Imperial Germany Revisited: Continuing Debates and New Perspectives

Published by Berghahn Books 2011

Imperial Germany Revisited

Continuing Debates and New Perspectives

Edited by: Sven Oliver Müller and Cornelius Torp

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780857452870

Overview
Contents

About this book

The German Empire, its structure, its dynamic development between 1871 and 1918, and its legacy, have been the focus of lively international debate that is showing signs of further intensification as we approach the centenary of the outbreak of World War I. Based on recent work and scholarly arguments about continuities and discontinuities in modern German history from Bismarck to Hitler, well-known experts broadly explore four themes: the positioning of the Bismarckian Empire in the course of German history; the relationships between society, politics and culture in a period of momentous transformations; the escalation of military violence in Germany's colonies before 1914 and later in two world wars; and finally the situation of Germany within the international system as a major political and economic player. The perspectives presented in this volume have already stimulated further argument and will be of interest to anyone looking for orientation in this field of research.

Author / Editor information

Sven Oliver Müller is a Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin. His recent publications include Die Oper im Wandel der Gesellschaft: Kulturtransfers und Netzwerke des Musiktheaters im modernen Europa (Oldenbourg 2010; with Ther, Toelle, and Zur Nieden) and Deutsche Soldaten und ihre Feinde: Nationalismus an Front und Heimatfront im Zweiten Weltkrieg (Fischer 2007).

Cornelius Torp is Lecturer at Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Department of History and is currently Research Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies. His publications include Die Herausforderung der Globalisierung. Wirtschaft und Politik in Deutschland 1860-1914 (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2005). He is joint editor of European Review of History.

Sven Oliver Müller is a Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin. His recent publications include Die Oper im Wandel der Gesellschaft: Kulturtransfers und Netzwerke des Musiktheaters im modernen Europa (Oldenbourg 2010; with Ther, Toelle, and Zur Nieden) and Deutsche Soldaten und ihre Feinde: Nationalismus an Front und Heimatfront im Zweiten Weltkrieg (Fischer 2007).

Reviews

“…an excellent set of 21 essays from well-established and emerging scholars from Europe and North America…The collection continues the robust international debate on the significance of imperial Germany for German, European, and world history…Overall, a superb collection. Highly recommended.” • Choice

“…what the reader gets from this volume is a series of fresh and thought-provoking perspectives incorporating some of the latest research, including research on globalization, and offering new insights into older questions. There are indeed some very fine pieces of scholarship among the 21 separate chapters… this is a stimulating volume with much to recommend it.” • European History Quarterly

“In the genre of collected essays, Imperial Germany Revisited is exemplary. Its editors chose the topics well; its authors contributed comprehensive, coherent, and useful essays; its overall tone is authoritative and thoughtful…As in a good relay team, all of the contributions are strong, worthy of more attention than they can receive in this brief review…[Many] essays provide glimpses of what comparative, multiperspectival, and transnational writing about German history can achieve.” • German Studies Review

“This volume offers valuable reflections on the state of the field by leading international historians of Imperial Germany… With its combination of case studies and historiographical reflection, this volume provides a useful snapshot of recent historical research on the Kaiserreich. Berghahn Books deserves credit for again making available to the English-speaking public the translation of an important work of Germany history.” • German History

“Overall, the collection is a testimony to the vitality of professional scholarship on the Second Reich. Most of the contributions are mercifully jargon free, but with the detailed discussions of the historiography, buttressed by copious notes to German sources (mostly secondary), this has all the marks of a work for specialists or for graduate students looking for a quick orientation in the literature.” • The Historian

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
List of Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I THE PLACE OF IMPERIAL GERMANY IN GERMAN HISTORY
Chapter 1 When the Sonderweg Debate Left Us Helmut Walser Smith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
Chapter 2 The Impossible Vanishing Point: Societal Differentiation in Imperial Germany Benjamin Ziemann Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
Chapter 3 Was the German Empire a Sovereign State? Dieter Grimm Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
Chapter 4 Theories of Nationalism and the Critical Approach to German History John Breuilly Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
Part II POLITICS, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY
Chapter 5 The Authoritarian State and the Political Mass Market James Retallack Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
Chapter 6 Using Violence to Govern: The German Empire and the French Third Republic Heinz-Gerhard Haupt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
Chapter 7 Women’s Suffrage and Antifeminism as a Litmus Test of Modernizing Societies: A Western European Comparison Ute Planert Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
Chapter 8 Germany in the Age of Culture Wars Olaf Blaschke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
Chapter 9 Their Favorite Enemy: German Social Historians and the Prussian Nobility Stephan Malinowski Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
Chapter 10 A Difficult Relationship: Social History and the Bourgeoisie Manfred Hettling Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
Chapter 11 Cultural Nationalism and Beyond: Musical Performances in Imperial Germany Sven Oliver Müller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Part III WAR AND VIOLENCE
Chapter 12 1914–1945: A Second Thirty Years War? Advantages and Disadvantages of an Interpretive Category Jörg Echternkamp Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
Chapter 13 The Enduring Charm of the Great War: Some Reflections on Methodological Issues Roger Chickering Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Chapter 14 The First World War and Military Culture: Continuity and Change in Germany and Italy MacGregor Knox Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Chapter 15 A German Way of War? Narratives of German Militarism and Maritime Warfare in World War I Dirk Bönker Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
Chapter 16 German War Crimes 1914 and 1941 The Question of Continuity Alan Kramer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
Part IV THE GERMAN EMPIRE IN THE WORLD
Chapter 17 From the Periphery to the Center: On the Significance of Colonialism for the German Empire Birthe Kundrus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
Chapter 18 The Kaiserreich as a Society of Migration Thomas Mergel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267
Chapter 19 Wilhelmine Nationalism in Global Contexts: Mobility, Race, and Global Consciousness Sebastian Conrad Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	281
Chapter 20 Imperial Germany under Globalization Cornelius Torp Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297
Chapter 21 German Industry and American Big Business, 1900–1914 Volker Berghahn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	313
Select Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	325
Notes on Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	337
Subject Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	341
Index of Persons Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	345

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 384
Keywords: History: 18th/19th Century

eBook

Published: September 1, 2011
ISBN: 9780857452870