When discourse trumps policy: Transitional justice in unified Germany

Attempts at realising transitional justice can be divided broadly into legal-administrative and truth-telling measures. Whereas criminal trials, vetting, and restitution procedures target specific groups and tend to be short-lived, history lessons try to shape historical and political identities, with long-term implications. Most literature on transitional justice tends to focus on either one or the other, but, using the example of the former East Germany, I call attention to their interaction, which is crucial for understanding the dynamics of dealing with the communist past. In the early 1990s, reckoning with the past turned into a major preoccupation, but, soon, demands for transitional justice were overwhelmed by demands for economic and social justice and matters of identity. The legal outcome was more moderate than could have been anticipated at the beginning of the process and was ultimately defied by an equally important and comprehensive political discourse; with time, history lessons claimed center stage. Their discourse privileged retribution over reconciliation and left more potent legacies than legal-administrative restraint.     

BOOK REVIEWS

General

Modernizing Peasant Societies. A Comparative Study in Asia and Africa. By Guy Hunter. London, Oxford University Press (for the Institute of Race Relations), 1969. Pp. xi + 298. Tables. Bibliog. Index. £2.

The Politics of Foreign Aid in India. By P. J. Eldridge. London, Weidenfeld &; Nicolson, 1969. Pp. xx + 187. Appendices. Notes. Bibliog. Index. £3.

The Role of Land Reform in Economic Development. A Case Study of Taiwan. By Anthony Y. C. Koo. New York, Praeger; London, Pall Mall, 1968. Pp. xvii + 125. Tables. Notes. Bibliog. Index. £5.20.

The Persian Land Reform 1962–1966. By Ann K. S. Lambton. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969. Pp. xiii+366. Tables. Glossary. Index. £4.20.

Language &; literature

A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. By Yuen Ren Chao. University of California Press, 1968; London, IBEG, 1969. Pp. xxxi + 847. Bibliog. Index. £7.15.

A First Course in Literary Chinese. By Harold Shadick, with the collaboration of Ch'iao Chien. Cornell University Press, 1968; London, IBEG, 1969. 3 vols. Pp. 888. Maps. Indexes. £5.25.

The Etymologies of 3,000 Chinese Characters in Common Usage. By Chang Hsuan. University of Hong Kong Press; London, Oxford University Press, 1969. Pp. 960. Indexes. £7.00.

Beginning Korean. By Samuel E. Martin and Young‐Sook C. Lee. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1969. Pp. xxix + 575. Vocabularies. $8.75 or £3.95 (paperback; also available in cloth).

Three Mughal Poets. Mir, Sauda, Mir Hasan. By Ralph Russell and Khurshidul Islam. London, Allen &; Unwin, 1969. Pp. xxii + 290. Map. Bibliog. Glossary. Index. £2.40.

Ghalib, 1797–1869. Vol. 1: Life and letters. Translated and edited by Ralph Russell and Khurshidul Islam. London, Allen &; Unwin, 1969. Pp. 404. Frontispiece. Bibliog. Index. £3.50.

The World of Premchand. Selected stories of Premchand, translated by David Rubin. London, Allen and Unwin, 1969 (for UNESCO). Pp. 215. Glossary. £1.75.

War

History of the Second World War: The War Against Japan. Volume V. The Surrender of Japan. By Major‐General S. Woodburn Kirby. London, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1969. Pp. 599. Maps. Illus. Index. £6.30.

Korea: 1950–1953. By Edgar O'Ballance. London, Faber &; Faber, 1969. Pp. 171. Maps. Index. £1.80.

The Suez Expedition 1956. By Général d'Armée André Beaufre, translated by Major‐General Richard Barry. London, Faber and Faber, 1969. (Editions Bernard Grasset, 1967.) Pp. 161. Maps. Illus. Index. £2.

The Siege. By Russell Braddon. London, Jonathan Cape, 1969. Pp. 353. Illus. Maps. Bibliog. £1.9.

