Guides: Alumni Travel Reading Lists 2020: Great Journey Through Europe

History

Why Switzerland? by Jonathan Steinberg
Call Number: ebook (access may be restricted)
ISBN: 9780521883078
Publication Date: 2015
Revised and completely updated edition of University of Pennsylvania Professor of History, Jonathan Steinberg's classic account of Switzerland's unique political and economic system. (Also available in print from Cambridge University Press)
A Concise History of Switzerland by Clive H. Church; Randolph C. Head
Call Number: 808244709
ISBN: 9780521194440
Publication Date: 2013
Church presents a comprehensive and engaging account of Switzerland’s historical and cultural development from the Middle Ages to the present. The book traces major political, economic, religious, and social events in Switzerland’s history, concluding with contemporary issues that the country faces.
A Concise History of Germany by Mary Fulbrook
Call Number: 1079346158
ISBN: 9781108418379
Publication Date: 2019
Provides an informative guide to the twists and turns of the story of the German lands and peoples from the early middle ages to the present day. Fulbrook explores the interrelationships between social, political and cultural factors in the light of scholarly controversies.
History on the Margins: People and Places in the Emergence of Modern France by John Merriman
Call Number: e-book (access may be restricted)
ISBN: 9781496213105
Publication Date: 2018
Merriman reflects on his decades of research and on his life, lived increasingly in France, where he set himself the goal of doing archival research in every single region of the country. Merriman offers reflections on his life in history that will be of interest to a broad audience. (Also available in printt from the Unviersity of Nebraska Press)

Literature

A Literary Tour de France: The World of Books on the Eve of the French Revolution by Robert Darnton
Call Number: 982092908
ISBN: 9780195144512
Publication Date: 2018
Noted historian Darnton, captures the comedy and occasional risk of Jean-François Favarger's travels in the service of books. In the process, he offers an engaging narrative of book culture--a perfect way to enrich your travel.
Reading the European Novel to 1900: a Critical Study of Major Fiction from Cervantes' Don Quixote to Zola's Germinal by Daniel R. Schwarz
Call Number: e-book (access may be restricted)
ISBN: 9781444330472
Publication Date: 2014
Schwartz offers a close reading of individual texts giving attention to cultural and canonical context. Also consider Schwartz's companion work, Reading the Modern European Novel since 1900...Proust's Swann's Way .... to Ferrante's Neapolitan Tetrology. Both books are also available in print from Wiley Blackwell.
Contemporary German Fiction: Writing in the Berlin Republic by Stuart Taberner, et al., editors
Call Number: e-book (access may be restricted)
ISBN: 1280917113
Publication Date: 2007
The essays in this work focuse on the debates that have shaped the politics and culture of the post-Soviet united German. They offer the first comprehensive account of important developments in German literary fiction. (Also available in print from Cambridge University Press)

French Film

click on image to go to Rotten Tomatoes Review

Filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier examines the great directors, actors, writers, composers and cinematographers of French cinema, including Jean Renoir, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, Edmond T. Gréville and Guy Gilles. Access to trailers and synopsis at Cohen Media Group.

Bibliographer

Bibliographer
Charles Cobine, Librarian for Germanic Languages

Revised by
Mia Capozzoli, Liaison Services

Edited by Rebecca Stuhr
Director, Liaison Services

For more information about this Penn excursion, please visit the Penn Alumni Travel website.

Railway

Gornergrat Bahn by Tobrouk used under Creative Commons License: CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

Migrating Heritage: Experiences of Cultural Networks and Cultural Dialogue in Europe by Perla Innocenti
Call Number: Van Pelt Library. D1055 .M54 2014
ISBN: 9781472422811
Publication Date: 2014
Innocenti examines the ways in which museums, libraries and public cultural institutions respond to the effects of globalization, mobility and migration across Europe.

Music

The History of European Jazz: The Music, Musicians and Audience in Context by Francesco Martinelli, editor
Call Number: Music Library. ML3509.E9 H5 2018
ISBN: 9781781794463
Publication Date: 2018
In this collection of essys, authors provide an overview of the history of jazz in Europe from its inception to the present day.
Dreams of Germany: Musical Imaginaries from the Concert hall to the Dance Floor by Neil Gregor and Thomas Irvine, editors
Call Number: Van Pelt Library. ML3917.G3 D74 2019
ISBN: 9781789200324
Publication Date: 2018
Through case studies that range from Bruckner to the Beatles and from symphonies to dance-club music, this volume looks at how German musicians and their audiences responded to the most significant developments of the twentieth century, including mass media, technological advances, fascism, and war on an unprecedented scale.
Hearing the City in Early Modern Europe by T. Knighton and A. Mazuela-Anguita, editors
Call Number: Van Pelt Library. ML240 .H43 2018
ISBN: 9782503579597
Publication Date: 2018
The urban soundscape is studied from a range of different interdisciplinary perspectives. The individual contributions explore themes related to sound and space within the urban context and between social identity and civic authorities.

