Belgian Modern

This is the follow-up book to both Belgian Masters publications, with all new reports by famous architects and interior designers. Designers and architects featured include: Juma Architects, Labscape, Marie Lecluyse, Filip Tack, In Store, Adrien Meira, Benoit Viaene, Pauline Vanthournout, Laura Sainderichin, Dries De Malsche, Nathalie Deboel, Altu Studio. Text in English, French, and Dutch.

Although Belgium has only been an independent state since the 1830s, it has a long and complex past. This history is essential for understanding the complexities of issues that led to a devolution of the unitary Belgian state into a federation of linguistically based regions. In addition to the elements that contributed to Belgium's particular political evolution, the history which is traced in this book is a composite of many themes of broad historical interest and importance. Belgium: A History covers the gamut of Belgian history through dramas of religious and cultural conflict, intense localism, state building, uneven development, divergent class interests, war and domination, and finally, integration into a larger European community.

A portrait of the best architects and interior designers from Belgium and their works in a contemporary style.

The Everyday Nationalism of Workers upends common notions about how European nationalism is lived and experienced by ordinary people—and the bottom-up impact these everyday expressions of nationalism exert on institutionalized nationalism writ large. Drawing on sources from the major urban and working-class centers of Belgium, Maarten Van Ginderachter uncovers the everyday nationalism of the rank and file of the socialist Belgian Workers Party between 1880 and World War I, a period in which Europe experienced the concurrent rise of nationalism and socialism as mass movements. Analyzing sources from—not just about—ordinary workers, Van Ginderachter reveals the limits of nation-building from above and the potential of agency from below. With a rich and diverse base of sources (including workers' "propaganda pence" ads that reveal a Twitter-like transcript of proletarian consciousness), the book shows all the complexity of socialist workers' ambivalent engagement with nationhood, patriotism, ethnicity and language. By comparing the Belgian case with the rise of nationalism across Europe, Van Ginderachter sheds new light on how multilingual societies fared in the age of mass politics and ethnic nationalism.

Issued in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name organized by the Charles S. and Isabella V. McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Feb. 10-July 22, 2007.

For anyone interested in the history and effects of the introduction of so-called “Modern Mathematics” (or “Mathématique Moderne,” or “New Mathematics,” etc.) this book, by Dirk De Bock and Geert Vanpaemel, is essential reading. The two authors are experienced and highly qualified Belgian scholars and the book looks carefully at events relating to school mathematics for the period from the end of World War II to 2010. Initially the book focuses on events which helped to define the modern mathematics revolution in Belgium before and during the 1960s. The book does much more than that, however, for it traces the influence of these events on national and international debates during the early phases of the reform. By providing readers with translations into English of relevant sections of key Continental documents outlining the major ideas of leading Continental scholars who contributed to the “Mathématique Moderne” movement, this book makes available to a wide readership, the theoretical, social, and political backdrops of Continental new mathematics reforms. In particular, the book focuses on the contributions made by Belgians such as Paul Libois, Willy Servais, Frédérique Lenger, and Georges Papy. The influence of modern mathematics fell away rapidly in the 1970s, however, and the authors trace the rise and fall, from that time into the 21st century, of a number of other approaches to school mathematics—in Belgium, in other Western European nations, and in North America. In summary, this is an outstanding, landmark publication displaying the fruits of deep scholarship and careful research based on extensive analyses of primary sources.

A privileged chance to see Rose Uniacke's work in the form of a private tour of her London home-the crucible for all her design ideas-in her first book, produced as a limited edition of 2,500 copies. Airy and light, delicate and robust, grand and intimate, raw and luxurious: these are just some of the qualities and contradictions that resonate within the work and home of Rose Uniacke. This sumptuous volume, the first on the designer, has been conceived with Uniacke to her bespoke specifications. Masterfully photographed by François Halard, the book unfolds gatefold after gatefold as a series of privileged glimpses inside Uniacke's home, with the designer's own words as our guide-an intimate and exclusive portrait of a home rarely gained access to as well as a window onto the workings of one of our leading design minds. Her work is distinguished by warmth, character, and an extraordinary serenity, and mirroring these qualities the book is a luxury object made from some of the same materials featured in Uniacke's home: a unique cotton duck canvas slipcase houses the book itself, which is wrapped in pure new wool. Completing this indispensable book in design history are texts from the architect of Uniacke's home, Vincent Van Duysen, and her landscape architect, Tom Stuart-Smith.

Contemporary Belgian Poetry is a collection of imagery-filled odes to the country of Belgium. Excerpt: Belgium is a country of mixed nationalities. The two languages spoken are Flemish and French. Flemish is a Low German dialect, the written form of which is identical to Dutch...