Out of the Darkness

Critics Review

• I could not put the book down. The way Frank Trentmann writes history, the way he brings together things great and small, analysis with narrative, is wonderful

  Bernhard Schlink, author of The Reader

• Outstanding … A meticulous and well-judged account of Germany from 1942 to today [that] shows how it transformed itself from pariah nation to leader of a continent

  Daily Telegraph, Best Books of the Year

• An impressive account of how Germany built a new identity for itself after the barbaric Nazi years … terrifically insightful … This book runs to 838 pages, but barely a word is wasted. Trentmann is a skilful and unflashy storyteller with flickers of gentle irony. Echoing Tolstoy’s theory of history as the “sum of human wills”, he aims to stitch the scraps of everyday experience into a quilt of grand narrative. This results in a good deal of richness, colour and subtlety

  The Times

• Frank Trentmann’s enthralling account of the Germans since 1942 is rooted in a brilliant insight: that the morality Germans invoked in their struggle to make sense of their place in history was never a transcendent standard, but a malleable and contingent substance whose nature was always contested. This fascinating and compelling moral history takes us to the centre of modern Germany’s self-understanding, moving elegantly between politics, economics, culture and the private reflections of individuals

  Christopher Clark, author of The Sleepwalkers and Revolutionary Spring

• Compelling … vivid … fresh … one of the most impressive studies I have read of German guilt and shame … an eloquent and original account of the last eighty years of the country’s history

  Literary Review

• Absorbing… Frank Trentmann’s approach is novel [and] his Germans leap vividly off the page, both as archetypes and as complex, multi-layered individuals… an excellent book

  New Statesman

• Superb

  Spectator

• In Out of the Darkness Trentmann does something different and extraordinary. He has composed an account of recent Germany that is not primarily political or economic or social, but moral.. [His] moral history is enormous, but never heavy-going: he is a gifted and intelligent writer

  London Review of Books

• Masterly. Frank Trentmann’s wide-ranging, deeply researched, nuanced evaluation of changing German mentalities and moral challenges since the Nazi era is a tour de force

  Ian Kershaw, author of Hitler and Personality and Power

• Excellent … Trentmann’s study marshals an immense amount of evidence in response to a single basic question: how did Germans reassert themselves as morally oriented human beings?

  Times Literary Supplement

• Remarkably rich . . . Out of the Darkness usefully reveals the roots of [modern Germany’s] ethical knots. Trentmann is still hopeful that Germans can untangle them

  New York Times Book Review

• Out of the Darkness give[s] a deep insight into how Germany and its people grappled with questions of guilt and identity…. navigates complex issues like self-pity, denazification, immigration, reunification and military intervention with refreshing clarity. This book couldn’t be more timely

  BBC History Magazine

• The [postwar] moral remaking of Germany is a complicated tale. It’s a tale that Mr. Trentmann is well placed to tell… He brings to his challenging subject both the sympathy of a native German and the detachment of an outsider… engrossing

  Wall Street Journal

• A fascinating, rich and fluid narrative

  Der Spiegel, Books of the Year

• A panorama of German mentalities since 1942

  Die Zeit, Best Books January 2024

• Monumental … a remarkable book … original and unique insights into the lived history of the Germans … succeeds like no other history to combine the width and depth of human voices with an overarching narrative … stimulating, immensely rich and very readable

  Sueddeutsche Zeitung

• In this magisterial book, Frank Trentmann charts how the Germans responded to the moral responsibilities that they faced as perpetrators of a war of annihilation and of the mass murder of the European Jews. Discussing transformations in East and West Germany, Trentmann highlights the trade-offs between moral reorientation and economic reconstruction. Portrayed on a broad canvas, this is a history of post-war Germany for our crisis-ridden times

  Benjamin Ziemann, author of Hitler's Personal Prisoner: The Life of Martin Niemöller

• Frank Trentmann’s rich and brilliant Out of the Darkness traces the moral and material history of Germany since the Second World War through the lives of its people. Wonderfully readable and compelling it introduces us to Christian peaceniks, ‘red’ militarists, frustrated feminists, unappreciated ‘guest workers,’ and a host of other unexpected and diverse Germans, illuminating the achievements and failures of the nation that emerged from the Third Reich

  Suzanne L. Marchand, author of Porcelain: A History from the Heart of Europe and Down from Olympus

• A milestone in historical writing

  Frankfurter Rundschau

• Impressive … shows how German history can be told in a new way

  Die Welt

• Trentmann adds another layer to the history of events: the accompanying self-reflection among the Germans, with all their contradictions, their conflicts, their insights and errors. This is original, enlightening and entertaining. We find ourselves in these pages and are amazed!

  Süddeutsche Zeitung

• A must read!

  taz Futur Zwei, Best Books Winter 2023

• A lively portrait of German mentalities

  Handelsblatt

• A great panorama

  Hamburger Abendblatt

• Revelatory

  Camden New Journal

• A lively and very readable portrait of German society… which offers many surprising details and insights

  BM, Buch-Magazin

• He takes full advantage of the sources and gives voice to many contemporaries

  Das Parlament

• Masterful

  Winnipeg Free Press