While there exists a wealth of scholarship on the history of Europe after World War II, the vast majority of books and articles focus primarily on political and economic developments, especially when discussing the rebuilding of the continent after 1945. Many narratives depict postwar European history as one of the transition from war to peace, most obviously embodied by pan-European political and economic cooperation both within and outside of the European Union. Others focus on Cold War division and the respective roles of American and Soviet political, economic, or cultural influences in directing the course of postwar history, at least until 1991. While 1945 indeed marks the beginning of a dramatic transition in European history, Paul Betts argues convincingly that the post-1945 reshaping of Europe was driven by a variety of efforts to reevaluate and redefine the very concept of “civilization,” a notion long associated with Europe, albeit one often utilized in service of contrasting the continent's people, technologies, and culture with the “barbarism” of others.

In the first few chapters, Betts focuses largely on introspective reevaluations of the concept of civilization. For example, in his chapter on humanitarian aid in the immediate aftermath of World War II, the author discusses the roles of foreign (many of them American) volunteer aid workers, who hoped to provide relief to millions of Europeans affected by the destruction. Many of these volunteers wrote accounts conveying their dismay at Europe's destruction and their empathy for its people—victor and vanquished alike—promoting a new, internationalist vision of Western Europe in the process, one in which the suffering of German civilians was no more justified than that of their French or Belgian counterparts. In subsequent chapters, Betts explores the roles of postwar war crimes trials, the anti-atomic weapons movement, and social welfare as key components of European efforts to establish a new, inclusive, and largely peaceful definition of “civilization.”

While such developments were pivotal in determining the directions of postwar European nations, with their social welfare networks and widespread, though by no means universal, embrace of pan-European political and economic cooperation, the true brilliance of this volume begins in Chapter 5, as Betts transitions increasingly to discussing Europe and “civilization” within a global context. With his discussion of European efforts to reassert control over imperial possessions in Africa and Asia, an effort that would, in the long term, largely prove unsuccessful, Betts illustrates that the widely propagated notion of a peaceful Europe after 1945 was in some ways illusory. Indeed, France's violent war in Algeria, among numerous other “recolonization” conflicts, offers a stark rebuttal to arguments that 1945 marked a definite, one-way transition from war to peace in Europe. The difference, of course, is that these wars brought death and destruction to various colonies in Africa or Asia, rather than to Europe, a distinction that may partly account for the illusion of a postwar Europe entirely devoted to peace.

Throughout the second half of Ruin and Renewal, Betts builds upon this transnational perspective, situating European efforts to redefine “civilization” in a broader global context. In his lengthy discussion of UNESCO's role in rendering “civilization” a more inclusive concept that embraces all humanity and celebrates achievements around the world, the author illustrates how the organization deliberately worked to overcome older notions of civilization most often founded upon some iteration of “Europe versus barbarism.” Betts devotes an entire chapter to how three newly independent African nations—Ghana, Algeria, and Senegal—actively promoted their own definitions of civilization, in ways that challenged traditional European narratives and asserted the inherent value of their own histories, cultures, and achievements. In the 1950s and 1960s, socialist states in East actively cultivated relationships with African colonies and postcolonial states, partly in an attempt to represent themselves as civilized champions of socialist solidarity and liberation, in contrast to recent West European colonial and cultural domination of the African continent. These East-South ties were a key component of East European efforts to draw clear distinctions between East and West, and Betts' discussion of this relatively unknown aspect of Cold War diplomacy is a valuable component of his larger thesis and offers much promise for future scholarly inquiry.

The author's methodological embrace of comparative world history strengthens his overall argument and allows him to explain not only how Europeans reevaluated the idea of civilization in the wake of World War II, but also to illustrate how divergent interpretations of the concept have led to a resurgence of right-wing nationalism and racism throughout the continent. Beginning in the 1970s, and partly in response to increasingly multicultural demographics, various right-wing politicians and movements have represented themselves as defenders of “Western civilization,” a frequent euphemism for “White” civilization. The right-wing backlash against a more inclusive concept of civilization demonstrates, Betts argues, that European efforts to redefine civilization since 1945 are still very much unfinished, with the question of how best to define the concept hanging in the balance.

Betts makes a compelling case for the role that reimagining the very concept of civilization played in European recovery from the devastation and disruption of the war. Importantly, he also demonstrates that debates over how best to define civilization—particularly regarding its degree of inclusivity of diverse cultures—are still actively shaping current events and remain extremely relevant. Betts raises important questions about modern concepts of civilization, answering many, but also offering intriguing possibilities for future research. Most impressively, Betts effectively situates Europe within a global context, a necessity for scholars of our modern, interconnected world, illustrating the transnational impact and relevance of modern efforts to define and redefine “civilization.” Ruin and Renewal is a well-researched, thought-provoking, and thematically innovative work, and scholars will find much of interest in this important contribution to the field of modern European (and world) history.