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

by Norman Eisen

A sweeping yet intimate narrative about the last hundred years of turbulent European history, as seen through one of Mitteleuropa’s greatest houses—and the lives of its occupants
 
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 in his new home. 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 transformed the continent over the past century. There was the optimistic Jewish financial baron, Otto Petschek, who built 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 triumph of liberal democracy.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, War, Politics, Audiobook, World War II

398 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 4, 2018

About the author

Ambassador Norman Eisen is the author of The Last Palace: Europe’s Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House, forthcoming on September 4, 2018. He is a senior fellow at Brookings, a CNN political commentator, and the chair of the government watchdog group CREW. Eisen served from 2009 to 2011 in the White House as President Obama’s “ethics czar” and as the U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2011 to 2014.

Eisen’s book tells the story of liberalism and illiberalism through the lives of the people who preceded him in his ambassadorial residence in Prague: its Jewish builder, Nazi occupier, post-WWII American savior, and Cold War movie star-ambassador. Interwoven throughout is the story of his mother, a Czech Holocaust survivor who sent him back to Prague to live in the palace once occupied by the Nazis--and was his best advisor as he took on their modern-day successors. Eisen’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, and Politico. He has been profiled in the Washington Post, New York Magazine, Politico, The Wall Street Journal, and Tablet. Eisen was named #11 on the Politico 50 list of thinkers shaping American politics, and to the Forward 50 list of the most influential and interesting American Jews.

Reviews

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extensively researched, this fascinating narrative provides a look at the changing political climate in Prague. The palace was built by Otto Petschek, in the 1920's, his family was in banking and invested in the mines, they were all quite wealthy. Although Otto claimed to have an altruistic motive in building this ostentatious gem, after reading this I think Otto just wanted a showcase to show how successful he was. As smart as he thought he was, as a Jewish family he didn't heed the warning signs about Nazi purging.

Using this palace as s continuous backdrop, the author follows the historical time period, by the subsequent people who live in the palace. Touissant, a Nazi general, but one who decried Hitler's methods, was the first. Then the American Ambassadors, Steinhardt, and Shirley Temple Black. Was very surprised to see Shirley Temple pop up, but she was a clever and formidable ambassador. There is also a young Jewish girl Frieda and her family, whose significance to the story isn't apparent until later in the book.

The reader is propelled through Pragues history, the Nazi invasion, the Prague Spring and the Velvet uprising. It is immensely readable, and informative.

[Katie B · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

There were a couple reasons I was interested in reading this book. The first being I got to visit Prague a few years ago and it really is a beautiful city. Second, back when my husband and I lived in Germany, we loved going to see the different castles and palaces so I was intrigued by the description of this particular palace being perhaps the last one built in Europe. Sadly, I do not remember if I saw this one during my trip to Prague, at most it would have only been a quick glance during our walking tour.

The author, a former ambassador to the Czech Republic under the Obama administration, lived in the Petschek palace while working in Prague. Otto Petschek, a Jewish man whose family was among the richest in Czechoslovakia, had the palace constructed in the 1920s much to the chagrin of family members. After the family fled due to growing anti-Semitism in the 1930s, Rudolf Toussaint, a top German officer, occupied the palace and it became home to many meetings with Nazi leaders. After the war, the palace has been a home or meeting site for many U.S. ambassadors including Shirley Temple Black.

The palace is certainly rich in history and although Otto Petschek died many years ago I think he could at least appreciate the fact that if his descendants weren't living in the massive home he created, at least it was occupied by the author who is Jewish and whose mother grew up in Czechoslovakia. By far the parts of the book I was drawn to the most was the story of Otto and how the palace came to be and the author's mother who survived the concentration camps and later was forced to leave her homeland. While the book was a good history lesson in what has taken place in Prague from the early 1900s to the current decade, I just care more in non-fiction books the parts that focus on people rather than events. This book had a fairly equal mix of both.

One slight criticism I have is I didn't care for how the author ended the story in regards to his mother. The author did a fine job in telling his mom's life story and you end up feeling this emotional connection to her. I just wish a little more could have been added about whether she actually followed through and made the trip.

I do think this book will appeal to even casual non-fiction fans. It certainly was more fascinating than the last few books I have read in the genre.

Thank you to First to Read for the opportunity to read an advance digital copy! All views expressed are my honest opinion.

