Tearing Down Prague's Jewish Town
Editorial Reviews
Review
"A worthy addition to the library of any specialist in Czech or Austrian history." -- T. Mills Kelly, Habsburg Reviews (H-Net)
"It covers complex topics--Czech liberalism, the growth of municipal government, the emergence of historic preservationism, and even Prague's toilets and sewers--clearly and subtly." -- Jeremy King, American Historical Review
"We should be grateful for the fact that some publishers... still allow the publication of highly specialized monographs. Cathleen Giustino's book... provides a case in point." -- Panikos Panayi, History
"Giustino has produced an illuminating study... The result is a fascinating discussion of the interconnected liberal politics." -- Nancy M. Wingfield, Central European History
Book Description
In 1887 the middle-class Czechs dominating Prague's City Hall announced that they had a plan for the large-scale destruction and reconstruction of the city's former Jewish ghetto. The plan, involving the razing of nearly all of the roughly 260 buildings inside the ghetto, was carried out in the name of sanitation. To fund this ambitious project, city officials borrowed a vast sum of money. They also expelled the area's impoverished residents from their homes without making any effort to secure new affordable housing for them.
This book examines the social and ethnic interest-group struggles that fueled this project, suggesting possible continuities between nineteenth-century politics and twentieth-century authoritarianism. Giustino shows how middle class officials who held nineteenth-century liberal values shrewdly used municipal power to pursue their group interests, sometimes at the expense of outsiders, and in the process, contributed to persistent anti-Semitism.
Tearing Down Prague's Jewish Town
Tearing Down Prague's Jewish Town,Cathleen M. Giustino,East European Monographs,0880335165,Czechoslovakia,Eastern Europe - General,History,History - General History,History: World,Jewish - General,Jews,Middle class,Prague,Prague (Czech Republic),Urban renewal,Language Arts & Disciplines / Journalism
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