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
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Page xiii
... people and dead things, but a key to life. . . . Life in its fullness, life in all its shadings and aspects.'6 I can but agree, adding only that, for me, this interest has been deepened by my marriage, for what is approaching three ...
... people and dead things, but a key to life. . . . Life in its fullness, life in all its shadings and aspects.'6 I can but agree, adding only that, for me, this interest has been deepened by my marriage, for what is approaching three ...
Page 2
... people, thepoveri cristi, talk, except in that wretched sexist bit about grandmas, of the nature of time and the ... People's war'.3 He had been born in 1918 to an NCO of Irish extraction serving in the British Army in India. In 1933 ...
... people, thepoveri cristi, talk, except in that wretched sexist bit about grandmas, of the nature of time and the ... People's war'.3 He had been born in 1918 to an NCO of Irish extraction serving in the British Army in India. In 1933 ...
Page 3
... People's war. But, in most societies, this 'Second World War which never ended' has in turn come to its conclusion. In a process which first became apparent in Italy from the middle of the 1970s, the Second World War, in many parts of ...
... People's war. But, in most societies, this 'Second World War which never ended' has in turn come to its conclusion. In a process which first became apparent in Italy from the middle of the 1970s, the Second World War, in many parts of ...
Page 4
... peoples are, in 1991, re-staging their murderously 'real' Second World wars, in the St Petersburg whose populace must ... People's war were finally obscured or replaced. Fukuyama thought this a matter for rejoicing. My fear, rather, is ...
... peoples are, in 1991, re-staging their murderously 'real' Second World wars, in the St Petersburg whose populace must ... People's war were finally obscured or replaced. Fukuyama thought this a matter for rejoicing. My fear, rather, is ...
Page 6
... People's war, existing, writing and thinking in a more humble and re-dimensioned world. As the great Jewish ... peoples' liberties be subordinate to their nationality. No precise definition is possible, but 1 922 would be a sensible ...
... People's war, existing, writing and thinking in a more humble and re-dimensioned world. As the great Jewish ... peoples' liberties be subordinate to their nationality. No precise definition is possible, but 1 922 would be a sensible ...
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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Common terms and phrases
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