In the autumn of 2015 the Dutch-English publicist Ian Buruma gave
direction to the thinker’s programme ‘The End of Postwar’, organised by
the Flemish Royal Academy. The programme was triggered by Buruma’s
publication Year zero: a history of 1945, which focuses on the
coming into being of a new global order in the aftermath of World War
Two. The birth of a welfare state and the European unification process
were its two most remarkable achievements. Both, however, have been
under constant pressure since the beginning of the 21st century. Two
workshops and a two-day symposium brought together thinkers from the
scientific, cultural and political worlds in order to reflect on the
central theme of ‘The end of postwar: which future for Europe?’. This
collection of essays reflects the debates, which dealt with issues such
as the re-invention of the welfare state, the breach of the postwar
consensus, the durability of humanism and the role of a United Europe as
an answer to history.
Boone / Deneckere / Tollebeek
The End of Postwar: Essays on the Work of Ian Buruma jetzt bestellen!