Review: The Last Palace by Norman Eisen

The Last Palace: Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House by Norman Eisen 

Release date: September 4, 2018

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group 

Pages: 416

Reading level: Adult 

Genre: Nonfiction

Source: First to Read 

Links: Author • Goodreads • Amazon

Overall: 4 out of 5 stars 

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. 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 have transformed the continent over the past century. There was the optimistic Jewish financial baron Otto Petschek, who build 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 endurance of liberal democracy.

Review: 

This was a fascinating story by the former US Ambassador to the Czech Republic. Every US ambassador lives in this beautiful palace in Prague and have done so for many years. THE LAST PALACE takes the reader through the history of this famous building; we learn about its creation, role in World War II, and how it came to be the residence of the US Ambassador. Norman Eisen also weaves in the story of his mother's life as she was a Holocaust survivor from the former Czechoslovakia. This is not the history of one person though, THE LAST PALACE allows the reader to experience the changes in the country though the eyes of the different residents of the palace. 

The beginning took me a bit to get into, but I found myself moving quickly through this rather long book. Norman Eisen does a great job of fully immersing the reader in what is happening in Prague at different moments in history. Otto Petschek is the original builder of the house and we see as it falls into the hands of the Nazis, Communists, and eventually the United States. As interesting and heartbreaking as the chapters on World War II and the German occupation of Prague were, I found myself enjoying the later chapters on the US ambassadors and recent history a bit more, simply because I hadn't read much about this before . From the Soviet occupation to the student led protests, it was eye-opening to watch these citizens who had already been through so much take a stand for democracy and freedom. I also knew very little about the role Shirley Temple Black played in US government. I knew she played a role in diplomacy, but had no idea just how much she was able to accomplish and experience as US Ambassador to the Czech Republic. I am also interested in reading more about her role as Ambassador to Ghana in the future. 

At the center of THE LAST PALACE is, of course, the palace itself and it was an experience to be able to see how the palace survived and endured through all those years of history. I wish that the ending was a little less.. abrupt? It did feel as though the book ended rather suddenly and I was interested in getting more closure on his mother's story. All in all, I found this book to be an extremely well-written and researched story about an unusual subject- a building. I definitely recommend this to any history or political buff. 

Review: The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore
Release date: May 2, 2017
Publisher: Sourcebooks 
Pages: 480
Genre: Historical Nonfiction 
Source: Purchased 
Links: Author • Goodreads • Amazon 

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars 

The Curies' newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War.
Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive — until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.
But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women's cries of corruption. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America's early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers' rights that will echo for centuries to come.

Review:

This was a challenging read. Wow. I had no idea this had happened and was continuously shocked by the awful experiences these "radium girls" had. During World War I, factories across the United States worked with radium to produce a multitude of products. One example is painting the dials on watches with radium so they will glow in the dark. This process is performed by young girls for hours every day. While they are at first excited by this new opportunity, the lack of knowledge on radium and then eventual undisclosed knowledge on the dangers of radium, leads to horrendous health problems and even death for many of these workers. 

RADIUM GIRLS follows several different, real, women who worked in these radium factories in New Jersey, Illinois, and Connecticut. Kate Moore did an incredible job of bringing these girls to life and I can't even begin to imagine what they went through. At first, many of the girls were excited to be working with this mysterious new element. They had a nice job, were earning money, and made fast friends with their coworkers during the long hours of sitting at the factory. 

Let me just say that when things got bad, they got bad. The girls were not simply in the room, working withe radium, they were putting it in their mouths. They were taught to wet the paintbrush, that they were using on the watch faces, in their mouths because it was supposedly faster and more efficient. Even when the factory owner and senior employees started to wonder if that was safe and offered cups of water instead, no one enforced it or told the girls to seriously stop putting the radium covered brushes in their mouths. You can only imagine, with what we know now, how horrible this was. 

The girls started to get sick one after the other. They were losing teeth, their jaw bones were falling apart, they couldn't walk, death was imminent for many of the radium girls. But yet, doctors were not connecting these symptoms with the radium work their patients did. So, many of the ill girls kept working with the radium and the rest of the girls at the factories continued with the "lip painting" without knowing they could or would be next. Just writing this review is making me emotional! These poor young women were dying off and no one understood it. 

I don't want to get too much into how the story progressed, even though it is history so you can research this on your own. THE RADIUM GIRLS was incredible at putting a face to this dark time in history and I would highly, highly recommend it. It is horrifying to me that these women were allowed to work in these dangerous conditions and then did not have any support. It took a long time before anyone was on their side and by then, for many of them, it was too late. A truly heartbreaking story and one I was completely unfamiliar with. At times gruesome, this is an important story for everyone to read. These girls deserve to have their stories heard and I am thankful Kate Moore has done that.