The arts of democratization : styling political sensibilities in postwar West Germany / Jennifer M. Kapczynski and Caroline A. Kita, editors.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Kapczynski, Jennifer M., 1972- editor.

Kita, Caroline A., editor.

Series:

Social history, popular culture, and politics in Germany.

Social history, popular culture, and politics in Germany

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Democracy--Germany (West).

Democracy.

Political participation--Germany (West).

Political participation.

Germany (West)--Politics and government--History.

Germany (West).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (279 pages)

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor, Michigan : University of Michigan Press, 2022.

Summary:

Scholars of democracy long looked to the Federal Republic of Germany as a notable "success story," a model for how to transition from a violent, authoritarian regime to a peaceable nation of rights. Although this account has been contested since its inception, the narrative has proved resilient-and it is no surprise that the current moment of crisis that Western democracies are experiencing has provoked new interest in how democracies come to be. The Arts of Democratization: Styling Political Sensibilities in Postwar West Germany casts a fresh look at the early years of this fledgling democracy and draws attention to the broad range of ways democracy and the democratic subject were conceived and rendered at this time. These essays highlight the contradictory and competing impulses that ran through the project to democratize postwar society and cast a critical eye toward the internal biases that shaped the model of Western democracy. In so doing, the contributions probe critical questions that we continue to grapple with today. How did postwar thinkers understand what it meant to be democratic? Did they conceive of democratic subjectivity in terms of acts of participation, a set of beliefs or principles, or perhaps in terms of particular feelings or emotions? How did the work to define democracy and its subjects deploy notions of nation, race and gender or sexuality? As this book demonstrates, the case of West Germany offers compelling ways to think more broadly about the emergence of democracy. The Arts of Democratization offers lessons that resonate with the current moment as we consider what interventions may be necessary to resuscitate democracy today.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: Acknowledgments

Introduction. Jennifer M. Kapczynski and Caroline A. Kita

Chapter 1. Imperiled Democracies: History and the Legacy of the Weimar Republic for the 21st Century

Kathleen Canning

Chapter 2. Intellectuals and the People: Conversation Forums and West German Democracy in the 1950s

Sean A. Forner

Chapter 3. Listening Towards Democracy: Axel Eggebrecht and the Postwar Radio Play

Caroline A. Kita

Chapter 4. Amateur Democrats

Jennifer M. Kapczynski

Chapter 5. No Country for Old Minds: The Psychology of West Germany's Democratization

Anthony D. Kauders

Chapter 6. Democratic Reeducation: Hermann Broch's Reflections on Postwar Germany

Paul Michael L©ơtzeler

Chapter 7. Learning to Read Again: Thomas Mann, the U.S. Army's POW Reeducation Efforts, and the Role of Literature in a Democratic Germany

Tobias Boes

Chapter 8. First Comes the Feeding, Then Comes the Democratization: Food, Hunger, and Democracy in the early FRG

Alice Weinreb

Chapter 9. Ruth Woodsmall, US Women's Affairs and Democratic Practice in the Early Federal Republic of Germany

Darcy Buerkle

Chapter 10. Redemptive Whiteness: Racism and Democratization, or Figurations of Germanness in 1950s West German Cinema

Maja Figge

Chapter 11. Foundational Narratives: West German Nation-Building Through State-Sponsored PR Films, 1953-1963

Jan Uelzmann

Chapter 12. "A Memory Goes to Work": The Visual Promise of the Marshall Plan

Frank Mehring

.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on information from the publisher.

Other Format:

Print version: Kapczynski, Jennifer M. The Arts of Democratization

ISBN:

9780472129799

0472129791

OCLC:

1269516281