[Lorna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Last Palace: Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House was a moving and beautiful memoir in which author Norman Eisen relates how financial magnate Otto Petschek had a dream to build a beautiful palace unlike any other for his family in the heart of Prague following World War I, and as a testament to freedom and democracy. Otto Petschek was mindful that his father and uncle had fled to Prague to escape a pogrom and were fearful of anti-Semitism. As a young boy Otto was drawn not only to the music of Mozart and Beethoven, but he also loved the majestic architecture as he walked through the beautiful city of Prague. Eisen explores the history of the last century in Europe focusing on five individuals whose lives were part of the history and preservation of the Petschek palace from Nazi officer Rudolf Toussaint to Ambassadors Laurence Steinhardt and Shirley Temple Black. Norman Eisen was appointed in 2011 by President Obama to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the Czeck Republic and in residence at the palace. Woven through this book is the story of Prague and Czechoslovakia after World War II as well as the poignant story of his mother who had fled from Prague after the Holocaust and the fears she had for his safety. This was a lovely tribute to a palace and a city and all of the lives it impacted.

"He would build a palace there . . . It would be huge, more than a hundred rooms, the entire length of a city block. Its façade would marry the mathematically elegant columns of ancient Greece and the muscularity of Roman sculptural forms with the golden ratios of Italian Renaissance architecture and the majesty of French baroque."

". . . Otto wandered the city wide-eyed, studying the rhythms in the stucco, marble and plaster lining the city streets, amalgams of centuries of European building. 'Music is liquid architecture; architecture is frozen music' went the saying attributed to Goethe. . . "

" . . . . Their progression was punctuated by steeples, belfries, and turrets, and by the Vlatava River, which flowed through the middle of the city, crisscrossed by ancient bridges connecting the Mala Strana to the Old Town. Ruins may have been smoldering across Europe, but the City of a Hundred Spires has not lost a single one to bombing."

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Nothing crushes freedom as substantially as a tank." —Shirley Temple Black, Child Star and Diplomat

Excellent European history of Czechoslovakia during the last hundred years, through a great house built in 1923 in Prague. I was very interested in the period of the 1960's- 1990's when Shirley Temple Black was both visiting and then eventually became the U.S. ambassador of Prague. She was in Prague in the 1960's when the Soviet's invaded the country and witnesses the violence of Prague Spring. The house also had other owners all with interesting backstories, the saddest being the Jewish Family (The Petshecks) who built the house. Some Petsheck family members moved to safety in the U.S. and lived to see the house become the headquarters and torture rooms of the Nazi Gestapo during WWII. Highly recommend. Four stars.

[Bob H · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book covers the life and times of a great house in Prague, amid a tumultuous century for the city and the country. It's worth noting that the book comes to print at a time of several anniversaries: 50 years after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and the crushing of the Prague Spring; 80 years after the September 1938 Munich conference and the abandonment of Czechoslovakia to Nazi occupation; 100 years after the end of World War I and the proclamation of Czech independence.

This is also the story of four people who cared for this beautiful landmark, beginning with the Jewish coal baron Otto Petschek, who built the palace in the 1920s, spent much of his fortune constructing, landscaping and furnishing it, and dealing with labor trouble, red tape and popular resentment of this display. It's the story of Gen. Rudolf Toussaint, the German general who occupied the place but sought to preserve it as intact as possible, even keeping Petschek's caretaker; the General would, by 1945, barely survive the liberation with his life and that of his son.

It's the amazing story of the first postwar U.S. ambassador, Laurence Steinhardt, who would take up quarters there and act to preserve the house and its contents from Soviet soldiers, and try to save the house and the country from communist seizure. He would end up procuring the house as an embassy, mostly intact, despite resistance from the new city rulers and from the Petschek family estate -- but was unable to save democratic Czechoslovakia.

Two future ambassadors would come to the embassy in later years because of ties to Czechoslovakia. The author, Norman Eisen, would want this post because his mother, Frieda, a Czech Jew, survived the Holocaust and returned to a bleak Prague, and her story is part of this book. Shirley Temple Black would come to Prague in 1968 as a socialite, a former child star now visiting on behalf of a charity, would witness the invasion and its bloodshed, and came away determined to somehow rise in U.S. diplomatic circles and return, which she did in 1989. We see a determined, steely side of her personality, and her presence in Prague as the communist régime was tottering would be important. Her appearances, as ambassador, at demonstrations and resistance meetings, would be a key part, although she did acknowledge that the real stars here would be the resistance leaders like Vaclav Havel. The reader will sense the very real danger, as the régime was desperate and tempted to use armed force, as did happen that year in Romania and China.

Norman Eisen tells a compelling story, and when he comes to Prague as ambassador, he would absorb the palace's history and charm. He would be startled to find inventory labels under the furniture, bearing the Nazi eagle and swastika -- and find U.S. government inventory labels as well from the late 1940s, and more markings from the Petschek period well before. He would also find new controversies as ambassador: the country had become more conservative and the then-president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, was making trouble over an LGBT pride festival and U.S. support for it.

