The Diary of Lt. Melvin J. Lasky

<p> <strong><em></em>'The Diary of Lt. Melvin J. Lasky' <em>offers not only a panoramic view of a country poised between devastation and an uncertain future but a gripping self-portrait of a man poised between unresolved youthful bewilderment and a mature clarity of conviction.</em></strong> <strong>• Wall Street Journal</strong></p><p> In 1945 Melvin J. Lasky serving in one of the first American divisions that entered Germany after the country's surrender began documenting the everyday life of a defeated nation. Travelling widely across both Germany and post-war Europe Lasky's diary provides a captivating eye-witness account colored by ongoing socio-political debates and his personal background studying Trotskyism. <em>The Diary of Lt. Melvin J. Lasky</em> reproduces the diary's vivid language as Lasky describes the ideological tensions between the East and West as well as including critical essays on subjects ranging from Lasky's life as a transatlantic intellectual the role of war historians and the diary as a literary genre.</p>