Thank you Penguin Random House for
sending me this unpublished copy (now published as of Sept 4th)
for review.
The Last Palace by Norman Eisen (US
ambassador to Czech Republic) is truly an amazing read. To learn the
history you can read books written by academic scholars and pour over
historical documents which can be boring and downright depressing or
you can study an object, a person, an event that has been affected
politically, socially, culturally, etc during the time the history of
which we are trying to study which in my opinion is more fun and
better way of learning. That is exactly what Norman Eisen has done in
this book. He takes us through the history of European empire
particularly Czechslovakia starting from pre-WWII all the way up to
now. The central object that the story revolves around is Otto
Petschek's Palace that he obsessively tailored to his vision built
just before WWII. How the lives of it's owner Petschek family and
eventually it's various occupants were affected with rise of Fascism
in Germany and later with Communism in Soviet and eventually
establishment of democracy in Czech republic is so vividly
articulated. The story of Petschek's Palace is the story of Czech
republic in 20th century. How US foreign policy played a
role in helping oust Communism in Czech is worth admiring. All those
US ambassadors standing up again Communist regime including Shirley
Black, the celebrity actress and how she ushured in the democracy by
peripherally supporting and being a witness of the revolution that
overthrew the communist regime.
Overall, this is an amazing book that
history buffs are sure to enjoy thoroughly.
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