The Happy Burden of History: From Sovereign Impunity to Responsible Selfhood

What can well-meaning people do about terror and genocide? The more we fight against systems of violence, the further we seem to sink into them. This book explores the lives and letters of ordinary and intellectual Germans who faced the ethical challenges of the Third Reich. Trained in history, literary criticism, philosophy, and theology, its four authors look at the role of myths, lies, non-conformity, irony, and modeling in cultivating ‘a self’. They explain how we might use these ordinary strategies of selfhood to bear the burden of historical responsibility ­? and be happy doing so.