Modris Eksteins Book order

"Solar Dance" is a profound exploration of legitimacy, truth, and the issues of authenticity in today's world, highlighting the cults of celebrity and the crisis we face regarding what is real and what is fake.

In Modris Eksteins’s exploration, the intertwined narratives of Vincent van Gogh and art dealer Otto Wacker illuminate the origins of the uncertainty defining the modern era. Through Wacker’s sensational 1932 trial in Berlin for selling counterfeit Van Goghs, Eksteins crafts a unique account of Weimar Germany, the ascent of Hitler, and the shift from nineteenth-century certitude to twentieth-century doubt. Post-Great War Berlin became a hub for art and transgression, drawing figures like Wacker, a young gay dancer turned art impresario. His sale of thirty-three forged Van Goghs not only elevated the commercial value of Van Gogh’s work but also questioned the integrity of established values that had begun to erode during the war. Van Gogh emerged as a posthumous hero, rejecting organized religion and authority in favor of art, resonating with self-pitying Germans who found in his life a narrative of triumph over defeat and meaninglessness. Eksteins illustrates how the collapsing Weimar Republic, which amplified Van Gogh’s fame and provided Wacker a chance for reinvention, also enabled Hitler to exploit the void left by a disintegrating belief system, crafting myths of mastery. Blending cultural and political history, this narrative reveals how early twentieth-century upheavals spurred a quest for authenticity and purpose.

A rare and remarkable cultural history of World War I that unearths the roots of modernism Dazzling in its originality, Rites of Spring probes the origins, impact, and aftermath of World War I, from the premiere of Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring in 1913, to the death of Hitler in 1945. Recognizing that The Great War was the psychological turning point . . . for modernism as a whole, author Modris Eksteins examines the lives of ordinary people, works of modern literature, and pivotal historical events to redefine the way we look at our past and toward our future.

Based on personal experiences the author offers this history of the Baltic nations describing their brief independence after World War I, their devastation during World War II, and their annexation into the Soviet Union.