In Praise Of Imperfe

Book excerpt: The autobiography of Levi-Montalcini, who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1986. Born in Torino into a middle-class Jewish family, she experienced the rise of fascism and antisemitism in the 1930s-40s (discussed on pp. 73-105). After the promulgation of the racial laws in 1938, it was impossible for her to pursue research at the Neurological Clinic and she continued her work in private. She survived the war hiding in a small town in Italy and later emigrated to the United States.