Unfinished Utopia is an extremely interesting and beautifully executed book.... This book will appeal to a very wide audience. It will of course interest historians of the Polish postwar first and foremost, but beyond that it will appeal to Eastern Europeanists and, notably, to historians of the Western European postwar as well. The book succeeds on many levels: as Polish history, as a history of postwar European recovery, as a history of Stalinism and of Communist identity formation, and, lastly, as a history of twentieth-century political and social transformations.- Eva Plach (The Journal of Modern History) Each chapter provides the reader with fascinating material that ultimately illuminates the problems at the heart of the most recent discussions in Polish historiography. This includes the nature of Polish Stalinism, which Lebow sees as much more than mere ideology, but rather as a set of practices that individuals creatively appropriated.- Anna Muller (Austrian History Yearbook) In this richly researched book, Lebow explores how Poland's socialistregime and the residents of Nowa Huta built the city and forged a new way oflife.... It is remarkable that Lebow is able to tell the story of Nowa Huta anddevelop these provocative arguments in such a short book.- Steven E. Harris (East Central Europe) Katherine Lebow has redirected the study of Stalinism in scholarly debates. Unlike practitioners of traditional sovietology—now morphing into victimologyfor popular consumption—she seeks out the complexities and ambiguities of Stalinism in eastern Europe... This book will appeal to a wide readership across many disciplines. The range is extensive: urban geography, political mobilization, social structure, gender, youth culture, and film studies. It crosses boundaries within Poland and beyond.- Anthony Kemp-Welch, University of East Anglia (Slavic Review) With its monumental architecture and bold layout, Nowa Huta appears to be the quintessence of Communist urban planning. Yet, as Katherine Lebow's rich yet concise study demonstrates, underneath the regimented spaces and ubiquitous concrete lie more complex and nuanced stories.... [Unfinished Utopia] also provides important general insights into the intricate processes by which modernist urban spaces, despite their aspiration to control, become powerful sites of negotiation and resistance.- Uilleam Blacker (Times Literary Supplement)
