Though she might have described her memory maps as products of specificwartime circumstances, generalizable to similar conditions of war and decoloni-zation elsewhere, Tamanoi, rather, echoes studies of Japanese official memory, andher interviewees, in simply seeking an indictment of the state. Memory Maps doesnot offer a convincing new conceptualization of Japanese war remembrance. Butas a captivating compendium of the complex memories of Manchuria, it is aninvaluable resource.

University of Pennsylvania Frederick R. Dickinson

EUROPE

Armenian Golgotha: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide, 19151918. By GrigorisBalakian. Translated with an introduction by Peter Balakian with Aris Sevag. (NewYork, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. Pp. xli, 509. $35.00.)

In April 1915, Grigoris Balakian, a priest in the Armenian Apostolic Church inConstantinople, was arrested by the Young Turk government at the start of whatmany experts now call the genocide of the Armenian people. This book, firstpublished in Armenian in 1922, recounts what happened to Balakian after hisarrest and now, for the first time, this important eye-witness account is avail-able in an English-language version translated and edited by Peter Balakian (thegreat-nephew of the author) and Aris Sevag. The editors have deleted somesermonizing passages but state that in all other ways they have faithfullyreproduced the original (xxviii). They have also made several useful additions.These include a chronology that puts Balakians experiences into a broaderhistorical perspective, and an eleven-page biographical glossary. The authorsoriginal preface is included as an appendix. The editors have also added a guideto further readings about the Armenian genocide.

The book is divided into two parts. Part one deals with Balakians life indetention. From April 1915 until February 1916 he was under house arrest inChankiri with other intellectuals. As this was the period when a lot of the killingsof Armenians took place, Balakian was not a direct witness to these massacres.Rather, his account of these events draws on his experiences during the secondperiod of his detention, when he was forced to participate in a deportation marchfrom Chankiri to Ayran where he would have been left to die in the desert. Thisjourney through Anatolia follows a route through some of the regions mostaffected by Turkish actions. Part two of the book is entitled Life as a Fugitiveand details his escape from Ayran and his journey back to Constantinople

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disguised as a German. Balakian was able to carry this off because he had studiedtheology and engineering at Berlin and Mittweida, respectively.

The publication of this book is timely because Turkey and Armenia have beguna process of normalization of relations. This includes a willingness on the Turkishside to allow historians from both countries to examine the events discussed byBalakian, and one can hope that this volume might contribute further to thisimportant debate. However, it does suffer from two drawbacks as an historicalrecord. The first, as already noted, is that the author is rarely a direct witness tokillings even if his own personal experiences confirm that something terrible wasinflicted on the Armenians. The second is that there is a strong anti-Turkishsentiment that breaks through the narrative on occasions. Of course, a degree ofhostility towards Turks is to be expected, given what the author witnessed.Nonetheless, statements such as the Ottoman empire left no traces or memory ofcivilization except massacre, plunder, forced Islamization, and abduction mayprovide an excuse for some Turks not to listen to what he has to say (419).

As part of the literature of witness therefore the book may have its limitations.It also lacks the depth and insight of classics in this genre such as Primo Levis IfThis Is a Man and Nadezhda Mandelstams Hope Against Hope. Nonetheless,this is an important story for anyone seeking an understanding of what happenedto the Armenians during the First World War and there is no doubt that thistranslation will ensure that Grigoris Balakians shocking and powerful story willreach a wider audience.

University of Ulster Stephen Ryan

The Vertigo Years: Europe, 19001914. By Philipp Blom. (New York, N.Y.: BasicBooks, 2008. Pp. xi, 453. $29.95.)

The author of this book asks his readers in the introduction to imagine the lastyears of Europe before World War I without the knowledge that the war wasimminent. Thus Vertigo Years is clearly not a history of the Europe that createdthe war. It is instead largely a history of the intellectual avant-garde in Europe andits reaction to the major changes the continent experienced in these years. Thefocus is on a group of artists, writers, and thinkers and how they interpreted thefirst years of the twentieth century.

The book has two central themes: speed and a crisis of masculinity. The firsttheme refers to the quickening pace of change in these years of industrial devel-opment, the spread of the automobile, and the beginning of air travel. PhilippBlom also presents an extensive look at the ways that industrialization and the

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