Book Review: Marcel Thomas, Local Lives, Parallel Histories: Villagers and Everyday Life in the Divided Germany

Book Review: Marcel Thomas, Local Lives, Parallel Histories: Villagers and Everyday Life in the Divided Germany The article is a presentation of the newest book of Marcel Thomas. It is devoted to the question of how villagers in the postwar Germany use the past to construct their own interpretations of the social change.   Recenze knihy: Marcel Thomas, Local Lives, Parallel Histories: Villagers and Everyday Life in the Divided Germany. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020 Článek představuje novou knihu Marcela Thomase. Kniha se věnuje se otázce, jak vesničané v poválečném Německu využívají minulost ke konstrukci vlastních interpretací společenské změny.   Marcel Thomas, Local Lives, Parallel Histories: Villagers and Everyday Life in the Divided Germany. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Artykuł jest prezentacją najnowszej książki Marcela Thomasa, która jest poświęcona kwestii wykorzystania przeszłości w procesie konstruowania własnych interpretacji procesów zmiany społecznej w powojennych Niemczech

Outcomes and Outlooks: Resistance after the Case Studies

International audienceIn this chapter, we return to the general and theoretical level, nevertheless drawing heavily on our experience with the particular resistances that were explored in the case studies. In the first part, a scrupulous conceptual analysis of the case studies aims at focusing on the possible interactions between frontiers, identities, and resistances, whilst keeping an eye on factors of historical change. The chapter proceeds with various classifications of resistances and the formulation of a general typology of resistances, as informed by historical knowledge and appropriate for historical research. In the final part general conclusions are drawn and avenues for future research are suggested.Cette contribution propose un bilan théorique et général des résistances telles qu'explorées dans les études de cas précédentes. La première partie consiste en une analyse scrupuleuse de ces études, et vise à examiner les possibles interactions entre frontières, identités et résistances, sans perdre de vue l'importance du changement historique comme facteur explicatif. Les auteurs procèdent ainsi à diverses classifications et proposent, entre autres, une typologie générale des résistances en Europe, susceptible de fournir les bases d'une plateforme méthodologique pour stimuler les recherches interdisciplinaires et comparatives

Resistances in the Field of Frontiers and Identities: a New Connecting Theme or an Interdisciplinary Tool for Comparative Research?

International audienceThe following chapter introduces a body of case studies which intend to explore various conceptions of resistance in the field of frontiers and identities. It does not mean to present an exhaustive discussion of the concept's roots, but it still presents some major theories, firstly as they have been discussed in other disciplinary fields (psychology, anthropology, political studies and sociology), secondly by focussing on the relevance of this concept both as a connecting theme and as an analytical tool for innovative historical studies about frontiers and identities.La présente contribution introduit un ensemble d'études de cas qui explorent différentes dimensions du concept de résistance, ainsi que l'utilité de cette notion dans les études des frontières et des identités en Europe. Ce texte ne propose pas un compte rendu exhaustif des débats académiques qui entourent l'idée de résistance: en premier lieu, il vise à présenter certaines théories majeures issues de la psychologie, de l'anthropologie, des sciences politiques et de la sociologie, afin de tester leur pertinence en histoire; en second lieu, il évoque un ensemble de théories plus spécifiquement utilisées par les historiens, montrant comment le concept de résistance, soit comme thème de recherche, soit comme outil analytique et interdisciplinaire, peut favoriser de nouvelles études historiques comparatives et innovantes sur les frontières et les identités

The European Experience: A Multi-Perspective History of Modern Europe, 1500–2000

The European Experience brings together the expertise of nearly a hundred historians from eight European universities to internationalise and diversify the study of modern European history, exploring a grand sweep of time from 1500 to 2000. Offering a valuable corrective to the Anglocentric narratives of previous English-language textbooks, scholars from all over Europe have pooled their knowledge on comparative themes such as identities, cultural encounters, power and citizenship, and economic development to reflect the complexity and heterogeneous nature of the European experience. Rather than another grand narrative, the international author teams offer a multifaceted and rich perspective on the history of the continent of the past 500 years. Each major theme is dissected through three chronological sub-chapters, revealing how major social, political and historical trends manifested themselves in different European settings during the early modern (1500–1800), modern (1800–1900) and contemporary period (1900–2000). This resource is of utmost relevance to today’s history students in the light of ongoing internationalisation strategies for higher education curricula, as it delivers one of the first multi-perspective and truly ‘European’ analyses of the continent’s past. Beyond the provision of historical content, this textbook equips students with the intellectual tools to interrogate prevailing accounts of European history, and enables them to seek out additional perspectives in a bid to further enrich the discipline

Book Review: Marcel Thomas, “Local Lives, Parallel Histories: Villagers and Everyday Life in the Divided Germany”, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. ISBN 978-0-19-885614-6 Pp. 320 + 31 illustrations

The article is a presentation of the newest book of Marcel Thomas. It is devoted to the question of how villagers in the postwar Germany use the past to construct their own interpretations of the social change.Artykuł jest prezentacją najnowszej książki Marcela Thomasa, która jest poświęcona kwestii wykorzystania przeszłości w procesie konstruowania własnych interpretacji procesów zmiany społecznej w powojennych Niemczech

Local and National Identity in Historical Monographs on Bohemian, Moravian and Galician Towns (1860-1900)

The dissertation thesis deals with urban historical monographs that were published in 1860-1900 in Czech, German, and Polish language, and covered towns in Bohemia, Moravia, and Galicia. Adopting a broadly comparative perspective, the study focuses on the social dimension of the books through the lens of local and national identities. It presupposes that the urban histories essentially created local identities but at the same time makes a hypothesis that nationalization of society in the 19th century had significant impact on local urban history. The first chapter shows that the urban historiography in each of the regional-language spheres developed unevenly. One of the reasons was the different significance of towns and urban past in national thoughts. The following chapter analyses urban monographs as books. It poses questions about who wrote urban histories, with what intentions, and for what readership. It reveals that the books had essentially two roles: they served local purposes and at the same time they were integrated in the national programme The two remaining chapters deal with the analysis of historical representations. The fourth chapter compares urban histories with regard to periodization of urban past. It confirms that the national historical frame significantly influenced the ways..