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yreg's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting overview and introduction into David Ben-Gurion's life. Although the authors don't claim to write a historical and unbiased account of Ben-Gurion's life, the heavy influence of Shimon Peres affects the credibility and authenticity of the first Israeli Prime Minister's portrayal. Peres for example mentions that BG had great respect for Weizmann, but that they disagreed on substantive issues. He doesn't however mention the incredible pettiness on behalf of BG in not leaving a space on the declaration of independence for Weizmann to sign on his return to Israel (apparently spaces were left for other important absent people to sign the document later on). He also seems to mention the several times BG had threatened to resign, without giving a slightly larger picture and interpretation of the pettiness this entailed. Peres does not shy away from making assessments of BG's character based on his own relationship with him, so why doesn't he do the same when there are negative sides of his personality that deserve to be expounded upon?
The interesting parts of this book, and the most significant contributions to the academic understanding of BG and his personality, are the personal stories and memories Peres shares with the reader. My favorite one relates to BG's lack of humor when told about a joke concerning him and Begin.
All in all this is a worthwhile, albeit very short and biased, introduction into one of the most important personas in the history of Israel and the modern Jewish history.
The interesting parts of this book, and the most significant contributions to the academic understanding of BG and his personality, are the personal stories and memories Peres shares with the reader. My favorite one relates to BG's lack of humor when told about a joke concerning him and Begin.
All in all this is a worthwhile, albeit very short and biased, introduction into one of the most important personas in the history of Israel and the modern Jewish history.
shanepunk's review against another edition
2.0
Bardzo interesujaca ksiazka, w miare dobrze sie czytalo. Jedyne dwie rzeczy, do ktorych troche sie przyczepie to gloryfikacja Ben Guriona przez Shimona Peresa - momentami ciezko bylo czytac w kolko to samo o tym jakim geniuszem byl zdaniem autora. Obszerny fragment, gdzie Peres chwalil sie swoimi wplywami u Ben Guriona jednoczesnie podkreslajac, ze to wcale nie jest popisywanie sie, ze on po prostu docenia swojego przelozonego. Nieco malo wiarygodnie to sformulowal, by w to uwierzyc. Druga rzecz to dla mnie kompletnie nie zrozumialy fakt umieszczenia Davida Landau jako wspolautora i wymienienie go nawet na okladce. To wcale nie jest wywiad-rzeka. Ksiazka jest pisana z perspektywy Peresa, a te rozmowy z Landau pojawiaja sie bardzo rzadko, sa krotkie i wlasciwie niczego nie wnosza, powtarzaja troche tresc rozdzialu i sa slabo napisane (lub zle przetlumaczone, ciezko powiedziec). Troche mialxm dylemat, czy dac trzy gwiazdki, czy dwie, ale poprzestalo na dwoch, bo wad nieco sporo, a takze wydaje mi sie, ze poza pewnymi informacjami rzecz jasna, sam fakt przeczytania tej ksiazki nie zostanie w mojej glowie zbyt dlugo.
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