Explaining Auschwitz and Hiroshima: Historians and the Second World War, 1945-1990Explaining Auschwitz and Hiroshima explores the way in which the main combatant societies of the Second World War have historicised that experience. Since 1945, debates in Germany about `the past that would not fade away' have been reasonably well-known. But in this book, Richard Bosworth maintains that Germany is not unique. He argues that in Britain, France, Italy, the USSR and Japan, as well as in Germany the traumatic history of the `long Second World War' has remained crucial to the culture and the politics of post-war societies. Each has felt a compelling need to interpret this past event and thus to `explain' `Auschwitz' and `Hiroshima'. Bosworth explores the bitter controversies that have developed around a particular interpretation of the war, such as disputes over A.J.P. Taylor's, Origins of the Second World War , Marcel Ophul's film, The Sorrow and the Pity , Renzo De Felice's biography of Mussolini in the 1970s or in post- Glasnost debates about the historiographies of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Richard Bosworth's book is a wide-ranging and thoughtful excursion into comparative history. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 88
Page 3
... Germany, France, Italy, the USSR and Japan. In each case, I shall argue that the initial traumatic effect of the war was to 'freeze time' and thus to provide a simple historical explanation about what had recently happened. Eventually ...
... Germany, France, Italy, the USSR and Japan. In each case, I shall argue that the initial traumatic effect of the war was to 'freeze time' and thus to provide a simple historical explanation about what had recently happened. Eventually ...
Page 6
... No precise definition is possible, but 1 922 would be a sensible starting point for Italy, 1931 for Japan, 193 3 for Germany and perhaps 1929 for the USSR. In regard to the liberal democracies, EXPLAINING AUSCHWITZ AND HIROSHIMA.
... No precise definition is possible, but 1 922 would be a sensible starting point for Italy, 1931 for Japan, 193 3 for Germany and perhaps 1929 for the USSR. In regard to the liberal democracies, EXPLAINING AUSCHWITZ AND HIROSHIMA.
Page 7
... Germany and cheerfully betrayed Czechoslovakia, the one state east of the Rhine which still had some claims to have kept intact the Wilsonian marriage of liberalism and benign nationalism. Munich sounded the final prelude to those ...
... Germany and cheerfully betrayed Czechoslovakia, the one state east of the Rhine which still had some claims to have kept intact the Wilsonian marriage of liberalism and benign nationalism. Munich sounded the final prelude to those ...
Page 15
... Germany's place in the crisis of the 'long Second World War'? These questions will provide much of the focus in the next three chapters of this book. But, before proceeding with these more detailed studies, it is worth reflecting on a ...
... Germany's place in the crisis of the 'long Second World War'? These questions will provide much of the focus in the next three chapters of this book. But, before proceeding with these more detailed studies, it is worth reflecting on a ...
Page 18
... Germany. About a united Germany's impact on Europe, Namier held no illusions. Back in August 1942, he had already announced that 'it did not require either 1914, or 1933, or 1939 to teach me the truth about the Germans. Long before the ...
... Germany. About a united Germany's impact on Europe, Namier held no illusions. Back in August 1942, he had already announced that 'it did not require either 1914, or 1933, or 1939 to teach me the truth about the Germans. Long before the ...
Contents
8 | |
The origins of the Third World War and the making of English social history | 31 |
Germany and the Third Second and First World Wars | 53 |
The Historikerstreit and the relativisation of Auschwitz | 73 |
The sorrow and the pity of the fall of France and the rise of French | 94 |
The eclipse of antiFascism in Italy | 118 |
Glasnost reaches Soviet historiography | 142 |
under eastern eyes | 167 |
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A.J.P. Taylor academic American Annales anti-Fascism argued Auschwitz Braudel Britain British Cambridge Civil Communist conflict conservative Contemporary History controversy crisis critics culture Dahrendorf debate democracy democratic Deutscher E.P. Thompson English Europe European example Fascism Felice Felice's Ferro film Fischer France French German history Germany's Geyl Harmondsworth Hiroshima historians Historikerstreit historiography Hitler Holocaust ibid ideas Imperial Imperial Japan intellectual interpretation Italian Italy Italy's Ivan Japan Japanese Jewish Jews Journal of Contemporary lenaga Lenin Lewis Namier liberal London long Second World Maier Maruyama Marxist Mass Meinecke Milligan Modern Mussolini myth Namier Nazi Germany Nazism Nolte Origins Oxford Party past Patriotic Patriotic War People's perhaps Petain political post-war published radical regime Renzo De Felice Resistance Revolution Risorgimento Ritter Russian Second World War seemed Socialist society Soviet Spike Milligan Stalin Storia totalitarianism totalitarianist tradition USSR Vichy Volpe wartime West writing York