Reshaping the Nation: An Introduction to the Collective Identities and Post-war Violence in Europe, 1944-1948
Abstract
This introductory chapter presents the concept of the volume and contextualises it with ongoing research about nationalism, violence and the post-war period. It discusses the process of "reshaping" liberated societies, which involved the reconstruction of moral order, gender order and ethnic homogeneity.
Violence, as the authors argue, became a tool of this process. This perspective enables a comparative approach to the study of post-war Europe, which tries to overcome the notorious East-West dividing line without covering the manifold differences between individual European countries.
The second part of this chapter introduces readers to the individual chapters of the volume. Finally, it presents the preliminary comparative findings of the European post-war period and the role of violence in "reshaping the nation."