Cataclysms: A History of the Twentieth Century from Europe’s EdgeCataclysms is a profoundly original look at the last century. Approaching twentieth-century history from the periphery rather than the centers of decision-making, the virtual narrator sits perched on the legendary stairs of Odessa and watches as events between the Baltic and the Aegean pass in review, unfolding in space and time between 1917 and 1989, while evoking the nineteenth century as an interpretative backdrop. Influenced by continental historical, legal, and social thought, Dan Diner views the totality of world history evolving from an Eastern and Southeastern European angle. A work of great synthesis, Cataclysms chronicles twentieth century history as a “universal civil war” between a succession of conflicting dualisms such as freedom and equality, race and class, capitalism and communism, liberalism and fascism, East and West. Diner’s interpretation rotates around cataclysmic events in the transformation from multinational empires into nation states, accompanied by social revolution and “ethnic cleansing,” situating the Holocaust at the core of the century’s predicament. Unlike other Eurocentric interpretations of the last century, Diner also highlights the emerging pivotal importance of the United States and the impact of decolonization on the process of European integration. |
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Allied American anti-Bolshevism Armenians Asia Balkan Baltic Berlin Bolshevik border Britain British Brüning cabinet century coalition Cold War colonial Communist conflict confrontation Continental counterrevolutionary crimes crisis culture decision defeat democracy deutsche Eastern Question economic emerged England especially ethnic Europe's European forces France France's Frankfurt am Main Freikorps French Genocide German Germany's Geschichte Greece Greek Greek Civil War Hindenburg historical Hitler Hungarian Hungarian Soviet Republic Hungary Ibid ideological Indochina intervention interwar Jewish Jews Korean labor London machine gun memory ment military Moscow Munich Nazi Nazi Germany Nazism Ottoman Empire Papen Paris parliamentary party Poland Polish Polish-Soviet Polish-Soviet war political Princeton radical regime Reich Reichstag Reichswehr Republic revolution revolutionary role Russian Civil War Schleicher southern Russia Soviet Union Spanish Civil War Stalin struggle Taschenbuch Verlag territorial tion tional traditional treaty troops United universal civil University Press wars Weimarer Republik Weltkrieg West Western World York