Born in Brooklyn and raised in Great Neck, New York, David Laskin grew up hearing stories that his immigrant Jewish grandparents told about the “old country” (Russia) that they left at the turn of the last century. When he was a teenager, his mother’s parents began making yearly trips to visit their relatives in Israel, and stories about the Israeli family sifted down to him as well. What Laskin never heard growing up was that a third branch of the family had remained behind in the old country --- and that all of them perished in the Holocaust. These are three branches whose intertwined stories he tells in THE FAMILY: Three Journeys into the Heart of the Twentieth Century.

Books by David Laskin

The Family: A Journey into the Heart of the Twentieth Century

by David Laskin - History, Nonfiction

David Laskin researched his own family roots and has created a historical, fact-filled book that spans 150 years and traces the three distinctly different paths his descendants took. One path led to America and financial success. Another led to Zionism and pioneering the Land that became the state of Israel. The final one led to the horrors of the Holocaust.

The Long Way Home: An American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War

by David Laskin