Academic : History : History of Germany : History : By period

The story of Hitler's rise to power as leader of Germany, the destruction of democracy and civilized values in a great nation, together with World War II, for which he bears the principal responsibility, provide a painful historical lesson. The Hitler regime warns us of the destruction that ensues when a perverted ideology and a cult of leadership are combined with a polity where power is divorced from morality. more...

Price: $55.00

Fully updated and expanded in response to the latest research in the area, with a new introduction, and a further reading section which hosts a guide to useful websites, this is a concise and accessible introduction to a key period in German history. more...

Price: $22.95

Few statesmen in history have inspired the imagination of generations of Germans more than the founder of the Kaiserreich, Otto von Bismarck. The archetype of charismatic leadership, the Iron Chancellor maintained his pre-eminent position in the pantheon of Germany's political iconography for much of the twentieth century. Based on a large selection of primary sources, this book provides an insightful analysis of Bismarck's legacy as a political myth that undermined parliamentary. democracy in Germany and contributed to the rise of Hitler. - ;Few statesmen in history have inspired the imagination of generations of Germans more than the founder of the Kaiserreich, Otto von Bismarck. The archetype of charismatic leadership, the Iron Chancellor maintained his pre-eminent position in the pantheon of Germany's political iconography for much of the twentieth century. Based on a large selection of primary sources, this book provides an insightful analysis of the Bismarck myth's profound impact on Germany's political culture. In particular, it investigates the ways in which that myth was used to undermine parliamentary democracy in Germany after the Great War, paving the way for its replacement by authoritarian rule under an allegedly 'Bismarckian' charismatic leader, Adolf Hitler. As one of the most powerful weapons of nationalist agitation against the Weimar Republic, the Bismarck myth was never contested. The nationalists' ideologically charged interpretation of Bismarck as the father of the German nation-state and model for future political decision-making clashed with rivalling - and thoroughly critical - democratic and communist perceptions of the Iron Chancellor. The quarrel over Bismarck's legacy demonstrates how the clash of ideologies, particularly between 1918. and 1933, resulted in a highly political fight for the 'correct' and universal interpretation of the German past. Essential reading for anyone interested in mode more...

Price: $110.00

Shedding new light on the American campaign to democratize Western Germany after World War II, Capturing the German Eye uncovers the importance of cultural policy and visual propaganda to the U.S. occupation. Cora Sol Goldstein skillfully evokes Germany’s political climate between 1945 and 1949, adding an unexpected dimension to the confrontation between the United States and the USSR. During this period, the American occupiers actively vied with their Soviet counterparts for control of Germany’s visual culture, deploying film, photography, and the fine arts while censoring images that contradicted their political messages. Goldstein reveals how this U.S. cultural policy in Germany was shaped by three major factors: competition with the USSR, fear of alienating German citizens, and American domestic politics. Explaining how the Americans used images to discredit the Nazis and, later, the Communists, she illuminates the instrumental role of visual culture in the struggle to capture German hearts and minds at the advent of the cold war. more...

Price: $40.00

During the Cold War, the Federal Republic of Germany, a divided nation on the front-line of the East-West confrontation, was buffeted by the actions and decisions of the superpowers, forced to redefine itself anew with each development in global relations. In Cold War Politics in Postwar Germany, David F. Patton develops the links between Cold War international pressures and German domestic coalitions. The book examines a politics in uncertain times, focusing on three major shifts in Cold War relations which disrupted politics-as-usual in the Federal Republic. In the early 1950s, external pressures led to a wrenching internal debate over rearmament. Twenty years later, the thaw in Cold War tensions set the stage for a fierce domestic showdown over deacute;tente with Eastern Europe. In the early 1990s, Chancellor Helmut Kohl took full advantage of the end of the Cold War to implement his controversial unification policy. Patton's examination of the remarkable parallels of these three periods reveals how the Federal Republic has changed, yet stayed the same, in the postwar era. more...

Price: $80.00