Abstract

Modern military history, inspired by social and cultural historical approaches, increasingly puts the national histories of the Second World War to the test. New questions and methods are focusing on aspects of war and violence that have long been neglected. What shaped people’s experiences and memories? What differences and what similarities existed in Eastern and Western Europe? How did the political framework influence the individual and the collective interpretations of the war? Finally, what are the benefits of Europeanizing the history of the Second World War? Experts from Belgium, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, and Russia discuss these and other questions in this comprehensive volume.

CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC BOOK OF THE YEAR 2011

“This stimulating, wide-ranging collection deftly combines national and European perspectives, which makes it especially valuable for the study of the post-Cold War era and the new Europe. Historians of memory in particular will find it useful, but so will others interested more generally in postwar European history. Highly recommended.”  ·  Choice

Stefan Martens is Deputy Director of the German Historical Institute, Paris and coeditor of the journal Francia – Forschungen zur westeuropäischen Geschichte. He has been a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Paris I (Sorbonne-Panthéon) and the Institut d’Études Politiques, Paris. His major publications include Görings Reich. Selbstinszenierung in Carinhall (2009, with Volker Knopf); Frankreich und Belgien unter deutscher Besatzung 1940–1944. Die Bestände des Bundesarchiv-Militärarchivs in Freiburg (2002, with Sebastian Remus); Occupation et répression militaire allemandes 1939–1945: La politique de maintien de l’ordre en Europe occupée (2007, with Gaël Eismann).

Jörg Echternkamp is a Senior Fellow of the Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, Potsdam, and co-editor of the journal Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Calgary in Canada, Visiting Scholar at the German Historical Institute in Paris, and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Paris I (Sorbonne- Panthéon) and Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg. His major publications include Der Aufstieg des deutschen Nationalismus 1770–1840 (1998), Nach dem Krieg (2003), Kriegsschauplatz Deutschland 1945 (2006) and Germany and the Second World War: German Wartime Society 1939–1945, vols IX/1–2 (2008–2011, ed.).