Reflections of Prague

Reflections of Prague

Author: Ivan Margolius

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2012-08-06

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1118387325

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Reflections of Prague is the story of how a Czech Jewish family become embroiled in the most tragic and tumultuous episodes of the twentieth century. Through their eyes we see the history of their beloved Prague, a unique European city, and the wider, political forces that tear their lives apart. Their moving story traces the major events, turmoil, oppression and triumphs of Europe through the last hundred years – from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the First World War; from the vibrant artistic and intellectual life of Prague in the times of Kafka, the Capek Brothers and Masaryk to years of hunger in a Polish ghetto and the concentration camps of Hitler; from the tyrannous rule of Stalin to the rekindled hopes of Dubcek and the subsequent Soviet occupation to liberation under Havel. Told from Ivan’s perspective, it is a poignant but uplifting tale that tells of life lived with purpose and conviction, in the face of personal suffering and sacrifice. ‘A remarkable book. This archetypical story of the twentieth century is intertwined with an almost stream-of-consciousness narrative of the history of the Czechs, of Prague, interspersed with samples of exquisite poetry by great contemporary poets. So the narrative flows like Eliot’s sweet Thames full of the debris of tragic lives, of horrors, of moments of beauty and testimonies of love – all against the backdrop of man’s inhumanity.’ Josef Škvorecký ‘A poignant and vivid mémoire of a child searching for traces of his father, lost in the murky ideologies of post war Central Europe. An engrossing book.’ Sir John Tusa


Book Synopsis Reflections of Prague by : Ivan Margolius

Download or read book Reflections of Prague written by Ivan Margolius and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-08-06 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reflections of Prague is the story of how a Czech Jewish family become embroiled in the most tragic and tumultuous episodes of the twentieth century. Through their eyes we see the history of their beloved Prague, a unique European city, and the wider, political forces that tear their lives apart. Their moving story traces the major events, turmoil, oppression and triumphs of Europe through the last hundred years – from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the First World War; from the vibrant artistic and intellectual life of Prague in the times of Kafka, the Capek Brothers and Masaryk to years of hunger in a Polish ghetto and the concentration camps of Hitler; from the tyrannous rule of Stalin to the rekindled hopes of Dubcek and the subsequent Soviet occupation to liberation under Havel. Told from Ivan’s perspective, it is a poignant but uplifting tale that tells of life lived with purpose and conviction, in the face of personal suffering and sacrifice. ‘A remarkable book. This archetypical story of the twentieth century is intertwined with an almost stream-of-consciousness narrative of the history of the Czechs, of Prague, interspersed with samples of exquisite poetry by great contemporary poets. So the narrative flows like Eliot’s sweet Thames full of the debris of tragic lives, of horrors, of moments of beauty and testimonies of love – all against the backdrop of man’s inhumanity.’ Josef Škvorecký ‘A poignant and vivid mémoire of a child searching for traces of his father, lost in the murky ideologies of post war Central Europe. An engrossing book.’ Sir John Tusa

Women of Prague

Women of Prague

Author: Wilma Iggers

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 9781571810090

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"The richness of the material and its skillful assembly make this a very readable volume ... revealing a wonderful range of perspective, from personal, intimate reflections to timely comments on the politics and society of both Prague and the Czech Republic of the era under study." - Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe "Wilma Iggers offers English-reading audiences fascinating new perspectives ... in a sensitive introduction to the city's modern experience and translated sections from the writings of twelve women ... This volume is particularly welcome since the work of most of these writers has not been readily available in English before." - Gary B. Cohen, University of Oklahoma For many centuries Prague has exerted a particular fascination because of its beauty and therichness of its culture and history. Its famous group of German and Czech writers of mostly Jewish extraction in the earlier part of this century has deeply influenced Western culture.However, little attention has so far been paid to the roles of women in the history of thisethnically diverse area in around Prague. Based on largely autobiographical writings and letters by women and enhanced by extensive historical introduction, this book redresses a serious imbalance. The vivid and often moving portraits, which emerge from the varied material used bythe author, offer fascinating and new insights into the social and cultural history of this region.


Book Synopsis Women of Prague by : Wilma Iggers

Download or read book Women of Prague written by Wilma Iggers and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 1995 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The richness of the material and its skillful assembly make this a very readable volume ... revealing a wonderful range of perspective, from personal, intimate reflections to timely comments on the politics and society of both Prague and the Czech Republic of the era under study." - Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe "Wilma Iggers offers English-reading audiences fascinating new perspectives ... in a sensitive introduction to the city's modern experience and translated sections from the writings of twelve women ... This volume is particularly welcome since the work of most of these writers has not been readily available in English before." - Gary B. Cohen, University of Oklahoma For many centuries Prague has exerted a particular fascination because of its beauty and therichness of its culture and history. Its famous group of German and Czech writers of mostly Jewish extraction in the earlier part of this century has deeply influenced Western culture.However, little attention has so far been paid to the roles of women in the history of thisethnically diverse area in around Prague. Based on largely autobiographical writings and letters by women and enhanced by extensive historical introduction, this book redresses a serious imbalance. The vivid and often moving portraits, which emerge from the varied material used bythe author, offer fascinating and new insights into the social and cultural history of this region.

Prague Winter

Prague Winter

Author: Madeleine Albright

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2012-04-24

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 0062030361

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“A riveting tale of her family’s experience in Europe during World War II [and] a well-wrought political history of the region, told with great authority. . . . More than a memoir, this is a book of facts and action, a chronicle of a war in progress from a partisan faithful to the idea of Czechoslovakian democracy.” -- Los Angeles Times Drawn from her own memory, her parents’ written reflections, and interviews with contemporaries, the former US Secretary of State and New York Times bestselling author Madeleine Albright's tale that is by turns harrowing and inspiring Before she turned twelve, Madeleine Albright’s life was shaken by some of the most cataclysmic events of the 20th century: the Nazi invasion of her native Prague, the Battle of Britain, the attempted genocide of European Jewry, the allied victory in World War II, the rise of communism, and the onset of the Cold War. In Prague Winter, Albright reflects on her discovery of her family’s Jewish heritage many decades after the war, on her Czech homeland’s tangled history, and on the stark moral choices faced by her parents and their generation. Often relying on eyewitness descriptions, she tells the story of how millions of ordinary citizens were ripped from familiar surroundings and forced into new roles as exile leaders and freedom fighters, resistance organizers and collaborators, victims and killers. These events of enormous complexity are shaped by concepts familiar to any growing child: fear, trust, adaptation, the search for identity, the pressure to conform, the quest for independence, and the difference between right and wrong. Prague Winter is an exploration of the past with timeless dilemmas in mind, a journey with universal lessons that is simultaneously a deeply personal memoir and an incisive work of history. It serves as a guide to the future through the lessons of the past, as seen through the eyes of one of the international community’s most respected and fascinating figures in history. Albright and her family’s experiences provide an intensely human lens through which to view the most political and tumultuous years in modern history.


