The Last Palace : : Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and one Legendary House

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Call Number: Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / Europe / Miscellaneous, 943.712 Ei
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / Europe / Miscellaneous	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	943.712 Ei	4-week checkout	Due 05-21-2024

The golden son of the Golden City -- The king of coal -- Palace neverending -- The final child -- An artist of war -- The most dangerous man in the Reich -- Is Prague burning? -- "If you're going through hell, keep going" -- "He who is master of Bohemia is master of Europe." -- Lush life -- Small salvations -- "Never, never, never give in" -- "Nothing crushes freedom like a tank" -- A revolutionary production -- Truth prevails -- "The past is never dead. It's not even past."
"A sweeping yet intimate narrative about the last hundred years of turbulent European history, as seen through one of Mitteleuropa's greatest houses--and the lives of its occupants"-- Provided by publisher.
When Eisen moved into the US ambassador's residence in Prague, he was startled to discover swastikas hidden beneath the furniture. As he unspooled the twisting, captivating tale of some of the remarkable people who had called this palace home, he began to chronicle the upheavals that transformed the continent over the past century. He introduces us to optimistic Jewish financial baron, Otto Petschek, who built the palace after World War I; Rudolf Toussaint, the cultured, compromised German general who occupied the palace during World War II; Laurence Steinhardt, the first postwar US ambassador; and Shirley Temple Black, an eyewitness to the crushing of the 1968 Prague Spring who returned as US ambassador in 1989. -- adapted from jacket

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A fascinating lens on 20th century Czech Republic history submitted by ken on July 23, 2019, 9:07am As someone who spent a few years in Prague in the 1990s, I was fascinated by this history of Prague and Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. Told as a history of the families that have lived in industrial baron Otto Petschek's palace, from Petschek himself through Nazi occupiers to a series of U.S. ambassadors, this very readable history of the 20th century was a joy to read. Being familiar with many of the landmarks was a plus for me, but reading how European history and politics played out over the course of the 1900s was the real joy.