Explaining Auschwitz and Hiroshima by Richard J B Bosworth

Explaining Auschwitz and Hiroshima by Richard J B Bosworth

Explaining Auschwitz and Hiroshima explores the way in which the main combatant societies of the Second World War have historicised that experience. Since 1945, debates in Germany about `the past that would not fade away' have been reasonably well-known. But in this book, Richard Bosworth maintains that Germany is not unique. He argues that in Britain, France, Italy, the USSR and Japan, as well as in Germany the traumatic history of the `long Second World War' has remained crucial to the culture and the politics of post-war societies. Each has felt a compelling need to interpret this past event and thus to `explain' `Auschwitz' and `Hiroshima'. Bosworth explores the bitter controversies that have developed around a particular interpretation of the war, such as disputes over A.J.P. Taylor's, Origins of the Second World War , Marcel Ophul's film, The Sorrow and the Pity , Renzo De Felice's biography of Mussolini in the 1970s or in post- Glasnost debates about the historiographies of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Richard Bosworth's book is a wide-ranging and thoughtful excursion into comparative history.

`.. thought-provoking and widely researched study of history-writing since 1945.' - Contemporary European History

`It is a very witty and erudite discussion of what historians in the combatant countries have made of the horrors of the Second War World.' - Scotland on Sunday

`This is an extremely valuable, thought-provoking book. It undertakes an ambitious task of relating the study of history in many countries to the cataclysmic developments of the Second World War - not just the battles fought, but including the rise of fascism, domestic divisions, and atrocities committed at home and abroad ... This is an enormously complex story, but the author presents it thoughtfully and imaginatively, always asking the crucial question, how history affects a historian, and how a historian shapes history.' - Akira Iriye, Harvard University

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780415109239
ISBN 10	041510923X
Title	Explaining Auschwitz and Hiroshima
Author	Richard J B Bosworth
Series	The New International History
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Taylor & Francis Ltd
Year published	1994-04-28
Number of pages	278
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.