Book Synopsis Prague Winter by : Madeleine Albright

Download or read book Prague Winter written by Madeleine Albright and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2012-04-24 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A riveting tale of her family’s experience in Europe during World War II [and] a well-wrought political history of the region, told with great authority. . . . More than a memoir, this is a book of facts and action, a chronicle of a war in progress from a partisan faithful to the idea of Czechoslovakian democracy.” -- Los Angeles Times Drawn from her own memory, her parents’ written reflections, and interviews with contemporaries, the former US Secretary of State and New York Times bestselling author Madeleine Albright's tale that is by turns harrowing and inspiring Before she turned twelve, Madeleine Albright’s life was shaken by some of the most cataclysmic events of the 20th century: the Nazi invasion of her native Prague, the Battle of Britain, the attempted genocide of European Jewry, the allied victory in World War II, the rise of communism, and the onset of the Cold War. In Prague Winter, Albright reflects on her discovery of her family’s Jewish heritage many decades after the war, on her Czech homeland’s tangled history, and on the stark moral choices faced by her parents and their generation. Often relying on eyewitness descriptions, she tells the story of how millions of ordinary citizens were ripped from familiar surroundings and forced into new roles as exile leaders and freedom fighters, resistance organizers and collaborators, victims and killers. These events of enormous complexity are shaped by concepts familiar to any growing child: fear, trust, adaptation, the search for identity, the pressure to conform, the quest for independence, and the difference between right and wrong. Prague Winter is an exploration of the past with timeless dilemmas in mind, a journey with universal lessons that is simultaneously a deeply personal memoir and an incisive work of history. It serves as a guide to the future through the lessons of the past, as seen through the eyes of one of the international community’s most respected and fascinating figures in history. Albright and her family’s experiences provide an intensely human lens through which to view the most political and tumultuous years in modern history.

Children of the Holocaust

Children of the Holocaust

Author: Helen Epstein

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 1988-10-01

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0140112847

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"I set out to find a group of people who, like me, were possessed by a history they had never lived." The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Helen Epstein traveled from America to Europe to Israel, searching for one vital thin in common: their parent's persecution by the Nazis. She found: • Gabriela Korda, who was raised by her parents as a German Protestant in South America; • Albert Singerman, who fought in the jungles of Vietnam to prove that he, too, could survive a grueling ordeal; • Deborah Schwartz, a Southern beauty queen who—at the Miss America pageant, played the same Chopin piece that was played over Polish radio during Hitler's invasion. Epstein interviewed hundreds of men and women coping with an extraordinary legacy. In each, she found shades of herself.


Book Synopsis Children of the Holocaust by : Helen Epstein

Download or read book Children of the Holocaust written by Helen Epstein and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1988-10-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I set out to find a group of people who, like me, were possessed by a history they had never lived." The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Helen Epstein traveled from America to Europe to Israel, searching for one vital thin in common: their parent's persecution by the Nazis. She found: • Gabriela Korda, who was raised by her parents as a German Protestant in South America; • Albert Singerman, who fought in the jungles of Vietnam to prove that he, too, could survive a grueling ordeal; • Deborah Schwartz, a Southern beauty queen who—at the Miss America pageant, played the same Chopin piece that was played over Polish radio during Hitler's invasion. Epstein interviewed hundreds of men and women coping with an extraordinary legacy. In each, she found shades of herself.

Prague in Danger

Prague in Danger

Author: Peter Demetz

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2009-04-14

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 1429930357

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A dramatic account of life in Czechoslovakia's great capital during the Nazi Protectorate With this successor book to Prague in Black and Gold, his account of more than a thousand years of Central European history, the great scholar Peter Demetz focuses on just six short years—a tormented, tragic, and unforgettable time. He was living in Prague then—a "first-degree half-Jew," according to the Nazis' terrible categories—and here he joins his objective chronicle of the city under German occupation with his personal memories of that period: from the bitter morning of March 15, 1939, when Hitler arrived from Berlin to set his seal on the Nazi takeover of the Czechoslovak government, until the liberation of Bohemia in April 1945, after long seasons of unimaginable suffering and pain. Demetz expertly interweaves a superb account of the German authorities' diplomatic, financial, and military machinations with a brilliant description of Prague's evolving resistance and underground opposition. Along with his private experiences, he offers the heretofore untold history of an effervescent, unstoppable Prague whose urbane heart went on beating despite the deportations, murders, cruelties, and violence: a Prague that kept its German- and Czech-language theaters open, its fabled film studios functioning, its young people in school and at work, and its newspapers on press. This complex, continually surprising book is filled with rare human detail and warmth, the gripping story of a great city meeting the dual challenge of occupation and of war.


