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 3
... , 'there will be neither art nor philosophy, just the perpetual caretaking of the museum of human history'. The only danger would be nostalgia for the time when 'history' did exist. 'Perhaps this very prospect of centuries INTRODUCTION.
... , 'there will be neither art nor philosophy, just the perpetual caretaking of the museum of human history'. The only danger would be nostalgia for the time when 'history' did exist. 'Perhaps this very prospect of centuries INTRODUCTION.
Page 4
... Perhaps this very prospect of centuries of boredom at the end of history will serve to get history started once again.'9 It is unfortunate that the word 'history' is one of the more imprecise in the English language. It can mean both ...
... Perhaps this very prospect of centuries of boredom at the end of history will serve to get history started once again.'9 It is unfortunate that the word 'history' is one of the more imprecise in the English language. It can mean both ...
Page 6
... 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.
... 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 11
... Perhaps this assembly of talent merely reflected history 's place at the pinnacle of the humanities, and highlighted its role as the most rigorous of the generalist disciplines, with its basis in the most appropriate combination of ...
... Perhaps this assembly of talent merely reflected history 's place at the pinnacle of the humanities, and highlighted its role as the most rigorous of the generalist disciplines, with its basis in the most appropriate combination of ...
Page 14
... perhaps predictable, limitations in Geyl's own liberalism, numerous ironies in his deployment of history to repair the damage done by the Nazis. Historians of the last generation have by no means accepted that liberals and liberalism ...
... perhaps predictable, limitations in Geyl's own liberalism, numerous ironies in his deployment of history to repair the damage done by the Nazis. Historians of the last generation have by no means accepted that liberals and liberalism ...
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