Golda (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: yishuv leaders, Elinor Burkett, United States, Tel Aviv (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As Israel's prime minister from 1969 to 1974, Golda Meir (1898–1978) was recognized by her wrinkled face and gray bun. But, Burkett (Another Planet: A Year in the Life of a Suburban High School) says in this sympathetic but balanced biography, the young Meir was so strikingly attractive that detractors grumbled she had slept her way up the political hierarchy. The rise of the Russian-born, Milwaukee-bred Golda Mabovitz, however, was due to her enormous popularity in the U.S. as a fund-raiser for a struggling Jewish settlement in pre-statehood Palestine. Meir was politicized by memories of poverty and anti-Semitism in czarist Russia and by a feisty, older sister who introduced her to socialist Zionism. A Zionist pioneer, Meir secretly negotiated with Jordan's King Abdullah before the U.N. vote to partition Palestine; became a fervent supporter of Soviet Jewry after her reluctant stint as Israel's first ambassador to Moscow; and hesitantly approved the assassination of Palestinian terrorists responsible for the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Burkett says the price of Meir's nonstop political life was rocky relationships with her children and estranged husband. This is a solidly researched, highly readable portrait of a mesmerizing but, according to Burkett, ultimately lonely woman, though much of the material is familiar. 8 pages of b&w photos. (May)
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From Booklist

Zionist, socialist, and grandmother, Golda Meir was Russian by birth, American by immigration, and Israeli by conviction. Her role in the creation of the Jewish state naturally focuses Burkett’s biography, which leavens the heavy-duty politics with intimate portraits of her personality. Drawn from Burkett’s interviews and research in oral and printed histories, the depiction of Meir as unsentimental, single-minded, and prone to divide the world into enemies or friends touches the very qualities that steeled her. Ambivalent about Meir the woman, who Burkett concludes was a figure of tragic loneliness, Burkett presents Meir the politician in straightforward terms. From her awakening to the Zionist movement as a teenager in 1910s Milwaukee, to her commitment to it as a 1920s kibbutznik, to her leadership of it as Israel’s prime minister from 1969 to 1974, Meir’s life reflected the stormy events since Israel’s establishment in 1948 and its dilemmas of fighting for survival and seeking peace. The absence of a comprehensive Golda biography has long been apparent, and Burkett’s able production is a welcome arrival to the history shelf. --Gilbert Taylor

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Harper; First Edition edition (April 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060786655
• ISBN-13: 978-0060786656
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.8 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #490,277 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Remembering Golda Meir, April 29, 2008

By	Amos Lassen (Little Rock, Arkansas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Burkett, Elinor. "Golda". Harper, 2008.

Remembering Golda Meir


Amos Lassen

I doubt there are many people that do not recognize the name of Golda Meir. Many say she was more of a man then many men, others remember as the Prime Minister of Israel, some blame her for the disastrous Yom Kippur War in 1973. One thing is that there are few who have neutral feelings about her. She was quite a person and I have my own memories of her as she was Prime Minister for many of the years that I lived in Israel. In fact, when I lived in Tel Aviv, she lived right around the corner and we shopped at the same mini-market. Yes, Golda did her own shopping.
Pulitzer Prize finalist, Elinor Burkett takes a look at Golda in her new biography of the former world leader. Golda Meir was the first female head of state in the Western world and without question a woman who exerted a great deal of influence. She was a founder of the State of Israel, helped to develop the infrastructure of the tiny country. She defended Israel as if it were her own child and she was utterly and completely devoted to keeping Israel safe. She changed the face of the politics of the Middle East in ways that are still felt today. She had the stamina of a bulldozer and when her mind was made up she did what she felt was the right thing to do. She also baked cookies and cakes and steeped tea She was the first to make the world aware of international terrorism and she could hold her own against powerful men like Henry Kissinger and others. Even as she pleaded for peace, she led Israel through the bloodiest war in its existence. Golda had the ability to raise funds and even while she, herself, was battling cancer, was able to steer Israel's ship of state.
Burkett looks at the life of Golda (and she was always Golda) and writes of her victories and her disappointments, of her wins and her losses. We read of Golda as an idealistic girl in Milwaukee as a product of an immigrant family and we read of a woman who is what legends are made of. Golda had almost no definition unless we define her by her own contradictions. She was hard as nails and as sweet as sugar. She was the personification of the Jewish mother to a nation of people and she was also their leader She was tough and she was kind but most of all she loved Israel even though the populace did not always love her.
Burkett has done serious research here including interviewing members of Golda's family who had never agreed to be interviewed before and she provides us with a picture of the woman who changed the course of history. I do not agree with all she writes but I find the book to be as honest as it can be. It is stylishly written and I t makes its point. The problem is that the legend of Golda Meir has been tainted by the terrible losses of October, 1973.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars HEAVY HISTORY/POLITICS, LIGHT BIOGRAPHY, July 19, 2008

By	seller43 "seller43" (NJ) - See all my reviews

When I got this book, I was hoping for a personal look at Golda, the person. Having read it, I feel I learned more about Israel's long complicated history than about Golda as a person. Maybe that is because the woman did not have much of a personal life and her story was tied to that of her country. She lived and breathed politics and the book's lengthy description of Israeli politics (with countless parties and coalitions) is confusing and doesn't tell us much about her.

It is as though the author couldn't find enough information about Golda's private life (which Golda guarded) and so the book becomes a history lesson in Israeli and Mid-East politics. No maps included which would have helped the reader a great deal in understanding some of this stuff.

The author should have gotten more material from Golda's children, who didn't think much of Golda as a mother (she was MIA when it came to parenting).

Time to read: It took me a little more than a week (with a lot of free time)

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Golda, June 29, 2008

By	Kathleen C. Buckley (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I heard the author discuss this book on my local NPR station. GOlda had always fascinated me so I purchased the book. I have almost finished it. It is very readable. GOlda was a complex woman, fiercely devoted to Israel, much to the detriment of her family. She was probably Israel's number one fund raiser, which enabled the country to assimilated hundreds of thousands of Jews from all over the world. Israel was also able to purchase the military hardward needed to defend itself against its hostile neighbors. She was the first woman head of state in the western world. Although she was flawed she managed to hold Israel together in trying times. I loved this book.