Book Synopsis Prague in Danger by : Peter Demetz

Download or read book Prague in Danger written by Peter Demetz and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2009-04-14 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dramatic account of life in Czechoslovakia's great capital during the Nazi Protectorate With this successor book to Prague in Black and Gold, his account of more than a thousand years of Central European history, the great scholar Peter Demetz focuses on just six short years—a tormented, tragic, and unforgettable time. He was living in Prague then—a "first-degree half-Jew," according to the Nazis' terrible categories—and here he joins his objective chronicle of the city under German occupation with his personal memories of that period: from the bitter morning of March 15, 1939, when Hitler arrived from Berlin to set his seal on the Nazi takeover of the Czechoslovak government, until the liberation of Bohemia in April 1945, after long seasons of unimaginable suffering and pain. Demetz expertly interweaves a superb account of the German authorities' diplomatic, financial, and military machinations with a brilliant description of Prague's evolving resistance and underground opposition. Along with his private experiences, he offers the heretofore untold history of an effervescent, unstoppable Prague whose urbane heart went on beating despite the deportations, murders, cruelties, and violence: a Prague that kept its German- and Czech-language theaters open, its fabled film studios functioning, its young people in school and at work, and its newspapers on press. This complex, continually surprising book is filled with rare human detail and warmth, the gripping story of a great city meeting the dual challenge of occupation and of war.

Prague Winter

Prague Winter

Author: Madeleine Albright

Publisher: Harper

Published: 2012-04-24

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780062030313

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Before Madeleine Albright turned twelve, her life was shaken by the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia—the country where she was born—the Battle of Britain, the near total destruction of European Jewry, the Allied victory in World War II, the rise of communism, and the onset of the Cold War. Albright's experiences, and those of her family, provide a lens through which to view the most tumultuous dozen years in modern history. Drawing on her memory, her parents' written reflections, interviews with contemporaries, and newly available documents, Albright recounts a tale that is by turns harrowing and inspiring. Prague Winter is an exploration of the past with timeless dilemmas in mind and, simultaneously, a journey with universal lessons that is intensely personal. The book takes readers from the Bohemian capital's thousand-year-old castle to the bomb shelters of London, from the desolate prison ghetto of TerezÍn to the highest councils of European and American government. Albright reflects on her discovery of her family's Jewish heritage many decades after the war, on her Czech homeland's tangled history, and on the stark moral choices faced by her parents and their generation. Often relying on eyewitness descriptions, she tells the story of how millions of ordinary citizens were ripped from familiar surroundings and forced into new roles as exiled leaders and freedom fighters, resistance organizers and collaborators, victims and killers. These events of enormous complexity are nevertheless shaped by concepts familiar to any growing child: fear, trust, adaptation, the search for identity, the pressure to conform, the quest for independence, and the difference between right and wrong. "No one who lived through the years of 1937 to 1948," Albright writes, "was a stranger to profound sadness. Millions of innocents did not survive, and their deaths must never be forgotten. Today we lack the power to reclaim lost lives, but we have a duty to learn all that we can about what happened and why." At once a deeply personal memoir and an incisive work of history, Prague Winter serves as a guide to the future through the lessons of the past—as seen through the eyes of one of the international community's most respected and fascinating figures.


