While Syrkin’s work is famil­iar to an old­er gen­er­a­tion of Amer­i­can Zion­ists, Kessner’s extra­or­di­nary biog­ra­phy should spark inter­est in Syrkin’s life and ideas in many new quar­ters. Some will dis­cov­er Syrkin the poet, mar­ried to fel­low poet Charles Reznikoff. Oth­ers will dis­cov­er Syrkin the mul­ti-task­ing work­ing woman, who just took for grant­ed teach­ing full-time, shar­ing cus­tody of her son, and writ­ing for a vari­ety of jour­nals. Final­ly, there’s Syrkin the Labor Zion­ist, who from her first trip to Pales­tine in 1933, com­mit­ted her­self to explain­ing to the world why this Jew­ish home­land was so impor­tant. With Syrkin so deeply involved with so many key world events, from the Stal­in­ist purges to the rise of Hitler, from debates over the Man­date to bat­tles over Arab refugees, her biog­ra­phy reads like a his­to­ry of the 20th cen­tu­ry. But unlike most his­to­ries, deliv­ered in the pas­sive voice, Syrkin’s is active and pas­sion­ate and utter­ly mes­mer­iz­ing. Kess­ner, a long time pro­tégé of Syrkin’s, is a tal­ent­ed biog­ra­ph­er; not only is her prose grace­ful and occa­sion­al­ly quite wit­ty, but she under­stands how to insert the telling quo­ta­tion, the back­ground detail that clar­i­fies, the right lines from the right poem. Index, notes, photographs.