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.

In a Cold Crater: Cultural and Intellectual Life in Berlin, 1945-1948

Arts & Photography

Wolfgang Schivelbusch

History & Criticism

University of California Press

From the extravagant use of pepper in the Middle Ages to the Protestant bourgeoisie's love of coffee to the reason why fashionable Europeans stopped sniffing tobacco and starting smoking it, Schivelbusch looks at how the appetite for pleasure transformed the social structure of the Old World. Illustrations.

Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Beverages & Wine

Vintage Books

Fascinating look at the development of train travel in the 19th century, especially the stress it placed on individuals and communities. Chapters cover the development of standard railroad time, the birth of iron and glass stations that served as communal temples to industry and gateways to the city, the fear of strangers as traveling companions, traveling on vacation for the scenery, accidents, the growth of traveler's insurance, lawsuits over mental injuries and the revival of the concept of shock to deal with them. Illustrated throughout. With extensive footnotes. 213 pages.

The Railway Journey: Trains and Travel in the 19th Century

Engineering & Transportation

Transportation

Urizen Books

Log 33 delivers emerging currents and renewed interests in architectural thought. It includes a thorough examination of object-oriented philosophy: two essays offering contrasting positions on its value for the architectural discipline as well as a conversation between philosopher Graham Harman and architects Todd Gannon, David Ruy, and Tom Wiscombe. Objects are invoked throughout the issue in myriad other ways--in essays on the postcritical legacy, architecture and objecthood, shape and character, history and machines--highlighting the currency and multivalence of the term object in the discourse today. Log 33, which follows two best-selling issues, also presents Wolfgang Schivelbusch s World Machines, the new preface to his recently republished book The Railway Journey (plus an introduction to his work by Sanford Kwinter) as well as critical commentary on architectural events from around the world, essays on urban noise and architectural acoustics, new explorations of the architect s hand in drawing, and more.

Log 33

Cynthia Davidson

Sanford Kwinter

Tom Wiscombe

Tom Daniell

Noam Andrews

Joseph Clarke

Luis Fernández-Galiano

Kurt W. Forster

Mark Foster Gage

Graham Harman

Bryan E. Norwood

Todd Gannon

David Ruy

Luke Studebaker

Mark, Morris

Anyone Corporation

History may be written by the victors, but as Wolfgang Schivelbusch argues in his brilliant and provocative book, it is the losers who often have the last word. Focusing on three case studies - the American South after the Civil War, France after defeat by Prussia in 1871, and Germany following the First World War - Schivelbusch reveals the complex psychological and cultural responses of vanquished nations to the experience of military defeat. He shows how defeated societies come to question their identities, rewrite their histories, and often strive to emulate the victors: the American South to become a 'better North'; the French to militarize along Prussian lines; and the Germans to seek regeneration by adopting the American model. He charts the losers' paradoxical equation of military failure with cultural superiority as they generate myths to glorify their past and explain their defeat. The Culture of Defeat, drawing its evidence from the fall of Troy to the collapse of the Twin Towers, presents a powerful historical argument and constitutes a dazzling tour de force.

The Culture of Defeat : On National Trauma, Mourning, and Recovery

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Granta Books

Vor dem Vorhang : das geistige Berlin 1945 - 1948.;

Frankfurt am Main : Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verl.

Die Kultur der Niederlage

Fischer Taschenbuch Vlg.

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Books by Wolfgang Schivelbusch