Book Synopsis Prague Winter by : Madeleine Albright

Download or read book Prague Winter written by Madeleine Albright and published by Harper. This book was released on 2012-04-24 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before Madeleine Albright turned twelve, her life was shaken by the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia—the country where she was born—the Battle of Britain, the near total destruction of European Jewry, the Allied victory in World War II, the rise of communism, and the onset of the Cold War. Albright's experiences, and those of her family, provide a lens through which to view the most tumultuous dozen years in modern history. Drawing on her memory, her parents' written reflections, interviews with contemporaries, and newly available documents, Albright recounts a tale that is by turns harrowing and inspiring. Prague Winter is an exploration of the past with timeless dilemmas in mind and, simultaneously, a journey with universal lessons that is intensely personal. The book takes readers from the Bohemian capital's thousand-year-old castle to the bomb shelters of London, from the desolate prison ghetto of TerezÍn to the highest councils of European and American government. Albright reflects on her discovery of her family's Jewish heritage many decades after the war, on her Czech homeland's tangled history, and on the stark moral choices faced by her parents and their generation. Often relying on eyewitness descriptions, she tells the story of how millions of ordinary citizens were ripped from familiar surroundings and forced into new roles as exiled leaders and freedom fighters, resistance organizers and collaborators, victims and killers. These events of enormous complexity are nevertheless shaped by concepts familiar to any growing child: fear, trust, adaptation, the search for identity, the pressure to conform, the quest for independence, and the difference between right and wrong. "No one who lived through the years of 1937 to 1948," Albright writes, "was a stranger to profound sadness. Millions of innocents did not survive, and their deaths must never be forgotten. Today we lack the power to reclaim lost lives, but we have a duty to learn all that we can about what happened and why." At once a deeply personal memoir and an incisive work of history, Prague Winter serves as a guide to the future through the lessons of the past—as seen through the eyes of one of the international community's most respected and fascinating figures.

From Prague to Jerusalem

From Prague to Jerusalem

Author: Milan Kubic

Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press

Published: 2017-08-22

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 1501757032

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After spending his childhood in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and witnessing the Communist takeover of his country in 1948, a young journalist named Milan Kubic embarked on a career as a Newsweek correspondent that spanned thirty-one years and three continents, reporting on some of the most memorable events in the Middle East. Now, Kubic tells this fascinating story in depth. Kubic describes his escape to the US Zone in West Germany, his life in the Displaced Persons camps, and his arrival in 1950s America, where he worked as a butler and factory worker and served in a US Army intelligence unit during Senator Joe McCarthy's witch-hunting years. Hired by Newsweek after graduating from journalism school, Kubic covered the White House during the last year of Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency, the US Senate run by Lyndon Johnson, and the campaign that elected President John F. Kennedy. Kubic spent twenty-six years reporting from abroad, including South America, the Indian subcontinent, and Eastern and Western Europe. Of particular interest is his account of the seventeen years—starting with the Six Day War in 1967—when he watched the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from Beirut and Jerusalem. In From Prague to Jerusalem, readers will meet the principal Israeli participants in the Irangate affair, accompany Kubic on his South American tour with Bobby Kennedy, take part in his jungle encounter with the king of Belgium, witness the inglorious end of Timothy Leary's flight to the Middle East, and observe the debunking of Hitler's bogus diaries. This riveting memoir will appeal to general readers and scholars interested in journalism, the Middle East, and US history and politics.


Book Synopsis From Prague to Jerusalem by : Milan Kubic

Download or read book From Prague to Jerusalem written by Milan Kubic and published by Northern Illinois University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After spending his childhood in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and witnessing the Communist takeover of his country in 1948, a young journalist named Milan Kubic embarked on a career as a Newsweek correspondent that spanned thirty-one years and three continents, reporting on some of the most memorable events in the Middle East. Now, Kubic tells this fascinating story in depth. Kubic describes his escape to the US Zone in West Germany, his life in the Displaced Persons camps, and his arrival in 1950s America, where he worked as a butler and factory worker and served in a US Army intelligence unit during Senator Joe McCarthy's witch-hunting years. Hired by Newsweek after graduating from journalism school, Kubic covered the White House during the last year of Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency, the US Senate run by Lyndon Johnson, and the campaign that elected President John F. Kennedy. Kubic spent twenty-six years reporting from abroad, including South America, the Indian subcontinent, and Eastern and Western Europe. Of particular interest is his account of the seventeen years—starting with the Six Day War in 1967—when he watched the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from Beirut and Jerusalem. In From Prague to Jerusalem, readers will meet the principal Israeli participants in the Irangate affair, accompany Kubic on his South American tour with Bobby Kennedy, take part in his jungle encounter with the king of Belgium, witness the inglorious end of Timothy Leary's flight to the Middle East, and observe the debunking of Hitler's bogus diaries. This riveting memoir will appeal to general readers and scholars interested in journalism, the Middle East, and US history and politics.

