The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History

by Smith, Helmut Walser

• ISBN13: 9780199237395
• ISBN10: 0199237395
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780191617454
• Additional ISBN(s): 9780191743917
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-10-14
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This is the first comprehensive, multi-author survey of German history that features cutting-edge syntheses of major topics by an international team of leading scholars. Emphasizing demographic, economic, and political history, this Handbook places German history in a denser transnational context than any other general history of Germany. It underscores the centrality of war to the unfolding of German history, and shows how it dramatically affected the development of German nationalism and the structure of German politics. It also reaches out to scholars and students beyond the field of history with detailed and cutting-edge chapters on religious history and on literary history, as well as to contemporary observers, with reflections on Germany and the European Union, and on 'multi-cultural Germany.' Covering the period from around 1760 to the present, this Handbook represents a remarkable achievement of synthesis based on current scholarship. It constitutes the starting point for anyone trying to understand the complexities of German history as well as the state of scholarly reflection on Germany's dramatic, often destructive, integration into the community of modern nations. As it brings this story to the present, it also places the current post-unification Federal Republic of Germany into a multifaceted historical context. It will be an indispensable resource for scholars, students, and anyone interested in modern Germany.

Author Biography

Helmut Walser Smith, Martha Rivers Ingram Professor of History, Vanderbilt University

Helmut Walser Smith is Martha Rivers Ingram Professor of History and Director of the Max Kade Center for European and German Studies at Vanderbilt University. A scholar of German nationalism, religious history, and anti-Semitism, he is a specialist on Imperial Germany and has written on the long continuities of German history.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction, Helmut Walser Smith
Part I: History
2. The Origins of Modern Germany, Robert von Friedeburg
3. Senses of Place, Celia Applegate
4. Women and Men: 1760-1960, Ann Goldberg
Part II: States, People and Nation, 1760-1860
5. International Conflict, War, and the Making of Modern Germany, 1740-1815, Ute Planert
6. Cosmopolitanism and the German Enlightenment, 1. Jurgen Osterhammel and Franz Leander Fillafer
7. The Atlantic Revolutions in the German Lands, 1776-1849, Jonathan Sperber
8. The End of the Economic Old Order: The Great Transition, 1750-1860, James M. Brophy
9. Escaping Malthus: Population Explosion and Human Movement, 1760-1884, Ernest Benz
10. Protestants, Catholics, and Jews: Enlightenment, Emancipation, New Forms of Piety, George S. Williamson
11. The Formation of German Nationalism, 1740-1850, Christian Jansen
12. German Literature and Thought from 1810 to1890, Ritchie Robertson
Part III: Germany: The Nation State
13. Nation State, Conflict Resolution, and Culture War, 1850-1878, Siegfried Weichlein
14. Authoritarian State, Dynamic Society, Failed Imperialist Power, 1878-1914, Helmut Walser Smith
15. The Great Transformation: German Economy and Society, 1850-1914, Cornelius Torp
16. Race and World Politics: Germany in the Age of Imperialism, 1878-1914, Andrew Zimmerman
17. Germany 1914-1918. Total War as a Catalyst of Change, Benjamin Ziemann
18. The German National Economy in an Era of Crisis and War, 1917-1945, J. Adam Tooze
19. Democracy and Dictatorship, Thomas Mergel
20. Piety, Power and Powerlessness: Religion and Religious Groups in Germany, 1870-1945, Rebekka Habermas
21. The Place of German Modernism, 1. Steve Dowden and Meike G. Werner
22. Nationalism in the Era of the Nation State, 1870-1945, Pieter M. Judson
23. Todesraum: War, Peace, and the Experience of Mass Death, 1914-1945, Thomas Kuhne
24. The Three Horsemen of the Holocaust: Antisemitism, East European Empire, Aryan Folk Community, William H. Hagen
25. The Uprooted: Expulsion, Exile, Flight, Forced Labor, Expulsion, 1880-1948, 1. Sebastian Conrad and Philipp Ther
Part IV: Germany 1945-1989
26. The Occupation of Germany, a Rubble Society, Stefan Ludwig Hoffman
27. Democracy and Dictatorship in the Cold War: the Two Germanies, 1949-1961, Andrew I. Port
28. Generations: The Revolution of the 1960s, Uta Poiger
29. Industrialization, Mass Consumption, Postindustrial Society, Donna Harsch
30. Religion and the Search for Meaning, 1945-1990, Benjamin Ziemann
31. Culture in the Shadow of Trauma?, Lutz Koepnik
32. The Two German States in the International World, Andreas Daum
Part V: Contemporary Germany
33. Annus Mirabilis: 1989 and German Unification, David F. Patton
34. Germany and European Integrations since 1945, Kiran Patel
35. Toward a Multicultural Society?, William A. Barbieri, Jr.
Index