New Releases by Tony Kushner

An imaginative investigation into a historical crime that sheds new light on Jewish history. In 1734 a pedlar turned smuggler named Jacob Harris slit the throats of three people in a pub in Sussex. This triple-murder, for which he was hanged and gibbeted, remains the most violent crime ever committed by a British Jew. Yet today it is all but forgotten. In The Jewish pedlar, Tony Kushner goes in search of the enigmatic Harris. Digging into a remarkable range of sources, from law records and newspaper reports to ballads and folktales, he follows the traces of Harris’s legend across three hundred years of British history. In doing so, he reconstructs the world of Jewish pedlars and criminals across many continents. The lives these figures eked out at the margins of society paint a picture of persistent antisemitism – but also of remarkable integration. Intellectually bold and deeply humane, The Jewish pedlar takes a new, grassroots approach to the history of Jews in the modern world, shedding light on everyday lives from the Enlightenment to the Holocaust and beyond.

An epic farce about death and primitive capital accumulation, HYDRIOTAPHIA chronicles the final hours of Sir Thomas Browne, an English physician and writer known for his attempts to reconcile Christian values with scientific knowledge.

Tony Kushner returns with a scorching new version of his first play, revisited in the age of Trump--the prescient 1985 work suggesting the possibility of the Reagan counter-revolution eventually giving rise to American fascism.

Převyprávění dětské české opery v obrázkové publikaci. Aninka a Pepíček shání pro svoji nemocnou maminku mléko. Brání jim v tom zlý flašinetář Brundibár. Dětskou operu Brundibár napsali hudební skladatel Hans Krása a spisovatel Adolf Hoffmeister v roce 1938. V Praze se představení hrálo pouze dvakrát a navíc tajně, protože kulturní činnost byla už v té době Židům zakázaná. Operu se následně podařilo nazkoušet v Terezíně, kde se od roku 1943 do podzimu 1944 odehrálo asi 55 repríz. Nakladatelská anotace. Kráceno.

Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej jest wydawanym przez Ośrodek "Pamięć i Przyszłość" multidyscyplinarnym, jedynym w Polsce czasopismem naukowym poświęconym oral history, którego celem jest stworzenie platformy do refleksji metodologicznej nad metodą oral history oraz do wymiany doświadczeń różnych ośrodków i osób – przedstawicieli różnych dyscyplin naukowych – zajmujących się szeroko rozumianą historią mówioną. W periodyku publikowane są wyniki badań naukowych z wykorzystaniem źródeł historii mówionej oraz dyskusje nad samą metodą, a także opracowane naukowo źródla historii mówionej. Czasopismo jest również źródłem informacji o aktualnie prowadzonych badaniach, projektach, organizowanych konferencjach i nowościach wydawniczych, których tematyka dotyczy oral history. Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej znajduje się w bazach: The Central European Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, The Central and Eastern European Online Library oraz w Bazie Czasopism Humanistycznych i Społecznych, oraz w European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS). W 2019 r. Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego przyznało WRHM 20 pkt.

Jüdische Kulturgeschichte ist alles andere als ein festgelegtes Forschungsgebiet, sondern setzt sich aus vielen und immer neuen Fragestellungen zusammen: Da geht es um Philosophie, Religion, Geschichte, Literatur, Gesellschaft und Politik – und bei all dem um Würde und Ethik, um Zuschreibungen und Ausgrenzungen, um Machtstrukturen und um Verfolgung. Jüdische Geschichte, Lebensrealitäten und Identitätsbildungen spielen in der europäischen und globalen Geschichte eine wichtige Rolle. Mitunter fanden diese Themen in der Geisteswissenschaft nur wenig Beachtung, doch ist hier inzwischen einiges im Umbruch. Statt bekannten Wegen tun sich neue Horizonte auf! Durchblicke. Horizonte jüdischer Kulturgeschichte enthält die Beiträge des Symposiums zum zehnjährigen Bestehen des Zentrums für Jüdische Kulturgeschichte der Universität Salzburg. Diese setzen Akzente in etlichen Bereichen der Jüdischen Studien: in der kulturwissenschaftlichen Sicht auf Judentum, Christentum und Islam in der Spätantike, der jüdischen Geschichte und Literatur des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, der Sprachlosigkeit und des künstlerischen und literarischen Zeugnisses angesichts des Holocaust und nicht zuletzt der jiddischen Literatur und Kultur.

