In Yiddish: A Global Culture: Bold Lives, Boundless Creativity, cultural historian David Mazower charts the emergence of a Jewish diasporic culture from its roots in the Russian Empire. Richly illustrated with many newly discovered images, it shows how a generation of Jewish youngsters soaked up everything the modern world had to offer and then created a mass theater, a dynamic press, labor unions, and monumental works of literature in their native tongue, Yiddish. Available for the first time in English, the memoir In the Course of Life amplifies this story as Peretz Hirshbein, a celebrated novelist, playwright, and journalist, revisits his efforts to conjure up a modern Yiddish art theater movement in the 1900s. Rich in anecdotes and vivid character sketches, these two landmark publications show Yiddish culture emerging from the encounter between traditional Judaism and the modern world. Joining Mazower is journalist and book critic Mark Glanville, for a conversation moderated by the books’ publisher, Lisa Newman.

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