The Long Road Home: The Aftermath of the Second World War - Couverture rigide

Shephard, Ben

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 140004068X ISBN 13 : 9781400040681

Editeur : Alfred a Knopf Inc, 2011

Synopsis

The Long Road Home An acclaimed historian offers a radical reassessment of the aftermath of World War II through personal accounts and major new sources--including memoirs, essays, and oral histories. "The Long Road Home" tells the epic story of how millions redefined the notion of home amid painstaking recovery. Full description

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

At the end of World War II, long before an Allied victory was assured and before the scope of the atrocities orchestrated by Hitler would come into focus or even assume the name of the Holocaust, Allied forces had begun to prepare for its aftermath. Taking cues from the end of the First World War, planners had begun the futile task of preparing themselves for a civilian health crisis that, due in large part to advances in medical science, would never come. The problem that emerged was not widespread disease among Europe’s population, as anticipated, but massive displacement among those who had been uprooted from home and country during the war.

Displaced Persons, as the refugees would come to be known, were not comprised entirely of Jews. Millions of Latvians, Poles, Ukrainians, and Yugoslavs, in addition to several hundred thousand Germans, were situated in a limbo long overlooked by historians. While many were speedily repatriated, millions of refugees refused to return to countries that were forever changed by the war—a crisis that would take years to resolve and would become the defining legacy of World War II. Indeed many of the postwar questions that haunted the Allied planners still confront us today: How can humanitarian aid be made to work? What levels of immigration can our societies absorb? How can an occupying power restore prosperity to a defeated enemy?

Including new documentation in the form of journals, oral histories, and essays by actual DPs unearthed during his research for this illuminating and radical reassessment of history, Ben Shephard brings to light the extraordinary stories and myriad versions of the war experienced by the refugees and the new United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration that would undertake the responsibility of binding the wounds of an entire continent. Groundbreaking and remarkably relevant to conflicts that continue to plague peacekeeping efforts, The Long Road Home tells the epic story of how millions redefined the notion of home amid painstaking recovery.

Quatrième de couverture :

'Even today, thousands of people displaced by the Second World War remain unaccounted for - The Long Road Home speaks for them by proxy and with proper sympathy' Sunday Telegraph


After the Great War, the millions killed on the battlefields were eclipsed by the millions more civilians carried off by disease and starvation when the conflict was over. Haunted by memories, the Allies were determined that the end of the Second World War would not be followed by a similar disaster, and they began to lay plans long before victory was assured.
Confronted by an entire continent starving and uprooted, Allied planners devised strategies to help all 'displaced persons', and repatriate the fifteen million people who had been deprived of their homes and in many cases forced to work for the Germans. But over a million Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians and Yugoslavs refused to go home.
This book offers a radical reassessment of the aftermath of World War II. Unlike most recent writing about the 1940s, it assesses the events and personalities of that decade in terms of contemporary standards and values. This the true and epic story of how millions ultimately found relief, reconciliation and a place to call home.

'A thoughtful retelling of an important and timely story' Literary Review

'Excellent..his research is meticulous' Independent

'Ben Shephard's book is not always an easy read, but it an immensely rewarding one. It is difficult to see how it could be bettered' Daily Telegraph

'A riveting and often entirely fresh story, shrewdly assembled, very well told' Guardian

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Alfred a Knopf Inc
• Date d'édition: 2011
• ISBN 10: 140004068X
• ISBN 13: 9781400040681
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 489