Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter
Keywords
book review, Amalia Thurkauf-Braun, Ernst Albert, Switzerland, memoirs, social reform
Abstract
To do justice to this moving memoir is less than easy. It presents the story of two intertwined lives, that of Amalia Thurkauf-Braun who was born in the 1880s and that of her son Ernst Albert, born in 1907 at Liestal, the capital of Canton Basel-Land, in Switzerland. The lives of Ernst's father Emil Thurkauf, in contrast, and of Ernst 's three siblings come only occasionally into view from the perspective of Amalia Thurkauf's reports or of her son's autobiographical reminiscences. Both records are touching documents that tell of unusual endurance, of sincere faith, and of incredible capacity for work. They also mirror the larger events of the twentieth century, the contexts within which "the small lifetime" of both Amalia and Ernst Thurkauf have been lived: World War One, the years of the Great Depression, World War Two, the racial urban unrest of the 1960s and their concomitant social reform programs.
Recommended Citation
Schelbert, Leo
(1985)
"Book Review: One Small Lifetime,"
Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter: Vol. 21:
Iss.
1, Article 6.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_newsletter/vol21/iss1/6