Prague

Prague

Author: Derek Sayer

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2018-10-15

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 1789140315

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Thirty years ago, Prague was a closed book to most travelers. Today, it is Europe’s fifth-most-visited city, surpassed only by London, Paris, Istanbul, and Rome. With a stunning natural setting on the Vltava river and featuring a spectacular architectural potpourri of everything from Romanesque rotundas to gothic towers, Renaissance palaces, Baroque churches, art nouveau cafés, and cubist apartment buildings, Prague may well be Europe’s most beautiful capital city. But behind this beauty lies a turbulent and often violent history, and in this book, Derek Sayer explores both. Located at the uneasy center of the continent, Prague has been a crossroads of cultures for more than a millennium. From the religious wars of the middle ages and the nationalist struggles of the nineteenth century to the modern conflicts of fascism, communism, and democracy, Prague’s history is the history of the forces that have shaped Europe. Sayer also goes beyond the complexities of Prague’s colorful past: his expert, very readable, and exquisitely illustrated guide helps us to see what Prague is today. He not only provides listings of what to see, hear, and do and where to eat, drink, and shop, but also offers deep personal reflection on the sides of Prague tourists seldom see, from a model interwar modernist villa colony to Europe’s biggest Vietnamese market.


Book Synopsis Prague by : Derek Sayer

Download or read book Prague written by Derek Sayer and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2018-10-15 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirty years ago, Prague was a closed book to most travelers. Today, it is Europe’s fifth-most-visited city, surpassed only by London, Paris, Istanbul, and Rome. With a stunning natural setting on the Vltava river and featuring a spectacular architectural potpourri of everything from Romanesque rotundas to gothic towers, Renaissance palaces, Baroque churches, art nouveau cafés, and cubist apartment buildings, Prague may well be Europe’s most beautiful capital city. But behind this beauty lies a turbulent and often violent history, and in this book, Derek Sayer explores both. Located at the uneasy center of the continent, Prague has been a crossroads of cultures for more than a millennium. From the religious wars of the middle ages and the nationalist struggles of the nineteenth century to the modern conflicts of fascism, communism, and democracy, Prague’s history is the history of the forces that have shaped Europe. Sayer also goes beyond the complexities of Prague’s colorful past: his expert, very readable, and exquisitely illustrated guide helps us to see what Prague is today. He not only provides listings of what to see, hear, and do and where to eat, drink, and shop, but also offers deep personal reflection on the sides of Prague tourists seldom see, from a model interwar modernist villa colony to Europe’s biggest Vietnamese market.

Under A Cruel Star

Under A Cruel Star

Author: Heda Margolius Kovaly

Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press

Published: 2012-01-05

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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The daughter of prosperous Jews, Heda Kovály found her world turned upside down with the German annexation of Czechoslovakia. Deported to Lodz Ghetto in 1941 and then to Auschwitz, where her parents were murdered, in 1944, Kovály made a miraculous escape from a column of prisoners being marched to Bergen-Belsen in early 1945. On reuniting with her husband in Prague after the war, things started to look more hopeful. Rudolf Margolius became a deputy minister of foreign trade. But in 1952 he and 13 other government officials were tried and 11 of those hanged in one of the era's most notorious show trials. Heda Kovály and her four year old son were hounded by the state and shunned by society. In this powerful and moving memoir, Kovály describes her imprisonment by the Nazis during WWII and her persecution by the Communists in the 1950s - a classic account of life under totalitarianism. 'Given thirty seconds to recommend a book to start a student on the road to u8nderstanding the political tragedies of the 20th century... I would choose this one.' - Clive James 'One does not 'review' a book like this. One weeps, and prays... Beautiful evocation of lovely Prague.' - The Sunday Times 'Once in a while we read a book that puts the urgencies of our times and ourselves in perspective, making us confront the darker realities of human nature' - Anthony Lewis, The New York Times 'This is an extraordinary memoir, so heartbreaking that I have reread it for months, unable to rise to the business of 'reviewing' less a book than a life repeatedly outraged by the worst totalitarians in Europe. Yet it is written with so much quiet respect for the minutiae of justice and truth that one does not know where and how to specify Heda Kovály's splendidness as a human being.' - Alfred Kazin


