Dictatorship and Daily Life in 20th-Century Europe

Lisa Pine's latest edited volume will prove to be invaluable for scholars and students interested in the history of everyday life in dictatorships in Western and Eastern Europe. The transnational, comparative approach illuminates the diverse responses of ordinary citizens to these regimes, and the ways in which individuals conformed to, accommodated or evaded state control. With nuanced analysis of daily life in diverse societies, the chapters in this cohesive volume offer an extraordinary glimpse into the social and cultural history of coercion, consent, and dissent in some of the most violent regimes of the twentieth century. * Jason Crouthamel, Professor of History, Grand Valley State University, USA * This is an important book. Lisa Pine has assembled a fine team of historians to recreate the ebb and flow of daily life in such dictatorships as Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union, Salazar's Portugal, or Ceausescu's Romania. Packed with fascinating material and drawing on a wide array of sources, the chapters included here demonstrate how ordinary people built love-hate relationships with authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, both at the left and the right of the political spectrum, which kept them under strict surveillance and constantly deprived them of many personal and collective rights. This is an essential reading for all those interested in the history and politics of twentieth-century Europe. * Marius Turda, Professor, Oxford Brookes University, UK * Wide rangeing and ably constructed, this important collection provides multiple insights not only on the character of dictatorships, but also on social change in twentieth century Europe. The inclusion of Communism and Fascism invites readers to important comparisons. As Lisa Pine notes in her helpful conclusion, key elements included the length of the regime. * ?Jeremy Black, author of A History of Germany *