspiring to see that they have been published However defeated Zweig might appear to contemporary readers however aloof or naive his idea of the European soul is still worth defending Northwest Review of BooksStefan Zweig was born in 1881 in Vienna a member of a wealthy Austrian-Jewish family He studied in Berlin and Vienna and was first known as a translator and later as a biographer Zweig travelled widely living in Salzburg between the wars and enjoying literary fame His stories and novellas were collected in 1934 In the
same year with the rise of Nazism he briefly moved to London taking British citizenship After a short period in New York he settled in Brazil It was here that he completed his acclaimed memoir The World of Yesterday a lament for the golden age of a Europe destroyed by two world wars The articles and speeches in Messages from a Lost World were written as Zweig a pacifist and internationalist witnessed this destruction and warned of the threat to his beloved Europe On 23 February 1942 Zweig and his second wife Lotte were found dead following an apparent double suicide Much of his work is available from Pushkin Press