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Black Market, Cold War: Everyday Life in Berlin, 1946–1949

Paul Steege, an associate professor of history at Villanova University, a coeditor of the electronic discussion list H-German, and the author of Black Market, Cold War: Everyday Life in Berlin, 1946-1949. Hope M. Harrison, director of GWU's Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies.

Date & Time

Wednesday
Feb. 13, 2008
2:00pm – 3:30pm ET

Overview

The Wilson Center's Cold War International History Project will sponsor an in-depth discussion of a new book by Paul Steege entitled Black Market, Cold War: Everyday Life in Berlin, 1946-1949.

Featuring

Paul Steege, an associate professor of history at Villanova University and a coeditor of the electronic discussion list H-German.

AND

Hope M. Harrison, the director of GWU's Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, and the author of Driving the Soviets up the Wall - a book on the decision to build the Berlin Wall.

Paul Steege will discuss how and why Berlin became the symbolic capital of the Cold War. He brings the history of the Cold War down to earth by focusing on accounts of daily struggles to survive rather than on seamless narratives of diplomatic exchange. By following Berliners as they made their way from ration offices to the black markets, from allied occupation bureaux to the physical and symbolic battles for the city's streets and squares, Paul Steege anchors his account of this emerging global conflict in the fractured terrain of a city shattered by World War II. By studying the history of everyday life in Berlin, Steege claims for Berliners a vital role in making possible Berlin's iconic Cold War status. The world saw an absolutely divided city, but everyday Berliners crossed its many boundaries, and these practices brought into focus the stark oppositions of the Cold War.

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Cold War International History Project

The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program.  Read more

History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more

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