Iron Curtains
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Iron Curtain
In the long-awaited follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning Gulag, acclaimed journalist Anne Applebaum delivers a groundbreaking history of how Communism took over Eastern Europe after World War II and transformed in frightening fashion the individuals who came under its sway. At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union to its surprise and delight found itself in control of a huge swath of territory in Eastern Europe. Stalin and his secret police set out to convert a dozen radically different countries to Communism, a completely new political and moral system. In Iron Curtain, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anne Applebaum describes how the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe were created and what daily life was like once they were complete. She draws on newly opened East European archives, interviews, and personal accounts translated for the first time to portray in devastating detail the dilemmas faced by millions of individuals trying to adjust to a way of life that challenged their every belief and took away everything they had accumulated. Today the Soviet Bloc is a lost civilization, one whose cruelty, paranoia, bizarre morality, and strange aesthetics Applebaum captures in the electrifying pages of Iron Curtain.
Curtains: A Practical Guide to Enhance Your Home's Style Using Curtains
Author: Pasquale De Marco
language: en
Publisher: Pasquale De Marco
Release Date: 2025-07-27
Embark on a journey to enhance your home's beauty and functionality with the ultimate guide to curtains. Discover the art of choosing, installing, and maintaining curtains to create stunning window treatments that perfectly complement your décor and lifestyle. Inside this comprehensive guide, you'll find a wealth of practical advice and inspiring ideas to transform your windows into captivating focal points. Explore a wide range of curtain styles, from classic drapes to modern panels, and learn how to select the perfect fabric, color, and pattern to suit your unique taste and décor. Whether you prefer a sleek minimalist look or a cozy, traditional ambiance, this guide will help you achieve the desired aesthetic. Beyond aesthetics, curtains play a crucial role in controlling light, privacy, and temperature in your home. Delve into the intricacies of choosing the right curtains for each room, considering factors such as window size, natural light levels, and desired ambiance. Learn how to adjust the amount of light entering a room, create a sense of privacy, and reduce glare on screens. Discover the energy-saving benefits of curtains and how they can help regulate temperature, keeping your home cooler in summer and warmer in winter. The guide also provides step-by-step instructions for measuring and installing curtains, ensuring a perfect fit and flawless functionality. You'll learn the art of hanging curtains with precision, creating graceful folds and elegant arrangements. Whether you prefer the classic charm of pleated curtains or the contemporary appeal of grommet panels, this guide will equip you with the skills and techniques to achieve a professional finish. Furthermore, you'll discover effective cleaning methods to keep your curtains looking their best. Learn how to remove common stains, refresh fabrics, and extend the lifespan of your curtains. Simple yet effective DIY repair techniques are also included to address minor tears or damage, allowing you to maintain the beauty and functionality of your curtains for years to come. With its wealth of practical advice and inspiring ideas, this comprehensive guide empowers you to transform your windows into stunning works of art. Whether you're a seasoned decorator or a novice homeowner, you'll find valuable insights and expert guidance to elevate your home's style and functionality, one window at a time. If you like this book, write a review!
Window Shopping Through the Iron Curtain
Author: David Hlynsky
language: en
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Release Date: 2015-02-10
A deadpan celebration of the unique commercial aesthetic that flourished under the crumbling totalitarian Communist regimes of twentieth-century Europe Window-Shopping through the Iron Curtain presents a selection of more than 100 images of shop windows shot by David Hlynsky during four trips taken between 1986 and 1990 to Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, East Germany, and Moscow. Using a Hasselblad camera, Hlynsky captured the slow, routine moments of daily life on the streets and in the shop windows of crumbling Communist countries. The resulting images could be still-lifes representing the intersection of a Communist ideology and a consumerist, Capitalist tool—the shop window—with the consumer stuck in the middle. Devoid of overt branding or calculated seduction, the shop windows were typically adorned with traditional yet incongruous symbols of cheer: homey lace curtains, paper flowers, painted butterflies, and pictures of happy children. Some windows were humble in their simple offerings of loaves and tinned fishes; others were zanily artistic, as in the modular display of military shirts in a Moscow storefront; and some illustrated intense professional pride, such as a sign in a Prague beauty salon depicting a pedicurist smiling fiendishly over an imperfect sole. The photographs are accompanied by essays by art historian Martha Langford and cultural studies specialist Jody Berland, as well as Hlynsky’s own account of his time as a flâneur in the shopping plazas of the collapsing Soviet empire—“a vast ad-hoc museum of a failing utopia” that in 1989 began to close forever.