Settling Scores: German Music, Denazification, and the Americans, 1945-1953

Can a victorious army of occupation reform the culture of a defeated nation? How do military governors judge the culpability of cultural leaders, measure an elite's readiness for democracy, and lead a population to new ways of thinking? These questions are at the heart of this study of American efforts to remake German cultural life in the decade after World War II.

Classical music was central to German national identity in the early twentieth century. The preeminence of composers such as B...