In all, a highly compelling read, with vivid characters in a rich setting -- in every sense -- amid a scary and eventful century. Highly recommend.

[Jill Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The city of Prague is geographically in the middle of what we used to call "Eastern Europe". The city, now the capital of the Czech Republic, has long been a magical, mystical place and its history is pretty much the history of the whole area. I am half-Czech, like former US Ambassador Norman Eisen, but my family immigrated to the US three or four generations ago. He has a more immediate connection with the country as his mother was a survivor of the Holocaust. Eisen's mother left Czechoslovakia in Hitler's railroad cars as a young woman and her son returned as the United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic in the Obama Administration.

Norman Eisen has written an unbelievably interesting book about one house, two families, three US ambassadors, and countless others who were involved in the last 100 years of history. He takes the reader through four - or is it five? - political systems which controlled and, in some cases, oppressed the Czech people.

Many people reading this review will know about the famous house in the Czech/Moravian city of Brno. Known as the Vila Tugendhat, the Mies-designed house was built in the late 1920's by a wealthy Jewish family, the Tugendhats. The house is now a Unesco World Heritage site and was the subject of a work of fiction, "The Glass Room", by British author Simon Mawrer. But less well-known is a fabulous palace built in Prague around the same time, by Otto Petschek. Like the Tugendhats, the Petschek family fled Europe in the 1930's. The palace was left behind and was eventually used by the United States as an official residence both before WW2 and after. During the war, the house was used by a German general, Rudolf Toussaint.

Eisen writes about Toussaint and the German occupation, post-WW2 ambassador Laurence Steinhardt, who tried to settle the Russian/US/Czech political and military crunch , and lastly, Shirley Temple Black. Black was in Prague during the 1968 "uprising" and returned in the late 1980's, presiding over the Velvet Revolution as our ambassador. Scattered through the book is the story of Frieda Eisen, her family, and her recollections of the Czechoslovakia she knew...and the one she was afraid of. \Norman Eisman is a masterful writer. His book, while long, was a pleasure to read. I hope it's issued also in Audible.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

"He had been distracted by the palace for too long, and his obsession had left him too prone to sudden swerves of temper and too forbidding a figure. Instead of a bridge to his children, the palace was a barrier."

You may be wondering whether reading another nonfiction book set during WWII can have anything new to offer. The answer is yes. This book started by introducing Czechoslovak Otto Petschek who was born into wealth and privilege but grew his family's fortune to astronomical heights. He conceived of and oversaw every detail in the construction of his 148 room grand villa that was to be a marriage of the best Western influences, not to mention the costliest building in his country. Sadly, the Petschek family enjoyed less than ten years in their residence before being forced to flee from oncoming Nazis.

Petschek's villa then fell into the hands of Rudloph Toussaint, a German army officer who, first and foremost, remained loyal to the German army, not to the Nazi's and the S.S. His loyalties were divided and when forced to make hard choices, he made ones that wouldn't implicate his own beliefs. Toussaint and Petschek's trusty steward, who remained on the grounds during the war, safeguarded the Petschek's most valued possessions. However, just prior to the arrival of Toussaint, and, after his ousting at the end of the war, they were unable to prevent the willful destruction and theft of many of the palace's items left behind.

In 1945, strong willed American Ambassador, Laurence Steinhardt, finagled his way into leasing the Residence from the Czechoslovak Ministry of National Defense, even though it still belonged to the Petschek family and the Ministry of National Defense did not have the authority to lease the property. In doing so, the villa to become the American Ambassadorial Residence and Steinhardt prevented the villa from falling into further disrepair, paying for the upkeep out of his own pocket. I would have thought that things would have improved for Czechoslovak Jews after the war but this really wasn't the case. It seems the Czechoslovak people traded one form of enslavement by the Nazis for another with the Communists.

In the midst of these narratives, we periodically read about a young Jewish girl named Frieda and her family, first in the pre-war years, then, immediately following the end of the war. We don't find out why she is in the story until later in the book.

In 1968, Shirley Temple Black unexpectedly became a witness to the Prague Spring, a period of political liberalization and mass protest to Czechoslovakia's Communist state after World War II. More than twenty years later she returned to Prague, this time as the American ambassador, again in a period of massive protests and unrest.

Fast forward to the Obama administration when Norman Eisen has been named the American Ambassador to Prague, a triumph and an irony for the son of Czechoslovak Jews who had been forced from their homes and families and put into concentration camps during WWI.

