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Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> > Date: July 20, 2019 at 9:47:54 PM EDT > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Urban]: Huebner on Sayer, 'Prague: Crossroads of > Europe' > Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > > Derek Sayer. Prague: Crossroads of Europe. London Reaktion Books, > 2019. 280 pp. $22.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-78914-009-5. > > Reviewed by Karla Huebner (Wright State University) > Published on H-Urban (July, 2019) > Commissioned by Alexander Vari > > In the years since the Velvet Revolution, Prague--for forty years a > near-mystery behind the Iron Curtain--has become one of Europe's most > visited cities. Praised in the early 1990s as an expat destination > rivaling Paris of the 1920s, then infested in the 2000s by drunken > British stag parties, Prague has nonetheless remained a site too > little understood by most of its visitors, many of whom have very > little awareness of its complex history. > > Derek Sayer's _Prague: Crossroads of Europe_ should help travelers > gain a fuller and more nuanced understanding of the city and its > context. Part of Reaktion's Cityscapes series (other titles address > Beijing, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Chicago, New York, Paris, and San > Francisco), it combines history with travel guide. Titles in this > series are written "by authors with intimate knowledge of the > cities," provide "a unique overview of a city's past as well as a > focused eye on its present," and offer "essential cultural companions > to the world's greatest cities." To accomplish this, the usual > travel-guide format is reversed: instead of a short overview of the > city followed by endless listings of sights, lodgings, restaurants, > and shops, here we have 226 illustrated pages of urban and national > history followed by twenty pages of listings, five pages of > chronology, fifteen pages of citations for quoted material and > additional sources, two pages of suggested reading and viewing, and a > ten-page index. > > As a scholar who often writes about Prague and the Czech lands > (notably, the prize-winning books _The Coasts of Bohemia: A Czech > History_ [1998] and _Prague, Capital of the Twentieth Century: A > Surrealist History_ [2013]), Sayer is an appropriately knowledgeable > author for this title. His background as a sociologist, combined with > decades of research on Czech cultural history, gives him an unusually > broad basis from which to prepare a guide for the intelligent, > nonspecialist traveler. He writes in an accessible, jargon-free style > and has a fine eye for the telling detail and illuminating anecdote. > > But as this book is a travel guide, we may reasonably ask whether it > is useful beyond that specific purpose. What does it offer scholars > of urban history, or for that matter scholars in general who may or > may not be planning trips to Prague? > > _Prague: Crossroads of Europe_ is, actually, a worthwhile addition to > the urban historian's library. While it is not conceived as an > analytical text and (unsurprisingly) does not offer detailed accounts > of population shifts, annexations of suburbs, construction of sewers, > waterworks, or electrical grids, nor maps of the city's growth, > fortifications, or metro, Sayer is nonetheless alert to such matters > and weaves them into his text. The meat of the book consists of an > informative prologue, twelve chapters of history, and seven essays > about aspects of the city today. The twelve historical chapters take > us from the legendary birth of the city up to a brief look at the > Velvet Revolution and its aftermath. > > Against this larger backdrop of the history of Bohemia and Moravia > (necessary to properly understand the history of Prague), much > material of interest to the urban historian can be found. For > instance, the second chapter, "Přemyslid Prague," overviews > developments from the ninth through the thirteenth century, with > information on the establishment of churches, monasteries, and > synagogues, as well as notes on markets, bridges, fortifications, and > flooding. This chapter also points out that with a population > estimated at around 3,500 in 1200, Jews, Germans, and Italians as > well as Czechs were part of the city from very early (Prague's first > pogrom occurred in 1096 and the earliest mention of a synagogue dates > to 1124). In chapter 3, "The Golden Age of Charles IV," Sayer focuses > on urban developments under the celebrated fourteenth-century ruler, > such as street paving, contracts for street cleaning and waste > disposal in 1340, the foundation of Charles University, and ethnic > and social differences between Old Town and New Town. Chapter 4, > "Against All!" gives background on the fourteenth and fifteenth > centuries, during which religious conflict was particularly > significant for the city and for Bohemia more generally. Chapter 5, > "A Poisoned Chalice," similarly highlights religious conflict during > the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but also provides information > on architectural changes, such as work on the Old Town Hall and New > Town Hall, the foundation of the Jesuit Clementinum (now the National > Library), Renaissance additions to the Lesser Town and elsewhere, the > flourishing Jewish community of the turn of the seventeenth century, > and Emperor Rudolf's proclamations against dirty streets and rising > crime. Chapter 6, "The