Hartmut Berghoff

Uta Andrea Balbier

The contributors to this volume consider the economic history of East Germany within its broader political, cultural and social contexts.

Falling Behind Or Catching Up?

The East German Economy, 1945-2010

Ingo Köhler

Germany and the United States, Past and Present

Varieties of Family Business

Uffa Jensen

Bernd Weisbrod

Christina Lubinski

Die Beiträge des vorliegenden Bandes gehen aus einer gemeinsamen Tagung des Graduiertenkollegs "Generationengeschichte" der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen und des Deutschen Historischen Instituts in Washington hervor. Verschiedene Generationenkonzepte standen sich hier gegenüber: die europäische Idee von "Jugendgenerationen" und "politischen Generationen" und die eher pragmatische amerikanische Lesart von den "demographischen Generationen" oder den "Konsumgenerationen". Immer, so scheint es, wird die generationelle Logik überlagert von nationalen Vorstellungen der Dazugehörigkeit. Sehr deutlich arbeiten die Beiträge aus Europa und den USA heraus, dass die historische Zeit wohl in Generationen gelesen wird, doch wird Geschichte nicht von Generationen gemacht.

Generational Dynamics in Modern History

History by Generations

Adam Rome

At a time when the human impact on the environment is more devastating than ever, business initiatives frame the quest to "green" capitalism as the key to humanity's long-term survival. Indeed, even before the rise of the environmental movement in the 1970s, businesses sometimes had reasons to protect parts of nature, limit their production of wastes, and support broader environmental reforms. In the last thirty years, especially, many businesses have worked hard to reduce their direct and indirect environmental footprint. But are these efforts exceptional, or can capitalism truly be environmentally conscious? Green Capitalism? offers a critical, historically informed perspective on building a more sustainable economy. Written by scholars of business history and environmental history, the essays in this volume consider the nature of capitalism through historical overviews of twentieth-century businesses and a wide range of focused case studies. Beginning early in the century, contributors explore the response of business leaders to environmental challenges in an era long before the formation of the modern regulatory state. Moving on to midcentury environmental initiatives, scholars analyze failed business efforts to green products and packaging—such as the infamous six-pack ring—in the 1960s and 1970s. The last section contains case studies of businesses that successfully managed greening initiatives, from the first effort by an electric utility to promote conservation, to the environmental overhaul of a Swedish mining company, to the problem of household waste in pre-1990 West Germany. Ranging in geographic scope from Europe to the United States, Green Capitalism? raises questions about capitalism in different historical, sociocultural, and political contexts. Contributors: Hartmut Berghoff, Ann-Kristin Bergquist, Brian C. Black, William D. Bryan, Julie Cohn, Leif Fredrickson, Hugh S. Gorman, Geoffrey Jones, David Kinkela, Roman Köster, Joseph A. Pratt, Adam Rome, Christine Meisner Rosen.

Business and the Environment in the Twentieth Century

Green Capitalism?

Frank Biess

Ulrike Strasser

Traditionally, Germany has been considered a minor player in Pacific history: its presence there was more limited than that of other European nations, and whereas its European rivals established themselves as imperial forces beginning in the early modern era, Germany did not seriously pursue colonialism until the nineteenth century. Yet thanks to recent advances in the field emphasizing transoceanic networks and cultural encounters, it is now possible to develop a more nuanced understanding of the history of Germans in the Pacific. The studies gathered here offer fascinating research into German missionary, commercial, scientific, and imperial activity against the backdrop of the Pacific’s overlapping cultural circuits and complex oceanic transits.

Germans in Pacific Worlds from the Early Modern Period to World War I

Explorations and Entanglements

Cornelia Rauh

Entrepreneur and Nazi functionary Fritz Kiehn lived through almost 100 years of German history, from the Bismarck era to the late Bonn Republic. A successful manufacturer, Kiehn joined the Nazi Party in 1930 and obtained a number of influential posts after 1933, making him one of the most powerful Nazi functionaries in southern Germany. These posts allowed him ample opportunity to profit from “Aryanizations” and state contracts. After 1945, he restored his reputation, was close to Adenauer's CDU during Germany's economic miracle, and was a respected and honored citizen in Trossingen. Kiehn's biography provides a key to understanding the political upheavals of the twentieth century, especially the workings of the corrupt Nazi system as well as the “coming to terms” with National Socialism in the Federal Republic.

The Making and Remaking of a Provincial Nazi Leader

The Respectable Career of Fritz K.

Jan Logemann

Felix Rõmer

The term 'home front' gained currency during the First World War and was closely associated with the idea of 'total war' - it encapsulated the blurred lines between the armies fighting in the field and the civilian societies at home. It became one of the most consequential elements in Second World War strategic thinking, entailing an unparalleled degree of civilian mobilization. And the legacies of the home fronts reached far beyond 1945: the war became a crucial catalyst for broader social developments, including the emergence of mass consumer societies in the twentieth century. This volume explores the history of the home fronts in the Second World War from a comparative and transnational perspective, focusing on the role of the consumer and civilian morale in Nazi Germany, Japan, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. The volume covers a wide range of aspects. It compares the belligerents' efforts in securing civilian food and nutrition. It analyses the role of advertising and commercial entertainment in creating 'virtual consumption' to compensate for wartime hardships. It highlights fashion as a means of offering distraction and promoting promises of future consumption. And it enquires into the impact of the wartime consumer regimes on the post-war period and long-term developments. This collection of ground-breaking international research will advance scholarship at various levels. It will contribute to our understanding of the entanglements between war and society in the twentieth century. And it will introduce a more holistic transnational perspective that aims to integrate the Second World War into the thriving historiography on mass consumption.

Second World War Civilian Consumption in Comparative Perspective

The Consumer on the Home Front

Thomas Kühne

Beauty matters. Throughout the world, more and more people from all walks of life spend time and money to make themselves beautiful because beauty expresses identity and shapes status and success. Whether white or black, male or female, young or old, gay or straight, working- or middle-class, Western or non-Western, democratic or fascist, people everywhere have adopted a central maxim of the twentieth century: everyone can be beautiful, and everyone should become beautiful. This volume tracks the historical roots and meanings of modern beauty cultures in the twentieth century, drawing on examples from Europe, North America, the Near East, Asia, and Africa.

Consumerism and Body Aesthetics in the Twentieth Century

Globalizing Beauty

Uwe Spiekermann

Modern societies are consumer societies, but rigorous research into this dimension has only begun fairly recently. The knowledge that historians and social scientists have produced is impressive, but also bewilderingly diverse and sometimes conflicting. This comprehensive volume seeks to take stock of their work and discuss future research agendas. Drawing on a wide range of studies of Europe, the United States, Asia, and Africa, the contributions gathered here consider how political history, business history, the history of science, cultural history, gender history, intellectual history, anthropology, and even environmental history can help us decode modern consumer societies.

Decoding Modern Consumer Societies

Dieter Ziegler

This collection of essays explores the impact that nationalism, capitalism, and socialism had on economics during the first half of the twentieth century. Focusing on Central Europe, contributors examine the role that businesspeople and enterprises played in Germany's and Austria's paths to the catastrophe of Nazism. Based on new archival research, the essays gathered here ask how the business community became involved in the political process and describes the consequences arising from that involvement. Particular attention is given to the responses of individual businesspeople to changing political circumstances and their efforts to balance the demands of their consciences with the pursuit for profit.

Hartmut Berghoff

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