Synopses & Reviews
Setting out to recover the roots of modernity in the boulevards, interiors, and arcades of the "city of light," Walter Benjamin dubbed Paris "the capital of the nineteenth century." In this eagerly anticipated sequel to his acclaimed
Coasts of Bohemia: A Czech History, Derek Sayer argues that Prague could well be seen as the capital of the much darker twentieth century. Ranging across twentieth-century Prague's astonishingly vibrant and always surprising human landscape, this richly illustrated cultural history describes how the city has experienced (and suffered) more ways of being modern than perhaps any other metropolis.
Located at the crossroads of struggles between democratic, communist, and fascist visions of the modern world, twentieth-century Prague witnessed revolutions and invasions, national liberation and ethnic cleansing, the Holocaust, show trials, and snuffed-out dreams of "socialism with a human face." Yet between the wars, when Prague was the capital of Europe's most easterly parliamentary democracy, it was also a hotbed of artistic and architectural modernism, and a center of surrealism second only to Paris.
Focusing on these years, Sayer explores Prague's spectacular modern buildings, monuments, paintings, books, films, operas, exhibitions, and much more. A place where the utopian fantasies of the century repeatedly unraveled, Prague was tailor-made for surrealist André Breton's "black humor," and Sayer discusses the way the city produced unrivaled connoisseurs of grim comedy, from Franz Kafka and Jaroslav Hasek to Milan Kundera and Václav Havel. A masterful and unforgettable account of a city where an idling flaneur could just as easily be a secret policeman, this book vividly shows why Prague can teach us so much about the twentieth century and what made us who we are.
Review
Winner of the 2014 George L. Mosse Prize, American Historical Association
Honorable Mention for the 2014 Wayne S. Vucinich Book Prize, Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Special Mention for the 2014 F. X.
Review
"[A] pleasure to read, luscious in a sultry kind of way."--Marci Shore, Times Literary Supplement
Review
"[A] captivating portrait of 20th-century Prague. . . . The breadth of Sayer's knowledge is encyclopedic, and those willing to stay the course will be rewarded."--Publishers Weekly
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"[T]his is a broad cultural history . . . with Sayer ranging easily across the arts. . . . [C]ontinually illuminating."--Andrew Mead, Architectural Review
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"[Readers] will likely find themselves delighted by Sayer's erudition as he reintroduces dozens of figures, many long forgotten or scarcely known to non-Czechs, into our understanding of twentieth-century cultural history."--Brendan Driscoll, Booklist
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"A real page-turner that leads the reader through all possible facets of Modernism in Prague, starting with Breton's and Eluard visit to the city in 1935 and ending with the crashing of all modern and Surrealist legacy by the Communist regime in the 1940s and 50s. At the same time, Sayer's book pays also great attention to previous periods while putting also a strong emphasis on the many efforts, from the Prague Spring till today's resistance to Prague's Macdonalization, to recover the revolutionary power and intuitions of the past, in the field of art but as well as in that of daily life. . . . [A] fabulously good read. . . . Derek Sayer stands already out as one of the most convincing representatives of how to rethink our cultural past today."--Jan Baetens, Leonardo
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"Prague, Capital of the Twentieth Century is an erudite, comprehensive, well-illustrated and witty account of Czech art, design, architecture, literature and music in an era--stretching roughly from Czechoslovakia's creation in 1918 to the end of the second world war--when few in Paris, Berlin, London or even New York would have thought of the Czechs as not being part of western civilisation. . . . [I]n this book [Sayer] has succeeded in bringing back to life a golden avant-garde era that not long ago was in danger of being written out of history altogether."--Tony Barber, Financial Times
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"Sayer has written a cultural history chockablock with artists, modernist architecture, manifestos, dark comedies, and broken alliances. . . . It will be valued by those interested in European cultural history during the twentieth century and how modern art was colored by the horrors of the political landscape."--Karen Ackland, ForeWord Reviews
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"[T]he book . . . offers an insight into often quite extraordinary life stories connected with Prague as well as their international context."--Marta Filipova, Times Higher Education
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"Sayer is a master of his sources: he looks back on a past still within reach, receding from us; he tracks down its threads, from liaison to liaison, from city to city. Can a research professor ever have written a book quite so triumphantly eccentric and persuaded a major academic press to publish it so splendidly?"--Nicolas Rothwell, Australian
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"Through both the breadth and depth of his knowledge, Sayer will reward the patient reader; in the surrealist fashion, he focuses on the seemingly mundane details to provide a true biography of Prague."--Kelsey Berry Philpot, Library Journal
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"In this erudite, witty and well-illustrated book, Sayer restores Czech avant-garde art between the two world wars to its rightful position at the heart of European culture. A worthy successor to Sayer's much-praised The Coasts of Bohemia."--Financial Times, "Books of the Year So Far" Summer Reading Guide
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"A thoroughly engrossing book."--Jim Burns, Northern Review of Books
Synopsis
The story of modernity told through a cultural history of twentieth-century Prague
Setting out to recover the roots of modernity in the boulevards, interiors, and arcades of the city of light, Walter Benjamin dubbed Paris the capital of the nineteenth century. In this eagerly anticipated sequel to his acclaimed Coasts of Bohemia: A Czech History, Derek Sayer argues that Prague could well be seen as the capital of the much darker twentieth century. Ranging across twentieth-century Prague's astonishingly vibrant and always surprising human landscape, this richly illustrated cultural history describes how the city has experienced (and suffered) more ways of being modern than perhaps any other metropolis.
