Golda Meir: The Romantic Years

by Ralph G. Martin

Golda The Romantic Years [Paperback] Ralph G. Martin (Author)

Genres: Biography

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Ralph G. Martin was an American journalist who authored or co-authored about thirty books, including popular biographies of recent historical figures, among which, Jennie, a two-volume (1969 and 1971) study of Winston Churchill's American mother, Lady Randolph Churchill, became the most prominent bestseller. Other successful tomes focused on British royal romance (Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson in 1974, as well as Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1985) and on the Kennedy family (John F. Kennedy in 1983 and Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. in 1995).

Born in Chicago, Martin was eight years old when his family moved to Brooklyn, New York. He studied at City College of New York and, subsequently, the University of Missouri, where he graduated in 1941 with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

Twenty-one years old upon receiving his diploma, Martin decided to hitchhike and found a newspaper job at the Box Elder News Journal which served Brigham City, the county seat of Utah's Box Elder County. In December, following the U.S. declaration of war in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Martin enlisted in the Army and spent the war as a combat correspondent for the Armed Forces newspaper Stars and Stripes and the Army weekly magazine, Yank. In 1944, after having interviewed New York City's mayor, Fiorello La Guardia, for Yank, Martin asked La Guardia to perform his marriage ceremony to Marjorie Pastel.

Returning to civilian life in 1945, Martin began working as editor for news and analysis publications Newsweek and The New Republic and became executive editor at decorating and domestic arts magazine House Beautiful. During the months preceding the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections, he served as a member of the campaign staff for the Democratic nominee, Adlai Stevenson.

Having lived for years in the Connecticut town of Westport, near New York City, Martin moved to the Kendal on Hudson retirement community in another of the city's suburbs, Sleepy Hollow, where he died seven-and-a-half weeks before his 93rd birthday. He and his wife Marjorie were the parents of two daughters and a son.

Reviews

[Terrie Buhler · Rating 4 out of 5]

My mother gave me this book and I began reading it thinking I should learn more about Golda Meir since all I knew about her was that she had been the Prime Minister of Israel at one time. The author did an enormous amount of research to tell this long story of Golda's early years. She was born in Russia in 1898 and lived in Milwaukee in 1906 with her family until she moved to Palestine in 1921 with her husband. There are wonderful photographs that show what a beautiful young girl and young woman she was (who knew??). She was absolutely committed to Zionism from her earliest years. She spent her early life working and traveling to raise money for the cause of bringing Jews home to Jerusalem. The book is over 400 pages long, but ends with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 which was long before Golda Meir became Prime Minister. It was very educational for me so it was not particularly a fun read, but it was well written and I couldn't get over what a beautiful woman Golda was, and how many men she had as friends and lovers who worked alongside her in her quest. There's something really important in learning about people who lived lives of such complete dedication.

[Nolan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a mediocre biography. It’s not terrible or unreadable. There’s enough Israeli history here to make it interesting in wide swaths. But there’s a lot of focus on Meir’s bed-hopping, and you get glimpses of her constant ability to put fame and politics over motherhood.

The biography begins with her birth and extreme poverty in Russia, follows her to Milwaukee at the age of three, and on to a feisty, independentyoung adulthood. She marries but has no desire to stay in America. Instead, she migrates to Palestine and works on a kibbutz. She loves the experience; her bookish husband does not. The marriage begins to die then and there, and it’s a slow death that doesn’t ultimately happen until years after the two children are born.

This is just enough pre-Israel history to be interesting mixed with Meir’s apparent ability to compare sheet brands with any number of men. The book ends with the birth of modern Israel in 1948.

But here’s why it’s not an entire waste. The place that becomes Israel in the spring of 1948 experiences bloody and tumultuous times between 1946 and 1948 and beyond that. That portion of the book is fascinating and an excellent section. Golda Meir does a remarkable job of raising money from American Jewry for arms. The would-be nation of Israel has almost no military equipment to speak of, and it knows as soon as the Arab-sympathizing Brits pull out, no one else will step forward to help the fledgling nation. That’s an excellent several pages and offsets those portions of the book that caused my interest to flag. Meir was one of the original signers of Israel’s Declaration of Independence. That was a high-drama moment the author captures vividly.

[Sara Goldenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was the first "Golda" book I read and I guess I liked it at the time, but since then I've read others and they were "better". It wasn't bad, it just wasn't as well-written as other books about Golda Meir.

[Chavi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating, well-researched book about an extraordinary woman. Unfortunately, I struggled a bit with the writing style.

[Ruppert Baird · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather romantic and admiring look at Goldie Meyer, the Wisconsin, Jewish girl who would later become an icon of Israeli history and one of its most successful prime ministers and leaders, especially in its formative years.

Too, it does not pull punches, discussing rumor and innuendo that followed Meir in her political career and personal life. But, it is insightful and explains much in the way of the politics and warfare that marked early, modern Israeli history.

[Gillian]

Wonderful book.