For decades, no book about Vienna has been as widely discussed as Richard Cockett's “Vienna: How the City of Ideas Created the Modern World”. The historian and journalist at “The Economist” not only homes in on Vienna’s prominent role at the fin de siècle. He extends the purview to the interwar period and the later contributions of Austrian-Jewish exiles to argue that Vienna shaped the 20th century decisively.
From Californian architecture to Hollywood Westerns, from modern advertising to shopping malls, from orgasms to gender reassignment surgery, from nuclear fission to fitted kitchens - every aspect of the modern world has, according to Cockett, been shaped in some way by Vienna.
Richard Cockett explains his spectacular thesis in an interview with Wien Museum Director Matti Bunzl.
Richard Cockett's “Vienna: How the City of Ideas Created the Modern World” was published by Yale University Press. A German translation was recently issued by Molden under the title “Stadt der Ideen. Als Wien die moderne Welt erfand”.
The conversation will be held in English.
Notes Registration required
Duration approx. 90 minutes
Costs Free of charge
Meeting point In the event room, 3rd floor
How to get here
Illustration
Richard Cockett © privat
