Out of Ashes: A New History of Europe in the Twentieth Century

by Konrad H. Jarausch, Konrad H. Jarausch (Preface by)

Overview

A sweeping history of twentieth-century Europe that examines its unprecedented destruction—and abiding promise

A sweeping history of twentieth-century Europe, Out of Ashes tells the story of an era of unparalleled violence and barbarity yet also of humanity, prosperity, and promise.

Konrad Jarausch describes how the European nations emerged from the nineteenth century with high hopes for continued material progress and proud of their imperial command over the globe, only to become embroiled in the bloodshed of World War I, which brought an end to their optimism and gave rise to competing democratic, communist, and fascist ideologies. He shows how the 1920s witnessed renewed hope and a flourishing of modernist art and literature, but how the decade ended in economic collapse and gave rise to a second, more devastating world war and genocide on an unprecedented scale. Jarausch further explores how Western Europe surprisingly recovered due to American help and political integration. Finally, he examines how the Cold War pushed the divided continent to the brink of nuclear annihilation, and how the unforeseen triumph of liberal capitalism came to be threatened by Islamic fundamentalism, global economic crisis, and an uncertain future.

A gripping narrative, Out of Ashes explores the paradox of the European encounter with modernity in the twentieth century, shedding new light on why it led to cataclysm, inhumanity, and self-destruction, but also social justice, democracy, and peace.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691173078
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	08/29/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	888
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Konrad H. Jarausch is the Lurcy Professor of European Civilization at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction: The European Paradox 1

Part I: Promise of Progress, 1900−1929

1. Global Domination 19

2. Breakdown of Peace 46

3. Waging Total War 73

4. Bolshevik Revolution 102

5. Democratic Hopes 128

6. Fascist Alternative 155

7. Modernist Provocations 181

Part II: Turn to Self-Destruction, 1929−45

8. Devastating Depression 209

9. Stalinist Modernization 235

10. Hitler's Volksgemeinschaft 261

11. Unleashing World War II 287

12. Axis Conquest 314

13. Nazi Holocaust 341

14. Bitter Victory 369

Part III: Surprising Recovery, 1945−73

15. Democratic Renewal 399

16. Dictating Communism 426

17. Cold War Crises 452

18. Disappointing Decolonization 480

19. Economic Integration 506

20. Pop and Prosperity 533

21. Planning Social Reform 559

Part IV: Confronting Globalization, 1973−2000

22. Revolt against Modernity 587

23. Postindustrial Transition 613

24. Return to Détente 639

25. Peaceful Revolution 666

26. Transforming the East 694

27. Global Challenges 721

28. Prospects for the Twenty-first Century 747

Postscript: A Chastened Modernity 773

Acknowledgments 789

Notes 791

Index 851

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Out of Ashes is the magnum opus of an outstanding scholar. Konrad Jarausch narrates the rise, fall, and rebirth of Europe in the twentieth century as an unparalleled drama full of dark sides and catastrophes, but also of progress and hope. He makes the study of European history an intellectual adventure again."—Jürgen Kocka, Free University of Berlin

"Europe's Faustian bargain is the subject of Konrad Jarausch's authoritative new history of Europe. This is a history of the groundswell of material progress—from science and technology to production and consumption—and the inability to master it. The failure to meet these challenges spiraled into a devastating politics of destruction in the First and Second World Wars that was stopped only at the cost of a Cold War. Would the collapse of 1989 jump-start a new and more modest European order in a global world? Out of Ashes points to the lessons learned as well as to the current predicaments Europe faces."—Michael Geyer, University of Chicago

"This is a well-written, well-organized, and detailed study of a notoriously difficult subject: Europe in the twentieth century. Jarausch deftly guides readers through the important developments that led through two wars to our unstable present."—John Connelly, author of From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews, 1933-1965

"Out of Ashes is an extremely well-conceived and highly ambitious book. What Jarausch has pulled off is a fully balanced, elegantly integrated history of a long twentieth century in which the pre-1914 era and the post-1989 years are vital parts of the interpretation."—Peter Fritzsche, author of Life and Death in the Third Reich

"This book is a sweeping study of twentieth-century European history, read through the lens of multiple modernities. Written by one of the leading lights of modern German and European history, Out of Ashes has the power to stake its place as a volume of truly lasting value."—Belinda J. Davis, author of Home Fires Burning: Food, Politics, and Everyday Life in World War I Berlin

Editorial Reviews

"A sweeping survey."

