Virág Molnár. Building the State: Architecture, Politics, and State Formation in Post-War Central Europe. London: Routledge, 2013; Kimberly Elman Zarecor. Manufacturing Socialist Modernity: Housing in Czechoslovakia, 1945–1960. Pittsburgh, 2011

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Nicolette Makovicky
University of Oxford

Abstract

As such, the studies recently published by Kimberly Zarecor and Virág Molnár constitute a welcome addition to what is still a relatively small field of academic scholarship. Presenting two extremely sensitive and nuanced readings of the development of architectural form and practice in the former GDR, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, they turn a much-needed critical eye on three less studied European architectural traditions. From this peripheral position, they very effectively challenge conventional readings of Communist-era planning and construction as a simple reflection of the ideological goals of the socialist nation state or the stylistic impositions from Moscow.

 

Keywords

Socialist Architecture, Central and Eastern Europe, Urban Planning, Socialist Modernization, Housing Policy, Dwelling


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Oct 20, 2014

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How to Cite
Makovicky, N. (2014). Virág Molnár. Building the State: Architecture, Politics, and State Formation in Post-War Central Europe. London: Routledge, 2013; Kimberly Elman Zarecor. Manufacturing Socialist Modernity: Housing in Czechoslovakia, 1945–1960. Pittsburgh, 2011. Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research, 6(3), 140–143. Retrieved from https://www.soclabo.org/index.php/laboratorium/article/view/481
Issue
Vol. 6 No. 3 (2014): Culture of Complaints in Russia and Eastern Europe
Section
Book Reviews
Author Biography

Nicolette Makovicky, University of Oxford

Nicolette Makovicky is Departmental Lecturer in Russian and East European Studies at the University of Oxford.

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