Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2017 -

This superb book describes the first month of WW I in France from many angles, all of them based on a profound knowledge of the sources. Cabanes (Ohio State) is an acclaimed military historian, and he is especially good on the high command, on its initial failures, and on the drastic changes that resulted. But readers also learn a massive amount about the logistical elements involved in mobilization, including interesting details on such subjects as the procurement of horses. The author is equally insightful on different aspects of the events of August. He describes in great detail the moral panic laced with anti-Semitism that resulted about "the enemy within" and offers a full account of the internments that took place very quickly once war was declared. Some internees welcomed their fate because a good deal of violence was shown to suspects, largely in response to reports of German atrocities. These are examples of a synthetic portrait of the nature of war in 1914 for all levels of society. Many books on WW I have appeared: this is one of the best.Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

Historian Gebhardt's powerful new book examines the rape of almost a million German women at the end--and in the aftermath--of WW II. A topic ignored by scholars for decades, the sexual violence committed by the Allies in Germany has recently become a subject of intensive research. Gebhardt's work, however, is no mere recapitulation of previous studies. In a carefully researched monograph that incorporates new evidence from multiple archives, the author dispels many misconceptions about the sexual violence German women suffered at the close of the war. Most significantly, Gebhardt (Univ. of Konstanz, Germany) draws attention to rapes committed by US soldiers that for reasons of political expediency received little notice in the Cold War world. Her book also poignantly shows that being raped was only the beginning of the trauma for most women. The actions and decisions of uncaring doctors, insensitive attorneys, pitiless welfare workers, and cruel police officers compounded the sexual violence women experienced. Restoring German morality in the postwar world, Gebhardt suggests, necessitated silences and omissions that transformed these women into victims for a second time. An impressive and important work, well researched and compelling.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

Much has been written about Frederick "the Great" (1712-86), including several recent German-language biographies that coincided with the 2012 tercentennial of his birth, but none can match the breadth, balance, and good sense of this superbly written study. To begin with, Blanning (formerly, Cambridge) is the first scholar to identify Frederick's homosexuality and strident homoeroticism as key elements of a complex personality molded by the love-hate relationship with his abusive father, King Frederick William I (r. 1713-40). He also portrays Frederick as a deceitful, narcissistic egomaniac who shamelessly pursued military glory and all other vehicles of self-promotion while invariably seizing full credit for his subordinates' many contributions. Nor does the author hesitate to identify the victims of this mean-spirited bully, who repeatedly reveled in humiliating those around him. Yet, Frederick also earns praise as a wise ruler who further strengthened the imposing edifice that his father had left him and as a discerning patron of Enlightenment thinking and culture. Blanning's balanced assessment extends to military matters, in which Frederick was "an indifferent general, but a brilliant warlord." Perhaps his greatest contribution came from attracting a legion of talented "Prussians by choice," who flocked to Berlin to help rebuild Prussia after its catastrophic 1806 defeat at the hands of Napoleon.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

Finland occupies an odd betwixt and between place in global geography. It is Nordic but not Scandinavian; it sits on the border of Russia but was never communist. Linguist Haarmann (Institute of Archaeomythology), as much a cultural geographer in this book, provides an overview of contemporary Finland by asking questions in his chapter titles. Where did the Finns come from? What ethnic groups make up the country? How did Finland modernize? And he looks at the famous Finnish educational system, for many Americans a key issue. What comes through is the diversity of the country, despite seeming homogenous ethnically (which it is not), and the Finnish people's creativity, resourcefulness, and courage and the history of their resistance to foreign invasion. In a way, Haarmann's book replaces the 1990 country study done by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. This book fills a niche that no other English-language book on Finland does, so it is an important purchase for all academic libraries.Summing Up: Essential. All academic levels/libraries.

