Warsaw

Warsaw is often invoked as the epitome of the brutal environment produced by Soviet aesthetics and planning; its name conjures up a grey, faceless world of tower blocks and Orwellian government buildings. Its image -- perhaps more so than that of any other city in the former Soviet bloc -- is inextricably linked to the fate of the Communist system. Warsaw appears to have been locked in the vice of history: crushed by one totalitarian system, remade by another, and now being liberated by market forces. The history of this power play is only one of the stories that can be told about the life and environment of Poland's capital city; to those who live there or know the city well, or even to its visitors, Warsaw can be an exciting and stimulating place. In this book Warsaw's visual and urban cultural history is revealed in striking accounts of its everyday life, albeit events that occurred in extraordinary circumstances. Warsaw examines the ways in which the fabric of the city has been shaped since the late 1940s by Communist ideology, and shows how the city has been spectacularly transformed since the introduction of a market economy in 1989. It also reflects on the ways in which the citizens of Warsaw use and enrich their living areas and the city they inhabit. In this city the past runs deep, and buildings are marked by myths and curses. David Crowley is our guide through this scarred yet uplifting terrain.