By the end of World War I, in November 1918, Europe's old authoritarian empires had fallen, and new and seemingly democratic governments were rising from the debris. As successor states found their places on the map, many hoped that a more liberal Europe would emerge. But this postwar idealism all too quickly collapsed under the political and economic pressures of the 1920s and '30s. Howard M. Sachar chronicles this visionary and tempestuous eraby examining the fortunes of Europe's Jewish minority, a group whose precarious status made it particularly sensitive to changes in the social order.

A Murder Trial in Paris -- A Minority "Bill of Rights" -- In Search of a Conglomerate Identity -- Hostages of "Latin" Civilization -- Bela Kun and the Legacy of Utopianism -- The Professor and the Prophet -- Notes from a Shattered Dream -- The Age of the Assassins -- Minerva's Owl at Weimar's Twilight -- In Search of Lost Swanns -- The Killing Fields: The Ukraine, 1917-1921 -- Jewish Population in Europe, 1933.