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A History Shared and Divided
East and West Germany since the 1970s
Frank Bösch
Translated from the German by Jennifer Walcoff Neuheiser
620 pages, 2 figures, 8 tables, bibliog., index
ISBN 978-1-78533-925-7 $179.00/£132.00 / Hb / Published (September 2018)
ISBN 978-1-83695-056-1 $45.00/£36.00 / Pb / Not Yet Published (May 2025)
eISBN 978-1-78533-926-4 eBook
Reviews
“…the range and rigour make this handbook a useful point of entry for specialists and students alike interested in understanding the transformation of Germany in the last half century.” • European History Quarterly
“[The volume] provides over 500 pages of stimulating reading. It will be of interest to scholars researching in relevant fields and to graduate students embarking on doctoral work. It would also be excellent for a postgraduate seminar.” • Journal of European Studies
Description
By and large, the histories of East and West Germany have been studied in relative isolation. And yet, for all their differences, the historical trajectories of both nations were interrelated in complex ways, shaped by economic crises, social and cultural changes, protest movements, and other phenomena so diffuse that they could hardly be contained by the Iron Curtain. Accordingly, A History Shared and Divided offers a collective portrait of the two Germanies that is both broad and deep. It brings together comprehensive thematic surveys by specialists in social history, media, education, the environment, and similar topics to assemble a monumental account of both nations from the crises of the 1970s to—and beyond—the reunification era.
Frank Bösch is Director of the Center for Contemporary History Research and Professor of German and European History of the 20th Century at the University of Potsdam. He is the author or editor of more than a dozen books on political, social, and media history, including Mass Media and Historical Change: Germany in International Perspective, 1400 to the Present (English edition: Berghahn, 2015).