Cataclysms : a history of the twentieth century from Europe's edge / Dan Diner ; translated by William Templer with Joel Golb.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Diner, Dan, 1946-

Series:

George L. Mosse series in modern European cultural and intellectual history.

George L. Mosse series in modern European cultural and intellectual history

Standardized Title:

Jahrhundert verstehen. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History, Modern--20th century.

History, Modern.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (332 p.)

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Cataclysms is a profoundly original look at the last century. Approaching twentieth-century history from the periphery rather than the centers of decision-making, the virtual narrator sits perched on the legendary stairs of Odessa and watches as events between the Baltic and the Aegean pass in review, unfolding in space and time between 1917 and 1989, while evoking the nineteenth century as an interpretative backdrop. Influenced by continental historical, legal, and social thought, Dan Diner views the totality of world history evolving from an Eastern and Southeastern European angle. A work of great synthesis, Cataclysms chronicles twentieth century history as a "universal civil war" between a succession of conflicting dualisms such as freedom and equality, race and class, capitalism and communism, liberalism and fascism, East and West. Diner's interpretation rotates around cataclysmic events in the transformation from multinational empires into nation states, accompanied by social revolution and "ethnic cleansing, " situating the Holocaust at the core of the century's predicament. Unlike other Eurocentric interpretations of the last century, Diner also highlights the emerging pivotal importance of the United States and the impact of decolonization on the process of European integration.

Contents:

""Contents""; ""Introduction""; ""1 Interpretations: Two Varieties of Universal Civil War""; ""2 Conversions: Nation and Revolution""; ""3 Regimes: Democracy and Dictatorship""; ""4 Cataclysms: Genocide and Memory""; ""5 Dualisms: Decolonization and the Cold War""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Notes""; ""Index""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-301) and index.

ISBN:

9786612255908

9781282255906

1282255908

9780299223533

0299223531

OCLC:

318240553