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Aftermath
- Author
- Harald Jähner
- Narrator
- Sam Peter Jackson
- Publisher
- Ebury Publishing
- Publish Date
- 17 June 2021
- Run Time
- 11 hours 43 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Rating
- 4.0 (1 review)
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What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
***SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2021***
Germany, 1945: a country in ruins. Cities have been reduced to rubble and more than half of the population are where they do not belong or do not want to be. How can a functioning society ever emerge from this chaos?
In bombed-out Berlin, Ruth Andreas-Friedrich, journalist and member of the Nazi resistance, warms herself by a makeshift stove and records in her diary how a frenzy of expectation and industriousness grips the city. The Americans send Hans Habe, an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist and US army soldier, to the frontline of psychological warfare - tasked with establishing a newspaper empire capable of remoulding the minds of the Germans. The philosopher Hannah Arendt returns to the country she fled to find a population gripped by a manic loquaciousness, but faces a deafening wall of silence at the mention of the Holocaust.
Aftermath is a nuanced panorama of a nation undergoing monumental change. 1945 to 1955 was a raw, wild decade poised between two eras that proved decisive for Germany's future - and one starkly different to how most of us imagine it today. Featuring black and white photographs and posters from post-war Germany - some beautiful, some revelatory, some shocking - Aftermath evokes an immersive portrait of a society corrupted, demoralised and freed - all at the same time.
'Magisterial, fascinating, humane - a brilliant book of the greatest importance and achievement' PHILIPPE SANDS
'Absolutely extraordinary. Every page stops you dead with insight and revelation' JAMES HAWES
'For those who want to understand the Germans, Aftermath is essential reading. Anyone with even the slightest interest in history and the human condition should read this book' JULIA BOYD
© Harald Jähner 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021
Critics Review
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Exemplary [and] important... This is the kind of book few writers possess the clarity of vision to write
Max Hastings, Sunday Times
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A masterpiece
The Spectator
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Magnificent... There are great lessons in the nature of humanity to be learnt here
The Telegraph
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Jähner is masterly in telling the tragic, despicable, comedic and uplifting stories of those who were there as he takes his readers on a fascinating tour through rubble-strewn postwar Germany
Katja Hoyer, The Times
See more reviews See fewer reviews
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Thought-provoking... Jähner's unflinching account is a reminder that historical truths are rarely simple and always nuanced
Daily Mail
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Magisterial, fascinating, humane - a brilliant book of the greatest importance and achievement
Philippe Sands, bestselling author of East West Street and The Ratline
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I thought I knew the essential story of Germany's immediate post-war years. This book brilliantly adds to, indeed changes, my understanding. One of the best historians and authors of contemporary Germany, Jähner paints an absorbing, human and surprising picture
John Kampfner, bestselling author of Why the Germans Do it Better
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This panoramic journey through Germany in the ruins of the Third Reich is unforgettably thought-provoking [and] intensely moving
The Times (21 best history books 2021)
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A reminder that the German experience will always stand apart
Economist
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An extraordinary book of breathtaking scholarship. Jähner shines a light on a dark and almost forgotten period of German history to find it pulsating with life
Jack Fairweather, bestselling author of The Volunteer
User Reviews
Book 4.0
Narration 5.0
-
4.0 5.0
A very insightful look at Germany after the Second World War as they cope with a ruined and destroyed country and under the watchful eye of the victorious allies attempt to reconstruct their nation. Sadly they felt themselves to be more victims than offenders and made almost no comment on what had happened to the Jews and others. That had to wait until a later generation.
Liam 2026-03-12
Details
- Author
- Harald Jähner
- Narrator
- Sam Peter Jackson
- Duration
- 11 hours 43 minutes
- Release Date
- 17 June 2021
- ISBN
- 9781846574603
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Ebury Publishing
- Genre
- European history, Social and cultural history, Second World War
- Rating
- 4.0(1 review)
- Narration
- 5.0(1 review)
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin.***SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2021***Germany, 1945: a country in ruins. Cities have been reduced to rubble and more than half of the population are where they do not belong or do not want to be. How can a functioning society ever emerge from this chaos?In bombed-out Berlin, Ruth Andreas-Friedrich, journalist and member of the Nazi resistance, warms herself by a makeshift stove and records in her diary how a frenzy of expectation and industriousness grips the city. The Americans send Hans Habe, an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist and US army soldier, to the frontline of psychological warfare - tasked with establishing a newspaper empire capable of remoulding the minds of the Germans. The philosopher Hannah Arendt returns to the country she fled to find a population gripped by a manic loquaciousness, but faces a deafening wall of silence at the mention of the Holocaust.Aftermath is a nuanced panorama of a nation undergoing monumental change. 1945 to 1955 was a raw, wild decade poised between two eras that proved decisive for Germany's future - and one starkly different to how most of us imagine it today. Featuring black and white photographs and posters from post-war Germany - some beautiful, some revelatory, some shocking - Aftermath evokes an immersive portrait of a society corrupted, demoralised and freed - all at the same time.'Magisterial, fascinating, humane - a brilliant book of the greatest importance and achievement' PHILIPPE SANDS'Absolutely extraordinary. Every page stops you dead with insight and revelation' JAMES HAWES'For those who want to understand the Germans, Aftermath is essential reading. Anyone with even the slightest interest in history and the human condition should read this book' JULIA BOYD© Harald Jähner 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021
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