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In this volume, an international and interdisciplinary team of scholars—Czech and American archaeologists, paleoanthropologists, geologists, and biologists—report on the results of the investigations from 1980 through the 1990s at Stránská skála, a complex of open-air loess sites on the outskirts of the Brno Basin in the Czech Republic.

The volume presents in-depth studies of the geology, paleopedology, frost processes, vegetation, fauna, and archaeological features of Stránská skála that break new ground in our understanding of early modern humans in central Europe.

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In the immediate post-communist environment of East-Central Europe, local governments have had to find new ways of reforming institutions in an effort to manage emerging market economies and provide better service for their citizens. Based on extensive analysis and surveys of local leaders and citizens in hundreds of cities and towns throughout the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, this book compares experiences in these countries. It portrays the relationships between citizens and local elites, showing the constraints and achievements in cultivating working forms of local democracy. ... Read more

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After World War I, diplomats and leaders at the Paris Peace Talks redrew the map of Europe, carving up ancient empires and transforming Europe's eastern half into new nation-states. Drawing heavily on the past, the leaders of these young countries crafted national mythologies and deployed them at home and abroad. Domestically, myths were a tool for legitimating the new state with fractious electorates. In Great Power capitals, they were used to curry favor and to compete with the mythologies and propaganda of other insecure postwar states.

The new postwar state of Czechoslovakia forged a reputation as Europe's democratic outpost in the East, an island of enlightened tolerance amid an increasingly fascist Central and Eastern Europe. In Battle for the Castle, Andrea Orzoff traces the myth of Czechoslovakia as an ideal democracy. The architects of the myth were two academics who had fled Austria-Hungary in the Great War's early years. Tomáas Garrigue Masaryk, who became Czechoslovakia's first president, and Edvard Benes, its longtime foreign minister and later president, propagated the idea of the Czechs as a tolerant, prosperous, and cosmopolitan people, devoted to European ideals, and Czechoslovakia as a Western ally capable of containing both German aggression and Bolshevik radicalism. Deeply distrustful of Czech political parties and Parliamentary leaders, Benes and Masaryk created an informal political organization known as the Hrad or "Castle." This powerful coalition of intellectuals, journalists, businessmen, religious leaders, and Great War veterans struggled with Parliamentary leaders to set the country's political agenda and advance the myth. Abroad, the Castle wielded the national myth to claim the attention and defense of the West against its increasingly hungry neighbors. When Hitler occupied the country, the mythic Czechoslovakia gained power as its leaders went into wartime exile. Once Czechoslovakia regained its independence after 1945, the Castle myth reappeared. After the Communist coup of 1948, many Castle politicians went into exile in America, where they wrote the Castle myth of an idealized Czechoslovakia into academic and political discourse.

Battle for the Castle demonstrates how this founding myth became enshrined in Czechoslovak and European history. It powerfully articulates the centrality of propaganda and the mass media to interwar European cultural diplomacy and politics, and the tense, combative atmosphere of European international relations from the beginning of the First World War well past the end of the Second. ... Read more

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Pink Tanks and Velvet Hangovers: An American in Prague, by Douglas Lytle, is a travel book that takes place in the months following the fall of the repressive Socialist government in Czechoslovakia. From the vantage point of an American journalist who went to Prague with his Czech girlfriend, Lytle documents the first shaky steps to democracy and capitalism, including the 1992 division of the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He writes of the awkwardness and slights of a country in transition, the sights, smells, and incredible beauty he witnesses, and of a people and a government on the cusp of massive change. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A more sensible review!
I think the correct review lies somewhere between the worst and best review of this book. It never pretends to give an "artful" description of the Czech and Slovak transformation after Communism. It is simply a book of a journalist's notes (note the conclusion where he describes looking back on all of his notes from his years in Prague - he never hides this fact).

Don't ignore this book simply because you are jealous the writer was published for writing something many of us can and wish we could do. If you are going to be in Prague for some time, it is an eye-opener, especially if you were not there during the transition period. There are probably some ex-pats who could have done it better, but they don't have a book published.

The book is a little long. It is organized very haphazardly. There are many annoying typos. But it is a quick read and does contain some interesting bits. I thought some of his personal experiences were interesting and he made some good points. There were other times where I had no clue where he was going with his writing.

Bottom line: this is not literary masterpiece, but how many travel journals really are? Check it out.

Boring
The first reviewer got it right -- this is an artless and boring book. It totally fails to capture the excitement of the time it's purported to cover -- and contains a great many inaccuracies. The first "half" (I think it's actually less than half) of the book consists of entries from the author's own journal, which he obviously stopped keeping after a very brief period. The second part of the book picks up, chronologically, where the author's meagerly journal left off -- by summarizing the news and events of the period -- in rapid succession and without background information, personal or otherwise. As the author had ceased to keep his journal, this part of the book is sourced from archival stories from the Prague Post. Whether it is from that newspaper or from the author's own misperceptions that the numerous factual errors arise, it makes for a boring and inaccurate read overall.

A Rambling, Likable, Barely-edited and Unnecessary Work
I lived in CZ for four years (outside of Prague, a mysterious wilderness to this writer), where a lot of Americans have aspirations to write.Horribly enough, this book was the "first" to describe that wholePrague scene.I say horribly, because this book is likable -- but thenarrator does nothing unusual, thinks nothing daring --he more or lesstranscribes banal journal entries into a long artless book.I could go onabout the amatuerish writing style (a good editor would have cut the bookto about the length of a Lonely Planet review) -- or about the lazytypesetting (full of typos), and the benefit a little fact checkingwould've had (it's "Havlova" not "Havelova","vul" is "ox" not "bull", and so on....).Itseems this book is the kind that would make a mother proud, but would bemet with sneers and jeers by all other "expats."A lot of themheld off writing this kind of book because they were waiting to synthesizeand compose artfully from their Czech experience.What we have here, forall its description, is a "nice" American doing"exciting" things in a foreign country.I thought it was hard toget travel writing published, but now I see it doesn't take a hell of a lotof work.The author does nothing original, thinks no original thoughts,and pretty much stole the fire from anyone else who might put out a"real" chronicle of the Prague experience.Too bad.