This book gave me so much context for WWII, even though I've read countless books about the war. I loved how the Petschek villa was a character onto itself, a representation of Czechoslovakia itself and I couldn't help but root for its survival and triumph. I would highly recommend this book.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book covers the 20th century history of Czechoslovakia (now two countries) through the life of what was, most likely, the last palace built in Europe. The story begins with the Petschek family and ends with the author's taking up residence in their palace/home as the US Ambassador to the Czech Republic, 2011 - 2014.

Otto Petschek was a dreamer with a passion for the arts. He could indulge his passion with the family wealth which he augmented with his own gamble on coal after WWI. The resulting palace housing his library and antiques bankrupted him only to be taken over by the Nazis.

After WWII, US Ambassador, Laurence Steinhardt, enthralled with its beauty, arranged US ownership of the property. Under the US flag, it survived communism, the Prague Spring of 1958 and the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Eisen, as US Ambassador, notes the symmetry of hosting a Seder in this palace home built by the Petschek family, Jews who fled it prior to WWII leaving behind their personal items as well as their stunning art and book collections.

The focus is often on people: Otto Petschek (and his family) who built the house and fled it; Rudolph Toussaint, the Nazi overlord who inhabited the palace and appreciated its beauty; Adolf Pokorny, the palace manager (?) who saved some palace valuables and Shirley Temple Black who was caught in the 1968 turmoil and returned as the US Ambassador. There is a parallel story of a Jewish family in the village of Sobrance. As the story goes on of how this family fared in the holocaust, you can surmise this family’s connection to the palace and the author.

Norman Eisen shows Neville Chamberlin’s appeasement as a disaster for the fledgling Czech democracy and how, at this point, a show of strength (inclusive of a US show of support) could have stopped the Nazis at a critical time. He notes that the west was silent again in what could have been a turning point in 1968 which he describes through the experience of Shirley Temple Black who was in Prague by happenstance. There is a good description of the 1988 demonstrations, but not the steps taken to show how they brought more democracy.

While the text can be wordy, and not all dots are connected, this is the clearest presentation of modern Czech history I know of. “Iron Curtain: The Fall of Eastern Europe 1944-1956” has excellent detail of the period of the communist take over. Eisen gives an accessible overview of this time through the Nazi overlord's experience. In "Prague Winter" Madeleine Albright gives a longer train of history and for the modern period, gives insight based on her family's personal experience.

There are some photos, but not enough to envision the places and events. The index worked for all I looked up. A map showing the Palace, the Prague Castle and Wenceslas Square would have been helpful.

[Meryl Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Norm Eisen's The Last Palace is a fascinating look at 20th century Europe. This history unfolds through the inhabitants of a singular palace in Prague, built after World War I by a Jewish banker and industrialist, confiscated by the Nazis during WWII, then lived in by three consequential American diplomats--Eisen among them. When I turned the page after reading through the first three fascinating people, I expected number four to be a boring placeholder until we get to Eisen; imagine my surprise when it turned out to be former child star-turned diplomat Shirley Temple Black. Her chapters were perhaps the most interesting of all to me.

Through reading this book, I learned a great deal about Prague and Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) and, by extension, Europe over the last century. I was equally impressed how well-written this history is, since Eisen is an attorney and diplomat (now a Brookings Institution fellow), not a professional writer. The chapters on fascism's and communism's slow creep into government were especially poignant, given what's going on right now in the world and the US.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. Eisen even brings the building to such life that in a coincidental upcoming trip to Prague, I plan to seek out this palace. (It's the American ambassador's private residence, so he may be surprised to find me sneaking around!)

(I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

[Jerome · Rating 4 out of 5]

As Norman Eisen mentions early in the book, Goethe referred to architecture as "frozen music". In a well-written and personal narrative, the author delves into the history of a building, where he served as US ambassador to the Czech Republic, that echoed the triumphs, trauma, and tragedies of political and social turmoil in the heart of Europe.

This book examines the history of the 20th century to the present day as it follows the building of a mansion in Prague by Otto Petschek, the eldest child of a prominent Jewish family in the cultured Austro-Hungarian empire. Eisen notes that as a child, Otto Petschek fell in love with the music and architecture that surrounded him, and that he had both the creative heart of a musician and the soul of an architect. He built a fortune as the coal business boomed following the declaration of Czechoslovakia as an independent state, following the Washington declaration of 1918 by Tomas Masaryk, its first president.

Otto wanted a palace that "curved like the arc of history"

As Martin Luther King, Jr, once paraphrased the abolitionist and Unitarian minister, Theodore Parker:

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice".

