Tom Buchanan. Europe's Troubled Peace, 1945-2000. Malden: Blackwell Publishers, 2006. xiii + 356 pp. $34.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-631-22163-0.
Robin W. Winks, John E. Talbott. Europe, 1945 to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. xv + 176 pp. $31.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-19-515692-8.
Reviewed by Elana Passman (Department of History, Indiana State University)
Published on H-German (September, 2006)
Teaching Post-1945 Europe
Teaching contemporary history poses new challenges each semester as the latest global conflicts and local developments compel us to re-evaluate course content, highlight particular themes and reframe the questions we ask ourselves and our students. Two new postwar European surveys approach the art of teaching contemporary history from quite different directions. Tom Buchanan's Europe's Troubled Peace 1945-2000 loosely follows a Cold War, West/East framework; it thus considers those years from a slight remove as a discrete historical period. In contrast, Europe 1945 to the Present, by the late Robin W. Winks and John E. Talbott, pointedly examines the postwar era through the lens of the present.
Buchanan's Europe's Troubled Peace 1945-2000 charts the trajectory from a war-torn continent to a "smaller, tamer and more homogeneous ... and in most ways better" Europe (p. 2). Although the book begins with the interwar era, its bulk is logically structured around the evolution of the Cold War, with chapters devoted either to the West or the East. A second narrative strand on the process of European integration splits the main story arc two-thirds of the way through the volume. This disruption emphasizes the simultaneity of Cold War divisions and Western cooperation just as it underscores the swift acceleration and expansion of the integration process since the signing of the Single European Act in 1986. The discussion of integration is followed by chapters on the decline of communism and the 1990s.
Buchanan manages to weave an enormous amount of information into his dense though not overly long account. The text gravitates toward political history: more weight is placed on the postwar (re)construction of political parties than on the reconstruction of cities. Regular breakdowns of election statistics in many nations prove useful for the teacher, if perhaps overwhelming for the average undergraduate or casual reader. Buchanan by no means limits his text to the political, however: his book is tightly packed with discussions of economics, society and culture both within individual countries and across regions. It likewise pursues threads on diplomacy, social welfare, religion, women and the arts.
Most impressively, Buchanan adopts and sustains a broad view of what constitutes Europe.[1] In particular, he pays attention to events and trends in regions that usually receive short shrift, from Portugal to Switzerland. Whereas other texts often neglect these areas because they do not fit easily into a Cold War metanarrative, Buchanan uses these countries' exceptionalism to his advantage. A section entitled "Between East and West: Finland, Austria and Yugoslavia," for example, points to the ways in which some nations "succeeded in straddling the Cold War divide" (pp. 89-90). Not only does Buchanan draw meaningful analytical connections among various countries, but he also takes care to make distinctions among nations often lumped together indiscriminately, such as the Scandinavian states.
The intellectual rigor of Buchanan's effort similarly shines forth through a number of comparisons that highlight contemporaries' self-conscious modeling upon historical precedent. A discussion of the Nuremberg Trials, for example, is linked to the U.N. tribunal on Yugoslavia (p. 31). More intriguingly, the legacy of the World War II-era European resistance movements is tied to both the Italian Red Brigades and the Danish anti-tax movement of the 1970s (pp. 19-20).
Buchanan's estimable scope and depth at times come at the expense of stylistic flair. The macro-approach that lends admirable coherence to the narrative threads often provides little sense of the human element. Amusing details, such as the "mountain of spam" that Americans sent to sustain the Soviet advance in 1944 (p. 22), occasionally enliven the book but, for the most part, Buchanan's text strikes an instructive rather than a captivating tone. As is commonly the case with writings on integration, Chapter 9, "European Integration: From Rome to Maastricht, 1957-1992," reads like an encyclopedia entry, crystal clear but rather stodgy.[2]
The volume's careful investigation of European regions beyond the Eastern and Western blocs stands out against the relatively minor notice given to developments beyond the geographical parameters of Europe that nonetheless shaped the course of European history. Coverage of decolonization is thin, aside from a section on the French in Algeria. Infrequent, scattered references to decolonization and associated migration patterns, along with the want of sustained analysis on these subjects, are all the more surprising given the author's introduction, in which he deems the legacy of empire one of the six most important issues facing postwar Europe (p. 2).[3]
These wrinkles aside, Europe's Troubled Peace will serve as a useful tool for teachers, graduate students and advanced undergraduates alike, but it is not suited for the faint-of-heart. The author regularly tosses out concepts without explicitly defining or explaining them. He assumes readers are comfortable with terms such as "Atlantic Wall" (p. 13), "Hiwi" (p. 14), "Coldiretti" (p. 93), "bidonville" (p. 126) and "Bundeswehr" (p. 275) as well as acronyms such as "MEP" (p. 1) that could trip up an American undergraduate.
If Buchanan's text stands as a fairly conventional history of Cold War Europe and its aftermath, Robin W. Winks and John E. Talbott's Europe 1945 to the Present offers a decidedly global, post-9/11 reappraisal of the last sixty years in Europe. To that end, the chapter entitled "Europe since 9/11" is significantly longer than the chapter on the collapse of Communism--a chapter that opens with Khrushchev, no less. With a nod to current entanglements, moreover, Winks and Talbott devote twice as much space to the Soviets in Afghanistan as to the Balkan Wars.
