Uploaded February 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In this presentation, Paul Betts discusses his new book on Europe after 1945, which explores how changing understandings of civilization underpinned a new politics of identity in an era of defeat and division across the Cold War divide. In the book, Betts argues that civilization served as a favorite point of reference to grasp Europe’s new postwar condition beyond the nation-state and Cold division, and to reconsider its relationship to the past, the future, and the rest of the world.
Paul Betts teaches Modern European History at St. Antony's College. He is the author of several books, most recently Ruin and Renewal: Civilising Europe after the Second World War (Basic Books US/ Profile Books UK, 2020). He has co-edited seven books, including (with Jennifer Evans and Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann) The Ethics of Seeing: Photography and 20th Century German History (Berghahn, 2018) and (with Steve Smith), Religion, Science and Communism in Cold War Europe (London: Palgrave, 2016).
In this presentation, Paul Betts discusses his new book on Europe after 1945, which explores how changing understandings of civilization underpinned a new politics of identity in an era of defeat and division across the Cold War divide. In the book, Betts argues that civilization served as a favorite point of reference to grasp Europe’s new postwar condition beyond the nation-state and Cold division, and to reconsider its relationship to the past, the future, and the rest of the world.
Paul Betts teaches Modern European History at St. Antony's College. He is the author of several books, most recently Ruin and Renewal: Civilising Europe after the Second World War (Basic Books US/ Profile Books UK, 2020). He has co-edited seven books, including (with Jennifer Evans and Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann) The Ethics of Seeing: Photography and 20th Century German History (Berghahn, 2018) and (with Steve Smith), Religion, Science and Communism in Cold War Europe (London: Palgrave, 2016).