The book examines history through the perspective of inhabitants of the building, the Petscheks, the Nazis, the Czechs, the Communists, and how it was maintained through the intervention of the postwar US ambassador to Czechoslovakia, Laurence Steinhardt, as well as his successors, Shirley Temple Black, who was there as a private citizen during the Prague Spring, and ambassador during the Velvet Revolution, and Norman Eisen, the author, who was there during a turn toward a more populist and nationalist government. There are moments of sadness and joy as the author articulates the emotional impact upon those experiencing these moments.

The author personalizes this account through the history of his mother, Frieda, a survivor of the Holocaust and her escape from Communist rule, and her reluctance to return to Prague to celebrate her son's success, as his optimism about the progress of history is counterweighted by her pessimism that the arc is a repetitive circle. The book closes with the warning quote by William Faulkner, "The past is never dead; it's not even past", suggesting that pessimism may be winning the current argument, but chapters continue to be written.

[Maine Colonial · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher, Crown, for providing an advance reviewing copy.

I like histories told through a place. And what a place in this case. Just imagine a Jewish man who grew up poor becoming a wealthy industrialist and deciding to build a grand, palatial house in the heart of Prague, one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Otto Petschek was well known, an influencer and financier, and a German speaker, as most important people in Prague were at that time. He was ebullient, full of confidence, and I’m sure he thought his success and status in the city would continue for his life.

But while the palace lived on, Petschek’s life there did not, once it became clear that the Nazis would roll into the country. Norman Eisen tells a (mostly) 20th-century history of the palace, Prague, Europe and the world through the residents of the palace: Petschek; during the Nazi era Colonel Rudolf Toussaint, Germany military attaché; after the war, Laurence Steinhardt, US Ambassador; Shirley Temple Black, the former child star, who witnessed the 1968 Russian invasion while she was visiting Prague and then the country’s liberation when she became US Ambassador; and, finally, Eisen himself, who was appointed US Ambassador by President Obama.

Interspersed with the stories of the residents of the palace, Eisen tells his mother’s story of growing up in an Orthodox Jewish family in a Slovak village, surviving the Holocaust but being caught up in the anti-Semitic restrictions of the Communist era and eventually managing to move to the US. When he’s appointed ambassador, Norman Eisen is excited to be going to live in the Petschek palace he’d heard so many stories about, while his mother, Frieda, is filled with worry, because of her experiences. This adds a real poignancy to the story.

This is a compelling history, thoroughly researched. The Petschek part can be a little slow, with its heavy focus on Petschek himself and the building of the palace, but later parts focus more on what was going on in the city and country, with the palace taking on more of a “if these walls could talk” role. The Shirley Temple Black section is the most interesting, not because of her celebrity but because she was an eyewitness to two of the most important times in the country’s history.

[Karyl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard about this book on NPR during one of my marathon ironing sessions, and considering that I'm fascinated both by the Holocaust and by Europe in general, this book seemed right up my alley. It still boggles my mind that in my lifetime, eastern Europe was behind the Iron Curtain, and only a lucky few were able to defect to the West. Along these lines, I recently watched the movie The Lives of Others, about the lives of East Germans under their repressive regime.

Unfortunately, I couldn't love this book as much as I would have liked. For one thing, the book is more of a summary of the history of Czechoslovakia from the start of the 20th century until the Velvet Revolution in 1989 and much less about the house than I would have expected. The first section, with the building of the palace by Otto Petschek, details how the palace came to be, even after Petschek ran out of money thanks to his lavish plans. But then we see the occupation of the palace by Rudolph Toussaint, a member of the German military during the Nazi years. It's this section that tends to drag, with all kinds of political and military maneuvering and so many Nazis to keep track of. I appreciate the fact that Toussaint tried to keep Czechoslovakia unscathed, but perhaps Eisen could have hit the salient high points and tightened up his story a bit. The next portion of the book, describing the Prague Spring and Shirley Temple Black's accidental front seat to history as the Soviets invaded Prague, was quite fascinating, as it was these events that propelled her into the diplomatic service and culminated with her service as the US ambassador to Czechoslovakia in 1989, right as Communism was falling throughout Europe. That section was gripping, and gave the reader an unusual view into history, with the experiences of those at the forefront described so vividly.

However, the last chapter with Eisen himself becoming the ambassador fell a bit flat. And then the book just... ends. There is no final conclusion chapter to wrap everything up and tie up loose ends. That was quite disappointing.

The subject matter of the book is quite interesting; I just wish Eisen had perhaps a better editor.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book through a GoodReads "First Reads" Giveaway. "The Last Palace" was built in the 1920s by Otto Petschek, a wealthy Jewish financier and coal baron. Through the lives of Petschek and three other former residents of the palace, Eisen takes the reader through Prague’s dramatic and tempestuous 20th century, including the German occupation during World War II, the crushing of the Prague Spring in 1968, and the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Besides Otto Petschek, Eisen’s brisk and engaging narrative focuses on the experiences of Rudolf Toussaint, the commander of German military forces in Prague at the end of the war; Laurence Steinhardt, the first postwar US Ambassador who acquired the property for the United States Government, and Shirley Temple Black, who witnessed the Soviet invasion in 1968 and then returned as US Ambassador in 1989.