This pioneering study of migrant journeys to Britain begins with Huguenot refugees in the 1680s and continues to asylum seekers and east European workers today. Analyzing the history and memory of migrant journeys, covering not only the response of politicians and the public but also literary and artistic representations, then and now, Kushner’s volume sheds new light on the nature and construction of Britishness from the early modern era onwards. It is an essential tool for those wanting to understand why people come to Britain (or are denied entry) and how migrants have been viewed by state and society alike. The journeys covered vary from the famous (including the Empire Windrush in 1948) to the obscure, such as the Volga German transmigrants passing through Britain in the 1870s. While employing a broadly historical approach, Kushner incorporates insights from many other disciplines and employs a comparative methodology to highlight the importance of the symbolic as well as the physical nature of such journeys.

This is the first study to place Jewish refugee movements from Nazism into a wider framework of global forced migration from the late nineteenth through to the twenty first century.

"Dissent is an essential part of keeping democratic societies healthy, and our ability as citizens to voice our opinions is not only our privilege, it is our responsibility. Most importantly, it is a human right, one which must be fervently fought for, protected, and defended. Many of the issues and conflicts visited in the first edition of this book remain vividly present today. They are reminders of how democracy and social change are often incremental, requiring patience, diligence, hope, and the continuing brave voices of designers whose skillful imagery emboldens in the face of struggle. The 160-plus new works in this edition document the Arab Spring, the Obama presidency, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, the election of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin’s continuing influence, the Women’s March, the ongoing refugee crises, the environment, and much more. This powerful collection, totaling well over 550 images, stands not only as a testament to the power of imagery, but also as an urgent call to action. This edition includes the original Foreword by Tony Kushner as well as Steven Heller''s interview of Milton Glaser entitled, "Dissenting Conditions.""--provided by Amazon.com.

Philosemitism, Antisemitism and ''the Jews'' both honours and carries on the work of The Rev. Dr. James Parkes (1896-1981), a pioneer in the many different fields involving the study of Jewish/non-Jewish relations. The collection is designed to examine both the specific and broader themes of Parkes'' life work in relation to tolerance and intolerance. From antiquity to today, Jews have often been defined as ''aliens''; these essays consider the effects of such legislative and socio-cultural exclusion on the self-definition of the dominant society. Philosemitism, Antisemitism and ''the Jews'' employs an interdisciplinary framework, bringing together the work of scholars from both sides of the Atlantic and Israel, who work in history, theology, political philosophy, legal theory and literary studies. Eminent historians and theorists of tolerance and intolerance, including Gavin Langmuir, David Theo Goldberg, Norman Solomon and Tony Kushner, are joined by younger scholars researching new developments in the field.

We Europeans is the first book-length study of the original mass observation project. It is also the first detailed historical study of the formation of ordinary people''s ''racial'' attitudes in Britain. Drawing upon historical, literary, cultural and anthropological approaches, this book examines the sources of cultural identity in Britain in the twentieth century, and how these were shaped through the influences of family, education, and everyday ''high'' and ''low'' culture. The examination focuses on the archives of the British social-anthropological organization Mass-Observation, and is the first detailed history of it to be published. Founded in the 1930s by poets, psychoanalysts, surrealists, and sociologists, among others, the purpose of the organization was to create an anthropology of the British people by the ''natives'' themselves, through the use of diaries, directives and special surveys. The organization was active from 1937 to 1951, then revived in the 1980s, when a new group of Mass-Observers were recruited to keep diaries and respond to directives. Both the historical archive of Mass-Observation and the more recent material provide fascinating insight into the everyday lives and formation of identities of ordinary people in Britain. Kushner places the material from these archives in the context of other contemporary writings; through them he explores grassroots identities in Britain in relation to the outside world, especially Europe but also the former Empire and the USA. This study will be of interest to scholars of sociology, cultural studies, literary studies and history who are particularly interested in ''race'', race relations, immigration and cultural difference.

"ANGELS IN AMERICA has proved to be a watershed drama, the most lyrical and ambitious augury of an era since Tennessee Williams''s The Glass Menagerie." John Lahr, The New Yorker "The most influential American play of the last two decades." Patrick Healy, The New York Times "Daring and dazzling! The most ambitious American play of our time: an epic that ranges from earth to heaven; focuses on politics, sex and religion; transports us to Washington, the Kremlin, the South Bronx, Salt Lake City and Antarctica; deals with Jews, Mormons, WASPs, blacks; switches between realism and fantasy, from the tragedy of AIDS to the camp comedy of drag queens to the death or at least absconding of God." Jack Kroll, Newsweek "The greatest American play of the waning years of the twentieth century." Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

"ANGELS IN AMERICA has proved to be a watershed drama, the most lyrical and ambitious augury of an era since Tennessee Williams''s The Glass Menagerie." John Lahr, The New Yorker "The most influential American play of the last two decades." Patrick Healy, The New York Times "Daring and dazzling! The most ambitious American play of our time: an epic that ranges from earth to heaven; focuses on politics, sex and religion; transports us to Washington, the Kremlin, the South Bronx, Salt Lake City and Antarctica; deals with Jews, Mormons, WASPs, blacks; switches between realism and fantasy, from the tragedy of AIDS to the camp comedy of drag queens to the death or at least absconding of God." Jack Kroll, Newsweek "The greatest American play of the waning years of the twentieth century." Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angels in America comes this powerful portrayal of individual dissolution and resolution in the face of political catastrophe. "Tony Kushner''s A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY ... is unabashedly political, thought-provoking, a little scary, and frequently a good deal of theatrical fun ... BRIGHT ROOM is ... an examination of Nazi Germany in an attempt to shed insight on our own time. It''s brash, audacious, and, depending on your politics, anything from infuriatingly naive to intoxicatingly visionary. In its 1932-33 span, it tells of a group of Berlin artists and friends, with varying degrees of communist leanings, and of the changes in their lives as democracy falls and Adolph Hitler takes over." -Sid Smith, Chicago Tribune "It''s fun to see a show this engaged. This passionate and ready to talk. Wild, uneven, pugnacious, ragged, committed, smart, dumb, satirical, and utterly serious ... Always dramatically and intellectually forceful. And most important, always passionately committed. More than a diatribe against Reagan or a falling-into-the-Nazi-abyss history play, A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY is an assertion of the need for commitment." -Anthony Adler, The Reader

"As a title, TINY KUSHNER sounds like a joke, and it is, of sorts, a self-deprecating acknowledgment by the playwright Tony Kushner that he generally writes long. His most famous work, ANGELS IN AMERICA, began as a commission for a 90-minute play with three characters and ended up as a two-part extravaganza clocking in at more than seven hours ... The new work consists of five one-act playlets that feature both fictional characters and those borrowed from real life - including Dr Arnold Hutschnecker, who was Richard M Nixon''s psychiatrist. Two plays have therapy sessions in them, actually. Three have dead people as characters. One takes place on the moon. All five, however, resonate on the subject of America and the moral complexities created for its citizens by its various advantages in the world, a theme that reaches a climax in ONLY WE WHO GUARD THE MYSTERY SHALL BE UNHAPPY. Set just before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and written out of fury at the Bush administration''s rush to war, it posits Laura Bush reading to a class of dead Iraqi children. Essentially a monologue (it was published by The Nation), it portrays a first lady wrestling with her conscience and betraying the agony of perpetual self-justification ... Individually and even collectively, the five entries here are snacks in the Kushner canon. However, that doesn''t make them nonnourishing or the evening unsatisfying; Mr Kushner''s fierce liberal conscience (he''s Arthur Miller''s heir, in that regard), colossally fanciful imagination and virtuosic gift for composing verbal arias are too much in evidence for that." -Bruce Weber, The New York Times

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes includes Part One, Millennium Approaches and Part Two, Perestroika “Glorious. A monumental, subversive, altogether remarkable masterwork…Details of specific catastrophes may have changed since this Reagan-era AIDS epic won the Pulitzer and the Tony, but the real cosmic and human obsessions—power, religion, sex, responsibility, the future of the world—are as perilous, yet as falling-down funny, as ever.” –Linda Winer, Newsday "A vast, miraculous play... provocative, witty and deeply upsetting... a searching and radical rethinking of American political drama." - Frank Rich, New York Times "A victory for theater, for the transforming power of the imagination to turn devastation into beauty." - John Lahr, New Yorker “An enormously impressive work of the imagination and intellect, a towering example of what theater stretched to its full potential can achieve.” -Philadelphia Inquirer "Angels in America is the finest drama of our time, speaking to us of an entire era of life and death as no other play within memory. It ranks as nothing less than one of the greatest plays of the twentieth century." - John Heilpern, New York Observer “Some playwrights want to change the world. Some want to revolutionize theater. Tony Kushner is that rarity of rarities: a writer who has the promise to do both.” -New York Times This new edition of Tony Kushner''s masterpiece is published with the author''s recent changes and a new introduction in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of its original production. One of the most honored American plays in history, Angels in America was awarded two Tony Awards for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was made into an Emmy Award-winning HBO film directed by Mike Nichols. This two-part epic, subtitled "A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," has received hundreds of performances worldwide in more than twenty-six languages. Tony Kushner’s plays include Angels in America; Hydriotaphia, or the Death of Dr. Brown; The Illusion, adapted from the play by Pierre Cornelle; Slavs!; A Bright Room Called Day; Homebody/Kabul; Caroline, or Change, a musical with composer Jeanine Tesori; and The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures. He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols’s film of Angels in America and for Steven Spielberg’s Munich and Lincoln. His books include The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the Present; Brundibar, with illustrations by Maurice Sendak; and Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, co-edited with Alisa Solomon. Among many honors, Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, two Evening Standard Awards, an Olivier Award, an Emmy Award, two Oscar nominations, and the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2012, he was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. He lives in Manhattan with his husband, Mark Harris.

Anglo-Jewry since 1066: Place, locality and memory is a study of the history and memory of Anglo-Jewry from medieval times to the present and is the first to explore the construction of identities, both Jewish and non-Jewish, in relation to the concept of place. The introductory chapters provide a theoretical overview focusing on the nature of local studies then moves into a chronological frame, starting with medieval Winchester, moving to early modern Portsmouth and then chapters covering the evolution of Anglo-Jewry from emancipation to the twentieth century. Emphasis is placed on the impact on identities resulting from the complex relationship between migration (including transmigration) and settlement of minority groups. Drawing upon a wide range of approaches, including history, cultural and literary studies, geography, Jewish and ethnic and racial studies, Kushner uses extensive sources including novels, poems, art, travel literature, autobiographical writing, official documentation, newspapers and census data. This book will appeal to scholars interested in Jewish studies and British history

This is a study of the history of global refugee movements over the 20th century, ranging from east European Jews fleeing Tsarist oppression at the turn of the century to asylum seekers from the former Zaire and Yugoslavia. Recognizing that the problem of refugees is a universal one, the authors emphasize the human element which should be at the forefront of both the study of refugees and responses to them.

"Angels in America" is divided into two comedies: "He approaches the Millennium" and "Perestroika," set in New York in the mid-eighties and bears the subtitle of "Gay Fantasia on National Themes." Mette in scena un gruppetto di "diversi": ebrei, mormoni, gay, farmacodipendenti nell''America sconvolta dall''Aids, malattia che infatti colpisce due dei protagonisti, e della quale la narrazione segue il decorso in un clima di dibattito politico, ma anche di surreale inventiva. It features a bunch of "different": Jews, Mormons, gays, drug clinics in America devastated by AIDS, a disease that it affects two of the protagonists, and of which the narrative follows the course in a climate of political debate, but also surreal inventiveness. Una delle vittime è un personaggio storico: Roy Cohn, principe del foro e un tempo segretario del senatore McCarthy, visto qui come genio del male, razzista e segretamente omosessuale. One of the victims is a historical character: Roy Cohn, a prince of the forum and a time secretary of Senator McCarthy, seen here as a genius of evil, racist and secretly homosexual. Coi vivi circolano liberamente fantasmi del passato, e anche Ethel Rosenberg, martire della caccia alle streghe negli anni Cinquanta, in veste di Erinni, è tra gli angeli che col loro volo spostano questa nuova commedia in dimensioni inattese. Move freely with the living ghosts of the past, and also Ethel Rosenberg, martyr of the witch hunt in the Fifties, as the Furies, is among the angels who move with their flight, this new comedy in unexpected dimensions. Il testo è immediatamente divenuto oggetto di scandalo per la polemica contro l''America di Reagan e degli yuppies, per la difesa delle minoranze, ma soprattutto per avere affrontato il problema dell''Aids. The text is immediately become the object of scandal for polemics against the America of Reagan and yuppies, for the defense of minorities, but above all to have addressed the problem of AIDS.

