Nobilities in Europe in the twentieth century
Subtitle: reconversion strategies, memory culture and elite formation
By: edited by Yme Kuiper, Nikolaj Bijleveld and Jaap Dronkers
Series: Groningen studies in cultural change -- volume L; Groningen studies in cultural change -- v. 50.
Publisher: Peeters
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Leuven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 356
ISBN-13: 9789042932272
Copyright date: 2015
Subjects: Social life and customs; Congresses; Nobility; History
Other titles: Nobilities in Europe in the 20th century
Description: In this volume on the comparative study of nobility, historians, sociologists and anthropologists focus on the different processes of transformation that aristocratic elites in Europe went through during the twentieth century. Readers will learn about nobles in northern Europe (Sweden and Finland), southern Europe (Italy), western Europe (France, Belgium, the Netherlands) and central Europe (Germany, Austria, Poland and Hungary). However, because of the comparative structure of the volume, readers will also sometimes encounter the nobility in Britain, Russia and the Baltic areas. The authors discuss questions like: how did noble men and women cope with the rise of totalitarian regimes and with the dramatic periods of the Second World War and the Cold War? What was the impact of the Fall of the Berlin Wall? And how did nobles react to the loss of political and economic privileges? In spite of all the variety and heterogeneity in wealth, power, prestige, and public visibility of these nobilities, some remarkable general trends and patterns emerge from the articles. The fourteen contributions show how and why relatively many nobles succeeded in staying on top or in transforming political and economic capital into cultural and symbolic capital. --
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.