Postcards from Absurdistan

Postcards from Absurdistan
Author: Derek Sayer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 752
Release: 2022-11-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 069118545X

A sweeping history of a twentieth-century Prague torn between fascism, communism, and democracy—with lessons for a world again threatened by dictatorship Postcards from Absurdistan is a cultural and political history of Prague from 1938, when the Nazis destroyed Czechoslovakia’s artistically vibrant liberal democracy, to 1989, when the country’s socialist regime collapsed after more than four decades of communist dictatorship. Derek Sayer shows that Prague’s twentieth century, far from being a story of inexorable progress toward some “end of history,” whether fascist, communist, or democratic, was a tragicomedy of recurring nightmares played out in a land Czech dissidents dubbed Absurdistan. Situated in the eye of the storms that shaped the modern world, Prague holds up an unsettling mirror to the absurdities and dangers of our own times. In a brilliant narrative, Sayer weaves a vivid montage of the lives of individual Praguers—poets and politicians, architects and athletes, journalists and filmmakers, artists, musicians, and comedians—caught up in the crosscurrents of the turbulent half century following the Nazi invasion. This is the territory of the ideologist, the collaborator, the informer, the apparatchik, the dissident, the outsider, the torturer, and the refugee—not to mention the innocent bystander who is always looking the other way and Václav Havel’s greengrocer whose knowing complicity allows the show to go on. Over and over, Prague exposes modernity’s dreamworlds of progress as confections of kitsch. In a time when democracy is once again under global assault, Postcards from Absurdistan is an unforgettable portrait of a city that illuminates the predicaments of the modern world.

Prague, Capital of the Twentieth Century

Prague, Capital of the Twentieth Century
Author: Derek Sayer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 621
Release: 2013-04-07
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0691043809

Asserts that Prague could well be seen as the capital of the twentieth century, describing how the city has experienced and suffered more ways of being modern than perhaps any other metropolis.

Christian Socialist Revival, 1877-1914

Christian Socialist Revival, 1877-1914
Author: Peter d'Alroy Jones
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 519
Release: 2015-12-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1400876974

This book examines the response of several British churches to the problems of industrialism during the period of the socialist revival, a period that also saw the rise of the Labour Party and other workingmen's associations. Here is a comprehensive survey of the personalities and organizations responsible for the Christian socialist revival. The author presents a history of the Labour Party and an analysis of the theological and economic ideas of the Christian Socialists, comparing them with those of the earlier and better-known men of the 1850’s, and with their French originals. Originally published in 1968. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Absurdistan

Absurdistan
Author: R. Lee Wright
Publisher:
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2005
Genre: Slovakia
ISBN: 9780976078098

Readers can vicariously live for a year in Eastern Europe through the eyes of an American professor working in Absurdistan. With a rare blend of humor and insight, Professor Wright shares a year of teaching at universities in Absurdistan, the name given to former Czechoslovakia by its citizens. His job was to help universities overcome the last seventy years of communist propaganda. This true story is a tongue-in-cheek look at the people, history, and geography of Eastern Europe. Become acquainted with Dr. Wright's castle, village, university, and neighbors. Learn the true meaning of Eastern European Time, and the correct way to mime kitty litter. See if you can survive the alternately hilarious and tragic daily life. In turn funny and sad, Dr. Wright combines mordant insights into the human condition with truly touching stories of local citizens. His incisive wit takes on politics, religion, language, and history, with equal opportunity barbs. He lives in an ancient stone cottage just outside the ruins of a castle destroyed by Napoleon, in a genuine quaint little village with no telephone. He rides the same trolleys as the local people. He eats the same food, and shops in the same bazaars. Astoundingly, he survives a year without TV, the internet, or even a golf course. Twenty-four photos add a rare glimpse into the lives, people, and countries of Eastern Europe. The captions alone are worth the price of the book.

The Coasts of Bohemia

The Coasts of Bohemia
Author: Derek Sayer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2000-03-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780691050522

A cultural history of the Czech people, examining the significance of the small central European nation's artistic, literary, and political developments from its origins through approximately 1960.

Absurdistan and Super Sad True Love Story: Two Bestselling Novels

Absurdistan and Super Sad True Love Story: Two Bestselling Novels
Author: Gary Shteyngart
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 779
Release: 2013-11-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0812985494

