Winner of the American Philosophical Society's 2021 Jacques Barzun
Prize in Cultural History
From an award-winning historian, a panoramic account of Europe after
the depravity of World War II.
In 1945, Europe lay in ruins. Some fifty million people were dead, and
millions more languished in physical and moral disarray. The devastation
of World War II was unprecedented in character as well as in scale.
Unlike the First World War, the second blurred the line between soldier
and civilian, inflicting untold horrors on people from all walks of
life. A continent that had previously considered itself the very measure
of civilization for the world had turned into its barbaric opposite.
Reconstruction, then, was a matter of turning Europe's "civilizing
mission" inward. In this magisterial work, Oxford historian Paul Betts
describes how this effort found expression in humanitarian relief work,
the prosecution of war crimes against humanity, a resurgent Catholic
Church, peace campaigns, expanded welfare policies, renewed global
engagement and numerous efforts to salvage damaged cultural traditions.
Authoritative and sweeping, Ruin and Renewal is essential reading for
anyone hoping to understand how Europe was transformed after the
destruction of World War II.
