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Product Description
Review
'A masterly little book.' The Times Literary Supplement
'I recommend that you buy it, read it, and realise what you are missing - not just the railways - by not being Swiss.' Swiss Express
'I recommend that you buy it, read it, and realise what you are missing - not just the railways - by not being Swiss.' Swiss Express
Product Description
Switzerland is a special and fascinating place. Its unique institutions, its direct democracy, multi-member executives, absence of strikes, communal autonomy, its universal military service, its wealth, and four national languages make it interesting in itself. But it has wider significance, in representing the 'Europe that did not happen', the Europe that escaped the centralisation of state and economy associated with the modern world. Today, there is a new special feature. Switzerland is an island surrounded by the European Union, and resists membership. Why Switzerland? attempts to answer three related questions: why has such an exception to European norms survived? Why should outsiders notice its peculiarities and what can they learn from them? Finally, can so unusual a society continue to exist when many of the conditions in which it evolved have disappeared? Why Switzerland?, which was first published in 1976, has been completely revised (with new illustrations) to try to answer these questions for the present generation.
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First Sentence
'Why Switzerland?' is really two questions not one. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
'Why Switzerland?' is really two questions not one. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This work, first published more than a quarter-century ago and twice revised, most recently in 1996, succeeds because the national Swiss characteristics which it explores are essentially timeless and unchanging. While tracing the begrudging and belated enfranchisement of women and the gradual integration of Roman Catholic and Jewish minorities who once were isolated, the author conveys the underlying tensions beneath a remarkably successful experiment in coexistence. As one who lived and worked in Switzerland for more than eight years [...] I can attest that Mr. Steinberg's generalizations ring true to my own experience and observations, and that they are supported by a myriad of political and sociological details that one would normally expect to learn only from a highly educated native. The prose, though scholarly, is highly readable, and evidences deep thought and mature reflection.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This work, first published more than a quarter-century ago and twice revised, most recently in 1996, succeeds because the national Swiss characteristics which it explores are essentially timeless and unchanging. While tracing the begrudging and belated enfranchisement of women and the gradual integration of Roman Catholic and Jewish minorities who once were isolated, the author conveys the underlying tensions beneath a remarkably successful experiment in coexistence. As one who lived and worked in Switzerland for more than eight years [...] I can attest that Mr. Steinberg's generalizations ring true to my own experience and observations, and that they are supported by a myriad of political and sociological details that one would normally expect to learn only from a highly educated native. The prose, though scholarly, is highly readable, and evidences deep thought and mature reflection.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having lived in Switzerland for a number of years before finding 'Why Switzerland?', I was thrilled to finally find a book that avoided all the usual platitudes heaped on the Swiss. Carefully researched and enthusiastically narrated, I would recommend it to anyone interested not only in Switzerland, but in the future of modern Europe. My copy is oft-read and well-thumbed!
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