Out of Ashes

Konrad H. Jarausch is the Lurcy Professor of European Civilization at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Winner of the 2016 Bronis?aw Geremek Prize, College of Europe Honorable Mention for the 2016 PROSE Award in European & World History, Association of American Publishers "A sweeping survey."--New York Times "[Out of Ashes] should be on the shelf of everyone seeking a panoramic, narrative guide to history's most violent century. This comprehensive history of 20th-century Europe is bound to become the standard work on its subject: a bold, major achievement."--Publishers Weekly, starred review "Well-contained and richly detailed."--Kirkus "All told, this magnum opus is the outstanding achievement of a scholar who is himself in his early seventies--a good age for historians. Jarausch is one of the very few who have dared to write a history of Europe covering the entire long 20th century. Strictly speaking only Mark Mazower has run this risk in the Anglophone world. Konrad Jarausch presents an original work with a consistent conception, a completely convincing narrative of its own, a high analytical grasp of the grand lines as well as of the details as well as enormous knowledge and incredible command of the literature. Based on considerable skepticism and realism [it sends] a fairly positive message for Americans and Europeans about the recent European past."--Hartmut Kaelble, H-Solz-Kult "Jarausch has written a groundbreaking study of 20th-century European history."--Choice "Konrad Jarausch's ambitious and sprawling new book, Out of Ashes, seems like a text for our times... Jarausch examines Europe's recent past, pursuing a fundamental question--namely, what is modernization?--that connects the continent's violently ideological 'dark times' to its postwar renewal and ambiguous future."--Commonweal "Jarausch's book really comes into its own when dealing with the second half of the century. Here, he wonderfully pulls together various strands of the story of European integration and decolonisation, Cold War and the creation of the welfare state, deindustrialisation and globalisation."--Srinath Raghavan, Open Magazine

• Preface vii Introduction: The European Paradox 1 Part I: Promise of Progress, 1900-1929 1. Global Domination 19 2. Breakdown of Peace 46 3. Waging Total War 73 4. Bolshevik Revolution 102 5. Democratic Hopes 128 6. Fascist Alternative 155 7. Modernist Provocations 181 Part II: Turn to Self-Destruction, 1929-45 8. Devastating Depression 209 9. Stalinist Modernization 235 10. Hitler's Volksgemeinschaft 261 11. Unleashing World War II 287 12. Axis Conquest 314 13. Nazi Holocaust 341 14. Bitter Victory 369 Part III: Surprising Recovery, 1945-73 15. Democratic Renewal 399 16. Dictating Communism 426 17. Cold War Crises 452 18. Disappointing Decolonization 480 19. Economic Integration 506 20. Pop and Prosperity 533 21. Planning Social Reform 559 Part IV: Confronting Globalization, 1973-2000 22. Revolt against Modernity 587 23. Postindustrial Transition 613 24. Return to Detente 639 25. Peaceful Revolution 666 26. Transforming the East 694 27. Global Challenges 721 28. Prospects for the Twenty-first Century 747 Postscript: A Chastened Modernity 773 Acknowledgments 789 Notes 791 Index 851