Description
Book SynopsisHow and why did Europe spawn dictatorships and violence in the first half of the 20th century, and then, after 1945 in the west and after 1989 in the east, create successful civilian societies? This book explains the rise and fall of the men of violence whose wars and civil wars twice devastated large areas of the European continent and Russia.
Trade Review"This is a most thought-provoking and penetrating study, based on superb scholarship and written by a masterly mind."--Stanley Hoffman, Foreign Affairs "[Berghahn] writes essentially and succinctly about what he characterizes as the 'men of violence' and the horrors they wrought upon the world. Focusing on German leaders and military and their conduct in wars and civil strife, Berghahn argues powerfully for German responsibility in WWI as well as WWII."--Choice "In an insightful discussion, [Berghahn] makes direct connections between German brutalities in Africa (against the Hereros, for example) and aggressive, social Darwinist modes of thought that produced the Schlieffen Plan and other indications of the increasing European propensity to resort to violence... Berghahn's spare and gripping account of these events incorporates much recent historical literature."--Hunt Toohey, Independent Review "An outstanding ... thoughtful, highly stimulating ... [and] convincing essay about the long epoch of violence during the past century."--Hartmut Kaelble, H-Soz-u-Kult "Berghahn's book is well worth reading. It will also function well in university courses on modern Europe as a short, well-argued and provocative supplement to traditional textbooks. Being very clearly plotted as the narrative of a struggle between good and evil, it might even serve to illustrate a few of Hayden White's points about the use of literary conventions by historians."--Nils Arne Sorensen, European History Quarterly
Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE: Europe before World War I, 1895-1914 7 Industrial Economy and Civil Society 7 The Curse of Ethnonationalism and Colonialism 15 Premonitions of Total War 26 CHAPTER TWO: Violence Unleashed, 1914-1923 33 Mobilization, 1914 33 The Totalization of Warfare 39 The Wars after the Great War 47 CHAPTER THREE: Recivilization and Its Failure, 1924-1935 58 The Short Dream of Prosperity for All 58 Militarism 70 The Stalinist Experiment in Violence 75 CHAPTER FOUR: Violence without Bounds, 1935-1945 82 Total Mobilization in Peacetime 82 Terroristic Warfare 99 Visions of a New European Order 113 CONCLUSIONS 130 Notes 143 Selected Bibliography 153 Chronology 155 Index 159