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

When it comes to history, the personal is universal and the universal is personal. This microhistory of an opulent house built in Prague by a wealthy coal barren in the heady days of the 1920s parallels the history of the Czech Republic and of much of Eastern Europe.

[Terzah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable history lesson disguised as a great yarn. I learned much about 20th century Europe though the stories of one palace and its occupants.

[Mike He · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only is Norman Eisen a skilled diplomat representing the US interests in the Czech Republic in the Obama administration, but also he is a great story teller as evidenced in The Last Palace: Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House. The well-researched book, intertwined with the ordeal of the author's Czechoslovakia-born mother during World War II, is a saga about the so-called "The Last Palace" in Prague, built and re-built by a wealthy Jewish banker in the 1920's who was obsessed with turning it into a masterpiece of European architecture of the century, resided by a Nazi Germany army general during wartime, and then acquired by the US government housing a number of US ambassadors including the author himself and Shirley Temple Black in then Czechoslovakia and now the Czech Republic. It is an excellent read about the history of the country of Czechoslovakia, the Prague Spring, the Velvet Revolution, as well as its long and strenuous struggle toward freedom and democracy.

[Patti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall an engaging story but the writing left a bit to be desired. The author loves to state the obvious and repeats himself, for example when talking about how Shirley Temple Black's husband trusted her knowing she was feisty. Yes, we get it. And we understand that she was HUGELY famous during the depression, more so than other big name stars of the time. Now can we move on! I also was disappointed that the author did not investigate deeper into Viky's life. Where did he go after the family evacuated? What were his thoughts, opinions, motivations regarding the home at the time the U.S. Ambassador was making a move to purchase? And what about his mother? Much of her story was glossed over. Afterall, the story isn't so much about the house but the people who lived in it.

[Glenn Giuttari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is's not often you find history in such readable fashion. Beginning with the Petschek family and the building of the Palace, European history of the last century unfolds thru the actions of four residents of this magnificent structure. Meticulously documented (on line), I found myself wondering how it was possible to know these intimate thoughts and drives of the characters--but this is the result of three years of research by Eisen- former US ambassador to the Chech Republic.
Most of all, there is a calming quality to the prose that kept drawing you back. One house and four remarkable residents bring to life a truly "goodread".

[Elisabeth Ahlefeldt-Laurvig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have loved that it was not just "greatest moments", but that we also heard a little about the dreary everyday life between the war and the dramas of 1968 and 1989.

Also I had hoped to learn more about the house and the people in it. Eg. the caretaker from Otto Petschek's days, whom Laurence Steinhardt gave a life long job, deserved much more attention.

And then I see it more a description of a country's history rather than European history.

But what is included is certainly interesting and well written.

[Mila · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the inside flap, the five lives are:

1. Otto Petschek, the optimistic Jewish financial baron who built the palace after WWI as a statement of his faith in democracy, only to have that faith shattered
2. Rudolf Toussaint, the cultured, compromised German general who occupied the palace during WWII, ultimately puting his life at risk to save the house and Prague itself from destruction
3. 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 save the country from Soviet domination
4. Shirley Temple Black, an eyewitness to the crushing of the 1968 Prague Spring by Soviet tanks, who was determined to return to Prague and help end totalitarianism - and did just that as US ambassador in 1989
5. The author, Norman Eisen, US ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2011 to 2014

I think the writing was exquisite. Here is a sample:

Music is liquid architecture

Otto found beauty everywhere. Liberated from the confines of the family dwelling as he began attending school, Otto wandered the city wide-eyed, studying the rhythms in the stucco, marble, and plaster lining the city streets, amalgams of centuries of European building. "Music is liquid architecture; architecture is frozen music" went the saying attributed to Goethe, a venerated authority in Otto's German-speaking home. The Old New Synagogue and the other medieval buildings were baritones, deep in solid stone. Renaissance monuments, such as the Royal Summer Palace, were sopranos, trilling. Saint Nicholas Church and the Wallenstein Garden, baroque giants, were tenors. To some the juxtaposition of these styles seemed discordant. But to Otto, the cityscape was a harmonious chorus.

The Watchers of Prague I'm picturing gargoyles.