Kut: The Death of an Army. By Ronald Millar. London, Secker &; Warburg, 1969. Pp. 323. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £3.75.

Six Battles for India. The Anglo‐Sikh Wars: 1845–6, 1848–9. By George Bruce. London, Arthur Barker, 1969. Illus. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £2.25.

The Coming War between Russia and China. By Harrison E. Salisbury. London, Secker and Warburg, 1969. Pp. 200. Maps. £2.50

The First Afghan War. By Lady Sale. Edited by Patrick Macrory. London, Longmans, 1969. Pp. xix + 186. Maps. Frontispiece. Appendices. Index. £2.10.

Last Post at Mhow. By Arthur Hawkey. London, Jarrolds, 1969. Pp. xii + 196. Illus. Index. £1.75.

Plassey: The Founding of an Empire. By Michael Edwardes. London, Hamish Hamilton, 1969. Pp. x + 209. Maps. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £2.10.

Islam, Turkey, middle east

Early Muslim Architecture. I. Umayyads: A.D. 622–750. By K. A. C. Creswell, with a contribution on the Mosaics of the Dome of the Rock and of the Great Mosque at Damascus, by Marguerite Gautier‐van Berchem. 2nd edition, in 2 parts. Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press. 1969. Pp. xlv + 684. 141 plates + 690 text illustrations. £36.

Paintings from. Islamic Lands. Essays by D. Barrett and others. Edited by R. Pinder‐Wilson. (Oriental Studies, 4). Oxford, Bruno Cassirer, 1969. Pp. 204. 131 illus. £2.75.

Arabs, Islam and the Arab Caliphate in the early Middle Ages. By E. A. Belyaev. Translated from the Russian by Adolphe Gourevitch. New York and London, Praeger: Pall Mall, 1969, £3.75.

The Young Turks. The Committee of Union and Progress in Turkish Politics, 1908–1914. By Feroz Ahmad. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969. Pp. 205. Bibliog. £2.50.

Politics and Government in Turkey. By C. H. Dodd. Manchester University Press, 1969. Pp. xvi + 335. Bibliog. Index. £3.25.

Anatolia I: From the beginnings to the end of the 2nd millennium B.C. By U. Bahadir Alkim. London, Barrie and Rockliff: the Cresset Press, 1969. Pp. 279. Map. Illus. Index, Bibliog. £3.

A Modern History of Syria including Lebanon and Palestine. By Dr. A. L. Tibawi. London, Macmillan, 1969. Pp. 433. Maps. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £4.

The Russian Presence in Syria and the Holy Land 1843–1914: Church and Politics in the Near East. By Derek Hopwood. Oxford University Press, 1969. Pp. viii + 232. Bibliog. Index. £2.50.

Republican ‘Iraq: A Study in ‘Iraq Politics Since the Revolution of 1958. By Majid Khadduri. Oxford University Press for the RIIA, 1969. Pp. xii + 318. Map. Index. £3.

Arab Historians of the Crusades. Translated from Arabic by Francesco Gabrieli and from Italian by E. J. Costello. London, Routledge, with University of California and Artemis of Zurich, 1969, Pp. xxxvi + 362. Bibliog. Index. £2.50.

Makers of Arab History. By Philip K. Hitti. London, Macmillan, 1969. Pp. 268. Maps. Index. £2.75.

The British in the Middle East. By Sarah Searight. London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Pp. xvi + 215. £3.50.

Central Asia

Central Asia. By Gavin Hambly with Alexandre Benningson, David Bivar, Hélène d'Encausse, Mahin Hajianpur, Alastair Lamb, Chantal Lemercier‐Quelquejay and Richard Pierce. London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969. Pp. 388. Illus. Bibliog. Maps. Index. £4.20.

Afghanistan: Some New Approaches. George Grassmurk, Ludwig W. Adamec, and Frances H. Irwin, editors. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Center for Near Eastern and North African Studies, 1969. Pp. 405. Chronology. Bibliog. No price.

