Among those who interest themselves in modernism in the context of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Prague is sometimes referred to as the “second city of cubism.” In 1911, at a time when the style was still largely unknown in Europe, an artists’ group devoted to the defense and promotion of the new art was founded in Prague. The members of the Skupina výtvarných umělců, or Visual Artists Group, wrote extensively about cubism in their journal Umělecký mesičník [Art Monthly] as well as in other publications. They sponsored numerous exhibits of the art at home and participated in shows of Czech cubist art abroad. In February 1914, Prague was the site of the largest show of cubist art anywhere in the world up to that time.
some ways like the cities of Republican Spain under threat from Franco at the same time, whose defending elites knew that they could not hold the city for long but knew the psychological and propaganda importance of doing so while they could. The book examines the 'Wuhan moment' through a variety of lenses. MacKinnon shows that while the military campaign was ultimately a defeat for Chiang's Nationalists, valuable lessons were learned about troop formation, and links between commanders forged in China's military academies in the prewar years were developed and strengthened. He also paints, in moving detail, the devastating impact of refugee flight. Some estimates put the number of Chinese who became refugees during the war at 100 million. While Wuhan did not have to cope with anything like that number, the sudden influx of fleeing civilians forced a major shift in the provision of welfare relief, incorporating more traditional forms of local elite philanthropy with a much more state-driven system, the kind of 'hegemonic modernity' that Duara refers to, and in some ways a forerunner of the Communist welfare state of the Mao era. MacKinnon also posits an intriguing alternative universe for a more pluralist Chinese politics: although Nationalists and Communists were both present at Wuhan, civil society organizations sprang up that were not beholden to any party, and China's lively press enjoyed a moment of freedom from censorship unprecedented in history (and not matched since then). Yet the realization that the Japanese were on the way was in part responsible for the chimera-like nature of this freedom: the Nationalist wartime capital at Chongqing and the Communist one at Yan'an would be much less liberal sites of debate. MacKinnon's 'Wuhan moment' may have lasted less than a year, but his book paints a deeply moving picture of a people struggling against an invader and in the process creating a spiritual and political resistance in the name of 'the nation' that is all the more poignant for its ultimate evanescence.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.