A New-York, à l''automne 1985, plusieurs histoires personnelles et plusieurs aventures collectives se conjuguent. Il y a Prior et Louis, qui s''aiment, mais la maladie (le SIDA) les sépare ; un couple mal accordé, Harper et Joe, troublé par une sexualité incertaine et des croyances religieuses pesantes ; un grand avocat d''affaires, Roy M. Cohn, impliqué dans les scandales financiers et politiques du parti de Reagan ou du maccarthysme antérieur, et dont la vie est aussi en danger ; il y a Belize, infirmier miséricordieux, lourd du double handicap d''être Noir et drag queen... Il y a aussi le fantôme d''Ethel Rosenberg et un Ange qui élit Prior comme prophète d''un Occident mal portant, avant de rejoindre ses congénères dans un paradis aride et déserté par Dieu... Tous aiment, souffrent, luttent, se mesurent à de grands enjeux, désemparés face au grand rêve perdu de l''Amérique.

Despite the massive literature on the Holocaust, our understanding of it has traditionally been influenced by rather unsophisticated early perspectives and silence. This book summarizes and criticizes the existing scholarship on the subject and suggests new ways by which we can approach its study. It addresses the use of victim testimony and asks important questions: What function does recording the past serve for the victim? What do historians want from it? Are these two perspectives incompatible? It also examines the perpetrators of the Holocaust, and compares them to those responsible for other acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing in the early years of the twentieth century. In addition, it looks at the bystanders--examining the complexity and ambiguity at the heart of contemporary reaction.

“Mr. Kushner’s glorious specialty is in giving theatrical life to internal points of view, in which our thoughts meld with a character’s wayward speculations or fantasies... He makes the personal and the universal, the trivial and the cosmic come simultaneously to life in a single character’s bewilderment.” –Ben Brantley, New York Times “An extraordinary play…a deeply felt, expansively ruminative drama.” –Paul Taylor, Independent (London) “What a feast of a play. No playwright in the English language has a greater passion for language than Kushner. And to this Kushner adds that rare quality in American theater, a yearning to go beyond domestic stories and into the great world of political struggle. Brilliant. It keeps us thinking.” –Richard Christiansen, Chicago Tribune “This eerily timely work about Afghanistan is comparably mesmerizing and mournful, vast and intimate, emotionally generous and stylistically fabulist, wildly verbal, politically progressive and scarily well informed.” –Linda Winer, Newsday In Homebody/Kabul, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, author of Angels in America, has turned his penetrating gaze to the arena of global politics to create this suspenseful portrait of a dangerous collision between cultures. Written before 9/11, Homebody/Kabul premiered in New York in December 2001 and has had highly successful productions in London, Providence, Seattle, Chicago and Los Angeles. This version incorporates all the playwright''s changes and is now the definitive version of the text. Tony Kushner’s plays include Angels in America; Hydriotaphia, or the Death of Dr. Brown; The Illusion, adapted from the play by Pierre Corneille; Slavs!; A Bright Room Called Day; Homebody/Kabul; Caroline, or Change, a musical with composer Jeanine Tesori; and The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures. He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols’s film of Angels in America and for Steven Spielberg’s Munich and Lincoln. His books include The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the Present; Brundibar, with illustrations by Maurice Sendak; and Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, co-edited with Alisa Solomon. Among many honors, Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, two Evening Standard Awards, an Olivier Award, an Emmy Award, two Oscar nominations, and the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2012, he was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. He lives in Manhattan with his husband, Mark Harris.

“Caroline is a breakthrough—a story so grounded in the ordinary details of life that it almost seems to have discovered a new genre.” –Richard Zoglin, Time “Acute, smart and witty: a telling snapshot focusing with sharp clarity on characters captured at a fraught turning point in history—a culture’s and a family’s.” –Charles Isherwood, Variety “Thrilling. You’ve never seen anything quite like Caroline, or Change and likely won’t again anytime soon. There’s never a moment that the part-pop, part-opera, part-musical-theater score Jeanine Tesori has conjured up doesn’t ideally match Tony Kushner’s meticulously chosen words with clarion precision.” –Matthew Murray, talkinbroadway.com “A monumental achievement in American musical theater. Joyful, wholly successful, immensely moving, told with abundant wit and generosity of heart.” –John Helipern, New York Observer Louisiana, 1963: A nation reeling from the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement and the Kennedy assassination. Caroline, a black maid, and Noah, the son of the Jewish family she works for, struggle to find an identity for their friendship after Noah''s stepmother, unable to give Caroline a raise, tells Caroline that she may keep the money Noah leaves in his pockets. Through their intimate story, this beautiful musical portrays the changing rhythms of a nation. Tony Kushner and composer Jeanine Tesori have created a story that addresses contemporary questions of culture, community, race and class through the lens and musical pulse of the 1960s.