Synopses & Reviews
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Synopsis
This is the first book to treat bombing during WWII as a European phenomenon and not just the 'Blitz' on Britain and Germany. With Western Europe now at the heart of a united continent, it is even more difficult to explain how only 70 years ago European states destroyed much of the urban landscape from the air. There were many blitzes between 1940 and 1945 with an estimated 700,000 people killed. The purpose of this book is to provide the basis for a comparison of the experience of western states under the impact of bombing. In particular, it considers the political, cultural and social responses to bombing rather than the military, strategic and social dimensions which have formed the core of the discussion hitherto. This book will correct the popular perception of the British Blitz as the key bombing experience by exposing the reality of life under the bombs for communities as far apart as Brest, Palermo, and Rostock. An international panel of historians consider the issues raised amidst the bombing of human rights and protection of civilians in this seminal event in C20th history.
Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements \ List of Illustrations \ Introduction: Bombing, States and Peoples in Western Europe, 1940-1945 <em>Richard Overy</em> \ <strong>Part I: States and Peoples</strong> \ 1. Wartime Societies and Shelter Politics in Germany and Britain <em>Dietmar Suess</em> \ 2. The Blackout and the Idea of Community&<60;in Britain and Germany <em>Marc Wiggam</em> \ 3. Evacuation in Italy during the Second World War: Evolution and Management <em>Elena Cortesi</em> \ 4.'Relieving Sorrow and Misfortune'? State, Charity, Ideology and Aid in Bombed-out France <em>Lindsey Dodd</em> \ <strong>Part II: Cultural Responses to Bombing</strong> \ 5. The Defence of Artwork from Bombing in Italy during the Second World War <em>Marta Nezzo</em> \ 6. 'I Feared/The Photograph my Skull would Take': Bombs, Time and Photography in British and German Second World War Literature <em>Lara Feigel</em> \ 7. Religion and Bombing in Italy, 1940-1945 <em>Claudia Baldoli</em> \ 8. 'Defend us from All Perils of This Night': Coping with Bombing in Britain, 1940-1945 <em>Vanessa Chambers</em> \ <strong>Part III: Society in the Bombing War</strong> \ 9. The Blitz Experience: British Society 1940-41 <em>Juliet Gardiner</em> \ 10. The Allied Air War and German Society <em>Stephan Glienke</em> \ 11. Orchestrated Solidarity: The Allied Air War in France and the Development of Local and State-Organized Solidarity Movements <em>Michael Schmiedel</em> \ 12. Death and Survival under the Bombs: City and Country in Italy between Strategic and Tactical Bombing 1940-1944 <em>Gabriella Gribaudi</em> \ <strong>Part IV Friend or Foe? Popular Perceptions of Bombing</strong> \ 13. Anglo-American Air Attacks and the Rebirth of Public Opinion in Fascist Italy <em>Marco Fincardi</em> \ 14. Muted Applause? British Prisoners-of-War as Observers and Victims of the Allied Bombing Campaign over Germany <em>Neville Wylie</em> \ 15. Criminals or Liberators? French Opinion and Allied Bombing of France, 1940-1945 <em>Simon Kitson</em> \ 16. A Comparative Approach to Newsreels and Bombing in the Second World War: Britain, France, Germany <em>Olivier Dumoulin</em> \ <strong>Postscript</strong> \ Chapter 17. From War Talk to Rights Talk: Exile Politics, Aerial Bombardment and the Construction of the Human Rights Project during the Second World War <em>Jay Winter</em>&<60;\ Editors and Contributors \ Select Bibliography \ Notes \ Index