
East West Street
On the Origins of "genocide" and "crimes Against Humanity"
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group · Print & ebook · July 11, 2017
A profound, important book, a moving personal detective story and an uncovering of secret pasts, set in Europe’s center, the city of bright colors—Lviv, Ukraine, dividing east from west, north from south, in what had been the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
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- Who it’s for
- A serious, layered inquiry into how legal language took shape around atrocity.
- Genres
- Holocaust History, Genocide & War Crimes, Legal History
- Published
- Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, July 11, 2017
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Start with this bookAbout this book
A profound, important book, a moving personal detective story and an uncovering of secret pasts, set in Europe’s center, the city of bright colors—Lviv, Ukraine, dividing east from west, north from south, in what had been the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A book that explores the development of the world-changing legal concepts of “genocide” and “crimes against humanity” that came about as a result of the unprecedented atrocities of Hitler’s Third Reich.
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It is also a spellbinding family memoir, as the author traces the mysterious story of his grandfather as he maneuvered through Europe in the face of Nazi atrocities. This is “a monumental achievement ... told with love, anger and precision” (John le Carré, acclaimed internationally bestselling author). East West Street looks at the personal and intellectual evolution of the two men who simultaneously originated the ideas of “genocide” and “crimes against humanity,” both of whom, not knowing the other, studied at the same university with the same professors, in “the Paris of Ukraine,” a major cultural center of Europe, a city variously called Lemberg, Lwów, Lvov, or Lviv. Phillipe Sands changes the way we look at the world, at our understanding of history and how civilization has tried to cope with mass murder
Origins and Aftermath
A serious, layered inquiry into how legal language took shape around atrocity.
Come here for
- Origins of two hard-used legal words
- History braided with ideas
Expect
- Dense historical context
- Conversation-ready intellectual heft
Where it sits
| Holocaust History | 74% |
|---|---|
| Genocide & War Crimes | 46% |
| Legal History | 36% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Jewish History
- Holocaust History
- Genocide & War Crimes
- Authors
- Philippe Sands
- Publisher
- Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- Published
- July 11, 2017
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Jewish History