New York Times

"Jarausch has written a groundbreaking study of 20th-century European history."

Choice

"Konrad Jarausch's ambitious and sprawling new book, Out of Ashes, seems like a text for our times. . . . Jarausch examines Europe's recent past, pursuing a fundamental question—namely, what is modernization?—that connects the continent's violently ideological ‘dark times' to its postwar renewal and ambiguous future."

Commonweal

Out of Ashes doesn't pretend to any overarching explanation…A narrative based on very wide reading in several languages, it might be called an old-fashioned book by an old-fashioned historian, which are not words of dispraise in this reviewer's vocabulary.

The New York Times Book Review - Geoffrey Wheatcroft

★ 04/06/2015
Jarausch (After Hitler), a historian at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, examines 20th-century Europe through three distinct kinds of ideological and cultural modernities—democratic, communist, and fascist—that struggled for mastery until the democratic and democratic-socialist versions won out. There’s little Jarausch doesn’t cover in steady, stately prose. He never loses sight of the alternative, contingent courses Europe could have taken at each juncture. Art, music, and literature fill the pages alongside politics, diplomacy, and war. Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union get their full due. While the major figures of Europe don’t come as thoroughly alive as they might, Jarausch compensates by brilliantly linking the century’s historical developments together and showing how reactions against modernity always made themselves felt along the way, often with disastrous results. While fitting everything into the mold of modernity (and, toward the end, postmodernism) can become reductionist, this organizing motif and Jarausch’s authoritativeness carry the day. The work isn’t designed to be encyclopedic, yet it should be on the shelf of everyone seeking a panoramic, narrative guide to history’s most violent century. This comprehensive history of 20th-century Europe is bound to become the standard work on its subject: a bold, major achievement. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Sweepingly comprehensive . . . highly commended."

Uniting for Peace

Winner of the 2016 Bronisław Geremek Prize, College of Europe

Honorable Mention for the 2016 PROSE Award in European & World History, Association of American Publishers

From the Publisher

2015-04-01
Massive but well-contained and richly detailed account of history's bloodiest century. Even confined to Europe, the victims of the 20th century number in the millions. Jarausch (European Civilization/Univ. of North Carolina; After Hitler: Recivilizing Germans, 1945-1995, 2006, etc.) examines the origins and effects of the bloodletting: in, among other things, "unbridled nationalism among the policy elites as well as the popular masses" and an equally unbridled belief in Social Darwinist notions that supposed inferiors were rightly destined to extinction at the hands of history's winners. There were positive trends, as well. The years immediately following World War I, writes the author, showed a rapid growth in democracy, though within two decades, all but one "turned into nationalist authoritarian regimes." So vast a canvas leaves Jarausch room to explore fruitful themes, among them the origins of the dystopian view that machines represent "a mechanized menace," the stock in trade of science fiction from H.G. Wells' time to our own. One does not have to read far between the lines to sense that Jarausch is sympathetic to the foundational ideals of the League of Nations and United Nations in abolishing the "nation-state as the basic unit of politics," which, of course, never happened. The nation-state is alive and well, as is the demand for national sovereignty and the constant pulling at the edges of entities like the European Union (and the U.N., for that matter). The text can be eye-glazing at times ("The introduction of comprehensive secondary schools was a progressive move, but the requirement of political loyalty showed that education was instrumentalized for the maintenance of party power"), but for the most part, Jarausch's study of people and states in conflict is both accessible and coherent. Comprehensive and with a convincing closing defense of the best of European ideals as contrasted with the "prescriptions of military strength, unilateral intervention, unrestrained speculation, and social conservatism" that prevail on the other side of the Atlantic.

Kirkus Reviews