Winner of the Pearson Writer's Trust Award for Non-Fiction. Part history and part autobiography, Walking Since Daybreak tells the tragic story of the Baltic nations before, during and after World War II. The immense cataclysm of World War II has no precedent in human history: 28 million Russians died, 10 million Germans, 6 million Jews and several hundred thousand French, English, Americans and Canadians. The Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, briefly independent between the wars, were devastated and many of their inhabitants scattered to the ends of the earth. As Eksteins' parallel narrative approaches its startling climax, the reader learns yet again that in historical catastrophes blame and praise are nearly impossible to assign. Walking Since Daybreak belongs in the great tradition of books that redefine our understanding of history, like J. R. Huizinga's The Waning of the Middle Ages and Jacob Burckhardt's The Renaissance in Italy. James Carroll declared Eksteins' previous book, Rites of Spring, "the start of a new history." Walking Since Daybreak brings this history to its zenith.

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