Philipp Ther

Eine Büchlein aus dem Jahre 2019 mit Essays jeweils zum Zustand und der jüngeren Geschichte der den GUS-Staaten, USA, Deutschland, Italien und Türkei & Russland. Da die Texte 2019 recht aktuell waren, ist es teilweise bereits angestaubt, insgesamt aber immer noch sehr lesenswert. Insbesondere weil Ther nicht in der Tagespolitik verstrickt bleibt, sondern auf die Geschichte seit Anfang der 90er und teilweise darüber hinaus zurückgreift und dadurch viele Dinge in einen Kontext setzt, den man sonst gerne übersieht, wenn man einfach den heutigen politischen Diskussionen folgt. Besonders interessant fand ich den Text zu Türkei und Russland, hier wurden besonders viele Aspekte gestreift, die mir nicht bekannt waren.

"Meinen Kindern wünsche ich eine bessere Zukunft, als sich derzeit erkennen lässt." (im Dank, S. 199)… (altro)

I was going to be much harsher, but the top reviews at this moment are both very poorly done take-downs, and I didn't want to pile on. So, instead, I'll focus on what's good about the book. I don't like this position.

Ther's book is important because so much 'European' history is just the history of a small handful of generally successful countries: France and Germany in the first rank, then the smaller western European nations, maybe a few paragraphs about Spain and Italy... but certainly never anything east of Austria. Ther's book is a course-correction, given a ludicrous title that is sure to mislead people in any number of reasons. Blame the press, not the author: the German title, in my dreadful translation, was 'The New Order of the Old Continent: A History of Neoliberal Europe.' That is precisely what the book is, provided you remember that only very recently has Western Europe become 'Europe'; in the 'Old Continent' days, the imaginary center of Europe was much further East. And this is a book about the effects of neoliberal policies (creating markets, liberalizing the regulation of economic life, financialization of the economy, and so on), predominantly in Eastern Europe, though with good stuff on Germany and Austria and so on as well. It is an argument, not a history: it aims to draw up a fair scorecard for a series of policies that promised unending plenty and delivered... well, not that.

The general claim, as I remember it: neoliberal policies were imposed on Eastern European nations at and after 1989, with the support of Western European voters and governments; following this test run (the evidence was shouting 'Hey! This was not a good idea!'), those same policies were then imposed on Western European states. Those policies then, unsurprisingly, yielded the great financial crash (see: Tooze, 'Crashed') and a variety of deeply illiberal governments. Readers who prefer their history written in the blood of vanquished Communists might find this somehow questionable; anyone who knows anything about post-Communist Europe will nod along, sadly.

So, those reviewers who complain that this is just a screed against neoliberalism are not exactly wrong, but they're certainly being swayed by Cold War era certainties that Ther is at pains to avoid. As in most good history, there are no heroes, but there were alternatives.

My original review was just going to be about how this was dry as dust and had no narrative momentum and, like far too many history books translated from German, is almost unreadable. But hey, it's responsible and packed with data and apparently makes cold warriors angry, so I've added an extra star.… (altro)