Prague's admirers cherished its idiosyncratic facades and knew them as well as their own faces. There were details that less-practiced eyes missed: a bawdy fresco here, a secret passageway leading to an ancient grotto there. Residents of the city had long formed a cult that worshiped its beauty. They preserved the history that gave the facades life: extravagant legends, unwritten secrets, legacies of seers and oddballs. Parents and grandparents whispered tales to their children of the clairvoyant founder of the city, Princess Libuse; the miracle-working priest, Nepomuk; Rabbi Loew and his golem; and a thousand others - pointing out the dwellings where they lived and walked.
All great cities have their guardians, but Prague's were particularly fierce in their devotion. These Praguers, the ones who did not forget, who always observed, who passed down the city's lore from generation to generation, were the Watchers of Prague.

When the Germans arrived

They arrived by the thousands, military and civilian. The Watchers of Prague looked away or openly wept for their city - its buildings physically intact but its whimsy lost, its eccentric spirit broken. The representatives of the Reich watched Prague, too, with wolves' eyes. They need buildings to work and live in, and they made lists of what they desired, shopping from the inventory of what was left behind by the Jewish families who had fled the country.

Prague Castle as it could have been described by Toussaint

Toussaint returned that fall (1939) to the Golden City in his new capacity. He saw Prague Castle, with red roofs sliding downhill from that seat of Czech kings like an army spreading out across the municipal basin. Their progression was punctuated by steeples, belfries, and turrets, and by the Vltava River, which flowed through the middle of the city, crisscrossed by ancient bridges connecting Mala Strana to the Old Town. Ruins may have been smoldering across Europe, but the city of a Hundred Spires had not lost a single one to bombing.

Laurence Steinhardt describing when the Russians arrived (1945)

"What has taken place in Czechoslovakia is merely conclusive proof that it is not possible to compromise with Communism and live in the same house with it. Like fire, it ultimately consumes everything it touches."

Shirley Temple Black was there during Prague Spring 1968

"Nothing crushes freedom more effectively than a tank."

Shirley was also in Prague during the Velvet Revolution in 1989. So lucky!
The last palace is not open to the public but here it is on the web:
Villa Petschek

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The biography of a house was not something that I thought I would enjoy so much, I thought it would be interesting but I had no idea of the history that this relatively recent (for Europe) building would have. The book has many edge of your seat moments and I could have read a whole book about the author's mother Frieda. I learned things I didn't realize I didn't know about the history of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic.
Popsugar Reading Challenge 2020: A book set in a country beginning with "C"

[Sher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, probably a 3 for me. It wasn't as academic or scholarly as I like and more of a light read. This says something about me, and not the author , necessarily, and I saw many 4 and 5 star reviews online regarding this read.

It was a creative premise to write a book around- the palace and its inhabitants. I liked all of the stories - though I probably enjoyed the Shirley Temple Black section best, because it was such a surprise for me. I liked Shirley Temple as a girl character in films, and it was interesting to see her as an adult and to the see the spirit (according to our author) that she brought to her political work. I've been interested in Cheque history and its relationship -tie to the Soviets, so this book gave another view from what I have gained through Sandor Marai , the author.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to receive my ARC of The Last Palace from Penguin Random House's First To Read program, however I was ultimately disappointed in this book for two main reasons. First, its cover and summary had given me the impression that the incredible house itself would be a character in the book, or at least a focal point, but that turned out to not be the case. I felt this book turned out to be more of a history of Prague from the 1920s to the 1960s and the house served as very loose connective tissue. Beyond the chronology of the palace's construction, which is shared at the outset of the book, this story is much less about the palace than it is about the political and economical timeline of Prague within the context of European and world history. Second, I had an expectation that the author, Norman Eisen, would be more present in his own book. Given the fact that he lived in the palace as the U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic and had firsthand knowledge of the residence and of the city, I had expected his own opinions, insights and anecdotes to be injected throughout the narrative. However, only the first and last chapters were written from his point of view and the rest of the book was written in a style that to me was much more like the nonfiction narrative in a history textbook. In fact, the book left me suspecting that Eisen had contributed the opening and closing chapters and used a ghostwriter for the vast middle, which is never what you want as a reader. (Nor as an author, I would imagine.) With all of the above said, I did appreciate how well researched the content seemed to be, even if it was delivered in a manner that was way too dry for my taste. Ultimately, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who normally enjoys commercial nonfiction or commercial fiction. I think The Last Palace is better suited to academics and universities' required reading lists.

[Larry Hostetler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would give this 4.5 stars if I could, only because the title somewhat misleads. It is not so much about “The Last Palace” itself (the content about the structure was five star worthy) as about Prague and the political world around it sine the Palace was conceived. I also found the opening section (about the individual behind its construction and his family) to be too lengthy to keep my interest.

