Last Rites

"Twenty years ago, John Lukacs paused to set down the history of his own thoughts and beliefs in Confessions of an Original Sinner, an adroit blend of autobiography and personal philosophy. Now, in Last Rites, he continues and expands his reflections, this time integrating his conception of history and human knowledge with private memories of his wives and loves, and enhancing the book with footnotes from his idiosyncratic diaries. The resulting volume is unique, fascinating, and delightful - an auto-history by a passionate, authentic, brilliant, and witty man." Lukacs begins with a concise rendering of a historical understanding of our world - essential reading for any historian - then follows with trenchant observations on his life in the United States, commentary on his relationship with his native Hungary after 1989, and deeply personal portraits of his three wives, about whom he has not written before. He includes an intermezzo about his lifelong involvement with and his writings about Winston Churchill. Last Rites is a richly layered summation combined with a set of extraordinary observations - an original book that only John Lukacs could have written.