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Refugees: Anarchy or Organization?
A straightforward description of the refugee problem, in all its complexity and horror, with the lessons of past experience and concrete proposals for immediate action. This book carries into fuller detail the story told by Miss Thompson in her article in the April 1938 issue of FOREIGN AFFAIRS -- an article which stimulated the American Government's convocation of the Evian Conference.
125 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1938
14 people want to read
About the author
Dorothy Thompson
31 books39 followersDorothy Thompson was an American journalist and radio broadcaster, who was noted by Time magazine in 1939 as one of the two most influential women in America, the other being Eleanor Roosevelt.
She is notable as the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany (in 1934), one of the few women news commentators on radio during the 1930s, and as the inspiration for Katharine Hepburn's character "Tess Harding" in the film Woman of the Year (1942).
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Note for Goodreads Librarians: there are multiple authors with this name. When adding books for this author, use three spaces between 'Dorothy' and 'Thompson'.
She is notable as the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany (in 1934), one of the few women news commentators on radio during the 1930s, and as the inspiration for Katharine Hepburn's character "Tess Harding" in the film Woman of the Year (1942).
--
Note for Goodreads Librarians: there are multiple authors with this name. When adding books for this author, use three spaces between 'Dorothy' and 'Thompson'.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 19, 2017
Though published nearly 80 years ago, this book feels very current in its calls for compassion, peace, and outreach to our fellow man coupled with solutions that had been tried in the 1930's and could have been tried in the 1940's.
On some pages, it was fascinating to think about everything the author didn't know in 1938 (much as a book like this couldn't have known what would happen after the November 2016 US elections) as well as to identify all of the strategies that had already been implemented in an effort to help refugees after WWI and in the face of Nazi expansion.
On other pages, the reader is amazed to find both statistics and anecdotes that must have been infinitely more challenging to come by without computers much less the internet or a smart phone.
Though it's unclear if the author's vision for helping refugees was of her time or if it could be extrapolated by visionaries today, it is very clear that while technology, the countries identified with fascism, and the countries with the highest emigration rates the issues grappled with here are still very much with us.
On some pages, it was fascinating to think about everything the author didn't know in 1938 (much as a book like this couldn't have known what would happen after the November 2016 US elections) as well as to identify all of the strategies that had already been implemented in an effort to help refugees after WWI and in the face of Nazi expansion.
On other pages, the reader is amazed to find both statistics and anecdotes that must have been infinitely more challenging to come by without computers much less the internet or a smart phone.
Though it's unclear if the author's vision for helping refugees was of her time or if it could be extrapolated by visionaries today, it is very clear that while technology, the countries identified with fascism, and the countries with the highest emigration rates the issues grappled with here are still very much with us.
December 24, 2021
The book is useful for initiating the unfamiliar with displaced persons after WW1. It's scope is narrow and mostly concerns itself with German Jews attempting to flee Germany. It does mention other populations (Armenians, Greeks, Poles, etc.), but unfortunately the author doesn't use those examples to inform her arguments.
The solutions proposed by the author are generic and hyperbolic. The experiences of prior mass resettlements are not used to inform future mass resettlements. This jeopardizes the author's call for mass resettlement, when the prior experiences cited after WW1 all failed (250,000 Jews moved to Ukraine, 12,000 to Russia, 42,000 to Palestine with each experience causing increased nationalism in the native population resulting in a number of bad things).
The author also promotes preposterous economic incentives supposedly supporting her generic and hyperbolic solutions: "And new mass settlements, on a decent standard of civilization, will create new markets for the whole world!".
The solutions proposed by the author are generic and hyperbolic. The experiences of prior mass resettlements are not used to inform future mass resettlements. This jeopardizes the author's call for mass resettlement, when the prior experiences cited after WW1 all failed (250,000 Jews moved to Ukraine, 12,000 to Russia, 42,000 to Palestine with each experience causing increased nationalism in the native population resulting in a number of bad things).
The author also promotes preposterous economic incentives supposedly supporting her generic and hyperbolic solutions: "And new mass settlements, on a decent standard of civilization, will create new markets for the whole world!".
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews