The Last Palace

Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House

By: Norman Eisen

Narrated by: Jeff Goldblum

A sweeping yet intimate narrative about the last hundred years of turbulent European history, as seen through one of Mitteleuropa’s greatest houses—and the lives of its occupants

When Norman Eisen moved into the US ambassador’s residence in Prague, returning to the land his mother had fled after the Holocaust, he was startled to discover swastikas hidden beneath the furniture in his new home. These symbols of Nazi Germany were remnants of the residence’s forgotten history, and evidence that we never live far from the past.

From that discovery unspooled the twisting, captivating tale of four of the remarkable people who had called this palace home. Their story is Europe’s, and The Last Palace chronicles the upheavals that transformed the continent over the past century. There was the optimistic Jewish financial baron, Otto Petschek, who built the palace after World War I as a statement of his faith in democracy, only to have that faith shattered; Rudolf Toussaint, the cultured, compromised German general who occupied the palace during World War II, ultimately putting his life at risk to save the house and Prague itself from destruction; Laurence Steinhardt, the first postwar US ambassador whose quixotic struggle to keep the palace out of Communist hands was paired with his pitched efforts to rescue the country from Soviet domination; and Shirley Temple Black, an eyewitness to the crushing of the 1968 Prague Spring by Soviet tanks, who determined to return to Prague and help end totalitarianism—and did just that as US ambassador in 1989.

Weaving in the life of Eisen’s own mother to demonstrate how those without power and privilege moved through history, The Last Palace tells the dramatic and surprisingly cyclical tale of the triumph of liberal democracy.

A moving history of Prague

Centered around what is now the American Embassy, a palace built in the 1920s is the setting for the Czech Republic’s striving and winning of democracy. Its occupants are witness to revolutions, and the stories told from the personal recollections of those who came to love and protect the palace and its symbol of endurance.

Well researched and beautifully written, I recommend this to anyone curious about the current situation in America in 2025 and the warning this book serves as western democracy teeters on the brink.

Well worth reading!

As engaging as fiction but so much the better for being real, historic, and informative.

One of the best books I have ever read/Listen to.

One Of the best books I have ever read/Listen to, truly a Awesome read it gives you historic reference and family history at the same time. I will read it again, and Again.

Superbly done

Fantastic gathering of data.
Now walking by such institution you can appreciate it’s “existence” !
One of those rare opportunities where you can be the fly on the wall and witness events as they unfolded !
Excellent book.
Truly enjoyed it.

Fascinating historical story, superb narration

This books takes you through over a hundred years of Czech history in a moving and compelling set of intertwined stories. Jeff Goldblum's narration is marvelous.