The Last Palace

Zusatztext 86624722 Informationen zum Autor Norman Eisen is the author of A Case for the American People: The United States v. Donald J. Trump; Democracy's Defenders; and The Last Palace . He was special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2020, including for the impeachment and trial of President Donald Trump. He previously served as ethics czar for President Barack Obama and then as his ambassador to the Czech Republic. Eisen is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution . He lives in Washington, D.C., with his family. Klappentext A sweeping yet intimate narrative about the last hundred years of turbulent European history, as seen through one of Mitteleuropa's greatest houses-and the lives of its occupants When Norman Eisen moved into the US ambassador's residence in Prague, returning to the land his mother had fled after the Holocaust, he was startled to discover swastikas hidden beneath the furniture in his new home. These symbols of Nazi Germany were remnants of the residence's forgotten history, and evidence that we never live far from the past. From that discovery unspooled the twisting, captivating tale of four of the remarkable people who had called this palace home. Their story is Europe's, and The Last Palace chronicles the upheavals that transformed the continent over the past century. There was the optimistic Jewish financial baron, Otto Petschek, who built the palace after World War I as a statement of his faith in democracy, only to have that faith shattered; Rudolf Toussaint, the cultured, compromised German general who occupied the palace during World War II, ultimately putting his life at risk to save the house and Prague itself from destruction; Laurence Steinhardt, the first postwar US ambassador whose quixotic struggle to keep the palace out of Communist hands was paired with his pitched efforts to rescue the country from Soviet domination; and Shirley Temple Black, an eyewitness to the crushing of the 1968 Prague Spring by Soviet tanks, who determined to return to Prague and help end totalitarianism-and did just that as US ambassador in 1989. Weaving in the life of Eisen's own mother to demonstrate how those without power and privilege moved through history, The Last Palace tells the dramatic and surprisingly cyclical tale of the triumph of liberal democracy.Part I 1 The Golden Son of the Golden City Prague, Czechoslovakia; Spring 1924 It was shortly before dawn. on the hill above the Old Town, just north of Prague Castle, a thirty-nine-year-old man awoke in his small yet elegant house. It was one of the little villas that speckled the Bubenec neighborhood; rural not so long ago, it had become the most fashionable district in the city. He slid his feet into his slippers, inserted his arms into his robe, and cinched the belt. He moved carefully, so as not to wake his wife, whose slender form was rising and falling beneath the covers. Gingerly opening the door to the terrace, he stepped outside. Every morning, Otto Petschek greeted the rising sun, now stirring below the horizon. His butler, who was wearing a swallowtail coat and a striped vest, would join him in the soft blue light and set down a coffee service with his white-gloved hands. Today, with practiced efficiency, he poured out a cup, handed it to Otto, and returned indoors. Otto felt the coffee's warmth radiating through the delicate Meissen china, which was intricately patterned with pink flowers and gold leaves. The set had been a gift for his wife, Martha. After eleven years and four children together, it still delighted Otto to see her face light up when he brought her beautiful things. Otto sipped his coffee and gazed out at the view. Although he lived near the center of Praguea city that had been built up for a millennium, with new construction perpetually squeezed...

A Publishers Weekly, BookPage, and Pen America Best Book of 2018

“A deft and fascinating narrative…The Last Palace is steeped in politics, military history, architectural lore and anecdotes… Mr. Eisen’s easy, fluid style and the richness of his material make for very pleasurable historical reading.” —Wall Street Journal

“The book’s main characters are captivating. The palace itself has a ghostly allure.” —The Economist

“Meticulous… fascinating… Reading this book, you are reminded of the many missed opportunities that the United States and other Western allies had to encourage and assist democracy in Central Europe. It is not clear that we have learned from history as we are once again confronting nationalist, nativist and anti-democratic politicians and movements backed or amplified by Russia in Europe and beyond.” –Washington Post

“Yields illuminating insights on some of the twentieth century’s major dramas: the things that might have happened but didn’t, the importance of particular personalities, and the possibilities and limits of diplomacy in the face of power…Through his interweaving of the personal and the political, [Eisen] enlarges and enlivens our understanding of one small country’s confrontation with history, and of a past that matters to us all.” *–The Times Literary Supplement

• “Engrossing... This action-packed yet lyrically written page-turner confers a fascinating human understanding of Europe’s past and present.” —Publishers Weekly (starred)

“Eisen casts each successive caretaker of the palace as uniquely heroic and in so doing writes a wonderfully human history.” —Booklist (starred)  

“Timely and engaging... a marvelous and original work of history... Eisen’s terrific book reminds us that unknown people do remarkable things all the time.” —The American Interest

“Norman Eisen has written an enthralling history of a palace and its very real ghosts. By telling the story of the Prague mansion where he resided as America’s ambassador, Eisen provides a poignant reflection on the haunting twists of the past century, including his own very American family tale.” —Walter Isaacson
“Moving, engaging, and elegantly written, The Last Palace wears its erudition lightly, casts its radiant intelligence fearlessly into the darkest corners of the twentieth century and, effortlessly, reliably, breaks your heart again and again.” —Michael Chabon

“Combining both the personal and the historical, Norman Eisen’s remarkable book transports us into the battle for democracy through the lives of people who fought to save it and those who would seek to destroy it. The Last Palace is not only a first-rate work of history, but a call to action written at a time of urgent need.” —Madeleine Albright

“At a time when we find ourselves newly nostalgic for courageous public officials and American leadership on behalf of human rights, Eisen has written a pearl of a book. Using an ornate palace in Prague as the backdrop for his fast-paced narrative, Eisen tells the tale of the last stormy century through the eyes of several vibrant characters who helped shape it — from a stubborn businessman who, Willy Wonka-like, builds an implausibly ornate palace as war clouds loom; to Shirley Temple Black, the Czech-American envoy who acts decisively in the side of dissidents during the Velvet Revolution; to Eisen himself, who, as Obama’s ambassador to the Czech Republic, raises his voice on behalf of human rights amid growing populism and extremism. The Last Palace is a great read and a stirring reminder of the importance of decency in public life.” —Samantha Power…