| Post: | Professor of Modern European History |
| Other posts: | Professor of Modern European History (History) |
| Location: | Arts A A172 |
| Email: | P.R.Betts@sussex.ac.uk |
| Telephone numbers | |
| Internal: | 7454 |
| UK: | (01273) 877454 |
| International: | +44 1273 877454 |
Biography
BA History, Haverford College (US), 1985; MA, University of Chicago, 1989; PhD, University of Chicago 1995.
Asst Professor, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 1996-1999; University of Sussex, 2000-
Co-director of Sussex's Centre for Modern European Cultural History, as well as Director of the Sussex-China Faculty Exchange Programme since 2004.
Research
My most recent book, Within Walls: Private Life in the German Democratic Republic, was published by Oxford University Press in 2010, and received the Fraenkel Prize for Contemporary History from the Wiener Library.
Currently I am researching a book on changing ideas of civilization in 20th century Europe.
Teaching
I teach courses on twentieth-century Germany, as well as a variety of undergraduate options on Modern European social and cultural history, including a Special Subject entitled ‘The Cold War: Politics, Society and Culture."
As part of the MA programme in Modern European Cultural History, I teach courses on "The Making of Modern Europe" and "The History of Human Rights."
Editorial Board Memberships and Inter-University Activities:
Editorial Board, Past & Present, 2009-
Chair, German History Society UK, 2011-2013
Editorial Board, German History, 2010-
National Subpanelist for History, Research Excellence Framework (REF), 2011-2014.
Joint Editor, German History, 2004-09
SELECT PUBLICATIONS
Books:
Within Walls: Private Life in the German Democratic Republic (Oxford:Oxford University Press, 2010), 321 pp.
*Awarded Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History (Senior Category) by the Wiener Library, London, October 2010
The Authority of Everyday Objects: A Cultural History of West German Industrial Design (Berkeley:UniversityofCalifornia Press, 2004; paperback, 2007), 348 pp.
*History Book Prize Finalist, German Studies Association (USA), 2006
Edited Books:
Co-Editor (with Christian Wiese), Years of Persecution, Years of Extermination: Saul Friedländer and the Future of Holocaust Studies (London: Continuum, 2010), 370 pp.
Co-Editor (with Alon Confino and Dirk Schumann), Between Mass Death and Individual Loss: The Place of the Dead in Twentieth-Century Germany (New York/Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2008; paperback, 2011), 329 pp.
Co-Editor (with Katherine Pence), Socialist Modern: East German Everyday Culture and Politics (Ann Arbor: University of MichiganPress, 2008), 378 pp.
Co-Editor (with Greg Eghigian), Pain and Prosperity: Reconsidering Twentieth Century German History (Palo Alto:StanfordUniversity Press, 2003), 279 pp.
Guest Edited Special Journal Issues:
Co-Editor (with David Crowley), “Domestic Dreamworlds: Notions of Home in Post-1945 Europe,” Journal of Contemporary History 40:2 (Spring, 2005), pp. 213-362.
Articles and Book Chapters
“Socialism, Social Rights, Human Rights,” Humanity, special issue edited by Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann et al (Spring 2012), forthcoming.
“Westalgie: West German Longing for the Cold War after 1989,” German Politics & Society, Autumn2012, forthcoming.
“Violence, Separateness and Performance: Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy Reconsidered,” Gewalt Denken. Lektüren – Festschrift für Bernd Weisbrod zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Habbo Knoch, Uffa Jensen and Miriam Rürup (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2011), pp. 214-222.
“Die Politik des Privaten: Eingaben in der DDR [The Politics of the Private: Citizen Complaints in the GDR],” Demokratie im Schatten der Gewalt: Geschichten des Privaten im deutschen Nachkrieg, ed. Daniel Fulda, Dagmar Herzog, Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann and Till van Rahden (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2010), pp. 286-309.
“Manners, Morality and Civilization: Reflections on Post-1945 German Etiquette Books,” in Histories of the Aftermath: The Legacies of World War II in Comparative European Perspective, ed. Frank Biess and Robert Moeller (New York: Berghahn, 2010), pp. 196-214.
“’I Want My File!’ The Private Side of German Reunification,” History Today, Oct. 2009, pp. 34-39.
“Privatheit” [Privacy], in Erinnerungsorte der DDR, ed. Martin Sabrow (Munich: CH Beck, 2009), pp. 314-325.
“Private Property and Public Culture: A Forgotten Chapter of East European Communist Life,” in Centre d'histoire de Sciences Politiques, http://www.histoire-politique.fr, January 2009.
