This Horrible Uncertainty - A German Woman Writes War, 1939-1948

Through the diaries and personal papers of a German woman, Vera Conrad, this book documents her wartime experiences and deepens our understanding of the complex experiences of trauma and grief that National Socialist supporters experienced. Building on scholarship about mourning and widowhood that largely focuses on state policies and public discourses, This Horrible Uncertainty provides an interpretive framework of people's perceptions of events and their capacity to respond to them. Using a history of emotions approach, Erika Quinn establishes that keeping the diary allowed Conrad to develop different selves in response to her responsibilities, fear, and grief after her husband was declared missing in 1943.

About the author

Erika Quinn is a Professor Emerita of History at Eureka College. Her publications include Franz Liszt: A Story of Central European Subjectivity (Brill, 2014), and Animals, Machines, and AI: On Human and Non-Human Emotions in Modern German Cultural History (De Gruyter, 2021) (co-edited with Holly Yanacek), as well as numerous contributions regarding grief, diaries, literature, and women in wartime. She is currently pursuing a Clinical License in Social Work with a focus on historic and intergenerational trauma.

Product details

• Authors: Erika Quinn, Quinn Erika
• Publisher: BERGHAHN BOOKS, INC
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.09.2024
• EAN: 9781805396420
• ISBN: 978-1-80539-642-0
• No. of pages: 202
• Series: Spektrum: Publications of the German Studies Association
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical, HISTORY / Historiography, Fascism & Nazism, Second World War, Gender studies: women, Far-right political ideologies and movements, Gender studies: women and girls, c 1939 to c 1945 (including WW2), History: 20th Century to Present