The Passport as Home

The Passport as Home

Comfort in Rootlessness

  • Auteur: Markovits, Andrei S.; Ignatieff, Michael
  • Éditeur: Central European University Press
  • ISBN: 9789633864227
  • Lieu de publication:  Budapest , Hungary
  • Année de publication électronique: 2021
  • Mois : Août
  • Pages: 329
  • DDC: 974.7/10049240092
  • Langue: Anglais

A Scholar's Quest for Home and Identity

Experience the remarkable story of a Romanian-born, Hungarian-speaking Jewish professor. From Vienna to Columbia and Harvard, he navigates a life marked by rootlessness, seeking comfort and purpose. His journey unfolds against the backdrop of five decades, two continents, and significant political and cultural changes.

As we follow his pursuit of a home, we gain insight into the critical developments of post-1945 Europe and America. Markovits's emigration experiences, first from Romania to Vienna and later from Vienna to New York, shed light on the challenges he faced.

His journey offers a panoramic view of the forces shaping the latter half of the 20th century. Despite America's flaws, he finds it a beacon of academic excellence, intellectual openness, cultural diversity, and religious tolerance—qualities that Europe lacked.


Explore the complexities of identity, culture, and the universal search for belonging in this captivating narrative.

  • Cover
  • Front matter
  • title page
  • copyright page
  • Table of Contents
  • Foreword by Michael Ignatieff
  • Preface and Acknowledgements
  • Chapter One: Origins: The Virtues of Rootlessness
  • Chapter Two: A Paean to Tante Trude (Who Might or Might Not Have Been a Nazi)
  • Chapter Three: Four Friendships: Discovering America in Vienna
  • Chapter Four: Daphne Scheer, Real Madrid and Internazionale Milano (Inter Milan): The Personal Meets the Political
  • Chapter Five: The Rolling Stones Play Vienna (Resulting in Bodily Harm to the City’s Jews)
  • Chapter Six: Arrival in New York: The Dream Meets the Reality
  • Chapter Seven: Columbia 1968: How the World—and Andy—Changed in a Single Year
  • Chapter Eight: Kiki: Big Politics and Little Andy
  • Chapter Nine: The Grateful Dead: My American Family
  • Chapter Ten: Harvard’s Center for European Studies: The Interloper Finds a Home
  • Chapter Eleven: Dogs: The Rescuer Rescues Himself
  • Chapter Twelve: Germany: Admiration for the Bundesrepublik , Discomfort with Deutschland
  • Epilogue
  • Back cover

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

By subscribing, you accept our Privacy Policy