Winks and Talbott, seeking to connect with an undergraduate audience, pair this presentist outlook with deft forays into contemporary pop culture (in a section on postwar music, for example, the authors compare Eminem to Elvis). Indeed, clever allusions to pop culture make for colorful imagery and help illustrate points. The young Winston Churchill, for example, is painted as "a character right out of Indiana Jones" (p. 48). Examples of globalization range from the simultaneous world premieres of The Return of the King (2003) to Google, here depicted as a new iteration of Denis Diderot's Enlightenment project (p. 116). The up-to-the minute perspective, of course, risks becoming swiftly eclipsed by world events: the 2004 Madrid bombings are detailed, for example, but not the London bombings of July 2005. Recent conflicts over Muslim immigration are approached through the case of Theo van Gogh, but not the French riots of November 2005.
Winks and Talbott take pains to maintain a global outlook on European history. This strategy is especially welcome in the chapter on decolonization, which, for such a slim book digs both deeply and widely, with sections on Indochina, Algeria, India, Indonesia, the Middle East and the Congo. The volume, in fact, pays as much attention to Europe's ties to global (which often translates to American) developments as to those within individual countries. At times, however, this approach seems geared more toward attracting the attention of American undergraduates than toward delving into the particularities of European history. In the section "Popular Music from 45 RPM to I-Pod," Winks and Talbott note the popularity of American music and the diversity of its styles. Yet passing references to Bruce Springsteen and OutKast, for example, could have easily been swapped for The Plastic People of the Universe and Johnny Hallyday in order to make more complex points about the ways in which music (and the influence of America) has shaped national identity and political action in Europe. By the same token, a gripping account of the pitched battle between the NIH and Celera Genomics brings the high stakes of scientific research to life but does not spell out the feud's bearing on Europe.
A pared-down approach makes for remarkably clear explanations devoid of excess detail. But it also leads to shorthand and oversimplifications. The Prague Spring, for example, is described but never referred to by name. Germanists, for one, may be surprised to read that Konrad Adenauer was "forced to retire only because of age" (p. 58). What is more, they may balk at a discussion of the Berlin Airlift that neglects to mention currency reform and thus provide a Soviet rationale for a blockade (p. 10). The authors note a 1973 recession in France (p. 55) as well as economic difficulties in 1970s Britain (p. 49), West Germany (p. 59) and Italy (p. 61) but fail to connect these struggles to a far broader--and vital--international pattern, much less tie them to one another, or mention an oil crisis.
Part of a larger series on the history of Europe co-authored by Winks, Europe 1945 to the Present could be used alone in an undergraduate course on postwar Europe or in tandem with one or several of the pre-1945 volumes in a broader survey course. At 147 pages before notes, the length gives wary students no grounds for complaint. The thematic structure, with chapters on the Cold War, decolonization, Western Europe, the end of Communism, culture and post-9/11 Europe, helps elucidate important trends. Although this format could conceivably confuse true novices unarmed with a timeline (the discussion of America's war in Vietnam appears as early as pp.14-15), most students should have no trouble following the chronology. Perhaps due to Winks's sideline as a mystery novelist, a precise logic governs the set-up and an enviable panache pervades the whole. If only more textbooks proved such a pleasure to read.
This volume includes a smattering of abridged primary and secondary texts, from traditional standbys such as Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" (1956) to an excerpt from Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth (1961). The longest source "box," a journalist's account of the international market for AK-47 knock-offs, offers a fascinating glimpse into the ways in which Russia in general, and Mikhail Kalashnikov in particular, have become victims of the global marketplace.
A preface by Winks, entitled "The Value of History," opens with the striking claim that "History is a series of arguments to be debated, not a body of data to be recorded or a set of facts to be memorized" (p. ix). This eloquent and accessible testament to the practice of history could serve as a valuable teaching tool for any introductory-level history course. Winks's contention that "[u]ltimately, history is about what people believe to be true" may itself spark debate the first day of class and thereby set the stage for a lively semester (p. xiv).
Both books fall somewhere between the worlds of the magisterial narrative and the standard hefty textbook. Neither provides the personal insights of Tony Judt's Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (2005), the analytical thrust of William Hitchcock's The Struggle for Europe (2003) or even the politicized interpretations of Eric Hobsbawm's global history of the twentieth century, The Age of Extremes (1995), or François Furet's The Passing of an Illusion (1995). At the same time, neither offers the conspicuous emphasis on pedagogy and vocabulary, much less the flashy graphics of the latest textbooks. Instead, these are brief synopses that serve as affordable stand-ins for conventional textbooks on contemporary Europe.
Notes
[1]. If Turkey plays a recurring role in Buchanan's account, its domestic situation does not.
[2]. Compare to Winks and Talbott, who instead lampoon the "sodden acronyms dear to bureaucrats" (p. 68).
[3]. Buchanan more effectively addresses intra-European migration, such as the population shift from rural to urban settings, the movement of Italian workers across borders and the flight of refugees from eastern Europe and the Balkans.
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Citation:
Elana Passman. Review of Buchanan, Tom, Europe's Troubled Peace, 1945-2000 and
Winks, Robin W.; Talbott, John E., Europe, 1945 to the Present.
H-German, H-Net Reviews.
September, 2006.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12305
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