Recognized by historians and politicians as a model for European
unity, Switzerland is nonetheless a difficult country to understand
as a whole. Whereas individual Swiss cities have strong identities
in the international political, cultural, and economic arenas, the
country itself seems to be less than the sum of its parts. To
capture the elusive spirit of Switzerland, four eminent writers
explore the roots of its political unity and cultural diversity in
a series of urban portraits. Their observations make for both good
storytelling and insightful social commentary.
Nicolas Bouvier offers a quick-paced history of Geneva--the city
John Calvin had envisioned as a radiating center of godliness,
international in its scope and legal in its methods--the home of
the Red Cross and the League of Nations and, since 1945, the
location of numerous disarmament and diplomatic conferences. Gordon
Craig examines Zurich, the city of the militant religious reformer
Huldrych Zwingli, whose centralizing political zeal was harnessed
by subsequent generations of Zurichers to lead Switzerland in its
modernization. Today's economically powerful Zurich is analyzed in
terms of its liberal past as a refuge for political activists and
artists, and in terms of its current generational divisions on
moral and cultural questions. Finally, Lionel Gossman explores the
conciliatory Basel of Erasmus, showing how vigorous independence,
resourcefulness, and remembrance of its humanist traditions shaped
the city's culture and economy. Tying together important themes in
the histories of these cities, Carl Schorske focuses his
introduction on how Switzerland has capitalized on their cultural
differences and refined the art of political negotiation to serve a
wide range of civic interests.
Originally published in 1994.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books
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These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these
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thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since
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