Output details

Inventing a socialist nation : Heimat and the politics of everyday life in the GDR, 1945-1990

This monograph, at 140,000 words, relies on a considerable body of material, and on extensive use of primary sources. It is rare for a monograph to deal with the entire history of the GDR. In examining how the state attempted to use local traditions to construct a national identity, the book relies on unusually rich and diverse archival sources at the local, regional (district) and national levels. The monograph builds on extensive oral history interviews, and on State Security Services files (because of Germany’s complex laws relating to access, these alone have taken over seven years to mine).