Editors:
Explores the social movements that emerged in post-war Europe out of desire for retribution against economic elites and economic collaborators
Argues that 1945 does not represent a sharp break with the past, but rather a political caesura in which discourses about economic systems and their elites moved to the fore
Chapters span a range of countries to evaluate the extent to which anti-capitalist social movements mounted a challenge to capitalism in the immediate post-war period
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements (PSHSM)
Buying options
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
Table of contents (15 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Back Matter
About this book
This book explores the changing nature of social movements and economic elites in post-Second World War Europe. In the years following 1945, Europe faced diverse challenges connected by the overriding question of how the reconstruction of the continent should proceed. For the Central Powers, the implementation lay in the hands of the Allied occupying forces who organised the process of denazification and the establishment of a new economic order. In countries without military occupation, there was a deep gap between the new governmental forces and the former collaborators. In both cases, social movements which were formed by anti-fascists on the left of the political spectrum assumed the task of social reorganisation. The chapters in this book explore the discourses about economic systems and their elites which moved to the fore across a range of European countries, uncovering who was involved, what resistance these social movements faced and how these ultimately failed in the West to bring about change, while in Eastern Europe Stalinism forcibly imposed change.
Keywords
- Retribution
- Post-war
- Reconstruction
- Anti-capitalism
- Left-wing
- Communism
- Capitalism
- Fascism
- Business
- Wealth gap
- Cold War
- Soviet
- American
Editors and Affiliations
-
Institute for Social Movements, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
Stefan Berger
-
Faculty of Languages and Cultures, Lumière University Lyon 2, Lyon, France
Marcel Boldorf
About the editors
Stefan Berger is Professor of Social History and Director of the Institute for Social Movements at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, where he is also executive chair of the History of the Ruhr Foundation. He is also Honorary Professor at Cardiff University in the UK. His research focuses on the comparative history of social movements, the history of historiography, nationalism studies, memory studies, histories of deindustrialisation, and the history of British-German relations.
Marcel Boldorf is Professor of German History at Lumière University Lyon 2, France. His research focuses on German and European economic history from the 18th to the 20th century. His recent studies are dedicated to the economies of World War I and II from a worldwide perspective.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Social Movements and the Change of Economic Elites in Europe after 1945
Editors: Stefan Berger, Marcel Boldorf
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77197-7
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-77196-0Published: 14 June 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-08396-0Published: 05 January 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-77197-7Published: 29 May 2018
Series ISSN: 2634-6559
Series E-ISSN: 2634-6567
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIX, 316
Number of Illustrations: 1 illustrations in colour
Topics: History of Modern Europe, Labor History, Social History, Economic History, Political History