A look into the life of Brendel's Slovak family, who settled in Price County, Wisconsin, around the turn of the century. In examining her grandmother's life, Brendel reflects a Slovak family history symbolic of many of the immigrants who came from Eastern Europe.

Notwithstanding the advantages of physical power, the struggle for survival among societies is not merely a matter of serial armed clashes but of the nation's spiritual resources that in the end always decide upon the victory. In Europe, there indeed exist independent countries, insignificant from the point of view of the entire civilization, and born by sheer coincidence, yet, this coincidence, this fancy, or diplomatic ploy that created them can just as easily bring them to an end---the nations that count in the political calculations are only the enlightened ones. Therefore, our nation should not merely grow in power, strengthen its character, and foster in people the feeling of love for homeland, but also---inasmuch as it is possible---breath the fresh breeze of humanity's general progress, feed it to the nation, absorb its creative energy. Until now, we have trusted and lived only in the weary conditions, conditions devoid of health-giving elements---now, as a result the nation's heart beats too slowly and its mind works too tediously. We ought to open our windows to Europe, to the wind of continental change and allow it to air our sultry home, since as not all health comes from the inside, not all disease comes from the outside.

Jan Aevankmajer wrote this remarkable book on tactile art when he stopped directing films after censorship by the Czechoslovakian government and experimented intensively with tactile phenomena and the creative imagination. Illustrated with over 100 images, the book is organised around many reproductions of Aevankmajer's wondrous tactile art objects, tactile poems, experiments and games. It also includes dialogues with, and artworks by, other collaborating artists from the Group of Czech and Slovak Surrealists. Aevankmajer also gathers together as contributors such notable exponents of tactual experience as Edgar Allen Poe, Guillaume Apollinaire, Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp, Meret Oppenheim, Ay-O, and F.T. Marinetti. Michael Havas, producer of some of Aevankmajer's films, says of the book: 'it is typically Aevankmajer: erudite and very consequential. Sometimes also very funny and erotic. Totally unique.'

In this groundbreaking work, Stanislav Kirschbaum examines the Slovak contribution to European civilization in the Middle Ages, the development of a specifically Slovak consciousness in the nineteenth century, the Slovak struggle for autonomy in Czech-dominated Czechoslovakia created by the Treaty of Versailles, the problems that the first Slovak Republic faced in a Nazi-controlled Europe, and the Slovak reaction to the communist regime. Kirschbaum completes this fascinating history by examining the debate about the future of Slovakia and the events that led to independence.

This book is an expanded, larger-format, and more highly illustrated version of a smaller book released by CEU Press in 2011. It presents and comments on an extensive set of religious and personal photographs and illustrations that depict people along with divine beings or absent loved ones. First, Christian examines the periodic appearances of Christ-like strangers in the Spanish countryside through the vision of a woman in La Mancha in 1931. Then he considers the long history of images with liquids on them not only for early modern Spain, but also in the United States, Italy and France in the 1940s and 1950s. The third and most extensive chapter addresses the iconography of illustrated depictions of divine and spirit beings in conjunction with humans and how its conventions were incorporated into commercial postcards and personal photographs, culminating in photo montages of families and their absent soldiers in World War I. The fourth theme is new to this edition. It compares the electric moments in Spanish communities when people ritually come into physical contact with saints and with animals, or transform themselves into saints or animals for ritual purposes. Over 50 of the color photographs by Spain's preeminent documentary photographer, Cristina García Rodero, are included.

Sample the beers, taste the high life, feast on the architecture - and when you've had your fill, chill out in the spa towns, discover the fairy-tale castles and breathe deep in Slovakia's glorious mountain scenery. Whether you want to party in Prague or hike in the High Tatras, you can connect with the heart of Europe through this inspiring guide.

Jan Svankmajer wrote this remarkable book on tactile art when he stopped directing films and experimented intensively with tactile art after repeated censorship by the communist governmnent of Czechoslovakia. Illustrated with over 100 imges, this book is organised around many reproductions of Svanmajker's wondrous tactile art objects, tactile poems, experiments and games. It includes dialogues with, and artworks by, other collaborating artists from the Group of Czech and Slovak Surrealists. Svankmajer also gathers together as contributors such notable exponents of tactical experience as Edgar Allan Poe, Guillaume Appollinaire, Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp, Meret Oppenheim, Edith Clifford Williams, Ay-O, Valie Export, F.T. Marinetti and Karel Teige.

Toni Brendel's Czech-Slovak heritage is dear to the heart of this Phillips, Wisconsin native. She continues to study and write about the culture of the Slovak people and keeps in close contact with friends and relatives in Slovakia. She is the author of Penfield's Slovak American Touches.Slovak Master Folk Artist, Sidonka Wadina, was raised in a Slovak neighborhood in Milwaukee's Menomonee River Valley. Her grandmothers who emigrated from Slovakia continued to practice the traditional arts of baking and egg decorating. At the age of three, she began to help them especially with the making of Slovak dumplings; now, after a lifetime of preparing Slovak ethnic foods, Sidonka has generously agreed to share with us cherished recipes and original illustrations.