Dissonant Lives is not a standard 'history of Germany' in the twentieth century, or even of the German dictatorships. It is concerned with the ways in which Germans of different ages and life stages lived through the violent eruptions of the two world wars, and through the dictatorships of Nazism and then Communism that succeeded them. Mary Fulbrook explores the experiences and perceptions of selected individuals, analysing the ways in which major historical events, andchanging structures of constraint and opportunity, affected the course of their lives and their outlooks. How did those who li