Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWell-researched. . . . Bottom line: of greatest interest and utility for beginning students in survey courses. Recommended. * CHOICE *
This exciting collection of essays lends a fresh perspective on enduring themes that form the core of modern European history. It engages students in critical historical moments by highlighting the best of the human spirit in victories, small and large, against oppression or on behalf of creative and unusual paths to liberation. -- Elinor Accampo, University of Southern California
An ideal volume of selected readings for courses on Western civilization and modern Europe. The editors' introductions to each essay paint the broad picture, placing each in its historical context in a manner easily accessible to students. Taken together, the chapters illustrate the complexities and range of the human experience, paying attention to gender and race within a larger socio-political and cultural arena. The focus on individuals—on ordinary women and men as agents of historical change—makes this volume of original research unique and of great interest. -- Rachel Fuchs, Arizona State University
Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: The French Revolution: Defining the Nation: The Abbé Grégoire and the Problem of Diversity in the French Revolution Chapter 2: The Age of Reaction and Revolutions in the Early Nineteenth Century: Arnold Ruge: Radicalism in a Reactionary Society Chapter 3: Industrialization and the Rise of Marxism: The World of Textile Work: French Industrial Workers and the Labor Movement Chapter 4: Victorian Culture and Travel Writing: Alison Cunningham: Victorian Leisure Travel, Religious Identity, and the Grand Tour Journal of a Domestic Servant Chapter 5: New Imperialism: Strategies of Inclusion: Lajpat Rai and the Critique of British Raj Chapter 6: Fin de Siècle Culture and the New Woman: Colette: The New Woman Takes the Stage in Belle Époque France Chapter 7: World War I and Literary Responses: "All Quiet" on the Don and the Western Front: Mikhail Sholokhov and Erich Maria Remarque Respond to World War I Chapter 8: Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union: "Ask the Doctor!:" Peasants and Medical-Sexual Advice in Riazon Province, 1925–1928 Chapter 9: Italian Fascism: In the Name of an Italian Widow: Nationalism, Patriotism, and Gender in Mussolini's Fascist Italy Chapter 10: Nazism and the Holocaust: The Herbert Baum Groups: Networks of Jewish, Leftist, and Youth Resistance in the Third Reich Chapter 11: Decolonization and Postcolonial Memory: Imperialists without an Empire: Cercles Coloniaux and Colonial Culture in Belgium after 1960 Chapter 12: Americanization and Postwar Modernization: Adriano Olivetti: Agent of the Italian-American Exchange in the Postwar Years Chapter 13: 1968 Youth Revolts: Ab-Normalization: The Plastic People of the Universe and the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia Chapter 14: 1989 and the Collapse of the Soviet Bloc: Why Not All Germans Celebrated the Fall of the Berlin Wall: East German Jews and the Collapse of Communism