Drawing on dozens of legal, political, and/or philosophical treatises, mostly from the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as a treasure trove of current secondary sources, Feros (history, Univ. of Pennsylvania) demonstrates that the creation of Spain--indeed, the very concept of being Spanish--emerged out of debates by elite intellectuals played out over 300 years prior to the 1812 Cadiz Constitution, which publicly affirmed that all people born in Spanish-controlled territories were Spaniards, regardless of their place of birth or the color of their skin. Given the presence of others within Spain such as Jews, Muslims, and conversos, as well as others without--Indians, blacks, slaves, and, later, Creole elites in the Spanish empire--Feros convincingly argues that these discussions also included evolving discourses on race that escalated in the 18th century when scientific racism discussions in other European nations folded into Spanish ruminations on race. Valuable for its elegant writing, painstakingly thorough research, and Feros's ability to convey very complicated arguments in his primary sources in clear, accessible English, this intellectual history is a seminal work and an indispensable research library acquisition.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

There has been a recent flurry of books on the Dutch in the Atlantic world during the 17th century. Klooster (Clark Univ.) has written the definitive work on the subject. It is a wonderfully lively, thoroughly researched synthesis of the entire story of the rise and fall of the Dutch in the Atlantic, including the dramatic story of the Dutch in Brazil as well as in New Netherland in North America, the Caribbean, and Africa. During their Golden Age, the Dutch were remarkably aggressive in international expansion. The influence of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) is well known, but the WIC (Dutch West India Company), founded in 1621, became a major player in building an Atlantic empire using numerous foreign soldiers and indigenous alliances to counter Portuguese, Spanish, English, and French imperialism. The Dutch Atlantic story is also interimperial, especially as the Dutch empire declined. Though the Dutch were not the colonizers other European nations were, they established trade to benefit the United Provinces, including becoming a major participant in the slave trade. There are several very helpful maps, charts, and images and extensive notes.Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

Historical writing about the unification of Germany can fairly be said to have been written--from the time of the ceremony at the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles until well after the end of WW II--largely as the story of the inevitable victory of the Kingdom of Prussia and of Otto von Bismarck. In this remarkable study, Bodie (fellow, Univ. of Adelaide, Australia) demonstrates that the whole process was open-ended, and that the leaders of other states played a very considerable role. The author centers his study on one small southwestern German state--Wurttemberg--but shows how the leaders of the other lesser Germans as well as the Kings of Wurttemberg sought to find their way during the years in which Austria and Prussia struggled for leadership in Germany. It is hard to give this book sufficient praise; lucid and thoroughly researched, it brings the past to life, and the sections on politics, economic growth (or the absence of it in southern Germany), and warfare are equally effective. If the unification of Germany came in a way that was unexpected (the author notes in closing), what came afterward was equally unpredictable.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

Olick (sociology, Virginia) explores how West German politicians have spoken about Germany's Nazi past in different times and in different contexts. He seeks to understand, categorize, and ultimately assess the success or failure of official representations. Over the decades, three broad, overlapping profiles emerged (these also constitute the book's roughly chronological structure): Germany as the reliant nation (1950s), the moral nation (1960s-1970s), and the normal nation (1980s). The book does not break new ground in terms of its source material; on the contrary, many of these speeches will be quite familiar to historians of postwar Germany. But in superimposing sociological nuance onto a well-researched historical narrative of official (usually political) West German memories of the Holocaust, Olick has made a monumental contribution to collective memory studies. The book felt so comfortable to this trained historian that he almost wished for an alternate edition containing Chicago-style footnotes instead of parenthetical citations. Olick employs a refreshingly accessible writing style, but he has no reservations introducing complex theoretical concepts. The book is a must-have for any university library.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

Given the astonishing volume of studies devoted to the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), with no end in sight to the appearance of new contributions, it is striking that very few efforts have been undertaken to interpret the struggle as, in large measure, bound up intensely in Spanish history, especially the civil wars of the 19th century. The events of 1936-39 are frequently understood as a critical chapter in a European civil war, 1914-45, shaped by sharply conflicting ideologies and foreign intervention. Lawrence (Univ. of Kent, UK), author of Spain's First Carlist War, 1833-1840 (2014), proposes that a comparative analysis of that civil war and the conflict of the 1930s yields not only substantive similarities between them, but provides a broader understanding of Spanish history and interpretation of the 1930s conflict within that context. His book is superbly organized, provocative, and informative. Divided into two parts, with consistent attention to both civil wars, the first explores battlefronts, home fronts, legacy, and memory, the second imperial origins, world conflicts, and the fate of the losers. Very valuable for fresh, thoughtful insights into Spanish history.Summing Up: Essential. All academic levels/libraries.

