Berlin Before and After - by Wendy Lesser (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"Delightfully original, brilliantly conceived, witty, and poignant." --Brenda Wineapple

Berlin is more than a city; it's a survivor, an enigma, and a mirror to the world, a unique place whose recent past holds essential lessons for us today.

IIn 1929, Berlin stood at a precipice--alive with art, literature, and radical politics, yet trembling under the weight of economic instability and the shadows of extremism. A century later, the city bears the scars and triumphs of everything that followed: dictatorship, devastation, division, and ultimately reunification. Today's Berlin is both haunted by and distinct from its past, a metropolis where every street corner and memorial carries the echoes of history, acknowledging and thus atoning for what took place there.

A seasoned chronicler of cities and culture, Wendy Lesser reveals Berlin as a place that refuses to forget, a living reminder of both catastrophe and resilience. In its transformations lie urgent lessons for the rest of the world, and particularly for America today.

A history, travelogue, cultural study, and personal reflection, Berlin Before and After captures the essence of a city that has lived through extremes and offers hope and proof that the past need not dictate the future.

Review Quotes

"A stunning book, at turns haunting and hopeful, about a great city, besieged, battered, revitalized, and rebuilt. Wendy Lesser's cultural history of Berlin would be necessary reading at any moment, but today, with repressive authoritarian regimes on the march and open societies under threat, it is urgent." - Eric Klinenberg

"Delightfully original, brilliantly conceived, witty and poignant, Berlin Before and After takes us down surprising avenues of culture and politics to demonstrate how history is remembered and remade by those who care about its meaning-- and its effects. But this book isn't about Berlin alone; it's about the unexpected ways in which the past and present intermingle-- and how that can enchant as well keep us on our mettle. Which Wendy Lesser does, with grace and humor and intelligence. A joy to read." - Brenda Wineapple

"Berlin Before and After is a portrait of Wendy Lesser's own Berlin, the city she has returned to for over twenty years and come to love through its art, its music, its literature, and its streets. She is the most companionable of guides, warm and clear-eyed, and the result is a deeply human portrait of a place that quietly, and despite everything, won her heart." - Daniel Kehlmann

"A loving homage to a vibrant city." - Kirkus