Wolfgang Schivelbusch

Although the three conspicuous cultures of Berlin in the twentieth century—Weimar, Nazi, and Cold War—are well documented, little is known about the years between the fall of the Third Reich and the beginning of the Cold War. In a Cold Crater is the history of this volatile postwar moment, when the capital of the world's recently defeated public enemy assumed great emotional and symbolic meaning. This is a story not of major intellectual and cultural achievements (for there were none in those years), but of enormous hopes and plans that failed. It is the story of members of the once famous volcano-dancing Berlin intelligentsia, torn apart by Nazism and exile, now re-encountering one another. Those who had stayed in Berlin in 1933 crawled out of the rubble, while many of the exiles returned with the Allied armies as members of the various cultural and re-educational units. All of them were eager to rebuild a neo-Weimar republic of letters, arts, and thought. Some were highly qualified and serious. Many were classic opportunists. A few came close to being clowns. After three years of "carnival," recreated by Schivelbusch in all its sound and fury, they were driven from the stage by the Cold War. As Berlin once again becomes the German capital, Schivelbusch's masterful cultural history is certain to captivate historians and general readers alike. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1999.

Although the three conspicuous cultures of Berlin in the twentieth century—Weimar, Nazi, and Cold War—are well documented, little is known about the years between the fall of the Third Reich and the beginning of the Cold War. In a Cold Crater is the history of this volatile postwar moment, when the capital of the world's recently defeated public enemy assumed great emotional and symbolic meaning. This is a story not of major intellectual and cultural achievements (for there were none in those years), but of enormous hopes and plans that failed. It is the story of members of the once famous volcano-dancing Berlin intelligentsia, torn apart by Nazism and exile, now re-encountering one another. Those who had stayed in Berlin in 1933 crawled out of the rubble, while many of the exiles returned with the Allied armies as members of the various cultural and re-educational units. All of them were eager to rebuild a neo-Weimar republic of letters, arts, and thought. Some were highly qualified and serious. Many were classic opportunists. A few came close to being clowns. After three years of "carnival," recreated by Schivelbusch in all its sound and fury, they were driven from the stage by the Cold War. As Berlin once again becomes the German capital, Schivelbusch's masterful cultural history is certain to captivate historians and general readers alike. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1999.

The impact of constant technological change upon our perception of the world is so pervasive as to have become a commonplace of modern society. But this was not always the case; as Wolfgang Schivelbusch points out in this fascinating study, our adaptation to technological change--the development of our modern, industrialized consciousness--was very much a learned behavior. In The Railway Journey, Schivelbusch examines the origins of this industrialized consciousness by exploring the reaction in the nineteenth century to the first dramatic avatar of technological change, the railroad. In a highly original and engaging fashion, Schivelbusch discusses the ways in which our perceptions of distance, time, autonomy, speed and risk were altered by railway travel. As a history, not of technology, but of the surprising ways in which technology and culture interact, this book covers a wide range of topics, including the changing perception of landscapes, the death of conversation while traveling, the problematic nature of the railway compartment, the space of glass architecture, the pathology of the railway journey, industrial fatigue and the history of shock, and the railroad and the city. Belonging to a distinguished European tradition of critical sociology best exemplified by the work of Georg Simmel and Walter Benjamin, The Railway Journey is anchored in rich empirical data, and full of striking insights about railway travel, the industrial revolution, and technological change.

A fascinating look at history's losers-the myths they create to cope with defeat and the steps they take never to be vanquished again History may be written by the victors, Wolfgang Schivelbusch argues in his brilliant and provocative book, but the losers often have the final word. Focusing on three seminal cases of modern warfare-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 reactions of vanquished nations to the experience of military defeat. Drawing on responses from every level of society, Schivelbusch 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. 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 fall of the Confederacy; the cult of Joan of Arc in vanquished France; the fiction of the stab in the back by "foreign" elements in postwar Germany. From cathartic epidemics of "dance madness" to the revolutions that so often follow battlefield humiliation, Schivelbusch finds remarkable similarities across cultures. Eloquently and vibrantly told, The Culture of Defeat is a tour de force that opens new territory for historical inquiry.

The Enemy may be another country, another person, a virus, or a social phenomenon. On the theme of The Enemy: an interview with Harvard science historian Peter Galison on cybernetics pioneer Norbert Weiner and his WWII-era research into anti-aircraft weaponry, which led directly to his theories of cybernetics; an interview with Wolfgang Schivelbusch, author of The Culture of Defeat, on the effects of crushing military loss on the collective imagination; Justine Kurland's photographs of the women combatants among the Tamil resistance fighters; John Peffer interviews a military expert in the use of propaganda; and Gianni Motti exhibits AP war photographs that were deemed too beautiful to sell. Also in this issue, Marina Warner on photographing ectoplasm, Lynne Tillman on the color "chartreuse," Jonathan Ames on presidential doodles, Anne Carson on "totality and eclipse," an artist's project by the Archive for Speculative History, and more.

Wolfgang Schivelbusch tar i Järnvägsresandets historia läsaren med på en ständigt överraskande färd genom det nya samhälle som järnvägsresandet skapat. Järnvägen bidrog inte bara till att bana väg för den industriella revolutionen, utan ändrade också människors vardagsliv och sociala relationer, deras upplevelser av tid och rum. Hans studie över järnvägsepoken är ett viktigt bidrag till civilisationsprocessens historia och den visar hur tekniska nydaningar medfört förändringar i den moderna människans psykiska struktur. Den första svenska utgåvan av boken har länge varit slutsåld. I Arkivs utgåva har Gunnar Sandin sett över sin gamla äversättning och försett boken med ett kapitel om järnvägsresandets historia i Sverige.

This text tells the story of the development of artificial light in the 19th century. The book reveals the ways that the technology of artificial light helped forge modern consciousness. It discusses such topics as the political symbolism of street lighting and the rise of nightlife.