White Mountain," looks at seventeenth- and > eighteenth-century developments, many of which relate to the > re-Catholicization of the city after the Battle of White Mountain in > 1620, such as the expulsion of non-Catholic clergy and "the choice of > conversion or banishment" for nobles and burghers (p. 88). The shift > to German as language of state, literature and learning, and polite > society, and the devastations of the Thirty Years War and plague are > also noted, as well as the baroque construction boom, which involved > the building of numerous churches, aristocratic palaces, and burgher > townhouses; information on the subsequent lives of many of these > buildings is provided as well. > > Chapter 7, "The Homeland and the Muses," moves on to the > Enlightenment, with the beginnings of religious toleration; the rise > in land patriotism (versus linguistic/ethnic nationalism); the > establishment of purpose-built theaters; and the construction of > highways, sewers, paved streets, parks, and bridges and embankments, > not to mention the arrival of industrialization. Chapter 8, "Golden > Slavonic Prague," addresses the nineteenth-century growth in > population and Czech nationalism, with attention to census > self-identification and linguistic geography in the city, as well as > rising Czech-language education, literature, and societies. The > continued growth of industry; the departure of Jews from the ghetto > and slum clearance there; the construction of railways, bridges, > waterworks, the Negrelli Viaduct, and also the city's first gasworks, > electric lighting, and telephone network as well as major public > buildings, a stock exchange, and important new churches; and the rise > of art nouveau architecture are also outlined. Chapter 9, "At the > Crossroads," focuses on the First Republic (1918-38) and the > establishment of Greater Prague, which annexed thirty-eight largely > Czech suburbs to the city, shifting its demographics; the retitling > of German and Habsburg place names is also mentioned. The > contributions of modernist architects are noted, as are developments > in industry, transit, social housing, garden city suburbs, department > stores, and traffic lights. Chapter 10, "Into the Shadows," covers > the Nazi occupation of 1938-45, extermination of the Jews, and the > postwar expulsion of ethnic Germans. Chapter 11, "Prague Moves East," > addresses the city under Communism and includes discussion of > monuments; the massive construction of suburban prefab housing; the > development of the metro and other improvements in transportation; > the construction of Stalinist and Brutalist hotels, department > stores, theaters, and the TV tower; and efforts relating to > architectural conservation. Chapter 12, "Back into Europe," primarily > summarizes the Velvet Revolution, then mentions a few aspects of the > shift back to capitalism. > > The section "The City Today" provides essays on the Prague coffee > house, beer, Cubism, modernity, the Karlín district, Little Hanoi, > and the Dancing House. These provide looks at aspects of the > present-day city that include much political, ethnic, artistic, > literary, and historical information. They do not attempt to give an > account of the entire metropolitan area, but rather use specific > topics to convey important aspects of the city that include which > cafes were frequented by particular famous figures, and the > relationship between traditional pubs and wine bars to the likes of > new Irish pubs and craft brewing. Czech modernist architecture from > Cubism to Functionalism benefits from two essays; changes in > neighborhoods are the topic of "Karlín Redux" (gentrification from a > working-class and Roma district to a yuppie and hipster enclave); > "Little Hanoi" addresses the city's large Vietnamese population by > introducing the reader to a huge market complex on the southern > outskirts and the voices of some Vietnamese Praguers. The Dancing > House essay looks at recent Czech-Western interconnections such as > Frank Gehry and Vlado Miluniċ's famous "Fred and Ginger" plus rock > music and Prague anglophone literature. > > While _Prague: Crossroads of Europe_ is not a substitute for a > scholarly text on the urban history of Prague, overall it provides a > remarkably useful and very readable short history that will certainly > be welcomed by scholars visiting the city; it can also be used as a > quick reference. Sayer sprinkles information about numerous > historical periods and topics into his chapters, which makes for a > more engaging read but means the index is vital for readers who want > to know specifics about particular structures or topics. Also, while > quotations are cited and general sources are given, scholarly readers > will have to hunt for sources of some of the information (such as > data on street paving or electrification). Here, additional "Further > Reading" titles would have been helpful. But so long as the reader > recognizes the overarching purpose of the book, which is to give the > traveler a historically focused introduction to the city, scholars as > well as the general public should find this a worthy volume. In fact, > it could also serve as a textbook for a course on the city, if > supplemented with suitable additional readings. > > Citation: Karla Huebner. Review of Sayer, Derek, _Prague: Crossroads > of Europe_. H-Urban, H-Net Reviews. July, 2019. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54231 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
