Shattered Spaces: Encountering Jewish Ruins in Postwar Germany and Poland by Meng, Michael - 2011

Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2011. First Edition. Hardcover. As New/Fine. 8vo 8" - 9" tall. A superior copy inside and out, being a sterling condition hardcover copy, with unbruised tips, tight binding, and clean internals, showing only very slight shelf- and edge-wear; not ex-library, with neither underlining nor highlighting anywhere. Bound handsomely in two-tone, green paper over boards, black cloth-backed, with sharp and distinct white lettering to spine. Bright and shiny dust jacket, paper-backed, illustrated, showing only very minor wear, protected by a plastic coat, dust jacket not being price-clipped. Gift-quality condition inside and out. The dust jacket publisher's blurb has it that "After the Holocaust, the empty, silent spaces of bombed-out synagogues, cemeteries, and Jewish districts were all that was left in many German and Polish cities with prewar histories rich in the sights and sounds of Jewish life. What happened to this scarred landscape after the war, and how have Germans, Poles, and Jews encountered these ruins over the past sixty years? In the postwar period, city officials swept away many sites, despite protests from Jewish leaders. But in the late 1970s church groups, local residents, political dissidents, and tourists demanded the preservation of the few ruins still standing. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, this desire to preserve and restore has grown stronger. In one of the most striking and little-studied shifts in postwar European history, the traces of a long-neglected Jewish past have gradually been recovered, thanks to the rise of heritage tourism, nostalgia for ruins, international discussions about the Holocaust, and a pervasive longing for cosmopolitanism in a globalizing world." xiv [2], 2-351 pp.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets.