Music and Postwar Transitions in the 19th and 20th Centuries - Explorations in Culture and International History Paperback

About the Book

Music and Postwar Transitions takes a groundbreaking and much anticipated dive into the concept of postwar transitions and how these affect and are affected by the world of music. Leading scholars in the field explore new approaches to create a novel understanding of music and postwar periods.

Book Synopsis

From the Napoleonic Wars to the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda, via the great world conflicts of the 20th century, Music and Postwar Transitions in the 19th and 20th Centuries is the first book to highlight the significance of 'postwar transitions' in the field of music and to demonstrate the influence that musicians, composers, critics, institutions, and publics have had on the period that follows conflict. Leading historians, political scientists, psychologists and musicologists explore the roles of music and culture in demobilization, reconstruction, memory, reconciliation, revenge, and nationalist backlash. Moving beyond the popular conception of music as an agent of peace, this study reveals music's more complex and ambivalent role in the process of transition from war to peace.

About the Author

Anaïs Fléchet is Associate professor in International History at the University Paris-Saclay, and member of the research team Centre d'histoire culturelle des sociétés contemporaines. Her research focuses on music, international history, Brazil and the Global South.