New Books in German Studies

Joachim C. Häberlen, "Beauty Is in the Street: Protest and Counterculture in Post-War Europe" (Penguin, 2023)


Listen Later

In post-war Europe, protest was everywhere. On both sides of the Iron Curtain, from Paris to Prague, Milan to Wroclaw, ordinary people took to the streets, fighting for a better world. Their efforts came to a head most dramatically in 1968 and 1989, when mass movements swept Europe and rewrote its history.

 In the decades between, Joachim C. Haberlen argues in Beauty Is in the Street: Protest and Counterculture in Post-War Europe (Penguin, 2023), new movements emerged that transformed the nature of protesting. Activism moved beyond traditional demonstrations, from squatting to staging 'happenings' and camping out at nuclear power plants. People protested in the way they dressed, the music they listened to, the lovers they slept with, the clubs where they danced all night. New movements were born, notably anti-racism, women's liberation, gay liberation and environmentalism. And protest turned inward, as activists experimented with new ways of living and feeling, from communes to group therapy, in their efforts to live a better life in the here and now.


Some of these struggles succeeded, others failed. But successful or not, their history provides a glimpse into roads not taken, into futures that did not happen. The stories in Haberlen's book invite us to imagine different futures; to struggle, to fail, and to try again. In a time when we are told that there are no alternatives, they show us that there could be another way.

Joachim C. Häberlen is a historian of modern Europe. He holds a PhD from the University of Chicago and worked until 2022 at the University of Warwick; he now lives and works in Berlin.

Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channelTwitter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/german-studies

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

New Books in German StudiesBy Marshall Poe

  • 4.5
  • 4.5
  • 4.5
  • 4.5
  • 4.5

4.5

32 ratings


More shows like New Books in German Studies

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,456 Listeners

History Extra podcast by Immediate Media

History Extra podcast

3,190 Listeners

Great Lives by BBC Radio 4

Great Lives

476 Listeners

The LRB Podcast by The London Review of Books

The LRB Podcast

293 Listeners

The History of English Podcast by Kevin Stroud

The History of English Podcast

6,378 Listeners

Political Fix by Financial Times

Political Fix

143 Listeners

Dan Snow's History Hit by History Hit

Dan Snow's History Hit

4,670 Listeners

The New Yorker Radio Hour by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The New Yorker Radio Hour

6,716 Listeners

Cold War Conversations by Ian Sanders

Cold War Conversations

457 Listeners

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat by New York Times Opinion

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

6,942 Listeners

WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk by Goalhanger

WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk

1,320 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

13,257 Listeners

What's Left of Philosophy by Lillian Cicerchia, Owen Glyn-Williams, Gil Morejón, and William Paris

What's Left of Philosophy

262 Listeners

History of the Germans by Dirk Hoffmann-Becking

History of the Germans

431 Listeners

Gone Medieval by History Hit

Gone Medieval

1,767 Listeners