Outwitting History

The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books

By: Aaron Lansky

Narrated by: George Guidall

Recipient of the MacArthur “genius” fellowship and founder of the National Yiddish Book Center, Lansky recounts his efforts to rescue the world’s abandoned Yiddish-language books before they pass out of existence. Outwitting History follows Lansky’s far-flung travels and features the engaging men and women he meets along the way.

©2004 Aaron Lansky (P)2006 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

“Lansky’s account of salvaging books is both hilarious and moving, filled with Jewish humor... and touching accounts of what were once thriving Jewish communities in Europe.” ( Publishers Weekly, starred review)

wanted this to never end

A deeply meaningful story beautifully told with empathy, humour, humility and respect. I wanted this never to end.

Fascinating bit of History with a Brilliant Reader

This was very educational and kind of sweet/sad and often funny, about the loss of the Yiddish language. It was an important
common language for Jews around the world. I was impressed by what readers the Jewish people of the 19th and 20th centuries were. We need to value their literary input and influence. The book is full of moving and often funny stories of the
haphazard but passionate collecting of the author. I have always appreciated the voice of George Guidall and in this book he is fantastic. He has a great intonation and flow, very appropriate. I don't speak Yiddish but it sure sounds like he does. You can listen to it in bits, like short stories. It does have a lot of similarities in some chapters but they really are all unique.

It will make you think, feel, laugh and cry—

Very entertaining and informative. A multi-dimensional masterpiece—the improbable saga of the rescue and restoration of Yiddish literature, a detailed description of a very successful nonprofit organization’s rise from its humble beginnings, interesting side trips into contemporary culture personalities.

First language of book to be digitised

(As posted in Goodreads)
I didn't love this book as much as the other people in my book club, but probably just because the topic was not my style.
The endeavor was monumental and historical, and I compare the head of the cause , and the author of the book was a 23 year old grad student with my 23 year old son, and there is no comparison! Aaron, author and instigator was an amazing figure! Yiddiish is a potentially dying slash dead language that many people hold dear. And even I was tempted to learn Yiddish after reading the book, because it ties so many people together.
And the humor... the humor is both intrinsic and obvious! The thought of driving a mooning truck full of ancient books down the streets of New York and other places, is both gut busting funny and paralysingly terrifying. And then there were the donors that kept feeding the volunteers/ drivers!
Anyway, It was a great look at the Yiddish Revival, specifically, the Yiddish BOOK revival

I laughed, I cried

I saw Aaron Lansky interviewed in the Sholem Aleichem documentary recently, and I thought that he was articulate and entertaining. I'm SO glad I listened to this book rather than just read it. Although I know some Yiddish, it was so lovely to hear the book read by the narrator----whose Yiddish seemed native. The book itself is so much more than the story of Lansky's book center. It includes wonderful portraits of the people who owned the books, touching stories about Lansky's travels, from a tiny community in Cuba to the bombed-out synagogue in Argentina to the towns in Latvia, Estonia, and Belorus, where Jews had no Yiddish books and yearned for them. Loved the story about Arlo Guthrie and his mom, about the woman in England who had no idea of her Polish husband's political tracts, of the fight to save the Newark library's collections, and many many more. Loved the jokes, menus, poetry, even tales of romance: all of the touching stories about a language and a people who have suffered so greatly and whose culture and language was almost decimated......but, with people like Lansky and his friends, live on. I listened to this book during long commutes....sometimes I had trouble seeing the road because of the tears in my eyes.