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Alienation Effect

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Paperback / softback
608 Pages
30 June 2026
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Britain. Made in Europe.

In the 1930s, tens of thousands of central Europeans sought sanctuary from fascism in Britain. While the rainy, seemingly quaint island they discovered on arrival was a far cry from the dynamism of Weimar Berlin or Red Vienna, it was safe, and it became home. Yet the emigres had not arrived alone: they brought with them new and radical ideas, and as they began to rebuild their lives and livelihoods, they transformed the face of Britain forever.

Drawing on an immense cast of artists and intellectuals, including celebrated figures like Erno Goldfinger, forgotten luminaries like Ruth Glass, and a host of larger-than-life visionaries and charlatans, the historian Owen Hatherley argues that in the resulting clash between European modernism and British moderation, our imaginations were fundamentally realigned and remade for the better. In casting what Bertolt Brecht called, in a new German word, a Verfremdungseffekt, an 'alienation effect', on Britain, the aliens made us all a little bit alien too.

Provocative, entertaining and meticulously researched, The Alienation Effect opens our eyes to the influence of the emigres all around us - many of our most quintessentially British icons are the product of this culture clash - and entreats us to remember and renew our proud national tradition of asylum.

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    Product Details
    ISBN-13
    9780141989778
    Author
    Owen Hatherley
    Publisher
    Penguin UK
    Published
    30 June 2026
    Format
    Paperback / softback
    Pages
    608

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    RRP: $32.99
    $32.00
    Ships in 2-5 business days

    Delivery estimate

    Hurry up! Current stock:

    Alienation Effect

    RRP: $32.99
    $32.00

    Description

    Britain. Made in Europe.

    In the 1930s, tens of thousands of central Europeans sought sanctuary from fascism in Britain. While the rainy, seemingly quaint island they discovered on arrival was a far cry from the dynamism of Weimar Berlin or Red Vienna, it was safe, and it became home. Yet the emigres had not arrived alone: they brought with them new and radical ideas, and as they began to rebuild their lives and livelihoods, they transformed the face of Britain forever.

    Drawing on an immense cast of artists and intellectuals, including celebrated figures like Erno Goldfinger, forgotten luminaries like Ruth Glass, and a host of larger-than-life visionaries and charlatans, the historian Owen Hatherley argues that in the resulting clash between European modernism and British moderation, our imaginations were fundamentally realigned and remade for the better. In casting what Bertolt Brecht called, in a new German word, a Verfremdungseffekt, an 'alienation effect', on Britain, the aliens made us all a little bit alien too.

    Provocative, entertaining and meticulously researched, The Alienation Effect opens our eyes to the influence of the emigres all around us - many of our most quintessentially British icons are the product of this culture clash - and entreats us to remember and renew our proud national tradition of asylum.

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