The Culture of Defeat: On National Trauma, Mourning, and Recovery

A fascinating look at history's losers—the myths they create to cope with defeat and the steps they take never to be vanquished again.

History may be written by the victors, Wolfgang Schivelbusch argues in his brilliant and provocative book, but the losers often have the final word. Focusing on three seminal cases of modern warfare—the South after the Civil War, France in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War, and Germany following World War I—Schivelbusch reveals the complex psychological and...