Tibet. By Thupten Jigme Norbu and Colin Turnbull. London, Chatto and Windus, 1969. Pp. 362. Illus. £2.50.

From the Land of Lost Content. The Dalai Lama's Fight for Tibet. by Noel Barber. London, Collins, 1969, Pp. 224. Map. Bibliog. £1.50.

Prolegomena to Lamaist Polity. By Nirmal Chandra Sinha. Foreword by Hugh Richardson. Calcutta, Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1969. Pp. xi + 92. R.20.

Indian sub‐continent

Himalayan Frontiers. By Dorothy Woodman. London, Barry and Rockliff, The Cresset Press, 1969. Pp. 423. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £4.50.

History of Firuz Shah Tughluq. By J. M. Banerjee. Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1967. Pp. x + 228. Bibliog. Index. Rs. 20.

Classical India. Edited by William H. McNeill and Jean W. Sedlar. (Readings in World History, Volume 4). Oxford University Press, New York, 1969. Pp. 201. £0.65.

Aspects of Political Ideas and Institutions in Ancient India. By R. S. Sharma. Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass. 2nd Edition, 1968. Pp. 337. Biblio. Index. Rs. 20.00.

Kingship in Northern India. (circ. 600 A.D.‐1200 A.D.). By Ram Charita Prasad Singh. Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1968. Pp. 151. Bibliog. Index. Rs. 15.00.

The Transition in Bengal, 1756–1775. A Study of Saiyid Muhammad Reza Khan. By Abdul Majed Khan. Cambridge University Press, 1969. Pp. xv + 376. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £4.25.

British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance. By David Kopf. University of California Press (London, IBEG), 1969. Pp. 324. Bibliog. Index. £4.05.

Lord Northbrook's Indian Administration, 1872–1876. By Edward C. Moulton. London, Asia Publishing House, 1969. Pp. 313. Map. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £2.50.

Superior Person: A Portrait of Curzon and his circle in late Victorian England. By Kenneth Rose. London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969. Pp. 475. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £3.75.

The Viceroy's Wife. Letters of Alice, Countess of Reading, from India, 1921–35. By Iris Butler. London, Hodder &; Stoughton, 1969. Pp. 110. Illus. Index. £2.25.

John Morley at the India Office, 1905–1910. By Stephen E. Koss. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1969. Pp. 231. Bibliog. Index. £3.80.

Politics and Administration in the Local Councils. A study of Union and District Councils in East Pakistan. By M. Rashiduzzaman. London and Karachi: Oxford University Press 1969. Pp. 124. Tables. Index. Bibliog. 90 np.

Judicial Control of Administrative Action in India and Pakistan. By M. A. Fazal. London, OUP, 1969. Pp. xxxv + 345. Bibliog. Index. £4.

India and the League of Nations. By D. N. Verma. Patna, Bharati Bhawan, 1968. Pp. 350. Index. Bibliog. Rs. 30.00.

From Zamindar to Ballot Box: Community Change in a North Indian Market Town. By Richard G. Fox. Cornell University Press, 1969. Pp. 302. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £1.90.

Bureaucrats under Stress. Administrators and Administration in an Indian State. By Richard P. Taub. University of California Press; London, CUP, 1969. Pp. 235. Tables. Bibliog. Index. £3.25.

Shri Ram. A Biography. By Khushwant Singh and Arun Joshi. London, Asia Publishing House, 1968. Pp. 240. £1.50.

Student Unrest in India. By Aileen D. Ross. Montreal &; London, McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1969. Pp. 301. Bibliog. Indexes. $12.50. £5.62.

Government Archives in South Asia. A Guide to the National and State Archives in Ceylon, India and Pakistan. Edited by D. A. Low, J. C. Iltis and M. D. Wainwright. London, Cambridge University Press, 1969. Pp. xiii + 355. £4.25.

