
Paul Betts‘ publications center on Modern European Cultural History in general and 20th Century German History in particular. He is especially interested in the relationship between culture and politics over the course of the century, and has worked extensively on the themes of material culture, cultural diplomacy, photography, memory and nostalgia, human rights and international justice, death and changing notions of private life.
His published work includes the books Within Walls: Private Life in the German Democratic Republic(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010; paperback, 2012), which was awarded the Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History by the Wiener Library, and The Authority of Everyday Objects: A Cultural History of West German Industrial Design (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004; paperback, 2007). In November 2020 his new book Ruin and Renewal: Civilising Europe after World War II was published by Basic Books in the US, and Profile Books in the UK.