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Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers
by Filip Muller
from Ivan R. Dee, Publisher
Filip Muller's firsthand account of three years in the gas chambers. One of the few prisoners who saw the Jewish people die and lived to tell about it, Muller has written one of the key documents of the Holocaust. A very detailed description of day-to-day life, if we can call it that, in Hell's inmost circle...jammed with infernal information too terrible to be taken all at once. --Terrence Des Pres, New Republic
Rock 'n' Roll: A New Play
by Tom Stoppard
from Grove Press
Rock ’n’ Roll is an electrifying collision of the romantic and the revolutionary. It is 1968 and the world is ablaze with rebellion, accompanied by a sound track of the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. Clutching his prized collection of rock albums, Jan, a Cambridge graduate student, returns to his homeland of Czechoslovakia just as Soviet tanks roll into Prague. When security forces tighten their grip on artistic expression, Jan is inexorably drawn toward a dangerous act of dissent. Back in England, Jan’s volcanic mentor, Max, faces a war of his own as his free-spirited daughter and his cancer-stricken wife attempt to break through his walls of academic and emotional obstinacy. Over the next twenty years of love, espionage, chance, and loss, the extraordinary lives of Jan and Max spin and intersect until an unexpected reunion forces them to see what is truly worth the fight.
Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968
by Heda Margolius Kovaly
from Holmes & Meier Publishers
A Romantic Education
by Patricia Hampl
from W. W. Norton & Company
A now classic memoir, described by Doris Grumbach as "unusually elegant and meditative," once more available with an updated afterword by the author. Golden Prague seemed mostly gray when Patricia Hampl first went there in quest of her Czech heritage. In that bleak time, no one could have predicted the political upheaval awaiting Communist Europe and the city of Kafka and Rilke. Hampl's subsequent memoir, a brilliant evocation of Czech life under socialism, attained the stature of living history, and added to our understanding not only of Central Europe but also of what it means to be engaged in the struggle of a people to define and affirm themselves. Reissued now, during the tenth anniversary of that astonishing upheaval known as the Velvet Revolution, A Romantic Education includes an extensive updated afterword based on Hampl's annual return trips to Prague and the Czech countryside. Here is an excellent introduction to what was once the unknown "other Europe" behind the Iron Curtain and is now the continent's hottest new travel destination. Once again, as she did in a darker time, Hampl sees the texture beneath the surface of things and intuits the changing life of one of Europe's most bewitching cities. A Romantic Education is an exquisite journey into history and into the conundrum of personal memory.
Prague: A Cultural and Literary History (Cities of the Imagination)
by Richard D. E. Burton
from Interlink Books
The Magic Circle of Rudolf II: Alchemy and Astrology in Renaissance Prague
by Peter Marshall
from Walker & Company
Rudolf II—Habsburg heir, Holy Roman Emperor, king of Hungary, Germany, and the
Romans—is one of history’s great characters, and yet he remains largely an unknown figure. His reign (1576–1612) roughly mirrored that of Queen Elizabeth I of England, and while her famous court is widely recognized as a sixteenth century Who’s Who, Rudolf ’s collection of mathematicians, alchemists, artists, philosophers and astronomers—among them the greatest and most subversive minds of the time—was no less prestigious and perhaps even more influential.
Driven to understand the deepest secrets of nature and the riddle of existence, Rudolf invited to his court an endless stream of genius—Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, German mathematician Johannes Kepler, English magus John Dee, Francis Bacon, and mannerist painter Giuseppe Archimboldo among many others. Prague became the artistic and scientific center of the known world—an island of intellectual tolerance between Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam.
Combining the wonders and architectural beauty of sixteenth century Prague with the larger than-life characters of Rudolf ’s court, Peter Marshall provides an exciting new perspective on the pivotal moment of transition between medieval and modern, when the foundation was laid for the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment.
Romans—is one of history’s great characters, and yet he remains largely an unknown figure. His reign (1576–1612) roughly mirrored that of Queen Elizabeth I of England, and while her famous court is widely recognized as a sixteenth century Who’s Who, Rudolf ’s collection of mathematicians, alchemists, artists, philosophers and astronomers—among them the greatest and most subversive minds of the time—was no less prestigious and perhaps even more influential.
Driven to understand the deepest secrets of nature and the riddle of existence, Rudolf invited to his court an endless stream of genius—Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, German mathematician Johannes Kepler, English magus John Dee, Francis Bacon, and mannerist painter Giuseppe Archimboldo among many others. Prague became the artistic and scientific center of the known world—an island of intellectual tolerance between Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam.
