![]() "With impressive virtuosity, Schivelbusch ranges widely through the cultures of three very different and complex societies to compile a remarkable analysis of the meaning of defeat. When you finish reading this original volume, your understanding of war itself will have changed."- Jonathan Schell, author of The Unconquerable World "With erudition, elegance, ease, reflective brilliance, and a consistently sharp eye, Schivelbusch moves through the cultural and political landscapes of three lands, all in search of a surprising quarry: the shape, human feel, and uses of military defeat. He points out that if history demonstrates anything, it is that 'what triumphs today will be defeated tomorrow.' The arrogance of power can be tempered, he argues, by an 'empathetic philosophy of defeat.'"- Edward Rothstein, The New York Times In this wide-ranging study, Wolfgang Schivelbusch, a cultural historian who has in previous books teased hidden meanings out of the origins of coffee or the onset of domestic lighting, incorporates a cautionary note. But that sort of irony is one of the book's points. It might seem strange, just after an American military victory, to submit to the brooding brilliance of this book, The Culture of Defeat. Its insightful author, in both small details and large, suggests that those who take the time to remember defeat are not doomed, but empowered, to keep it at bay."- Carlin Romano, The Philadelphia InquirerĠ "Learned admirably researched, with many kinds of sparkling little finds amid its mass of notes."- John Lukacs, Los Angeles Times Book Review A sparkling continuation of conventional military history by other means, The Culture of Defeat shines light on such ever-present aspects of war and peace as the spirit of revanche (a simmering desire for redress on the part of losers) and the warning cry, Vae Victoribus! ('Woe to the victor!'). Aside from its thorough revisitings of post-Civil War America, late-19th-century France, and post-World-War-I Germany, it overflows with splendid quotes and citations illustrating defeat's ever-ebullient mind-set. Schivelbusch's anticipation of so many current front-page issues- The Culture of Defeat first appeared in German in 2001-is only one of its many delights. Schivelbusch's inspired idea is to look at three historical losers-the 'Lost Cause' Confederacy of the American Civil War, France in the Franco-Prussian War that ended in 1881, and Germany in World War I-to understand the process. ![]() "Many things in life naturally evolve into something else, and defeat-particularly as experienced by a nation's people-appears to be one of them. "It would be hard to exaggerate the breadth and brilliance of the variations Schivelbusch plays on these themes over fifty years of history and two continents."- The Nation It is based on immense, but smoothly presented, scholarship, with a great deal of intelligent comparison of diverse events and sociopolitical forces."- St. "This work is one of considerably suavity. A feast of ideas, many of them strikingly appropriate to our own, bellicose times."- San Francisco Chronicle "A book of detours, eddies, and fascinating asides. ![]() ![]() Reviews About the Author Reviews Praise for The Culture of Defeat From cathartic epidemics of "dance-madness" to the revolutions that so often follow battlefield humiliation, Schivelbusch finds remarkable similarities across cultures. He charts the losers' paradoxical equation of military failure with cultural superiority as they generate myths to glorify their pasts and explain their losses: the nostalgic "plantation legend" after the collapse of the Confederacy, the new cult of Joan of Arc in vanquished France, the fiction of the stab in the back by "foreign" elements in postwar Germany. ![]() He shows how conquered societies question the foundations of their identities and strive to emulate the victors: the South to become a "better North," the French to militarize their schools on the Prussian model, the Germans to adopt all things American. Focusing on three seminal cases of defeat-the South after the Civil War, France in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War, and Germany following World War I-Schivelbusch reveals the complex psychological and cultural responses of vanquished nations to the experience of military defeat.ĭrawing on reactions from every level of society, Schivelbusch investigates the sixty-year period in which the world moved from regional to global conflagration, and from gentlemanly conduct of war to total mutual destruction. History may be written by the victors, Wolfgang Schivelbusch argues in his provocative new book, but the losers often have the final word. Media Issues, Communication & Journalism.Computer Science & Information Technology. ![]()
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