Reconstructing Patriarchy after the Great War Women, Gender, and Postwar Reconciliation between Nations

"Kuhlman helps us to recognize that peacemaking is not exclusive to policymakers but also involves the process of reconciliation among human beings across and within national borders . . .With an enormous subject and complex ideas, the clarity and grace of Kuhlman s work are especially praiseworthy." - American Historical Review

"Kuhlman's transnational perspective broadens our understanding of the role of women activists in the post-war period while also providingoriginal insights into how forces at work on the ground normalized civilian life in Germany during that time.The book confirms in many ways the work of earlier scholars of the subject, while moving beyond that work to investigate the success of America in Germany and its reliance upon patriarchal norms to ensure peace. Kuhlman successfully balances the attempts made at reconciliation by some women s organizations and the ongoing perpetuation of wartime animosities by other groups. By essentially embedding women into the reconciliation process, she reveals both how they attempted to ensure that process but also, in other ways, how they perpetuated disharmony." - Maria Luddy, Professor of History, University of Warwick"The author succeeds admirably in providing her readers with a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the process of international and domestic reconciliation in the post-war period in Germany and the United States and the complex ways in which the reestablishment of patriarchy was woveninto this process... With an enormous subject and complex ideas, the clarity and grace of Kuhlman's work are especially praiseworthy." - Nancy K. Bristow, University of Puget Sound