But once the subject (the subtitle is more accurate than the title) got into the construction it became engrossing.

The palace becomes the main place from which the reader views the turbulent history of Czechoslovakia from almost its inception after World War I to almost its separation into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. We meet key players with whom the palaces’ residents interacted and find out how the various residents wended their way through a turbulent and transformative century that took Prague from a shining democracy through several totalitarian regimes and a war and a return to its current democracy.

There is also a story of a Jewish Czech family as a counterpoint to the palace, showing more quotidian existence in the same times. The family’s part in the conclusion of the story is heartening and makes the book even better.

This is a very good read. So much so that it has made Prague a stop on my Bucket List Grand Tour. Educational, interesting, at times engrossing, it is great as a history book but also as just a good read.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last Palace presents the history of Prague and Czechoslovakia through the lens of the Petschek Palace and the residents who occupied it. The palace, the most opulent in Prague, was built after WWI by a wealthy Jewish businessman, Otto Petschek, to his unique and demanding specifications. When the Nazis come to power, the Petscheks escape, leaving the palace to the occupancy of a Wehrmacht commander. Finally, thanks to the efforts of the post-War US ambassador to Prague, the Palace becomes the property of the State Department and the home of the US Embassy. At the same time that we learn about the Palace, we are introduced to the author’s mother, who grew up in a religious Jewish family in Czechoslovakia and, with three of her siblings, survived the concentration and work camps. Through the author’s mother and the residents of the Palace, we get a personal look at the past 100 years of history.

Really enjoyed this book. The author did a masterful job of presenting this history not just as events, but how the individuals in his book -the residents of the Palace and his mothers family - reacted to the events.

Thank you Penguin First To Read for providing me with a galley of this book.

[Kathy Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really good book. This is the history of the building that the United States would make the US Embassy in the Czech Republic. It was built by an eccentric Jew with a large coal fortune in the ninety twenties. He traveled all over Europe to make sure he had the best of everything or at the very least really good replicas. This book goes into the Nazi Party coming to power and taking the building Then the Russians came and destroyed it as the Soviet Government did not honor the history. The United States wanted to buy the building, but it was a hard sell since the true owners had emigrated to the United States and England just before Krystallnacht. They would have given the palace to the United States Department of State. This is not the way the US government acts, generally. They believe in paying for the buildings and lands that they appropriate. Parts of the palace were able to be restored and the building witnessed much of the history of the twentieth century. Shirley Temple Black was the Ambassador when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and her relationship with the Czech people is in the book. This is written by the Ambassador under President Obama and intersperses his family's history throughout the book.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Norman Eisen’s The Last Palace is a beautiful and personal story of Czech history over 100 years, told through his perspective and that of four previous occupants of the Petschek palace (later home of American ambassadors to the Czech Republic) as well as his own mother. It starts with the early life and then adult successes of Otto Petschek, a Jewish business magnate in Prague. His financial success leads to his decision to build his own personal palace. The Petschek family flees when the Nazis take over Czechoslovakia, and a representative takes over occupation of the home. When the war ends, Communism takes hold of the country, but not before a brief period when the United States purchases the Petschek palace. The story then transitions into telling the fight against Communism from the forties into the late eighties before concluding with a brief peek into the author’s term as ambassador. This is a fantastic peek into the turmoil that the Czech Republic has battled through in the past century. While it shows the ultimate triumphs of its citizens in having a voice, it is definitely a reminder of how hard it is fought for, and how tenuous it can be.

[Argum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won a free copy of this book from Goodreads First Reads.

The former Ambassador to the Czech Republic tells a brilliant story of European wars, a single house, a single family, and what democracy means. As the child of a Czechoslavakian Holocaust survivor, he returned to the most famous Czech Jewish industrialist amazing house - not the US Ambassador's home in Prague. The story focuses on the life of his mother, the original home owner/builder, Shirley Temple Black a former ambassador who was there for both the beginning and end of communism, the German military man who lived there during WWII, and a US ambassador at the end of the WWII Soviet rescue. Personal and national at the same time. I especially enjoyed the stuff about Shirley Temple as I had known nothing about her role other than she was involved in diplomacy.

[Mitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last Palace was mostly a compelling read that relates the 20th century history of Prague and Czechoslovakia. Anyone who has proceeded through a home remodel could at least somewhat relate to Otto Peschek's obsessive quest to build his ideal home.

The story of the velvet revolution viewed through the eyes of U.S. ambassador Shirley Temple Black was particularly fascinating. And, it shows that everyday people can come together to change their society for the better.

I'm not quite sure if the story of the author's mother fits in and works well with the rest of the book. I noticed that the author's editor pushed him to include his mother's story and that the author was originally going to leave that out.