Anatomy of a Dictatorship by Mary Fulbrook
Founded on the ruins of Hitler's defeated Third Reich, and lacking any intrinsic legitimacy, the German Democratic Republic nevertheless became the most stable and successful state in the Soviet bloc. Yet in the 'gentle revolution' of 1989 it collapsed with startling speed. How can this extraordinary story of political stability followed by sudden implosion be explained? With the opening of the East German archives, it is at last possible to look inside the apparently impregnable dictatorship. Mary Fulbrook provides a compelling interpretation of structures of power and patterns of popular opinion within the GDR. This absorbing study explores the ways in which the tentacles of the all-pervading state captured East German society in the grip of Stasi, party, and mass organizations, and analyses the emergence in the 1980s of oppositional cultures under the ambivalent shelter of a Protestant Church which had come to terms with the communist state. In combining careful archival research with broader theoretical and historical interpretation, Anatomy of a Dictatorship makes a major contribution to debates on recent German history and the character of contemporary Germany.Educated at Cambridge and Harvard, Professor Mary Fulbrook is Dean of the Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences at UCL (University College London) and a Fellow of the British Academy.She is the author of numerous books, including: overviews such as A Concise History of Germany and A History of Germany 1918-2008: The Divided Nation; as well as seminal works on the GDR, such as Anatomy of a Dictatorship: Inside the GDR and The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker, as well as Dissonant Lives: Generations and Violence through the German Dictatorships; and works on Historical Theory and German National Identity after the Holocaust. Her most recent book is the prize-winning A Small Town near Auschwitz: Ordinary Nazis and the Holocaust.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780198203124 |
| ISBN 10 | 0198203128 |
| Title | Anatomy of a Dictatorship |
| Author | Mary Fulbrook |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Year published | 1995-10-05 |
| Number of pages | 320 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |