Culture of defeat, author: Wolfgang Schivelbusch

This book addresses an important theory, which is the culture of defeat, how defeated peoples live with it, and how they overcame it. After ten years of the great collapse represented by the fall of the Soviet Empire, the author, who was said to be the master of cultural history, saw that it was time to pose a number of necessary historical questions, study the history of defeat in the American South after 1865, France after 1871, and Germany after 1918 and its defeat in World War I. How did these major collapses occur in modern history? What myths of betrayal or heroism did they create? And what is the relationship between external defeat and internal revolutions that resulted from lost wars everywhere? The book addressed these questions and others, tracing the energy surge that comes from the deep humiliation brought by defeats. It also showed how the American South successfully gained a legendary image after the Civil War, as depicted in the novel Gone with the Wind, and imagined the romantic Southern planter. Conversely, how this led to widespread political, cultural, and educational innovations in France after the 1871 defeat, and how the German Empire introduced a strong modernity in various technical fields after losing World War I. The book reveals many of the influential factors among the defeated and ways they overcame their defeats, and points to the astonishing sources of strength awaiting them. Number of pages: 382