Book Synopsis Under A Cruel Star by : Heda Margolius Kovaly

Download or read book Under A Cruel Star written by Heda Margolius Kovaly and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2012-01-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The daughter of prosperous Jews, Heda Kovály found her world turned upside down with the German annexation of Czechoslovakia. Deported to Lodz Ghetto in 1941 and then to Auschwitz, where her parents were murdered, in 1944, Kovály made a miraculous escape from a column of prisoners being marched to Bergen-Belsen in early 1945. On reuniting with her husband in Prague after the war, things started to look more hopeful. Rudolf Margolius became a deputy minister of foreign trade. But in 1952 he and 13 other government officials were tried and 11 of those hanged in one of the era's most notorious show trials. Heda Kovály and her four year old son were hounded by the state and shunned by society. In this powerful and moving memoir, Kovály describes her imprisonment by the Nazis during WWII and her persecution by the Communists in the 1950s - a classic account of life under totalitarianism. 'Given thirty seconds to recommend a book to start a student on the road to u8nderstanding the political tragedies of the 20th century... I would choose this one.' - Clive James 'One does not 'review' a book like this. One weeps, and prays... Beautiful evocation of lovely Prague.' - The Sunday Times 'Once in a while we read a book that puts the urgencies of our times and ourselves in perspective, making us confront the darker realities of human nature' - Anthony Lewis, The New York Times 'This is an extraordinary memoir, so heartbreaking that I have reread it for months, unable to rise to the business of 'reviewing' less a book than a life repeatedly outraged by the worst totalitarians in Europe. Yet it is written with so much quiet respect for the minutiae of justice and truth that one does not know where and how to specify Heda Kovály's splendidness as a human being.' - Alfred Kazin

Embodiments of Power

Embodiments of Power

Author: Gary B. Cohen

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 9781845454333

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The period of the baroque (late sixteenth to mid-eighteenth centuries) saw extensive reconfiguration of European cities and their public spaces. Yet, this transformation cannot be limited merely to signifying a style of art, architecture, and decor. Rather, the dynamism, emotionality, and potential for grandeur that were inherent in the baroque style developed in close interaction with the need and desire of post-Reformation Europeans to find visual expression for the new political, confessional, and societal realities. Highly illustrated, this volume examines these complex interrelationships among architecture and art, power, religion, and society from a wide range of viewpoints and localities. From Krakow to Madrid and from Naples to Dresden, cities were reconfigured visually as well as politically and socially. Power, in both its political and architectural guises, had to be negotiated among constituents ranging from monarchs and high churchmen to ordinary citizens. Within this process, both rulers and ruled were transformed: Europe left behind the last vestiges of the medieval and arrived on the threshold of the modern.


Book Synopsis Embodiments of Power by : Gary B. Cohen

Download or read book Embodiments of Power written by Gary B. Cohen and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The period of the baroque (late sixteenth to mid-eighteenth centuries) saw extensive reconfiguration of European cities and their public spaces. Yet, this transformation cannot be limited merely to signifying a style of art, architecture, and decor. Rather, the dynamism, emotionality, and potential for grandeur that were inherent in the baroque style developed in close interaction with the need and desire of post-Reformation Europeans to find visual expression for the new political, confessional, and societal realities. Highly illustrated, this volume examines these complex interrelationships among architecture and art, power, religion, and society from a wide range of viewpoints and localities. From Krakow to Madrid and from Naples to Dresden, cities were reconfigured visually as well as politically and socially. Power, in both its political and architectural guises, had to be negotiated among constituents ranging from monarchs and high churchmen to ordinary citizens. Within this process, both rulers and ruled were transformed: Europe left behind the last vestiges of the medieval and arrived on the threshold of the modern.