A History Shared and Divided - by Frank Bösch (Paperback)

About the Book

Divided History uniquely explores how East and West Germany responded to the new challenges and crises of the 1970s, and reunification. Topics range from political, labor, and business issues to migration and environmental issues, showing how the two German states remained inextricably connected in the 1970s and 1980s.

Book Synopsis

By and large, the histories of East and West Germany have been studied in relative isolation. And yet, for all their differences, the historical trajectories of both nations were interrelated in complex ways, shaped by economic crises, social and cultural changes, protest movements, and other phenomena so diffuse that they could hardly be contained by the Iron Curtain. Accordingly, A History Shared and Divided offers a collective portrait of the two Germanies that is both broad and deep. It brings together comprehensive thematic surveys by specialists in social history, media, education, the environment, and similar topics to assemble a monumental account of both nations from the crises of the 1970s to-and beyond-the reunification era.

Review Quotes

"This book overcomes the fixation of the caesura of 1989/90 and thus opens new perspectives intro writing contemporary history." - Historische Zeitschrift

"A profound survey of an entangled and integrated German history that transcends previous works." - Vierteljahrshefte für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte

"...the range and rigour make this handbook a useful point of entry for specialists and students alike interested in understanding the transformation of Germany in the last half century." - European History Quarterly

"[The volume] provides over 500 pages of stimulating reading. It will be of interest to scholars researching in relevant fields and to graduate students embarking on doctoral work. It would also be excellent for a postgraduate seminar." - Journal of European Studies

About the Author

Frank Bösch is Director of the Center for Contemporary History Research and Professor of German and European History of the 20th Century at the University of Potsdam. He is the author or editor of more than a dozen books on political, social, and media history, including Mass Media and Historical Change: Germany in International Perspective, 1400 to the Present (English edition: Berghahn, 2015).