The People's State
Subtitle: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: January 2, 2006
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 352
ISBN-13: 9780300108842
Subjects: European history: postwar, from c 1945 -; Sociology, Social Studies; History; History - General History; History: World; East Germany, DDR; Europe - Germany; History / Germany; Germany (East); Socialism and culture; Socialism and society; Socialism and youth
Description: "What was life really like for East Germans, effectively imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain? The headline stories of Cold War spies and surveillance by the secret police, of political repression and corruption, do not tell the whole story. After the unification of Germany in 1990 many East Germans remembered their lives as interesting, varied and full of educational, career and leisure opportunities: in many ways 'perfectly ordinary lives'." "Using the rich resources of the newly opened GDR archives, Mary Fulbrook investigates these conflicting narratives. She explores the transformation of East German society from the ruins of Hitler's Third Reich to a modernising industrial state, analysing changing social conditions and providing extraordinary insights into the ways in which individuals actively sought to shape their own lives."--Jacket.