Reading Time through Space

What does the map of an American town tell us about the American dream? What are the differences between historical borders and those drawn up at a card table? How have trains and cars and planes changed our perception of distance? Conventional history books give no answers to these questions. Karl Schlögel finds them in surprising sources: in time tables and address books, on maps and ground plans. Documents normally used only for reference or guidance begin to reveal insights: about the occupants of a street who had to abandon their homes, about long travels across Europe, and the correlations between the centre and the perimeter.

Karl Schlögel has liberated history from the scholar's study. His books on Eastern Europe are informed by numerous journeys and by Schlögel's ability, unequalled amongst historians, to "read" cities and landscapes. This skill also provides the basis for his new book, which sharpens our perception of the world in stylistically brilliant snapshots. History, returned to its scenes of origin, becomes vivid and colourful – and, once again, approaches the province of great literature.