The Lasting War: Society and Identity in Britain, France and Germany after 1945

by M. Riera (Editor), G. Schaffer (Editor)

Overview

The Second World War brought suffering and trauma to the people of Europe on an unprecedented scale. This volume addresses World War II as a common European trauma by focusing on key trans-national developments and comparing the different wars as experienced by three similar civilian populations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230506718
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	04/01/2008
Edition description:	2008
Pages:	277
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

DONALD BLOXHAM Reader in History, University of Edinburgh, UK TONY CHAFER Professor of Contemporary French Area Studies and Director of the Centre for European and International Studies Research, University of Portsmouth, UK GEOFF ELEY Karl Pohrt Distinguished University Professor of Contemporary History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA MARTIN EVANS Professor of Contemporary European History, University of Portsmouth, UK JULIET GARDINER Historian and full-time author HILARY FOOTITT Senior Research Fellow in French, University of Reading, UK EMMANUEL GODIN Principal Lecturer in French Studies, University of Portsmouth, UK SIMON KITSON Senior Lecturer in French Studies, University of Birmingham, UK GERD KNISCHEWSKI Senior Lecturer in German Politics, University of Portsmouth, UK TONY KUSHNER Professor in History, University of Southampton, UK TOM LAWSON Lecturer in Modern History, University of Winchester, UK MONICA RIERA Senior Lecturer at the Centre of European and International Studies Research, University of Portsmouth, UK GAVIN SCHAFFER Senior Lecturer in European History at the University of Portsmouth, UK RAINER SCHULZER Lecturer in Modern European History, University of Essex, UK PENNY SUMMERFIELD Professor of Modern History, University of Manchester, UK WENDY UGOLINI PhD Graduate, Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh

Table of Contents

Introduction: M.Riera & G.Schaffer PART I: SETTING THE SCENE When Europe Was New: Liberation and the Making of the Postwar, G.Eley PART II: RECONFIGURING THE SELF 'That rubble heap near Potsdam': Pre-War Visions and Early Post- War Urban Development in Berlin; M.Riera Creating 'a nation of Resisters'? Improving French Self-Image, 1944-1946; S.Kitson The Home Guard and the Memory of the British War Effort; P.Summerfield An Awkward Sense of Grief: German War Remembrance and the Role of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge; G.Knischewski France: A People's History: 1944-46; H.Footitt French Catholics and the Liberation: Political and Religious Values; E.Godin PART III: RECONFIGURING THE OTHER Confronting Nazi Atrocities at the End of the War: a transnational perspective; D.Bloxham Instrumentalisation - Marginalisation - Re-evaluation: Flight and Expulsion after the Second World War in Post-War German Collective Memory; R.Schulze The Church of England and the German Past, Present and Future 1944-45: A Case Study in the International Search for a 'Usable Past'; T.Lawson Victims or enemies? Italians and refugee Jews and the re-working of internment narratives in post-war Britain; W.Ugolini & G.Schaffer The Holocaust& History: Memory and Heritage, 1945 to 2005; T.Kushner France and her African Empire: The Second World War and the Colonial Imagination; T.Chafer & M.Evans

Editorial Reviews

'All the articles in the book...provide a lot of insights and understandings and will be a good starting point for both academics and students who want to begin research in this still fashionable field.' - Contemporary British History

'The power of the war's memory, or 'self' and 'other', to serve as an instrument to both shape identity and measure it, has more than justified the attention it receives in this appealing collection.' - French History

'...this volume provides a timely reminder...the essays do provide an effective snapshot of recent research into the myriad ways 'memory politics' worked in post-war Europe...' - European History Quarterly

From the Publisher