German history in modern times : four lives of the nation / William W. Hagen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hagen, William W., 1942-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Germans.

History.

Germany--History.

Germany.

Germans--Europe, Central--History.

Europe, Central--History.

Europe, Central.

Central Europe.

Physical Description:

xviii, 463 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Summary:

"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 1914-1945 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 "German" is polycentric and multicultural, including the multi-national Austrian Habsburg Empire and the German Jews. Its approach to National Socialism offers a comceptually 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"--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part I German Central Europe Before Modern Nationalism

2 Herrschaft: Lordship and Power in the Germanies 21

3 Alltag: Contours of Daily Life in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 37

4 Power States (Machtstaaten): The Prussian and Austrian Military-Bureaucratic Monarchies 60

5 Aufklärung: The German Enlightenment and Other Spirits of the Age 78

Part II German Identities Between Liberalism, Nationalism, And Socialism, I789-1914

6 Liberté?: Facing the French Revolution, 1789-1815 97

7 "Land of Poets and Thinkers" (Dichter und Denker): From Enlightenment Universalism to German National Culture 112

8 Freedom and Voice, "Iron and Blood" (Eisen und Blut): Liberalism and Nationalism, 1815-1914 129

9 Sozialdemokratie: Workers and Politics in the Age of Industrialization 153

10 Frauen: Women, Family, Feminism, 1789-1914 170

11 State of Many Peoples (Vielvölkerstaat): The Habsburg Austrian Monarchy 183

12 "German Citizens of Jewish Faith" (deutsche Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens): Jews, Germans, German Jews, 1789-1914 205

Part III Duels of Identity and the Death of Nations, 1914-1945

13 Krieg: The Prussian-German Monarchy's Sudden Death in War and Revolution, 1914-1920 227

14 Weimarer Republik: Democracy's Bitter Fruits, 1918-1933 241

15 A People without a State? Volk ohne Staat?: Middle-Class Discontent and Populist Utopia 261

16 Volksgemeinschaft: The "People's Community" at Hitler's Command, 1933-1945 284

17 Lebensraum: War for Empire in Eastern Europe 303

18 Shoah - Banned from Nation and Earth: German Jews after 1914, National Socialist "Jewish Policy," and the Holocaust 319

Part IV The Cold War Germanies and Their Post-1989 Fusion: A Nation Reforged From Its Remnants?

19 Beyond "Zero Hour" (Stunde Null): Defeated Germany and the West German Federal Republic, 1945-1989 353

20 "Real Existing Socialism" (real existierender Sozialismus): Soviet-Occupied Germany and the German Democratic Republic, 1945-1990 384

21 Mauerfall - Fall of the Wall: The Post-Unification Scene in West and East 399.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780521191906

0521191904

9780521175210

0521175216

OCLC:

715286412

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description