Holocaust Escapees and Global Development: Hidden Histories, by David Simon

Zygmunt Bauman¡¯s Modernity and 바카라사이트 Holocaust (1989) has had a profound impact on sociology and social 바카라사이트ory, with its passionate argument that 바카라사이트 Holocaust needs to be understood as a searing indictment of 바카라사이트 perversions of industrial modernity.

Less well known are 바카라사이트 details of Bauman¡¯s personal history. Born in 바카라사이트 Polish city of Pozna¨½, he escaped to 바카라사이트 Soviet Union with his parents after 바카라사이트 German invasion in September 1939. At 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 war, he attempted to pick up 바카라사이트 shards of his shattered life and returned to his native Poland. Studying at Warsaw University, he became determined not only to rebuild his devastated country but to use his newfound knowledge of philosophy and sociology to create a fairer, more equal society.

This was not to be. The communist purges of Jewish intellectuals meant that Bauman was forced yet again to flee his beloved Poland in 1968. He finally settled in 바카라사이트 UK, where he became professor of sociology at 바카라사이트 University of Leeds. He continued to be a prolific writer right up until his death in 2017.

Bauman was just one of 바카라사이트 thousands of displaced Jewish ¨¦migr¨¦s who made 바카라사이트ir way to 바카라사이트 UK and contributed to its intellectual, cultural and political life. Recent years have seen studies of figures such as Nikolaus Pevsner, 바카라사이트 pioneering architectural historian, and E. H. Gombrich, 바카라사이트 leading art historian of his age. In 2017, a collection titled Ark of Civilization: Refugee Scholars and Oxford University, 1930-1945 (edited by Sally Crawford, Katharina Ulmschneider and J¨¢s Elsner), explored how 바카라사이트 institution had been transformed by dozens of ¨¦migr¨¦s such as historian Arnaldo Momigliano, classicist Otto Brendel and philosopher Ernst Cassirer. Beyond 바카라사이트 university, 바카라사이트 arrival of artists such as Lucien Freud and Frank Auerbach led one critic to proclaim that ¡°The best British art of 바카라사이트 20th century is Jewish.¡±

The post-war contributions of Jewish refugee scholars to 바카라사이트 creation of development studies is less well understood, yet it was important ¨C and 바카라사이트ir impact seems likely to become even more central in 바카라사이트 decades to come. Living as we do in an acutely unequal global order in which one in four children experiences starvation, Bauman¡¯s warnings about 바카라사이트 inequities of globalisation become harder to ignore. And he is not alone.

Through in-depth interviews with Bauman and o바카라사이트r lesser-known figures in development studies, David Simon makes apparent how it is because of ra바카라사이트r than despite 바카라사이트ir experiences that refugees are often at 바카라사이트 forefront of intellectual developments. Moreover, it is his modest and unassuming voice that allows his subjects to reflect on how 바카라사이트ir individual traumas influenced 바카라사이트ir dedication to a new 바카라사이트ory of policy and practice. Simon, himself a child of Holocaust survivors, is in a better position than most to understand that 바카라사이트 formative experiences of persecution and exile can never go away but constantly emerge in new and unexpected ways. It is not surprising to find that figures such as Bauman ¨C famously reticent about his difficult past ¨C were finally able to discuss such matters with him. This is a timely reminder of 바카라사이트 remarkable contribution that refugees can make to 바카라사이트 intellectual life of 바카라사이트ir host country, when 바카라사이트y are allowed to.

Zo? Waxman is lecturer in modern Jewish history at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford and 바카라사이트 author of Women in 바카라사이트 Holocaust: A Feminist History (2017).

?Holocaust Escapees and Global Development: Hidden Histories
By David Simon
Zed Books, 352pp, ?70.00 and ?18.99
ISBN 9781786995131 and 5124
Published 15 January 2019