Episode · EconTalk · 2026-01-26
Books mentioned on Zionism, the Melting Pot, and the Galveston Project (with Rachel Cockerell)
What happens when a writer discovers her "boring" great-grandfather was actually a household name across the Russian Empire who helped 10,000 Jews escape to Texas?
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Melting Point: Family, Memory and the Search for a Promised Land: A Groundbreaking Family History for Fans of Edmund de Waal and Philippe Sands
Discussed“My guest is author Rachel Cochel. Her book, which is the subject of today's conversation, is The Melting Point: Family Memory and the Search for a Promised Land.”
Where to get it
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The Jewish State
The Jewish State is a foundational political pamphlet written by Theodor Herzl in the late nineteenth century that outlines the proposal for the establishment of an independent homeland for the Jewish people.
Discussed“I mean it's interesting because even Herzel when he first um you know he wrote this little book as he called it which was other people called it a pamphlet. a very slim volume called the Jewish state and even in that book that his sort of first uh founding of of modern Zionism he uh suggested that there could”
Where to get it
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The World of Yesterday
The World of Yesterday is a haunting and poignant memoir by Stefan Zweig that chronicles the author's life in Vienna and across Europe during the turbulent period between the First and Second World Wars, capturing the devastating rise of Nazism and the collapse of a liberal European order.
Recommended“His memoir, which I really recommend, which I think your quote is from, it's called The World of Yesterday. It's an extraordinary memoir of life in in in Vienna and in Europe between the wars and then the rise of the Nazis.”
Where to get it
