Ruin and Renewal: Civilizing Europe After World War II

Ruin and Renewal: Civilizing Europe After World War II

by Paul Betts
Ruin and Renewal: Civilizing Europe After World War II

Ruin and Renewal: Civilizing Europe After World War II

by Paul Betts

Hardcover(New Edition)

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Overview

Winner of the American Philosophical Society’s 2021 Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History

From an award-winning historian, a panoramic account of Europe after the depravity of World War II.

In 1945, Europe lay in ruins. Some fifty million people were dead, and millions more languished in physical and moral disarray. The devastation of World War II was unprecedented in character as well as in scale. Unlike the First World War, the second blurred the line between soldier and civilian, inflicting untold horrors on people from all walks of life. A continent that had previously considered itself the very measure of civilization for the world had turned into its barbaric opposite.

Reconstruction, then, was a matter of turning Europe's "civilizing mission" inward. In this magisterial work, Oxford historian Paul Betts describes how this effort found expression in humanitarian relief work, the prosecution of war crimes against humanity, a resurgent Catholic Church, peace campaigns, expanded welfare policies, renewed global engagement and numerous efforts to salvage damaged cultural traditions. Authoritative and sweeping, Ruin and Renewal is essential reading for anyone hoping to understand how Europe was transformed after the destruction of World War II.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781541672468
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication date: 11/17/2020
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 544
Sales rank: 651,215
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Paul Betts is a professor of European history at St. Antony's College, Oxford, and the author of several books, most recently Within Walls: Private Life in the German Democratic Republic, which won the Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History. He lives in Oxford, England.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Old World Made New 1

1 Call to Alms 31

2 Punishment and Pity 75

3 Faith and Frontiers 125

4 Science, Shelter, and Civility 173

5 Empire Reclaimed 223

6 Decolonization and African Civilization: Ghana, Algeria, and Senegal 267

7 World Civilization 311

8 Socialism's Civilizing Mission in Africa 345

9 Religion, Race, and Multiculturalism 383

Conclusion: New Iron Curtains 429

Afterword and Acknowledgments 457

Notes 463

Index 521

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