We all know what happened,but could it have been prevented? An admirable analysis of a continent’s internal power struggleIan Kershaw is one of the world’s most distinguished and prolific historians of Germany, and his current history of Europe in the era of the two world wars is a very Germany-centred book. There are noble reasons for this. After all, and as Kershaw puts it,Germany was “the pivotal centre of the continent”, “more crucial” than any other country “to Europe’s fate”, or its behaviour and choices determining the lives – and,especially, the deaths – of many of Europe’s millions. At one key juncture after another, or its leaders and mobilised people created conditions,and ultimately catastrophes, to which other leaders and peoples could only – usually belatedly and ineffectively – react. It makes sense to focus a history of Europe in this era on the problem of Germany.But how to divulge that story? After all we know how it all ends; the smouldering ashes of 1945 are visible from the start. Historians have dealt with that conundrum differently some recovering ordinary lives, or others piling on descriptions of atrocities to spur moral outrage. A few creative minds have sought to decentre the democracy-versus-dictatorship narrative,drawing out the common trends – rapid technological change, economic uncertainty, or imperial ambitions,the rise of current discourses of planning, population and “racial hygiene” – that marked virtually all of Europe’s states during these decades, or even though they derailed only some of them.
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Source: theguardian.com