Heralded as “one of his generation’s most original and exhilarating writers” by The New York Times, Gary Shteyngart has fused his literary chops and biting humor into one-of-a-kind fiction that provokes, inspires, and entertains—sometimes all at once. Throughout the two bestselling novels in this eBook bundle, Absurdistan and Super Sad True Love Story, Shteyngart is at the height of his powers: “wildly funny” (San Francisco Chronicle), “freakishly intelligent” (Elle), “ridiculously witty and painfully prescient” (Time). Don’t miss Gary Shteyngart’s highly anticipated memoir, Little Failure, an American immigrant story of a lifelong misfit who finally finds his place in the world, told with the author’s sharp powers of observation, self-deprecating humor, surprising revelations, and moving insights into the human heart. ABSURDISTAN “Exuberant, wise, hilarious . . . a long, funny, heartbreaking lament for home, whatever that means, and wherever that might be.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review Meet Misha Vainberg, son of the 1,238th-richest man in Russia and a 325-pound patriot of no country save New York City. Misha just wants to live in the South Bronx with his hot Latina girlfriend, but after his gangster father murders an Oklahoma businessman, all hopes of a U.S. visa are lost. Salvation lies in tiny, oil-rich Absurdistan, where a crooked consular officer will sell Misha a Belgian passport. Then civil war breaks out, a local warlord installs Misha as minister of multicultural affairs, and our hero finds himself fighting for his life, falling in love, and trying to figure out if a normal life is still possible in the twenty-first century. SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY “Wonderful . . . [combines] the tenderness of the Chekhovian tradition with the hormonal high jinks of a Judd Apatow movie.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times In the near future, America is crushed by a financial crisis, and our patient Chinese creditors may just be ready to foreclose on the whole mess. Then Lenny Abramov, son of a Russian immigrant janitor and ardent fan of “printed, bound media artifacts” (aka books), meets Eunice Park, an impossibly cute and impossibly cruel Korean American woman with a major in Images and a minor in Assertiveness. Could falling in love redeem a planet falling apart? All Lenny has to do is convince his fickle new love that there is still value in being a real human being. Praise for Gary Shteyngart “Compared with most young novelists his age . . . Shteyngart is a giant mounted on horseback. He ranges more widely, sees more sweepingly and gets where he’s going with far more aplomb.”—The New York Times Book Review “Obscenely gifted . . . [His] prose never fails to pop, and nothing escapes his satiric eye.”—Entertainment Weekly “The Joseph Heller of the information age.”—Salon “His imagination is either warped or prophetic; you choose. But his writing is brilliant.”—The Seattle Times “Not since mid-seventies Woody Allen has anyone cracked so wise and so well.”—Esquire “There is no one better at skewering social systems.”—The Wall Street Journal

The Politics of the Veil

The Politics of the Veil
Author: Joan Wallach Scott
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2010-08-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691147981

In 2004, the French government instituted a ban on the wearing of "conspicuous signs" of religious affiliation in public schools. Though the ban applies to everyone, it is aimed at Muslim girls wearing headscarves. Proponents of the law insist it upholds France's values of secular liberalism and regard the headscarf as symbolic of Islam's resistance to modernity. The Politics of the Veil is an explosive refutation of this view, one that bears important implications for us all. Joan Wallach Scott, the renowned pioneer of gender studies, argues that the law is symptomatic of France's failure to integrate its former colonial subjects as full citizens. She examines the long history of racism behind the law as well as the ideological barriers thrown up against Muslim assimilation. She emphasizes the conflicting approaches to sexuality that lie at the heart of the debate--how French supporters of the ban view sexual openness as the standard for normalcy, emancipation, and individuality, and the sexual modesty implicit in the headscarf as proof that Muslims can never become fully French. Scott maintains that the law, far from reconciling religious and ethnic differences, only exacerbates them. She shows how the insistence on homogeneity is no longer feasible for France--or the West in general--and how it creates the very "clash of civilizations" said to be at the root of these tensions. The Politics of the Veil calls for a new vision of community where common ground is found amid our differences, and where the embracing of diversity--not its suppression--is recognized as the best path to social harmony.

A Velvet Empire

A Velvet Empire
Author: David Todd
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2023-09-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691205337

How France's elites used soft power to pursue their imperial ambitions in the nineteenth century After Napoleon's downfall in 1815, France embraced a mostly informal style of empire, one that emphasized economic and cultural influence rather than military conquest. A Velvet Empire is a global history of French imperialism in the nineteenth century, providing new insights into the mechanisms of imperial collaboration that extended France's power from the Middle East to Latin America and ushered in the modern age of globalization. David Todd shows how French elites pursued a cunning strategy of imperial expansion in which conspicuous commodities such as champagne and silk textiles, together with loans to client states, contributed to a global campaign of seduction. French imperialism was no less brutal than that of the British. But while Britain widened its imperial reach through settler colonialism and the acquisition of far-flung territories, France built a "velvet" empire backed by frequent military interventions and a broadening extraterritorial jurisdiction. Todd demonstrates how France drew vast benefits from these asymmetric, imperial-like relations until a succession of setbacks around the world brought about their unravelling in the 1870s. A Velvet Empire sheds light on France's neglected contribution to the conservative reinvention of modernity and offers a new interpretation of the resurgence of French colonialism on a global scale after 1880. This panoramic book also highlights the crucial role of collaboration among European empires during this period—including archrivals Britain and France—and cooperation with indigenous elites in facilitating imperial expansion and the globalization of capitalism.

Chosen Nation

Chosen Nation
Author: Benjamin W. Goossen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2019-05-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 069119274X

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the global Mennonite church developed an uneasy relationship with Germany. Despite the religion's origins in the Swiss and Dutch Reformation, as well as its longstanding pacifism, tens of thousands of members embraced militarist German nationalism. Chosen Nation is a sweeping history of this encounter and the debates it sparked among parliaments, dictatorships, and congregations across Eurasia and the Americas. Offering a multifaceted perspective on nationalism's emergence in Europe and around the world, Benjamin Goossen demonstrates how Mennonites' nationalization reflected and reshaped their faith convictions. While some church leaders modified German identity along Mennonite lines, others appropriated nationalism wholesale, advocating a specifically Mennonite version of nationhood. Examining sources from Poland to Paraguay, Goossen shows how patriotic loyalties rose and fell with religious affiliation. Individuals might claim to be German at one moment but Mennonite the next. Some external parties encouraged separatism, as when the Weimar Republic helped establish an autonomous "Mennonite State" in Latin America. Still others treated Mennonites as quintessentially German; under Hitler's Third Reich, entire colonies benefited from racial warfare and genocide in Nazi-occupied Ukraine. Whether choosing Germany as a national homeland or identifying as a chosen people, called and elected by God, Mennonites committed to collective action in ways that were intricate, fluid, and always surprising. The first book to place Christianity and diaspora at the heart of nationality studies, Chosen Nation illuminates the rising religious nationalism of our own age.