At author events tonight (June 1) and next week, two history professors emeritus are planning to discuss their new books — one about the author’s upbringing in Kansas, the other on the history of German-speaking central Europe.

Friday, June 1 — Arnold J. Bauer will be at The Avid Reader, 617 Second St., Davis, to discuss Time's Shadow: Remembering a Family Farm in Kansas, a book that drew praise in the June edition of The Atlantic. The free program is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.

“In chapters with titles such as “Houses,” “The Seasons,” “Food and Drink,” “Diversions,” “Attitudes,” “Misbehavior,” “Church,” “School,” “Depression and Drought” and “Having Company,” Bauer thoughtfully and gracefully examines a way of life that has disappeared,” states The Atlantic review.

The book's publisher, University Press of Kansas, describes Bauer’s account as “meditative and moving,” depicting “a century-long narrative of struggle, survival and demise.”

“A coming-of-age memoir set in the 1930s to ’50s, (Time’s Shadow) blends local history with personal reflection to paint a realistic picture of farm life and families from a now-lost world.”

Bauer, a scholar of Latin American history, joined the UC Davis faculty in 1969 and took emeritus status in 2005.

Bauer's other books include In Search of the Codex Cardona, an ancient Mexican illustrated book. Read about Bauer's research for the book, along with an excerpt, in the winter 2010 edition of UC Davis Magazine.

Tuesday, June 5 — The UC Davis Store is hosting William W. Hagen for a talk about his book German History In Modern Times: Four Lives of the Nation. He plans to give a presentation, answer questions and sign books from 1 to 2 p.m. in the bookstore’s Special Events Room, across the hall from the post office in the Memorial Union. Admission is free and open to the public.

The German History in Modern Times publisher, Cambridge University Press, offers the following description: “This history of German-speaking central Europe offers a very wide perspective, emphasizing a succession of many-layered communal identities. It highlights the interplay of individual, society, culture and political power, contrasting German with western patterns.

“Rather than treating ‘the Germans’ as a collective whole whose national history amounts to a cumulative biography, the book presents the pre-modern era of the Holy Roman Empire; the 19th century; the 1914-45 era of war, dictatorship and genocide; and the Cold War and post-Cold War eras since 1945 as successive worlds of German life, thought and mentality.

“The book sets forth the differences between them, even as it traces paths leading from one to the other. This book’s ‘Germany’ is polycentric and multicultural, including the multinational Austrian Habsburg Empire and the German Jews.

“Its approach to National Socialism offers a conceptually new understanding of the Holocaust. The book’s numerous illustrations reveal German self-presentations and styles of life, which often contrast with western ideas of Germany.”

Hagen, a scholar of modern European history, joined the UC Davis faculty in 1970 and took emeritus status in 2010.

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