German History in Modern Times
Four Lives of the Nation

This history of German-speaking central Europe presents the different eras of German history as successive worlds of German life, thought and mentality.

William W. Hagen (Author)

9780521175210, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 February 2012

482 pages, 158 b/w illus. 17 maps 2 tables
23.4 x 15.5 x 2.8 cm, 0.7 kg

"This review is notable both for its positive quality and for reflecting the views of a younger specialist in the field of German Cultural Studies." -Daniel Villanueva, Rocky Mountain Review

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 nineteenth 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. 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.

1. Master narratives and rival interpretations of modern German history
Part I. German Central Europe before Modern Nationalism: 2. The pyramid of power in pre-modern Germany
3. Baroque and Enlightenment Germany, 1648–1789
4. Power states (Machtstaaten): the rise of the Prussian and Austrian military-bureaucratic monarchies
5. Aufklärung: the German Enlightenment and other spirits of the age
Part II. German Identities between Liberalism, Nationalism, and Socialism, 1789–1914: 6. Revolution on the march: French challenge, German response, 1789–1815
7. 'Land of poets and thinkers': the transition from Enlightenment universalism to German national culture
8. Freedom and voice, 'blood and iron': the struggle over liberalism and nationalism, 1815–1914
9. Power to the people: German social democracy in the age of industrialization
10. Women, family, feminism, 1789–1914
11. Habsburg Austria: a multinational path in German history
12. Jews, Germans, German Jews, 1789–1914
Part III. Nation in Crisis: Defeat, Turmoil, Aggression, 1914–15: 13. The Prussian-German monarchy's sudden death: World War I and postwar revolution, 1914–20
14. Democracy's bitter fruits: society and politics, 1918–33
15. The rise of Hitlerism: middle-class discontent and populist utopia
16. The 'people's community' at Hitler's command: national and socialist Germany, 1933–45
17. Lebensraum: the war for empire in Eastern Europe
18. Banned from nation and earth: German Jews after 1914, Nazi 'Jewish policy', and the Holocaust
Part IV. The Cold War Germanies and their Post-1989 Fusion: A Nation Reforged from Its Remnants?: 19. Return from the abyss: defeated Germany and the West German Federal Republic, 1949–89
20. 'Real existing socialism': Soviet-occupied Germany and the German Democratic Republic, 1949–90
21. Present-day Germany: the post-unification scene in West and East.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]