Europe in 1945 was prostrate. Much of the continent was devastated by war, mass slaughter, bombing and chaos. Large areas of Eastern Europe were falling under Soviet control, exchanging one despotism for another. Today, the Soviet Union is no more and the democracies of the European Union reach as far as the borders of Russia itself.
Postwar tells the rich and complex story of how we got from there to here. Running right up to the Iraq war and the election of Benedict XVI, Postwar makes sense of Europe's recent history and identity, of what Europe is and has been. It is nothing less than a masterpiece.
Shortlisted for the Pulitzer and Samuel Johnson Prizes.
Winner of the Arthur Ross Book Award.
Chapter 3: The Rehabilitation of Europe
Chapter 4: The Impossible Settlement
Chapter 5: The Coming of the Cold War
Chapter 8: The Politics of Stability
Chapter 10: The Age of Affluence
POSTSCRIPT: A Tale of Two Economies
Chapter 11: The Social Democratic Moment
Chapter 12: The Spectre of Revolution
Chapter 13: The End of the Affair
Chapter 14: Diminished Expectations
Chapter 15: Politics in a New Key
Chapter 16: A Time of Transition
Chapter 18: The Power of the Powerless
Chapter 19: The End of the Old Order
Chapter 20: A Fissile Continent
Chapter 22: The Old Europe—and the New
Chapter 23: The Varieties of Europe
Chapter 24: Europe as a Way of Life
Epilogue: From the House of the Dead