Histories of the Aftermath: The Legacies of the Second World War in Europe

After more than sixty years, it is now obvious that in the aftermath of World War II, most of Europe operated under the influence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In this study Biess (history, University of California, San Diego) and Moeller (modern history, University of California, Irvine) and their contributors look at aspects of this aftermath and how both individuals and countries dealt with it. The authors agree that the opening up of Holocaust studies in the 1980s led the way for historians to treat what had been earlier mythologized or suppressed. The articles deal with the refashioning of memories, public and private, how films shaped collective memories, the ways in which new familial and national identities were forged and the ways in which the Soviet and German military coped with their experiences and with the advent of the atom bomb. The European nations today still live in the shadow of the war years. The essays presented here show how much the new Europe was formed by the war and give suggestions for further study. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Robert G. Moeller is Professor of modern European and German history at the University of California, Irvine. He has published widely on the social, cultural, and political history of Germany in the twentieth century.