Germany 1945: From War to Peace - Couverture rigide

Bessel, Richard

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0060540362 ISBN 13 : 9780060540364

Editeur : Harper, 2009

Synopsis

Germany 1945 Authoritative and dramatic, this groundbreaking history brilliantly explores the devastation and remarkable rebirth of Germany at the end of World War II. b&w photo insert. Full description

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

‘As the Allied troops marched into Germany in the last phases of the war in 1945, they were met everywhere by unparalleled devastation. The great cities of Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, along with countless smaller towns, had been reduced to rubble by months of intensive bombing...Now, in the early 21st Century, a memorial to the victims stands at the centre of the nation’s capital, and reminders of the horrors of the Third Reich are everywhere. Richard Bessel’s book shows us the first faltering steps on this long road. One of the illustrations in the book shows the author’s father, an American GI, being awarded a medal in Heidelberg in May 1945. Bessel has written a fine book that does his father’s memory proud’
Mail on Sunday
‘If we think we know of the horrors faced by Germans in 1945, Bessel continually reminds us how wrong we are. He has delved extensively into the German archives, and seemingly read every academic article there is, to produce horror stories that even now, sixty years on, turn the stomach...it was scarcely surprising that Germans emerged from the ruins firmly believing themselves victims rather than perpetrators. Bessel is refreshingly dismissive about this selective and self-serving view that is now disturbingly current again in Germany, but he also makes the important point that it was part of a mental package that helps explain how the Germany that developed after the war did, in many respects, differ significantly from the old’
Literary Review April issue
‘This is an important book that investigates thoroughly a little known aspect of World War Two. First class’
Military Illustrated April issue
'The book that has stayed with me and made the deepest impression this year is Richard Bessell's Germany 1945... It is a spellbinding account which moves through the final months of war to the first months of peace and places at its heart what happened to Germans under the impace of mass destruction... Bessell manages to write about their experiences in a way that is moving, profound and unsentimental'
Nick Stargardt in History Today December issue
'Richard Bessel ... understands the difference between suffering and atonement, and with Germany 1945 he has produced a sober yet powerful account of the terrible year he calls the '"hinge" of the twentieth century in Europe'
International Herald Tribune

Quatrième de couverture :

1945 was the most pivotal year in Germany's modern history. As World War II drew to a devastating and violent close, the German people were confronted simultaneously with making sense of the horrors just passed and finding the strength and hope to move forward and rebuild. Richard Bessel offers a provocative portrait of Germany's emergence from catastrophe, and he astutely portrays the defeated nation's own sense of victimhood after the war, despite the crimes it had perpetrated.

The last months of the war were its bloodiest, as the Allied assault on Nazi Germany reached its climax. .In January alone, as many as one million people died violent deaths. Bessel captures the terrible suffering of these months in the destroyed cities; the acts of vengeance inflicted on Germans by the conquering Soviets, French, and Americans; as well as death marches and the extreme brutality of the Nazi regime against its own people. In spite of this horrific violence, by the end of 1945 people were beginning to put their lives back together and create the foundations of a postwar social, economic, and political culture.

Authoritative and dramatic, Germany 1945 is groundbreaking history that brilliantly explores the devastation and remarkable rebirth of Germany at the end of World War II. Bessel's startling narrative depicts perhaps the most important transition of modern times: from the worst outburst of violence in human history to a period of relative peace, prosperity, and civilized behavior. Ultimately, it is a success story, a story of life after death.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Harper
• Date d'édition: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0060540362
• ISBN 13: 9780060540364
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 544