During World War Two, 131 German cities and towns were targeted by Allied bombs, a good number almost entirely flattened. Six hundred thousand German civilians died, a figure twice as large as that of all American war casualties combined. Seven and a half million Germans were left homeless. Given the astonishing scope of the devastation, W. G. Sebald asks, why does the subject occupy so little space in Germany's cultural memory?
On the Natural History of Destruction probes deeply into this ominous silence. It examines longstanding pieties and replaces them with uncomfortable but necessary truths. It addresses crucial questions that arise when communities must heal from self-inflicted wounds, not the least being that of who is allowed to claim the mantle of victim.
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Book details

• Format Hardcover
• Pages202 pages
• LanguageEnglish
• ISBN100375504842
• ISBN139780375504846