About the Book
A poignant reflection on alienation and belonging, told through the lives of five remarkable people who struggled against nationalism and intolerance in one of Europe's most stunning cities.
What does it mean to belong somewhere? For many of Prague's inhabitants, belonging has been linked to the nation, embodied in the capital city. Grandiose medieval buildings and monuments to national heroes boast of a glorious, shared history. Past governments, democratic and Communist, layered the city with architecture that melded politics and nationhood. Not all inhabitants, however, felt included in these efforts to nurture national belonging. Socialists, dissidents, Jews, Germans, and Vietnamese-all have been subject to hatred and political persecution in the city they called home.
Chad Bryant tells the stories of five marginalized individuals who, over the last two centuries, forged their own notions of belonging in one of Europe's great cities. An aspiring guidebook writer, a German-speaking newspaperman, a Bolshevik carpenter, an actress of mixed heritage who came of age during the Communist terror, and a Czech-speaking Vietnamese blogger: none of them is famous, but their lives are revealing. They speak to tensions between exclusionary nationalism and on-the-ground diversity. In their struggles against alienation and dislocation, they forged alternative communities in cafes, workplaces, and online. While strolling park paths, joining political marches, or writing about their lives, these outsiders came to embody a city that, on its surface, was built for others.
A powerful and creative meditation on place and nation, the individual and community, Prague envisions how cohesion and difference might coexist as it acknowledges a need common to all.
About the Author :
Chad Bryant is the author of Prague in Black: Nazi Rule and Czech Nationalism, winner of the Hans Rosenberg Book Prize. He is Associate Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Humanities Center.
Review :
[A] subtle, lyrical book. Like the denizens of many other cities, Praguers have juggled identities for centuries…Chad Bryant concentrates on five fascinating individuals, guiding readers through Czech history along the way.
What is rich and suggestive is [Bryant’s] tracing of ‘practices of belonging’—strategies which complicate the overarching narratives of Czech history by showing how individuals shape their sense of self within the city—and, specifically, this city, with its vertiginous political and ideological shifts…Prague is an inventive, engaging call to imagine the city not only from the perspective of prophetic panorama, but also from the experience of the citizen on foot.
Marvelous…a must-read for scholars and students of modern central European history and nationalism, as well as anyone interested in European or global urban history…an insightful, innovative, and nuanced account of the city.
The concept of ‘belonging’ allows [Bryant] to turn urban history into a true biography of the modern city through the authentic experience of real individuals…A very fine scholarly work.
Original…The author offers a history of the city as a living organism as told through the life stories of its actual inhabitants.
Bryant is to be commended for producing an eminently readable book that weaves together the broader trajectories of Czech history with the more everyday aspects of life in Prague over the last two centuries.
Engaging even for the casual reader, and at the same time a masterfully crafted work of scholarship. For historians of Central Europe, the book offers a number of inspiring ideas and concepts that can also be applied to the history of other Central European cities.
[Bryant] has succeeded in producing a well-written work that, through the subjective perspectives of the individual protagonists, allows the historic panorama of the city to unfold [while] discussing the question of how belonging was imagined and realized in practice.
Since the post-1989 explosion of tourism to the former communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Prague has become a prime destination and, as such, the subject of many books. Few of them have explored the city, its history, and its people as originally, insightfully, and compassionately as Chad Bryant does in this elegant volume.
[An] evocative and innovative study…Bryant has woven for us a rich tapestry, using the lives of five very different characters to tell the story of the city over a century and a half, and of the various ways in which people have imagined their place in it. In so doing, he pushes our boundaries in thinking about the meaning of Czech identity, making a robust case for a more multifaceted approach to it.
An exciting work in urban history…By focusing on what it means to live in times of change, to dwell in the city, and to belong in an often fragmented and contested sense of community, Prague extends urban history into a wider interdisciplinary field deeply informed by social theory, spatial thinking, and a rich geographical imagination…Both a pleasure to read and a useful guide to thinking about cities.
Moving and deeply informative.
An exemplary work of contemporary historiography that uses individual biographies to tell ‘great’ histories…Inspiring…not just for historians and researchers, but accessible to a broad readership interested in this Central European city—be it Praguers, or tourists coming to Prague.
Brilliant…Prague is a remarkable book and [it] illuminates our ways of inhabiting modern cities in times past and present.
Chad Bryant has produced a fun, engagingly written book that guides readers through modern Prague, as well as providing an innovative way of looking at history from below and considering the history of emotions at one of Central Europe’s richest crossroads.
Invites the reader to reminisce on the experiences of travel, belonging, alienation, politicking and people-watching, while simultaneously touching on key themes in modern Czech history…in Bryant’s hands, Prague’s history is history alive…This is a delightful book, a bold and inventive ode to a place.
A worthwhile tome for anyone who wants to get under the skin of this fabulous and historic city.
Provides differing perspectives of past and present-day Prague. Each nuanced viewpoint (be it German, Czech, revolutionary, communist, or global) captures the imagination by tapping into the sense of belonging and its relationship to nationalism…Evocative and well-researched…Recommended for travelers interested in the history and politics of Prague.
A lively jaunt through Czech history from the nineteenth century to the present told via the lives of five individuals who found themselves in Prague searching for a sense of belonging.
A beautifully written biography of a city told through the lives of individuals who inhabited it. Bryant goes deep into Prague’s social, political, and cultural history, featuring characters who move between different communities of belonging—Czech-speaking, German-speaking, Jewish, communist, Vietnamese. While this book complicates our understanding of what it means to be ‘Czech,’ it also illuminates the search for belonging across the modern world.
An innovative, engagingly written book that uses the stories of five Prague residents to subtly upend the traditional narratives of Czech history. Throughout Bryant emphasizes the human element in the search for home and community, showing belonging not only as a practice of pursuing connection, but as an emotional need. The result is a sweeping history of the Bohemian lands, both a masterful synthesis and at the same time highly original.
Prague creates its own niche and then fills it beautifully, with brisk, fluent writing and an appealing mix of historical background and individual stories. In looking at history from below, through the lives of people who don’t quite fit in, Bryant offers a new way of seeing the city as a crossroads of varied cultures and identities.
