Explaining Auschwitz and Hiroshima: History Writing 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. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
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 |
Other editions - View all
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 Gerhard Ritter German history Germany's Geyl Harmondsworth Hiroshima historians Historikerstreit historiography Hitler Holocaust ibid ideas Ienaga Imperial intellectual interpretation Italian Italy Italy's Ivan Japan Japanese Jewish Jews Journal of Contemporary Lenin Lewis Namier liberal London long Second World Maier Marxist Mass Meinecke Milligan Modern Mussolini myth Namier Nazi Germany Nazism Nolte Origins Oxford Party past Patriotic Patriotic War People's perhaps Pétain political post-war published radical regime Reich 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