Abstract
This book is the latest addition to the rich Oxford Handbooks series, comprising 31 chapters that range from the Belle Epoque up until the post-Second World War period, including contemporary issues of memory. The chapters are coherently organized into seven parts: Europe and the First World War; Recasting Europe, c. 1917–1924; Interwar Europe and the wider World; Politics, Society, and Ideology between the Wars; Themes; Europe and the Second World War; and Recasting Europe, Again. Some of the chapters that focus on economic or demographic changes include very helpful tables and graphs, and the volume ends with a thorough index that will facilitate cross-referencing for its readers. Less western-centred than many edited collections and volumes of the type, the book builds on transnationalism and the rise of global approaches to modern Europe, and thus expands the geographical scope of other major survey histories of twentieth century Europe. This will no doubt please undergraduate students and lecturers alike as universities are increasingly offering pan-European modules. Similarly, many chapters throughout the volume engage with extra European relations and strive to situate European history within a wider context.
The choice of the period 1914–45 allows the contributors to take fresh approaches to European history. As Doumanis explains in the introduction, the periodization challenges short twentieth-century approaches which, with the exception of Dark Continent by Mark Mazower (1998), ‘tend to say more about the nature of the second half than the first’ (p. 8). Consequently, by focusing on the 1914–45 period, the book sets out to consider the ‘darkening’ of Europe. It focuses on ‘the relationship between state and society, and revolutionary changes in that relationship’ from within the history of modernity ‘and specifically how Europeans experienced that transition and how they were transformed by it’ (p. 9). However, contributors do not focus on the ‘failure’ of postwar peace-making that has long dominated studies on the Versailles Treaty and the League of Nations. Rather, many chapters in parts II, III and IV offer readers ways to reconsider the efforts of pacifists and internationalists to establish global security, health organizations and human rights in the interwar period.
The book centres on the political violence that characterized the end of the long-nineteenth century. Empires, the world wars, and political experimentation all gave rise to forms of violence that dominated the first half of the twentieth century and which are discussed throughout the volume. Violence also infiltrated the private life of civilians – including women and children – at all levels of society. This relates to the second key theme of the book, that of the everyday. This theme traverses all seven parts of the book with some excellent contributions on masses (part four) and a rich chapter on everyday life during the Second World War by Christoph Mick. The volume does not only set out to discuss the well-researched issues of relationships between states and ordinary people but also considers how ‘total war established a new social contract whereby the state was now expected to secure the welfare of society, while ordinary Europeans were required to serve the state, prioritize its interests, and subscribe to its culture’ (pp. 5–6). Consequently, a large place is given to thinking about the role of non-governmental, local and private initiatives, such as in Chapter 7 on nation states and minorities by Ryan Gingeras, or about community and family life, as in Chapter 3 on total war by Tammy M. Proctor.
By building on and signalling fresh developments in the history of internationalism, humanitarianism and soft power, the book will allow undergraduates and lecturers alike to gain an understanding of how historians have thought about European history in the first part of the twentieth century. In that respect, Chapter 22 by Marco Duranti offers especially exciting avenues of research on human rights and romantic internationalism. Beyond its insightful analyses of the period and of the state of the field, the book also indicates potential directions for future research. For example, the editor encourages scholars of modern Europe to take a growing interest in popular subjectivities, for ‘ordinary people were the subject of 1914–1945’ (p. 7). All in all, the book presents much more than a general overview of European history. It successfully offers a transnational history of Europe rather than an aggregation of parallel national histories while conveying the political and cultural differences that characterized Western and Eastern Europe at the time. Moreover, it assigns great importance to Europe’s entanglement with the wider world, be it through imperialism or relations of diplomacy and war. It will therefore be indispensable reading for students and scholars of modern Europe.