“Maybe the parties involved in negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine can revisit some of Brandt’s creative thinking and personal gestures as inspiring examples for the beginnings of a new reconciliation. They can use Benedikt Schoenborn’s excellent study of reconciliation and Ostpolitik as their guide.” • H Diplo“Benedikt Schoenborn delivers here a book of rare quality. Taking up a theme already amply documented, he manages to achieve a double tour de force: historiographical, by proposing a new reading of Brandtian Ostpolitik through the prism of reconciliation; and methodological, mobilizing the toolbox of political science to analyze historical material. The exercise is therefore, from all points of view, successful, and can easily be described as a model of its kind.” • Francia Recensio“Schoenborn’s mastery of the literature about Brandt is comprehensive and impressive… His study, although archivally based in Brandt’s papers, is inherently interdisciplinary, employing a theoretical perspective that borrows from sociology, philosophy, political science, and even religious studies.” • Diplomatic History“Political scientists and sociologists interested in reconciliation and transition studies in any contemporary setting will also find much to appreciate in this richly researched international history.” • German Politics and Society“Reconciliation Road is a valuable and thorough engagement with Willy Brandt’s full foreign policy engagement against the backdrop of peace and reconciliation studies. It constitutes a needed contribution and fresh perspective on a clearly very important European politician.” • Peace and Change“Schoenborn’s writing is concise and uncluttered; the thrust of the book is interpretive rather than expository, and the narrative chapters make ongoing use of theoretical insights outlined at the book’s outset… Schoenborn’s book provides a welcome reminder of how much a well-researched account of high politics—drawing on personal papers, parliamentary records, and the documents of multiple foreign ministries—can contribute to an understanding of postwar West German values and aspirations.” • Central European History“This is a valuable addition to the literature on Willy Brandt and Ostpolitik. Schoenborn demonstrates that the spectre of the Nazi past was always present, and that reconciliation was a much more ambitious aim than détente.” • Gottfried Niedhart, University of Mannheim“Schoenborn draws on insights from political science and sociology to convincingly demonstrate how important a conceptual tool reconciliation is for understanding Brandt’s Ostpolitik. At the same time, he illuminates the fascinating ways that human interactions and cultural forces played out in the realm of diplomacy.” • Christian Bailey, Purchase College