Essential reading for anyone going to former Czechoslovakia.
Mr. Lytle's experiences roughly paralleled mine though I spent a year teaching in the less trendy Slovak half of Czecho-Slovakia.His experienceof a society in transition and attitudes toward the West are especiallyresonant.He was right about the beer; it's great and the women arebeautiful (the best kept secret of the Cold War) I should know, I met mywife in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia.

Usefull reading if you're going to travel to Prague
Because I would be spending a semester studying in Prague, I decided to pick up Douglas Lytle's book.I must say I was very pleased with the results.Lytle writes like a good friend, filling you in on the social andpolitical climate of the country without ever coming off as boringprofessor.Lytle managed to change my attitude towards Prague (that beingfrom a kid only concerned about partying and going out to someone who isactually concerned and interested in a foreign culture) and for that alonei am gratefull.Lytle is first and foremost a reporter, and that is oftenrevealed in the way he tells his story.All in all, i would label the bookessential to anyone planning on spending any significant time in the CzechRepublic. ... Read more

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In a new perspective on the formation of national identity in Central Europe, Nancy Wingfield analyzes what many historians have treated separately--the construction of the Czech and German nations--as a larger single phenomenon.

Czech and German nationalism worked off each other in dynamic ways. As external conditions changed, Czech and German nationalists found new uses for their pasts and new ways to stage them in public spaces for their ongoing national projects. These grassroots confrontations transformed public culture by reinforcing the centrality of nationality to everyday life and by tying nationalism to the exercise of power. The battles in the public sphere produced a cultural geography of national conflict associated with the unveiling of Joseph II statues that began in 1881, the Badeni Language Ordinances of 1897, the 1905 debate over a Czech-language university in Moravia, and the celebration of the emperor's sixtieth jubilee in 1908. The pattern of impassioned national conflict would be repeated for the duration of the monarchy and persist with even more violence into the First Czechoslovak Republic.

Numerous illustrations show how people absorbed, on many levels, visual clues that shaped how they identified themselves and their groups. This nuanced analysis is a valuable contribution to our understanding of Central European history, nationalism, and the uses of collective memory.

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This unusual, distinctive book is a glowing, theatrical blend of history, travelogue, fictional sketch, art and literary criticism, and personal essay. Angelo Ripellino goes beyond the tourist cliché of Prague and brings out the mystery, ambiguity, gloom, lethargy, and hidden fascination of the city of the Vltava. He uses melodrama and ghost stories, as well as tales from the enchanted road and the risqué barroom to relate the sorcery of the Bohemian capital in a wonderful mix of fact and fiction.
As the book opens, Kafka and Hasek are still stalking the streets of the Old Town. In the second section we are in the seventeenth century, with its emphasis on the occult. Traveling on, we move through Prague's bordellos, theaters, ghetto, alchemists' laboratories, and cafés, accompanied by Rudolph II, Apollinaire, and Czech dadaists. The result of this imaginary guided tour is a deeper knowledge of the city than any ordinary guidebook can provide as well as an exhilarating introduction to Czech culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Spirits of Prague
If any book can capture the Genius Loci of Prague, this is the one.

So that's why it's called Magic Prague
I tried to read this before my trip to Prague and found it inaccessible and its language pretentious. Then, after a week in the city, I started reading again. And couldn't stop. It is only when you visit the Jewishcemetery or Prague Castle that the myths, ghosts and executioners of thepast come alive. Although a tough read, it is exceptionally rewarding forthe traveller who wants to take more home from Prague than just Bohemiancrystal.

Prague for the deeply romantic, literate traveler
The late Mr. Ripellino has amassed a tribute to Prague like no other.It breathes.Anyone that has ever visited the "Golden City of a 100 spires" must have had an inkling deep in their soul of what the authorhas magnificently put down in words. The "Old Crone [Prague] hasclaws", as Kafka put it, and Ripellino shows exactly why that is so. The research that went into this book is simply astounding, with my editionhaving 44 pages of tightly spaced notes, of 333 pages total, includingindex.The book takes us from one extraordinary Prague tale to another,with myth, legend and reality all melting into one pot of magic. Anyonethat plans to visit the center of Europe should read this book in advance,or at least skim it on the plane.It is a tough read, being full of poeticphrases and meticulous details, which often beg for multiple readings. However, the time spent is well worth it.The book will serve as abeautiful bridge between the soul and the mind, as the traveler wandersalong the cobblestones of thousand year old "Praha." p.s. Ibought my edition (Picador) in Prague for 315 Kcs, or about US$ 9.Theprice on the back of the paperback is 9.99 British Pounds, which is aboutUS$ 17, depending on the day.

Frank Kafka meets Microsoft Word
Definitely not light reading, Ripellino's Magic Prague churns its way through the culture of Prague with exquisite attention to minute detail. This is a book which explores the historic underside of Prague, providingthe visitor with a level of information not elsewhere found.

The best book about Prague.
I wish I had this book in 1981-83 when I was wandering in Prague with my camera. I wish I had this book in that attic room under the roof made with old dark wooden beams in Malostranske namesti. Karluv most was my magic everyday walkabout. I have my photographs and this book to remember when Iforget that magic exists. ... Read more