Revival After the Great War
Luc Verpoest, Leen Engelen, Rajesh Heynickx, Jan Schmidt, Pieter Uyttenhove and Pieter Verstraete
Revival After the Great War
Rebuild, Remember, Repair, Reform
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The challenges of post-war recovery from social and political reform to architectural designIn the months and years immediately following the First World War, the many (European) countries that had formed its battleground were confronted with daunting challenges. These challenges varied according to the countries' earlier role and degree of involvement in the war but were without exception enormous. The contributors to this book analyse how this was not only a matter of rebuilding ravaged cities and destroyed infrastructure, but also of repairing people’s damaged bodies and upended daily lives, and rethinking and reforming societal, economic and political structures. These processes took place against the backdrop of mass mourning and remembrance, political violence and economic crisis. At the same time, the post-war tabula rasa offered many opportunities for innovation in various areas of society, from social and political reform to architectural design. The wide scope of post-war recovery and revival is reflected in the different sections of this book: rebuild, remember, repair, and reform. It offers insights into post-war revival in Western European countries such as Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, as well as into how their efforts were perceived outside of Europe, for instance in Argentina and the United States.

Contributors: Helen Brooks (University of Kent), Dries Claeys (KU Leuven), Marisa De Picker (KU Leuven), Leen Engelen (LUCA/KU Leuven), Rajesh Heynickx (KU Leuven), John Horne (Trinity College Dublin), Maarten Liefooghe (Ghent University), Ana Paula Pires (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), Richard Plunz (Columbia University), Tammy Proctor (Utah State University), Pierre Purseigle (University of Warwick), Carolina Garcia Sanz (Universidad de Sevilla), Jan Schmidt (KU Leuven), Yves Segers (KU Leuven), Marjan Sterckx (Ghent University), Maria Inés Tato (Universidad de Buenos Aires), Pieter Uyttenhove (Ghent University), Joris Vandendriessche (KU Leuven), Luc Verpoest (KU Leuven), Pieter Verstraete (KU Leuven), Volker Welter (University of California), Kaat Wils (KU Leuven).

About the authors:
  • Jan Schmidt is historian of modern and contemporary Japan at KU Leuven, focusing on political and media history.
  • Leen Engelen is historian of media and visual culture at LUCA School of Arts/KU Leuven and president of the International Association for Media and History.
  • Luc Verpoest is emeritus professor at KU Leuven where he has been teaching architectural history and theory and history of heritage conservation. He is still publishing in these particular research fields.
  • Pieter Uyttenhove is associate professor of history and theory of urbanism at Ghent University.
  • Pieter Verstraete is associate professor of history of education at KU Leuven and curator of the annual Leuven DisABILITY Film festival.
  • Rajesh Heynickx is intellectual historian at KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture.
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Published on 09/12/2020.
 
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