Description
Book Synopsis Although “entanglement” has become a keyword in recent German history scholarship, entangled studies of the postwar era have largely limited their scope to politics and economics across the two Germanys while giving short shrift to social and cultural phenomena like gender. At the same time, historians of gender in Germany have tended to treat East and West Germany in isolation, with little attention paid to intersections and interrelationships between the two countries. This groundbreaking collection synthesizes the perspectives of entangled history and gender studies, bringing together established as well as upcoming scholars to investigate the ways in which East and West German gender relations were culturally, socially, and politically intertwined.
Trade Review “This volume achieves a tremendous feat in its breadth, though its forte lies in its diverse contexts, uses, and understandings of gender—including its co-constituency with race and sexuality… This collection offers a much-needed re-narrativization of a divided Germany that centers gender, race, and sex in the shaping of citizenry during postwar nation-making.” • Feminist German Studies
“The volume as a whole offers an impressive range and breadth of research and is both robust and accessible. The choice of the editors to invite younger scholars to contribute chapters is a further strength of the volume, the result being a clear willingness to question previous approaches and to open new avenues for research.” • German History
“[This volume] deals with a fascinating but largely by historical research neglected field…[it] convincingly does justice to its claim enrich traditional historiography and to treat contemporary history as gender history.” • Sehepunkte
“Applied to the Cold War, this volume shows in a striking way how ubiquitous and effective gender was as a regulatory category in all areas of political, cultural, and social life in the divided Germany. With its inspiring take, its analytically precise approach, and the various thematical focal points, the book offers a well structured and most interesting panorama of the time after 1945.” • H-Soz-Kult
“The novel contributions in this volume represent truly innovative research and impressive new findings well contextualized by theory. The editors have done a brilliant job of reviewing the histography across the areas of Germany, history, and gender.” • Myra Max Ferree, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“Gendering Post-1945 German History provides real analytical insights and excellent state-of-the-literature essays that otherwise would be inaccessible to most readers. The scholarship in this volume will be essential for specialists and students alike.” • Elizabeth Heineman, University of Iowa
Table of Contents List of Illustrations
List of Contributors
Preface
Introduction: Gendering Post-1945 German History: Entanglements
Karen Hagemann, Donna Harsch, and Friederike Brühöfener
PART I: GENDERING THE HISTORIOGRAPHY
Chapter 1. Entanglements of Gender, Politics, and Protest in the Historiography on the Two Post-1945 Germanys
Karen Hagemann and Donna Harsch
Chapter 2. Entangled Gender Relations and Sexuality in the Historiography on the Two Post-1945 Germanys
Jennifer Evans
Chapter 3. Contact Zones and Boundary Objects: The Media and Entangled Representations of Gender
Erica Carter
PART II: GENDER, POLITICS, AND POLICIES
Chapter 4. The Big Cleanup: Men, Women, and Rubble Clearance in Postwar East and West Germany
Leonie Treber
Chapter 5. Children, Church, and Rights: East and West German Protests against Family Law Reforms in the 1950s
Alexandria Ruble
Chapter 6. Gendering Health Politics: East and West German Healthcare Systems in Comparison, 1950–1970
Donna Harsch
PART III: GENDERED RESISTANCE, PROTEST, AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Chapter 7. Under the Habit: Resistance of Catholic Sisters against East German State Authority in the 1950s
Kathryn C. Julian
Chapter 8. Finding Feminism: Rethinking Activism in the West German New Women’s Movement of the 1970s and 1980s
Sarah E. Summers
Chapter 9. Redefining the Political: The Gender of Activism in Grassroots Movements of the 1960s to 1980s
Belinda Davis
Chapter 10. Connected Differences: Black German Feminists and Their Transnational Connections of the 1980s and 1990s
Tiffany N. Florvil
PART IV: GENDER RELATIONS AND SEXUALITY
Chapter 11. Domestic Abuse and Women’s Lives: East and West Policies during the 1960s and 1970s
Jane Freeland
Chapter 12. Searching for Identity: 1950s Homophile Politics in West Germany and Its Roots in the Weimar Homosexual Movement
Clayton J. Whisnant
Chapter 13. Contested Masculinities: Debates about Homosexuality in the West German Bundeswehr in 1960s and 1970s
Friederike Brühöfener
PART V: THE MEDIA AND REPRESENTATIONS OF GENDER
Chapter 14. In the Presence of the Past, in the Shadow of the “Other”: Women Journalists in Postwar Germany
Deborah Barton
Chapter 15. Entangled Femininities: Contested Representations of Women in the East and West German Illustrated Press of the 1950s
Jennifer Lynn
Chapter 16. Gendered Orientalism: Representations of “the Turkish” in the West German Press of the 1970s and 1980s
Brittany Lehman
Index of Names
Index of Subjects