"Property, Peace and Honor: Neighborhood Justice in Communist Berlin,” Past & Present 201(November 2008), pp. 215-254.
“Nachbarschaft, Konflikte und Ehre: Alltagsjustiz in der DDR,” in Zeiträume: Potsdamer Almanach des Zentrums für Zeithistorische Forschung, 2007 (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2008), pp. 17-28.
“Death and 20th Century Germany,” in Between Mass Death and Individual Loss: The Place of the Dead in Twentieth-Century Germany, ed. Alon Confino, Paul Betts and Dirk Schumann (New York/Providence: Berghahn, 2008), pp. 1-24.
“When Cold Warriors Die: The State Funerals of Konrad Adenauer and Walter Ulbricht,” in Between Mass Death and Individual Loss: The Place of the Dead in Twentieth-Century Germany, ed. Alon Confino, Paul Betts and Dirk Schumann (New York/Providence: Berghahn, 2008), pp. 151-178.
“Building Socialism at Home: The Case of East German Interiors,” in Socialist Modern: East German Everyday Culture and Politics, ed. Katherine Pence and Paul Betts (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008), pp. 96-132.
“Germany, International Justice and the 20th Century,” in History and Memory, Special Issue on “Histories and Memories of 20th CenturyGermany,” ed. A. Confino 17:1/2 (Fall 2005), pp.45-86.
“Domestic Dreamworlds: Notions of Home in Post-1945 Europe,” Journal of Contemporary History 40:2 (April, 2005), pp. 213-236.
“Ästhetik und Öffentlichkeit: Westdeutschland in den 50er Jahren” [Aesthetics and the Public Sphere: West Germany in the 1950s] in Bernd Weisbrod, ed., Die Politik der Öffentlichkeit-Die Öffentlichkeit der Politik: Politische Medialisierung in der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2003), pp. 231-260.
"The Politics of Post-Fascist Aesthetics: West and East German Design in the 1950s,” in Life After Death: Violence, Normality and the Reconstruction of Postwar Europe, eds. Richard Bessel and Dirk Schumann (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 2003), pp. 291-321.
“Remembrance of Things Past: Nostalgia in West and East Germany, 1980-2000,” in Pain and Prosperity: Reconsidering 20th Century German History, eds. P. Betts and G. Eghigian (Palo Alto:StanfordUniversityPress, 2003), pp. 179-207.
“The New Fascination with Fascism: The Case of Nazi Modernism,” Journal of Contemporary History 37:4 (September, 2002), pp. 541-558.
“The Nierentisch Nemesis: Organic Design as West German Pop Culture,” German History 19:2 (May, 2001), pp. 185-217.
"The Twilight of the Idols: East German Memory and Material Culture," Journal of Modern History 72:3 (September, 2000), pp. 731-765. ( *Higby Prize for Best Article in the JMH 1998-2000)
"The Bauhaus as Cold War Legend: West German Modernism Revisited," German Politics and Society 14:12 (Summer, 1996), pp. 75-100.
Publications
Books
Within Walls: Private Life in the German Democratic Republic (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), at press
Years of Persecution, Years of Extermination: Saul Friedländer and the Future of Holocaust Studies, co-edited with Christian Wiese (London: Continuum, 2010)
Between Mass Death and Individual Loss:The Place of the Dead in Twentieth-Century Germany, co-edited with Alon Confino and Dirk Schumann (New York/Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2008).
Socialist Modern: New Perspectives on East German Everyday Culture, edited with Katherine Pence (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008).
The Authority of Everyday Objects: A Cultural History of West German Industrial Design (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004, [paperback 2007) GSA Book Prize Finalist
Pain and Prosperity: Reconsidering Twentieth Century German History, edited with Greg Eghigian (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2003)
Guest Edited Special Issue
Co-Editor (with David Crowley), “Domestic Dreamworlds: Notions of Home in Post-1945 Europe,” Journal of Contemporary History 40:2 (Spring, 2005), pp. 213-362.
Articles and Book Chapters
"Die Politik des Privaten: Eingaben in der DDR [The Politics of the Private: Citizen Complaints in the GDR]," Demokratie im Schatten der Gewalt: Geschichten des Privaten im deutschen Nachkrieg, ed. Daniel Fulda, Dagmar Herzog, Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann and Till van Rahden (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2010).
"Manners, Morality and Civilization: Reflections on Post-1945 German Etiquette Books: Reflections on Post-1945 German Etiquette Book," in Histories of the Aftermath: The Legacies of World War II in Comparative European Perspective, ed. Frank Biess and Robert Moeller (New York: Berghahn, 2009).
“’I Want My File!’ The Private Side of German Reunification,” History Today, Oct. 2009, pp. 34-39.