Combining the wonders and architectural beauty of sixteenth century Prague with the larger than-life characters of Rudolf ’s court, Peter Marshall provides an exciting new perspective on the pivotal moment of transition between medieval and modern, when the foundation was laid for the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment.
A History of Slovakia, Second Edition: The Struggle for Survival
by Stanislav J. Kirschbaum
from Palgrave Macmillan
This classic book offers the most comprehensive and up-to-date history of Slovakia, from its establishment on the Danubian Plain to the present. While paying tribute to Slovakia's resilience and struggle for survival, it describes contributions to European civilization in the Middle Ages; the development of Slovak consciousness in response to Magyarization; its struggle for autonomy in Czechoslovakia after the Treaty of Versailles; its resistance, as the first Slovak Republic, to a Nazi-controlled Europe; its reaction to Communism; and the path that led to the creation of the second Slovak Republic. Now fully updated to the present day, the book examines the vagaries of Slovak post-Communist politics that led to Slovakia's membership in NATO and the European Union.
Prague in Black and Gold: Scenes from the Life of a European City
by Peter Demetz
from Hill and Wang
Prague is at the core of everything both wonderful and terrible in Western history, but few people truly understand this city's unique culture. In Prague in Black and Gold, Peter Demetz strips away sentimentalities and distortions and shows how Czechs, Germans, Italians, and Jews have lived and worked together for over a thousand years. .
1805: Austerlitz: Napoleon and the Destruction of the Third Coalition
by Robert Goetz
from Greenhill Books
Revealing new study of Napoleon's greatest victory. Dispels many of the myths surrounding the famous battle of the three emperors. Brought to life with numerous eyewitness accounts. A Main Selection for the History Book Club. The Battle of Austerlitz is almost universally regarded as the most impressive of Napoleon's many victories. The magnitude of the French achievement against a significantly larger army was unprecedented. In this insightful new study the author analyses the planning of the opposing forces and details the course of the battle hour by hour, describing the fierce see-saw battle around Sokolnitz, the epic struggle for the Pratzen Heights, the dramatic engagement between the legendary Lannes and Bagration in the north, and the widely misunderstood clash of Napoleon's Imperial Guard and Alexander's Imperial Leib-Guard. The author has produced a detailed and balanced assessment of the battle that for the first time places familiar French accounts in their proper perspective and exposes many myths regarding the battle that have been perpetuated and even embellished in recent books. With 1805: Austerlitz, the reader is left with a new appreciation of Napoleon and his Grande Army of 1805, an army that decisively defeated not a hapless relic of the ancien regime but rather a formidable professional army that had fought the French armies on equal terms five years earlier. Robert Goetz has been studying the Russian Army of the Napoleonic Wars for the past seven years, an area of specialization that emerged from his longstanding interest in the French Revolution and Napoleonic era. He is the author of several award-winning articles concerning the Russian Army and its campaigns.
Prague Then and Now (Then & Now Thunder Bay)
by Jenni Meili Lau
from Thunder Bay Press
Since the early Middle Ages, Prague has been considered one of Europe's most beautiful cities with its hundreds of spires reaching into the sky. Despite a history filled with violent upheavals and bitter occupations, Prague remains a vibrant city known for its world-famous architecture, culture, historic monuments, and natural beauty.
Experience the magnificent beauty and often-tragic history of this 'Golden City' through seventy pairs of remarkable photographs.
Stand atop Prague's most familiar monument, the Charles Bridge (completed in 1400), for a magnificent vista of the city; a fascinating inset photo illustrates the destruction of the bridge after a flood in 1890.
Visit Golden Lane, home to the city's goldsmiths in the 17th century and later to author Franz Kafka.
Marvel at then-and-now images of treasures like St. Vitus' Cathedral (it's first stone was laid in 1344 by Emperor Charles IV!) and St. George's Basilica (founded in the 10th century).
Today, Prague is a favorite destination for tourists from all over the world. This is a tour you won't want to miss!
Experience the magnificent beauty and often-tragic history of this 'Golden City' through seventy pairs of remarkable photographs.
Stand atop Prague's most familiar monument, the Charles Bridge (completed in 1400), for a magnificent vista of the city; a fascinating inset photo illustrates the destruction of the bridge after a flood in 1890.
Visit Golden Lane, home to the city's goldsmiths in the 17th century and later to author Franz Kafka.
Marvel at then-and-now images of treasures like St. Vitus' Cathedral (it's first stone was laid in 1344 by Emperor Charles IV!) and St. George's Basilica (founded in the 10th century).
Today, Prague is a favorite destination for tourists from all over the world. This is a tour you won't want to miss!
