Vienna and its Secessionist movement at the turn of the last century is the focus of this extraordinary social portrait told through an eminent Viennese family, headed by Hermine and Moriz Gallia, who were among the great patrons of early-twentieth-century Viennese culture at its peak.

Good Living Streettakes us from the Gallias' middle-class prosperity in the provinces of central Europe to their arrival in Vienna, following the provision of Emperor Franz Joseph in 1848 that gave Jews freedom of movement and residence, legalized their religious services, opened public service and professions up to them, and allowed them to marry.

The Gallias, like so many hundreds of thousands of others, came from across the Hapsburg Empire to Vienna, and for the next two decades the city that became theirs was Europe's center of art, music, and ideas.

The Gallias lived beyond the Ringstrasse in Vienna's Fourth District on the Wohllebengasse (translation: Good Living...]]> Mon, 05 Sep 2011 18:05:37 +0300 https://biography.library.land/tim-bonyhady/596448-two_afternoons_in_the_kabul_stadium.html https://biography.library.land/tim-bonyhady/596448-two_afternoons_in_the_kabul_stadium.html

From the complete coverage of chadaris to mini-skirts, and back again. From ancient carpet designs to woven depictions of tanks and Kalashnikovs. From photographs of unveiled women to an image of horror—the execution of a kneeling woman known as Zaremeena, videoed covertly by one of the few watching women. This remarkable book provides a history of Afghanistan through the visual.

The Kabul Stadium looms large because it was there, one afternoon in August 1959, that women first appeared in western dress at a celebration of Afghanistan's independence—a turning point, not only for women in Afghanistan's cities but also for the country itself, symbolising its embrace of the modern. It was also there, one afternoon in November 1999, that the Taliban killed Zarmeena.

Two Afternoons in the Kabul Stadium offers both a new way of seeing Afghanistan and a new way of understanding it.

Tim Bonyhady's books include the award-winning Good Living Street,...]]> Sun, 05 Sep 2021 18:05:38 +0300