This book exploring how the trauma inflicted by Nazi Germany emotionally affected German soldiers after discharge from military service joins the distinguished group of outstanding historical works about WW II. Goltermann (history, Univ. of Zurich) employs primary sources and, significantly, psychiatric medical files of soldiers, the latter not formerly examined by historians. These sources demonstrate that numerous soldiers not only committed heinous "crimes against humanity," but also that they returned to Germany as a defeated army to an occupied country. Many German soldiers became prisoners of war, and those captured by the Soviet army remained in captivity for many years. The lengthy narrative is engrossing. The contents of the German soldiers' psychiatric medical files permeate the entire book, and reveal the extent of psychiatric illnesses, namely fugue states and other somatic expressions. Particularly commendable and innovative is the study of films for this period, reflecting people's feelings regarding the events of WW II, the postwar years, and how they illuminated the issues the psychiatric community was dealing with--"public memory culture." Ultimately, Goltermann touches all bases in her all-encompassing book. Her conclusion presents the different clinical approaches to treating German veterans and examines films, newspapers, magazines, the extermination camps, the genocide of other groups, and the attention they received in Germany and worldwide, all of which weighed heavily on the German people. A profound book that makes a novel contribution concerning the impact of National Socialism on the German people and internationally.Summing Up: Essential. Public libraries, and upper-division undergraduates and above.

McAuliffe repeats the tried and true formula she used in Dawn of the Belle Epoque (CH, Jan'12, 49-2911) and Twilight of the Belle Epoque (CH, Sep'14, 52-0489) to chronicle her beloved Paris in the "Roaring '20s," or "les annees folles"--the "crazy years." She skillfully details the lives, loves, and artistic triumphs and disasters of the spectacular collection of artists, scientists, engineers, and politicians whose lives seemed to center on and blossom in the French capital. All the "usual suspects" are here--from Josephine Baker to Hemingway to Cocteau and Chanel. This splendid volume provides a year-by-year account of a city bursting with artistic and practical endeavor. Basing her book on a thorough mining of the era's printed primary sources and research in the period's best histories, the author depicts a city whose magnetism created the artistic community centered around Montparnasse, which became the cultural capital of Western civilization; the brilliance of the "City of Light" glowing all the more starkly against a gradually darkening domestic and international scene. Bottom line: the volume will appeal to a wide variety of readers--from lovers of Paris to graduate students in the arts, literature, and history. An indispensable acquisition.Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

This most recent book by historian Hayes (Northwestern Univ.) is the culmination of over three decades of research, writing, and lecturing on the Holocaust. Organized around eight central questions, Why? synthesizes current knowledge in accessible prose. After a brief introduction justifying yet another book on the Holocaust, Hayes sets to work examining the central questions: Why did perpetrators target the Jews? Why did Germans become perpetrators? Why did the perpetrators eventually choose to murder their victims? Why did the development from persecution to murder occur so quickly and over such a sweeping area? Why didn't more Jews fight back? Why did survival rates vary so greatly? Why did onlookers provide such limited assistance to Jews? And what are the lessons and legacies of the Holocaust? A short review cannot do justice to the breadth and depth of the scholarship exhibited in each chapter. This authoritative volume is mandatory for scholars and armchair historians interested in the origins, course, and outcomes of the Holocaust.Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

Moring (political and economic studies, Univ. of Helsinki, Finland) and Wall (history, Univ. of Essex, UK) challenge the iconic image of the widow as elderly and lacking agency, as well as how these women assumed a post-husband role in society. They posit that, instead of being "anonymous numbers," these women frequently led their families (and even their nations) successfully, defying the norm of the traditional family by "participating in every sector of society" from governing to cobbling to farming without the benefit of a husband. This book is groundbreaking for two primary reasons. First, the authors have employed a variety of analyses and an impressive array of sources in order to more accurately reveal the experience of widows, as demonstrated in the various appendixes and the bibliography. Second, and perhaps most critical, the authors pose a serious challenge to economic history and women's and gender history, noting that Western history has focused on younger women as well as on poverty abatement programs, instead of the rich, nuanced history that emerges when focusing on widows as independent, thriving individuals. Their book provides a much-needed challenge to the often unwittingly accepted tomes on family and what women can do.Summing Up: Essential. All academic levels/libraries.