Out of the Darkness

Out of the Darkness by Frank Trentmann is a groundbreaking new history of the people at the centre of Europe, spanning from the Second World War to today.

In 1945, Germany lay in ruins, both morally and materially. The German people stood condemned by history, responsible for a horrifying genocide and a war of extermination. However, by 2015, Germany appeared to many as the moral voice of Europe, having welcomed almost one million refugees. Simultaneously, it pursued a controversially rigid fiscal discipline and engaged in energy deals with a dictator. Many have questioned how Germany descended into the darkness of the Nazis, but this book poses another crucial inquiry: how, and to what extent, have the Germans since reinvented themselves?

Trentmann narrates the dramatic evolution of the Germans from the middle of the Second World War, through the Cold War and the division into East and West, to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the reunited nation's quest for its place in the world. Their journey is characterised by extraordinary moral struggles - guilt, shame, and limited amends; wealth versus welfare; tolerance versus racism; compassion and complicity.

Through a diverse range of voices, including German soldiers and German Jews, environmentalists and coal miners, families and churches, volunteers, migrants, and populists, Trentmann constructs a remarkable and surprising portrait of over 80 years of the conflicted people at the centre of Europe.