Pioneering History on Two Continents: An Autobiography

by Bruce F. Pauley

Overview

Bruce F. Pauley draws on his family and personal history to tell a story that examines the lives of Volga Germans during the eighteenth century, the pioneering experiences of his family in late nineteenth-century Nebraska, and the dramatic transformations that influenced the history profession during the second half of the twentieth century. An award-winning historian of anti-Semitism, Nazism, and totalitarianism Pauley helped shape historical interpretation from the 1970s to the ’90s both in the United States and Central Europe. 

Pioneering History on Two Continents provides an intimate look at the shifting approaches to the historian’s craft during a volatile period of world history, with an emphasis on twentieth-century Central European political, social, and diplomatic developments. It also examines the greater sweep of history through the author’s firsthand experiences as well as those of his ancestors who participated in these global currents through their migration from Germany to the steppes of Russia to the Great Plains of the United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612346960
Publisher:	Potomac Books
Publication date:	07/15/2014
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

BRUCE F. PAULEY is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Central Florida. Among his books are Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century;From Prejudice to Persecution: A History of Austrian Anti-Semitism; and Hitler and the Forgotten Nazis: A History of Austrian National Socialism.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xv

Pauley Family Lineage xix

1 Pioneers on the Russian Frontier 1

2 A New Life on the Great Plains 14

3 Education, Travel, and the Great Depression 35

4 War, Peace, and Prosperity 55

5 The Audacity of Youth 79

6 From Grinnell to Vienna and Back 94

7 The Ordeal of Graduate School 122

8 Romance and Marriage 137

9 Seven Months of Bliss 155

10 Three Jobs in Three Years 172

11 Publishing and Perishing 190

12 From the Frying Pan into the Fire 205

13 Hitler and the Forgotten Nazis 225

14 Assessing Anti-Semitism 239

15 Hot on the Trail of the Cold War 255

16 Phasing Out 286

17 Reflections 311

Notes 321

Bibliography 341

Index 351

Editorial Reviews

"Both a valuable study and an enjoyable read."—John Sacher, Florida Historical Quarterly

Florida Historical Quarterly - John Sacher

“Bruce F. Pauley skillfully intertwines his family’s experience of immigrating from Europe to the American Midwest with his own research on fascism and communism. The result is a captivating and truly transatlantic history of modern times.”—Gerald Steinacher, Rosenberg Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and author of Nazis on the Run: How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Justice

 

Gerald Steinacher

“Bruce F. Pauley writes with an accomplished historian’s eye for context and intergenerational change and has skillfully interwoven different narratives in his autobiography. This is great reading for people interested in immigrant heritage, coming of age in the Midwest in the 1950s, the transformative power of international education, Austria, or history as a profession.”—Lonnie R. Johnson, executive director of the Austrian-American Fulbright Commission in Vienna

Lonnie R. Johnson

"Pioneering History on Two Continents is as much an eye-opening portrayal of history's tides as it is about one family's determination to survive."—Midwest Book Review

Midwest Book Review

Bruce F. Pauley skillfully intertwines his family’s experience of immigrating from Europe to the American Midwest with his own research on fascism and communism. The result is a captivating and truly transatlantic history of modern times.”—Gerald Steinacher, Rosenberg Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and author of Nazis On the Run: How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Justice

“Bruce F. Pauley writes with an accomplished historian’s eye for context and intergenerational change and has skillfully interwoven different narratives in his autobiography. This is great reading for people interested in immigrant heritage, coming of age in the Midwest in the 1950s, the transformative power of international education, Austria, or history as a profession.”—Lonnie R. Johnson, executive director of the Austrian-American Fulbright Commission in Vienna

From the Publisher