沃尔特·拉克

Walter Ze'ev Laqueur (26 May 1921 – 30 September 2018) was a German-born American historian, journalist, political commentator, and Holocaust survivor. He was an influential scholar on the subjects of terrorism and political violence.

Biography

Walter Laqueur was born in Breslau, Lower Silesia, Germany (today Wrocław, Poland), into a Jewish family. In November 1938 he left Germany, immigrating to Mandatory Palestine. His parents, who were unable to leave, were murdered in the Holocaust. After less than a year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he left to work as an agricultural laborer and guard. In 1942 he became a member of kibbutz HaZore'a. He spoke several languages.

Laqueur was married to Naomi Koch, with whom he had two daughters. His second wife was Christa Susi Genzen. Laqueur died at his home in Washington, D.C., on September 30, 2018.

Journalism and academic career

From 1944, when he moved to Jerusalem, until his departure in 1955 he worked as a journalist for the Hashomer Hatzair newspaper, Mishmar (later, Al HaMishmar), and for The Palestine Post (later, The Jerusalem Post). In addition, he was the Middle East correspondent for journals in the United States and a commentator on world politics for Israel radio.

After moving to London, Laqueur founded and edited Soviet Survey, a journal focusing on Soviet and East European culture. Survey was one of the numerous publications of the CIA-funded Congress for Cultural Freedom to counter Soviet Communist cultural propaganda in the West.

Laqueur was Director of the Institute of Contemporary History and the Wiener Library in London from 1965 to 1994. Together with George Mosse, he founded and edited Journal of Contemporary History. From 1969 he was a member, and later Chairman (until 2000), of the International Research Council of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington. He was the founding editor of The Washington Papers. He was Professor of the History of Ideas at Brandeis University from 1968 to 1972, and at Georgetown University from 1976 to 1988. He was also a visiting professor of history and government at Harvard, the University of Chicago, Tel Aviv University and Johns Hopkins University.

Laqueur wrote extensively about the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the German Youth Movement, Zionism, the cultural history of the Weimar Republic, Communism and the Soviet Union, the Holocaust, the Cold War, fascism, post-World War II Europe and the decline of Europe, antisemitism both ancient and new. He pioneered the study of guerrilla warfare and terrorism. After the fall of the Soviet Union, he predicted that Russia would not become a democracy but an authoritarian system based on nationalist populism. His books and articles, which were published in many American and Europeans newspapers and periodicals, have been translated into several languages.

Laqueur's book The Last Days of Europe is often cited as a segment of "Eurabia literature", although in After the Fall he dismisses the "alarmist" notion of Eurabia as popularized by Oriana Fallaci.

Political views

The New York Times described Laqueur as difficult to "pigeonhole politically." He supported Israel but criticized its expansion of settlements in the West Bank.

Selected works

Articles

"Letters from Readers." Commentary, vol. 21, no. 2 (February 1956), pp. 183–185.

"Communism and Nationalism in Tropical Africa." Foreign Affairs, vol. 39, no. 4 (July 1961), pp. 610–621. JSTOR 20029515.

"Hollanditis: A New Stage in European Neutralism." Commentary (August 1981), pp. 19–29.

"The Future of Intelligence." Society, vol. 35, no. 2 (January/February 1998), pp. 301–311. doi:10.1007/BF02838154.

"Disraelia: A Counterfactual History, 1848-2008." Middle East Papers, no. 1 (April 1, 2008).

Books

Communism and Nationalism in the Middle East, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1956

Nasser's Egypt, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1957

The Soviet Cultural Scene, 1956–1957, co-edited with George Lichtheim, New York: Praeger, 1958

The Middle East in Transition: Studies in Contemporary History, New York: Praeger, 1958.

The Soviet Union and the Middle East. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1959. LCCN 59-7304.

Polycentrism: The New Factor in International Communism, co-edited with Leopold Labedz, New York: Praeger, 1962

Young Germany: A History of the German Youth Movement, New York: Basic Books, 1962

Heimkehr: Reisen in der Vergangenheit, Berlin, Propylaen Verlag, 1964

Neue Welle in der Sowjetunion: Beharrung und Fortschritt in Literatur und Kunst, Vienna: Europa Verlag, 1964

Russia and Germany: A Century of Conflict, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1965

1914: The Coming of the First World War, co-edited with George L. Mosse, New York: Harper & Row, 1966

Education and Social Structure in the Twentieth Century, co-edited with George L. Mosse, New York: Harper & Row, 1967

The Fate of the Revolution: Interpretations of Soviet History, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1967

The Road to Jerusalem: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1967, New York: Macmillan, 1968 (published in the UK as The Road to War, 1967: The Origins of the Arab-Israel Conflict, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1969)

The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict, Pelican Books, 1969.

Linksintellektuelle zwischen den beiden Weltkriegen, co-written with George Mosse, Munich: Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, 1969

The Struggle for the Middle East: The Soviet Union in the Mediterranean, 1958–1968, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969

Europe Since Hitler, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1970

A Dictionary of Politics, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971 ISBN 0-297-00091-8

Out of the Ruins of Europe, New York: Library Press, 1971 ISBN 0-912050-01-2

A Reader's Guide to Contemporary History, co-edited with Bernard Krikler, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1972 ISBN 0-297-99465-4.

A History of Zionism, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1972 ISBN 0-03-091614-3

Neo-Isolationism and the World of the Seventies, New York: Library Press, 1972 ISBN 0-912050-38-1