Donated by Steve and Debra Todd in Loving Memory of Donna Todd Dotson.
Golda Meir was the first female head of state in the Western world and one of the most influential women in modern history. A blend of Emma Goldman and Martin Luther King Jr. in the guise of a cookie-serving grandmother, her uncompromising devotion to shaping and defending a Jewish homeland against dogged enemies and skittish allies stunned political contemporaries and transformed Middle Eastern politics for decades to follow. She outmaneuvered Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger at their own game of Realpolitik, and led Israel through a bloody war even as she eloquently pleaded for peace, carrying her nation through its most perilous hours while she herself battled cancer. In this masterful biography, critically acclaimed author Elinor Burkett paints a vivid portrait of a legendary woman defined by contradictions: an iron resolve coupled with magnetic charm, a kindly demeanor that disguised a stunning hard-heartedness, and a complete dedication to her country that often overwhelmed her personal relationships. Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly As Israel's prime minister from 1969 to 1974, Golda Meir (1898-1978) was recognized by her wrinkled face and gray bun. But, Burkett (Another Planet: A Year in the Life of a Suburban High School) says in this sympathetic but balanced biography, the young Meir was so strikingly attractive that detractors grumbled she had slept her way up the political hierarchy. The rise of the Russian-born, Milwaukee-bred Golda Mabovitz, however, was due to her enormous popularity in the U.S. as a fund-raiser for a struggling Jewish settlement in pre-statehood Palestine. Meir was politicized by memories of poverty and anti-Semitism in czarist Russia and by a feisty, older sister who introduced her to socialist Zionism. A Zionist pioneer, Meir secretly negotiated with Jordan's King Abdullah before the U.N. vote to partition Palestine; became a fervent supporter of Soviet Jewry after her reluctant stint as Israel's first ambassador to Moscow; and hesitantly approved the assassination of Palestinian terrorists responsible for the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Burkett says the price of Meir's nonstop political life was rocky relationships with her children and estranged husband. This is a solidly researched, highly readable portrait of a mesmerizing but, according to Burkett, ultimately lonely woman, though much of the material is familiar. 8 pages of b&w photos. (May) Copyright ® Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Booklist Zionist, socialist, and grandmother, Golda Meir was Russian by birth, American by immigration, and Israeli by conviction. Her role in the creation of the Jewish state naturally focuses Burkett's biography, which leavens the heavy-duty politics with intimate portraits of her personality. Drawn from Burkett's interviews and research in oral and printed histories, the depiction of Meir as unsentimental, single-minded, and prone to divide the world into enemies or friends touches the very qualities that steeled her. Ambivalent about Meir the woman, who Burkett concludes was a figure of tragic loneliness, Burkett presents Meir the politician in straightforward terms. From her awakening to the Zionist movement as a teenager in 1910s Milwaukee, to her commitment to it as a 1920s kibbutznik, to her leadership of it as Israel's prime minister from 1969 to 1974, Meir's life reflected the stormy events since Israel's establishment in 1948 and its dilemmas of fighting for survival and seeking peace. The absence of a comprehensive Golda biography has long been apparent, and Burkett's able production is a welcome arrival to the history shelf. --Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.