This history of the Kaiserreich begins with an analysis of German Weltpolitik and naval expansion, and of the domestic roots of this policy, with its implications for the European balance of power. It then discusses how the original ambitions were checked by other powers.
Set against the backdrop of 1958, the narrative explores the intricate dynamics between American cultural producers, corporate interests, and policymakers during a critical period in U.S. history. Shepard Stone's initiative to assess America's cultural influence in Europe reveals the tensions between American elites and European intellectuals, who held critical views of U.S. culture. In response, American leaders engaged in extensive efforts, including funding cultural exchanges and covert operations, to reshape perceptions and combat both Soviet influence and negative stereotypes of American civilization.
How and why did Europe spawn dictatorships and violence in the first half of the 20th century, and then, after 1945 in the west and after 1989 in the east, create successful civilian societies? This book explains the rise and fall of the men of violence whose wars and civil wars twice devastated large areas of the European continent and Russia.
A comprehensive history of German society in this period, providing a broad survey of its development. The volume is thematically organized and designed to give easy access to the major topics and issues of the Bismarkian and Wilhelmine eras. The statistical appendix contains a wide range of social, economic and political data. Written with the English-speaking student in mind, this book is likely to become a widely used text for this period, incorporating as it does twenty years of further research on the German Empire since the appearance of Hans-Ulrich Wehler's classic work.
This excellent book about Europe in the era of the world wars has many virtues. The questions that drive it are, indeed, the central ones for twentieth-century European history. Among the many books on this subject that have appeared around the millennium, I know of no other that conveys the key problems so well and so concisely."--Eric Weitz, University of Minnesota, author of "A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation"
Journalists between Hitler and Adenauer takes an in-depth look at German journalism from the late Weimar period through the postwar decades. Illuminating the roles played by journalists in the media metropolis of Hamburg, Volker Berghahn focuses on the lives and work of three remarkable individuals: Marion Countess Dönhoff, distinguished editor of Die Zeit; Paul Sethe, "the grand old man of West German journalism"; and Hans Zehrer, editor in chief of Die Welt. All born before 1914, Dönhoff, Sethe, and Zehrer witnessed the Weimar Republic's end and opposed Hitler. When the latter seized power in 1933, they were, like their fellow Germans, confronted with the difficult choice of entering exile, becoming part of the active resistance, or joining the Nazi Party. Instead, they followed a fourth path--"inner emigration"--psychologically distancing themselves from the regime, their writing falling into a gray zone between grudging collaboration and active resistance. During the war, Dönhoff and Sethe had links to the 1944 conspiracy to kill Hitler, while Zehrer remained out of sight on a North Sea island. In the decades after 1945, all three became major figures in the West German media. Berghahn considers how these journalists and those who chose inner emigration interpreted Germany's horrific past and how they helped to morally and politically shape the reconstruction of the country. With fresh archival materials, Journalists between Hitler and Adenauer sheds essential light on the influential position of the German media in the mid-twentieth century and raises questions about modern journalism that remain topical today--Publisher's description
German unification evoked ambivalent reactions outside its borders: it revived disquietingmemories of attempts by German big business during the two world wars to build an economic empire in Europe in conjunction with the military and the government bureaucracy. But thereare also high hopes that German finance and industry will serve as the engine of reconstruction in eastern Europe, just as it played this role in the postwar unification of western Europe.
Band 16: Das Kaiserreich 1871-1914 Der Autor bietet in diesem Band eine Geschichte des Deutschen Kaiserreichs in allen ihren Aspekten: Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft, Kultur und Politik. Die Frage der Polarisierung und Pluralisierung der deutschen Gesellschaft vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg bildet den roten Faden, der sich durch diese facettenreiche Darstellung zieht, die jeden historisch Interessierten faszinieren wird.