Origins of Trotskyism in Ceylon. A Documentary History of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, 1935–1942. By G. J. Lerski. Stanford, Cal.: Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University, 1968. 288 pp. Index, Paperback, $2.85.

Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan, with Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Ceylon. Vol. 2: Megapodes to Crab Plover. By Salim Ali and S. Dillon Ripley. London, OUP, 1969. Pp. xiv + 345. Illus. Maps. Index. £4.40.

Birds of Kerala. Second edition of The Birds of Travancore and Cochin. By Salim Ali. London, OUP, 1969. Pp. xxii + 444. Illus. Maps. Index. £4.00.

Southeast Asia

War, Peace, and the Viet Cong. By Douglas Pike. Cambridge, Mass., and London, MIT Press, 1969. Pp. 186. Figures. Tables. Index. £2.80.

The Peasants of North Vietnam. By Gérard Chaliand. Preface by Philippe Devillers. Translated by Peter Wiles. Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1969. Pp. 244. Maps. Tables. Bibliog. 35p.

Selected Articles and Speeches. By Ho Chi Minh. Edited by Jack Woddis London, Lawrence &; Wishart, 1969. Pp. 172. 52p.

Loosely Structured Social Systems: Thailand in Comparative Perspective. By John F. Embree and others. Edited by Hans‐Dieter Evers. Yale University, Southeast Asia Studies, 1969. Pp. 148. Tables. Bibliog. $6.50.

Burma and General Ne Win. By Maung Maung. London, Asia Publishing House, 1969. Pp. 332. Ilus. Bibliog. Index. £3.25.

Indians in Malaya. Some Aspects of their Immigration and Settlement (1786–1957). By Kernial Singh Sandhu. Cambridge University Press, 1969. Pp. xxiv + 346. Illus. Maps. Tables. Glossary. Index. £6.

Indians in Malaysia and Singapore. By Sinnappah Arasaratnam. Oxford University Press, 1970. Pp. xiii + 169. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £1.25.

China, Manchuria, Korea

What Mao Really Said. By Philippe Devillers. Translated by Tony White. London, Macdonald, 1969. Pp. 317. Bibliog. Index. £1.50.

Great Britain and the Taipings. By J. S. Gregory. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969. Pp. xvi + 271. Bibliog. Index. £2.50.

While China Faced West. American Reformers in Nationalist China 1928–1937. By James C. Thomson, Jr. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1969. Pp. 310. Bibliog. Index. $7.95.

Kidnapped in London. By Sun Yat Sen. Reprinted, with a Foreword by Kenneth Cantlie. London, China Society, 1969. Pp. xii 134. Illus. £1.25.

The Economic Development of Manchuria in the First Half of the Twentieth Century. By Kungtu G. Sun &; Ralph W. Huenemann. Harvard and OUP, 1969. Pp. 124. Maps. Tables. Bibliog. Glossary. Index. £1.70.

Korea: Democracy on Trial. By John Kie‐chiang Oh. Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University Press, 1968. Pp. xiv + 240. Map. Tables. Bibliog. Index. £3.80.

Japan, Philippines

A Diplomat in Japan. By Sir Ernest Satow. Oxford University Press, 1968. Pp. xii + 427. Illus. Glossary. Index. £4.50.

Britain and Japan, 1858–1883. By Grace Fox. Oxford University Press, 1969. Pp. 627. Maps. Illus. Glossary. Bibliog. Index. £5.50.

The New Generation in Meiji Japan. By Kenneth B. Pyle. Stanford University Press; London, OUP, 1970. Pp. 240. Bibliog. Index. £3.75.

Japan Unmasked. By Ichiro Kawasaki. Rutland, Vermont, and Tokyo, Charles E. Tuttle, 1969. Pp. 231. £1.90.

The Philippines. By Raymond Nelson. London, Thames &; Hudson, 1968. Pp. 192. Maps. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £1.75. The Philippines. By John Cockcroft. London &; Sydney, Angus &; Robertson. 1969. Pp. 128. Illus. £2.62.