Witnessing Postwar Europe: The Personal History of an American Abroad

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American born and bred, author Allan Mitchell found his identity transformed and molded by the discovery of Europe. This autobiographical account follows the private life and professional career of Mitchell, emphasizing his experience as a student and scholar in France and Germany. Witnessing Postwar Europe follows Mitchell as he grows up under the guidance of his Scottish immigrant parents, through his boyhood in Kentucky, to a PhD at Harvard and beyond, including long stints as a professor at Smith College and the University of California-San Diego. Central to the story is his firsthand look at the development of postwar Europe, which he recounts with colorful detail. Mitchell includes personal testimony about the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the ensuing departure of Soviet troops from Germany, the end of the Cold War. This memoir tells of his encounters with a host of such extraordinary public figures as Konrad Adenauer, Willy Brandt, Francois Mitterand, and Henry Kissinger, met as he conducted historical research into the comparative history of France and Germany during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Personal and colorful, Witnessing Postwar Europe presents a fresh look at Western Europe’s past and present.