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In this first comprehensive comparison of left-wing violence in the United States and West Germany, Jeremy Varon focuses on America's Weather Underground and Germany's Red Army Faction to consider how and why young, middle-class radicals in prosperous democratic societies turned to armed struggle in efforts to overthrow their states. Based on a wealth of primary material, ranging from interviews to FBI reports, this book reconstructs the motivation and ideology of violent organizations active during the 1960s and 1970s. Varon conveys the intense passions of the era--the heat of moral purpose, the depth of Utopian longing, the sense of danger and despair, and the exhilaration over temporary triumphs. Varon's compelling interpretation of the logic and limits of dissent in democratic societies provides striking insights into the role of militancy in contemporary protest movements and has wide implications for the United States' current \"war on terrorism.\" Varon explores Weatherman and RAF's strong similarities and the reasons why radicals in different settings developed a shared set of values, languages, and strategies. Addressing the relationship of historical memory to political action, Varon demonstrates how Germany's fascist past influenced the brutal and escalating nature of the West German conflict in the 60s and 70s, as well as the reasons why left-wing violence dropped sharply in the United States during the 1970s. Bringing the War Home is a fascinating account of why violence develops within social movements, how states can respond to radical dissent and forms of terror, how the rational and irrational can combine in political movements, and finally how moral outrage and militancy can play both constructive and destructive roles in efforts at social change.

While the \"Valkyrie\" plot by Nazi officers to kill Adolf Hitler is the best known instance of German opposition to his dictatorship, there were many other significant acts of resistance. Behind Valkyrie collects documents, letters, and testimonies of Germans who fought Hitler from within, making many of them available in their entirety and in English for the first time. Peter Hoffmann assembles the words of citizens protesting the National Socialists' dismantling of the first democratic German republic, socialists and conservatives arguing for civil liberties, and dissatisfied senior military officials. Behind Valkyrie's first-hand accounts of reactions to crimes by the SS, mistreatment of millions of Soviet prisoners of war, mass murder of Jews, and the mismanagement of military campaigns show that attempts to maintain freedom, justice, and human rights often came from unexpected sources. While not free of the prejudices of their time, these nearly forgotten voices help provide a more complete understanding of the range of dissent during one of history's most disturbing epochs.

Seit 1969 intensivierte die Bundesrepublik ihre wirtschaftlichen, aber auch ihre politischen Beziehungen zu Libyen unter der Herrschaft von Muammar al-Gaddafi. Tim Szatkowski analysiert das deutsch-libysche Verhältnis während der Kanzlerschaft von Willy Brandt und Helmut Schmidt. Der Autor geht dabei der Frage nach, welche Motive so schwer wogen, dass die sozial-liberale Koalition Menschenrechtsverletzungen und die offenkundige Verstrickung Libyens in den internationalen Terrorismus weniger beachtete, als man dies hätte erwarten können. Auf der Basis erstmals ausgewerteter Akten des Auswärtigen Amts kann heute eine differenzierte Antwort gegeben werden.