Inventing a Socialist Nation

Jan Palmowski is Professor of Modern History and European Studies and Head of the School of Arts and Humanities at King's College London. His previous publications include Liberalism and the City: The Case of Frankfurt Am Main, 1866–1914 (1999) and Citizenship and National Identity in Twentieth-Century Germany (as editor, with Geoff Eley, 2008).

• 1. Introduction; Part I. Socialism, Heimat, and the Construction of Identity: 2. Cultural renewal and national division, 1945–c.1958; 3. Trace of stones; Part II. Public and Private Transcripts: 4. Heimat and identity in the Honecker era; 5. Citizenship and participation in the local community - 'Join In!'; 6. Environmental destruction; Part III. Power, Practices and Meanings: 7. Social drama and the euphemization of power; 8. Cultural practices, Eigen-Sinn, and obfuscated meanings; Conclusion: from citizens to revolutionaries.

Review of the hardback: 'East Germany's selective use of homeland culture in its reconstruction is illuminating.' Gareth Dale, The Times Higher Education Supplement