"Privatheit" [Privacy], in Gedächtnisorte der DDR, ed. Martin Sabrow (Munich: CH Beck, 2009).
"Property, Peace and Honor: Neighborhood Justice in Communist Berlin," Past & Present, 201 (November 2008), pp. 215-254.
"When Cold Warriors Die: The State Funerals of Konrad Adenauer and Walter Ulbricht," in Between Mass Death and Individual Loss: The Place of the Dead in Twentieth-Century Germany, ed. Alon Confino, Paul Betts and Dirk Schumann (New York/ Providence: Berghahn, 2008), pp. 151-176.
"Building Socialism at Home: The Case of East German Interiors," in Socialist Modern: East German Everyday Culture and Politics, ed. Katherine Pence and Paul Betts (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008), pp. 1-34.
“Nachbarschaft, Konflikte und Ehre: Alltagsjustiz in der DDR,” in Zeiträume: Potsdamer Almanach des Zentrums für Zeithistorische Forschung, 2007(Göttingen: Wallstein, 2008), pp. 17-28.
“When Cold Warriors Die: The State Funerals of Konrad Adenauer and Walter Ulbricht,” in Between Mass Death and Individual Loss: The Place of the Dead in Twentieth-CenturyGermany, ed. Alon Confino, Paul Betts and Dirk Schumann (New York/ Providence: Berghahn, 2008), pp. 151-176.
“Building Socialism at Home: The Case of East German Interiors,” in Socialist Modern: East German Everyday Culture and Politics, ed. Katherine Pence and Paul Betts (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008), pp. 96-132.
"The Rise and Fall of the American ‘Soft' Empire," History Workshop Journal 63 (Spring 2007), pp. 335-342.
"Some Reflections on the Visual Turn," Roundtable Participant, H-German Forum on "The Visual Turn in History," September 2006.
“Germany, International Justice and the 20th Century,” in History and Memory, Special Issue on “Histories and Memories of 20th Century Germany,” ed. A. Confino 17:1/2 (Fall 2005), pp. 45-86.
"Ästhetik und Öffentlichkeit: Westdeutschland in den 50er Jahren," [Aesthetics and the Public Sphere: West Germany in the 1950s] in Bernd Weisbrod (ed.), Die Politik der Öffentlichkeit- Die Öffentlichkeit der Politik: Politische Medialisierung in der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2003), pp. 231-260.
"Remembrance of Things Past: Nostalgia in West and East Germany, 1980-2000," in Pain and Prosperity: Reconsidering 20th Century German History, ed. P. Betts and G. Eghigian (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2003), pp. 179-207.
"The Politics of Post-Fascist Aesthetics: West and East German Design in the 1950s," in Life After Death: Violence, Normality and the Reconstruction of Postwar Europe eds. Richard Bessel and Dirk Schumann (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 291-321.
"The New Fascination with Fascism: The Case of Nazi Modernism," Journal of Contemporary History 37:4 (September, 2002), pp. 541-558.
"The Nierentisch Nemesis: Organic Design as West German Pop Culture," German History 19:2 (May, 2001), pp. 185-217.
"The Bauhaus and National Socialism: A Dark Chapter of Modernism”
“The Bauhaus in the German Democratic Republic: Between Formalism and Pragmatism”
“Bauhaus in the Federal Republic of Germany: A Privileged Legacy from Weimar”
“Black Mountain College, NC”
“New Bauhaus and School of Design, Chicago”
“The Institute of Design, Ulm”
* All the above 6 articles are included in Bauhaus, ed. Jeannine Fiedler and Peter Feierabend (Cologne: Könemann, 2000), pp. 34-41; 42-49; 50-55; 62-65; 66-73 and 74-79, respectively.
"The Twilight of the Idols: East German Memory and Material Culture," Journal of Modern History72:3 (September, 2000), pp. 731-765.
*Higby Prize for Best Article in the JMH 1998-2000.
"Science, Semiotics and Society: Looking Back on the Ulm Institute of Design," Design Issues 14: 2 (Summer, 1998), pp. 67-82.
"Die Bauhaus-Legende: Ein Amerikanisch-Deutsches 'Joint Venture' des Kalten Krieges" [The Bauhaus Legend: An American-German Cold War 'Joint Venture' in Adelheid von Saldern, Inge Marssolek and Alf Lüdtke, eds., Amerikanisierung? Traum und Alptraum im Deutschland des. 20 Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1996), pp. 270-290.
"The Bauhaus as Cold War Legend: West German Modernism Revisited," German Politics and Society 14:12 (Summer, 1996), pp. 75-100.