The Stories Old Towns Tell

Condition: BRAND NEW ISBN: 9780300267846 Author(s): Marek Kohn Format: Hardcover Language: English Year: 2023 Publisher: Yale University Press Pages: 344

Description: A fascinating journey through Europeâs old towns, exploring why we treasure themâbut also what they hide about a continentâs fraught history   Historic quarters in cities and towns across the middle of Europe were devastated during the Second World Warâsome, like those of Warsaw and Frankfurt, had to be rebuilt almost completely. They are now centers of peace and civility that attract millions of tourists, but the stories they tell about places, peoples, and nations are selective. They are never the whole story.   These old towns and their turbulent histories have been key sites in Europeâs ongoing theater of politics and war. Exploring seven old towns, from Frankfurt and Prague to Vilnius in Lithuania, the acclaimed writer Marek Kohn examines how they have been used since the Second World War to conceal political tensions and reinforce certain versions of history.   Uncovering hidden stories behind these old and old-seeming façades, Kohn offers us a new understanding of the politics of European history-makingâshowing how our visits to old towns could promote belonging over exclusion, and empathy over indifference.

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