Mazoweralso is alertto the ways in which the often conflictingaims of Greek
resistance groups, accompaniedby a good bit of manipulationfrom the warring powers, foreshadowedthe tensions of the Cold War. In a nuancedandjudicious discussion of EAM-ELAS, the largest, most active (and communist-dominated) resistancegroup,Mazowereffectively establishesthe point thatthis controversial organizationwas neveras centralizedin its aimsormonolithicin its poweras British officials supposed at the time. Outwardlyimpressive in its control of much of Greece by 1944 and in its establishmentof people's courts and village councils, EAM-ELASnonethelesshad seriousweaknesses.The stage was set for tragedyin the periodimmediatelyfollowing liberation.Hesitantto seize power,EAM-ELAS stumbled(or was pushed)into open fightingwith the British.Britishsuccess, and ruthlessness,in subduingEAM-ELASmarkednotonly a beginningshotin theCold War,butcreateda legacyof bitternesswithinGreecethathaslastedintoourown day. Based on a wealth of archivalsources,with a balancedtone, and sound in its conclusions, Mazower's book is importantfor understandingthe dynamics of wartimeoccupation,not only in Greece but throughoutEurope,and the ways in which it shatteredold certaintiesandreplacedthem with fragilehopes thatlargely fell victim to daily violence and cynical postwarcompromises.
STEPHENG. FRITZ,East TennesseeState University
JonathanPetropoulos.Artas Politics in the ThirdReich. ChapelHill andLondon:
University of NorthCarolinaPress, 1996. Pp. xviii, 439. Cloth $45.00.
Withthis work,whichilluminatesin a grandway the place of the visual artsin
NationalSocialisttheoryandpractice,JonathanPetropouloshasmadea significant contributionto our understandingof the culturalhistory of the ThirdReich. The often macabrerelationshipbetween brutalityand beautyin this era has long been neglectedby historians,who generallyhaveoverlookedthe definingrole playedby the arts,which at once mirroredtheNazis' idealizedworldview andcontributedto the cultivationof relationshipsamongtheirleaders.In this beautifullyresearched book, originally begun as a Harvarddissertation,the authorhas organized his massivematerialaroundtwogeneralthemes:"administering art"andthecompetition for culturalcontrol,and "collectingart"and its role in the certificationof an elite. Chaos characterizedthe controlof the arts,which featuredturfbattleswaged betweenJosephGoebbels,BernhardRust,andAlfredRosenberg,all of whomcould lay legitimateclaim to this area.HeinrichHimmlerand HermannGoring,as well as severalGauleiter,madedemandsas well. It tookyearsbeforeHitler'sleadership in artisticpolicy becameclarified.The assaulton moder artbeganin earnestwhen Adolf Ziegler, director of the Reich Chamberfor the Visual Arts, staged the infamous"DegenerateArt"exhibitin Munichin 1937 andcommencedthe purges
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