German History in Modern Times

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 19141945 era of war dictatorship and genocide; and the Cold War and postCold 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 Germany is polycentric and multicultural including the multi-national 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.