Joseph Roth was born in 1894 in Austria-Hungary (which is now in Ukraine). He was a Jew, who grew up in a town with a large Jewish population. He attended college in Austria, but left to serve during World War I on the Eastern Front. He returned to Germany in 1918, where he began work as a journalist.

You can tell that this book is written by a journalist, however the book doesn't come across like someone writing dispatches or news reports. This book is filled with personal experiences and how life was for this individual during the run up to World War II. He spoke about the difficulties after the end of World War I for people. Times were tough. Things were still being repaired from the war, Germany was struggling to make payments for the destruction. Of course, anti-Semitism is not a new thing and was certainly festering like crazy in Europe at this time. He wound up leaving Germany in 1933 when Hitler became Chancellor, and I certainly do not blame him for that. He had a pretty good idea of what would happen to Jewish people living in areas controlled by Hitler, thanks to all the nasty speeches that he gave and how much he ragged on the Jewish population and blamed them for all of Germany's problems. This book was really insightful and gave a great image of what life was like for people living during these years.