Located at the crossroads of struggles between democratic, communist, and fascist visions of the modern world, twentieth-century Prague witnessed revolutions and invasions, national liberation and ethnic cleansing, the Holocaust, show trials, and snuffed-out dreams of socialism with a human face. Yet between the wars, when Prague was the capital of Europe's most easterly parliamentary democracy, it was also a hotbed of artistic and architectural modernism, and a center of surrealism second only to Paris.
Focusing on these years, Sayer explores Prague's spectacular modern buildings, monuments, paintings, books, films, operas, exhibitions, and much more. A place where the utopian fantasies of the century repeatedly unraveled, Prague was tailor-made for surrealist Andr Breton's black humor, and Sayer discusses the way the city produced unrivaled connoisseurs of grim comedy, from Franz Kafka and Jaroslav Hasek to Milan Kundera and V clav Havel. A masterful and unforgettable account of a city where an idling flaneur could just as easily be a secret policeman, this book vividly shows why Prague can teach us so much about the twentieth century and what made us who we are.
Synopsis
"A triumph! Sayer's indispensable work is at once magisterial and puckish, authoritative and subversive, intellectually dense and brilliantly accessible."
--Michael Beckerman, New York University"This is a fascinating and brilliantly written narrative that combines elements of literary guide, biography, cultural history, and essay. Writing with warm engagement, and drawing on his detailed knowledge of Czech literature, art, architecture, music, and other fields, Derek Sayer provides a rich picture of a dynamic cultural landscape."--Jindrich Toman, University of Michigan
About the Author
Derek Sayer is Professor of Cultural History at Lancaster University and a former Canada Research Chair at the University of Alberta. His previous books include The Coasts of Bohemia: A Czech History (Princeton) and Capitalism and Modernity. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Acknowledgments xv
Translation and Pronunciation xix
Introduction 1
- 1 The Starry Castle Opens 13
- The Surrealist Situation of the Object 13
- A Choice of Abdications 22
2 Zone 33
- Le passant de Prague 33
- This Little Mother Has Claws 44
- The Time of Ardent Reason 52
- The Hangman and the Poet 63
- Tongues Come to Life 69
3 Metamorphoses 79
- The Origin of Robots 79
- A Beautiful Garden Next Door to History 90
- Suicide Lane 99
- Franz Kafka's Dream 114
- Do You Speak German? Are You a Jew? 122
- Fantasy Land. Entry 1 Crown 130
- The Precious Legacy 137
4 Modernism in the Plural 144
- Alfons Mucha, Steel and Concrete 144
- The Ghosts of Futures Past 156
- From the Window of the Grand Café Orient 170
- Granny's Valley 183
- The Electric Century 197
- All the Beauties of the World 210
5 Body Politic 221
- The Silent Woman 221
- The Poetry of Future Memories 231
- Renaissance Ballet 242
- Beautiful Ideas That Kill 251
- Sexual Nocturne 261
- Cut with a Kitchen Knife 270
- A War Economy, Words of Command, and Gas 280
6 On the Edge of an Abyss 288
- The Beautiful Gardener 288
- The Bride Stripped Bare 298
- Gulping for Air and Violence 304
- Orders of Things 312
- L'origine du monde 324
- Dreams of Venus 331
- A Girl with a Baton 344
7 Love's Boat Shattered against Everyday Life 356
- A National Tragedy with Pretty Legs 356
- The Poet Assassinated 364
- A Wall as Thick as Eternity 374
- Didier Desroches 387
- Am I Not Right, Jan Hus? 399
- Messalina's Shoulder in the Gaslight 409
- That Familiar White Darkness 419
8 The Gold of Time 426
- The Necromancer's Junk Room 426
- The Prague-Paris Telephone 433
- The Dancing House 439
Notes 445
Bibliography 529
Index 561