Germany is the most important and powerful country in Europe. And yet it remains strangely little understood - by itself, as much as by the rest of the world. It is in a state of remarkable flux, confronting the demons of the past, whilst also seeking to make the West and the East into one country - a much greater challenge than it seemed. The coming enlargement of the European Union, which will bring much of formerly communist Eastern Europe into the EU, will make Germany more pivotal than ever. So what makes this country tick? For decades after the Second World War, the country remained strongly polluted by the Nazi legacy; there was little attempt to confront the past. For today's younger generation, by contrast, Nazism was a weird aberration that they themselves have difficulty in understanding. The book will explore those changes, and how German society itself is still in the midst of enormous change. The story takes us through three periods: Before the Poison (pre-1933), The Poison (1933-45) and - the heart of the book - the period of Coming to Terms, and the changes that this period has brought to the shape of the country. The coming to terms with the past overlaps, from 1990 onwards, with the East-West story, where mutual misunderstanding has been rife.

About the Author
Steve Crawshaw is London Director of Human Rights Watch and former Germany bureau chief for the Independent. He is the author of 'Goodbye to the USSR' and his five-part BBC series 'Germany Inside Out' was broadcast in Spring 2003.

Reviews
"'.. concise, humane and perceptive... a compassionate and wryly humorous assessment of how far Germany has progressed on its long, painful crabwalk back to normality.' - Independent on Sunday; '.. one of the best books about post-war Germany.. Thanks to a wealth of keenly observed detail from historical sources, anecdotes and German news reports, one feels one is eavesdropping on a nation painfully learning to live with itself.' - Financial Times Magazine"



Book Information
ISBN 9780826476173
Author Steve Crawshaw
Format Paperback
Page Count 250
Imprint Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 390g