AUGUST 26 • 2021 | 31
This is the story of an illustrious Romanian-born, Hungarian-
speaking, Vienna-schooled, Columbia-educated and Harvard-
formed middle-class Jewish professor of politics and other
subjects. Markovits revels in a rootlessness that offers him
comfort, succor, and the inspiration for his life’s work. As we
follow his quest to find a home, we encounter his engagement
with the important political, social and cultural developments of
five decades on two continents. We also learn about his musical
preferences, from classical to rock; his love of team sports such
as soccer, baseball, basketball, and American football; and his
devotion to dogs and their rescue. Above all, the book analyzes
the travails of emigration the author experienced twice, moving
from Romania to Vienna and then from Vienna to New York.
Markovits’s Candide-like travels through the ups and downs
of post-1945 Europe and America offer a panoramic view of
key currents that shaped the second half of the 20th century.
By shedding light on the cultural similarities and differences
between both continents, the book shows why America
fascinated Europeans like Markovits and offered them a
home that Europe never did: academic excellence, intellectual
openness, cultural diversity, and religious tolerance. America
for Markovits was indeed the “beacon on the hill,” despite the
ugliness of its racism, the prominence of its everyday bigotry, the
severity of its growing economic inequality, and the presence of
other aspects that mar this worthy experiment’s daily existence.
Now available on AMAZON and BARNES & NOBLE
Andrei Markovits is The Karl W. Deutsch
Collegiate Professor of Comparative Politics and
German Studies at the University of Michigan
in Ann Arbor. His extensive scholarly work has
appeared in 15 languages and he has taught at
universities in the United States, Israel, Germany,
Austria and Switzerland!