false 6218926 1 Twenty years ago, John Lukacs paused to set down the history of his own thoughts and beliefs in "Confessions of an Original Sinner", an adroit blend of autobiography and personal philosophy. Now, in "Last Rites", he continues and expands his reflections, this time integrating his conception of history and human knowledge with private memories of his wives and loves, and enhancing the book with footnotes from his idiosyncratic diaries. The resulting volume is fascinating and delightful, a book of history by a passionate, authentic, brilliant, and witty man. Lukacs begins with a concise rendering of a historical understanding of our world (essential reading for any historian), then follows with trenchant observations on his life in the United States, commentary on his native Hungary and the new meanings it took for him after 1989, and deeply personal portraits of his three wives, about whom he has not written before.He includes also a chapter on his formative memories of May and June 1940 and of Winston Churchill, a subject in some of Lukacs' later studies. "Last Rites" is a richly layered summation combined with a set of extraordinary observations - an original book only John Lukacs could have written. 6399596 24 2 2009 Last Rites total:2|4:1|3:1| 2 7 3 2 6218926 0300114389 9780300114386 2 2 3.50 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6218926.Last_Rites 4 0 false Wed Feb 11 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 10:35:09 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 10:52:29 -0800 2009 The Last European War in a Georgetown bookstore, and spent the next few days in a corner of the library reading it straight through. I'd never read history written th...more...]]> 6218926 0300114389 9780300114386 2 2 3.50 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6218926.Last_Rites 3 0 false Sun May 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 10:12:52 -0700 2009 Sun May 24 23:05:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 6218926 0300114389 9780300114386 2 2 3.50 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6218926.Last_Rites 0 0 false Sun Sep 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 09:43:28 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 09:43:53 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=6218926