Film and Media

Images of Dutchness: Popular Visual culture, Early Cinema, and the Emergence of a National Cliché, 1800-1914 by Sarah Dellmann
Call Number: Van Pelt Library. P96.S74 D45 2018
ISBN: 9789462983007
Publication Date: 2018
Dellmann investigatesimagery in popular visual media ranging from magazines to tourist brochures, from anthropological treatises to advertising trade cards, stereoscopic photographs, picture postcards, magic lantern slide sets and films of early cinema.
Musical Modernism and German Cinema from 1913 To 1933 by Francesco Finocchiaro
Call Number: Van Pelt Library. PN1993.5.G3 F63 2017
ISBN: 9783319582610
Publication Date: 2018
This book investigates the relationship between musical Modernism and German cinema. The main figures of musical Modernism, from Alban Berg to Paul Hindemith, and from Richard Strauss to Kurt Weill, had a significant relationship with cinema.
France in Flux: Space, Territory, and Contemporary Culture by Ari J. Blatt and Edward Welch, editors
Call Number: Van Pelt Library. PQ681 .B53 2019
ISBN: 1786941783
Publication Date: 2019
These essays explore how the contemporary concern with space in France has taken shape across a range of media, from recent cinema, documentary filmmaking and photographic projects.

Art and Architecture

Fashion in European Art:Dress and Identity, Politics and the Body, 1775-1925 by Justine De Young, editor
Call Number: Fine Arts Library. N8217.C63 F37 2017
ISBN: 9781784534622
Publication Date: 2017
DeYoung's collection of essays xplore the significance of historical dress over this period of upheaval. Authors investigate the politics of dress, its inspirations and the reactions it provoked, as well as the many meanings of fashion in European art.
Ideological Equals: Women Architects in Socialist Europe, 1945-1989 by Mary Pepchinski and Mariann Simon, editors
Call Number: Fine Arts Library. NA1997 .I34 2017
ISBN: 9781472469267
Publication Date: 2016
This work provides insight on the equality of women architects in comparison with their male counterparts. The book looks at nations in Eastern Europe under Socialism where, between 1945 and 1989, a contrasting vision of gender relations existed in response to the need for engineers and architects.
The Enchanted World of German Romantic Prints, 1770-1850 by Warren Breckman, Catriona Macleod, Mitchell B. Frank, Cordulia Grewe, and F. Carlo Schmid
Call Number: Fine Arts Library. NE651.2 .P45 2017
ISBN: 9780300197624
Publication Date: 2017
This collection includes essays by Penn professors Warren Breckman (History) and Catriona Macleod (German). It examines the work of eaturing the work of 120 artists, including Casper David Friedrich, Ludwig Emil Grimm, Joseph Anton Koch, Philipp Otto Runge, and Johann Gottfried Schadow, including previously unpublished artworks from the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Fiction

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Call Number: Van Pelt Library. PT2635.E68 I613 1984
ISBN: 0316739928
Publication Date: 1929
Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Their expectations for heroism and glory quickly disintegrate as they grapple to find any meaning at all in their war's mindless violence, destruction, and death.
The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani
Call Number: Van Pelt Library. PQ2719.L56 C4313 2018
ISBN: 9780143132172
Publication Date: 2018
French author Slimani writes a novel of modern life: When Myriam decides to return to work after having children, she and her husband look for the perfect nanny for their two young children. In a common trope, they find a nanny, but get more than they bargain for.
Jakob von Gunten by Robert Walser. Translated by Christopher Middleton
Call Number: Van Pelt Library. PT2647.A64 J313 1999
ISBN: 0940322218
Publication Date: 1999
A young man's inquisitive and irreverent account of life in what turns out to be the most uncanny of schools.

Food & Drink

Culinary Cultures of Europe: Identity, Diversity, and Dialogue by Darra Goldstein and Kathrin Merkle, editors
Call Number: Van Pelt Library. TX725.E85 C85 2004
ISBN: 9287157448
Publication Date: 2005
This study of culinary culture and its history provides an insight into social, political and economic changes in society through the food culture of 40 European countries.
France Is a Feast: The Photographic Journey of Paul and Julia Child by Katie Pratt and Alex Prud'homme
Call Number: Van Pelt Library. TX649.C47 P775 2017
ISBN: 9780500519073
Publication Date: 2017
Through this book, explore with Julia Child her personal discovery of French cooking and the French way of life. Photographs by Paul child
Cooking in Europe, 1250-1650 by Ken Albala
Call Number: Van Pelt Library. TX723.5.A1 A43 2006
ISBN: 9780313330964
Publication Date: 2006
This work reviews cuisine and food culture 1250-1650, providing detailed instructions so that the reader can replicate period food--with guidance on equipment, cooking methods, finding ingredients, and reading period recipes.