James Sheehan

James J. Sheehan

James John Sheehan

Professor Sheehan gives an extensive account of the social, cultural, and political developments in German history up to the Austro-Prussian war of 1866. The only study of the period available in English, this uniquely authoritative book will provide an indispensable guide to everyone interested modern European history.

German History, 1770-1866

The Transformation of Modern Europe

Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?

Hartmut Lehmann

The essays in An Interrupted Past describe the fate of those German-speaking historians who fled from Nazi Europe to the United States. Their story is set into several contexts: the traditional relationship between German and American historiography, the evolution of the German historical profession in the twentieth century, the onset of Nazi persecution after 1933, the special situation in Austria, and the difficulty of settling the refugees in their new homeland. In addition to articles on prominent scholars, there are accounts of the group as a whole, including information on more than ninety individuals, and of their family lives. An Interrupted Past is set in one of the darkest periods in human history, a time of political catastrophe and personal suffering. Yet the lives recorded here also illustrate people's capacity to survive, adjust, and create under difficult circumstances.

German-Speaking Refugee Historians in the United States After 1933

An Interrupted Past

A critical study of the tumultuous history of Europe during the twentieth century analyzes how the continent's repudiation of violence in the wake of World War II has affected the region, led to a rejection of defense budgets in favor of social stability and economic growth, and caused a growing rift between the U.S. and Europe. Reprint.

These essays by nine distinguished historians deal with prominent personalities in German history over the last two centuries; and they are dominated by two themes. First, they trace the growth and flowering of German culture in areas like print and architecture and painting and how this transformed relationships and procedures in everyday life. Second, they follow the rise of a political consciousness on the part of the Germans, and the consequences this consciousness had for nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries. In throwing light on the art of Schinkel and Liebermann, on the undertakings of Lichtwark, on the policies of Bismarck, and on the ordeals of Rathenau and Hitler and Beck and Faulhaber and Brandt, these nine essays offer a salutary guidepost to a past that is as rich as it is terrifying.

Essays on the Cultural and Political History of Modern Germany

From the Berlin Museum to the Berlin Wall

This volume in the Oxford History of Modern Europe is a comprehensive study of German history from 1770 to 1866. It examines the manner in which the development of bureaucratic and participatory institutions changed the character and capacities of governments throughout German Europe; the economic expansion in which the productivity of both agriculture and manufacturing increased, commercial activity intensified, and urban growth was encouraged; and the rising culture of print, which sustained new developments in literature, philosophy, and scholarship, and helped transform the rules and procedures of everyday life. These developments, it is argued, led to an erosion of the traditional values and institutions, and played an important part in the transformation of German politics, society, and culture. Rather than viewing the development of a Prussian-led Nation State as natural or inevitable, the book emphasizes alternative forces of unity and division which existed up until the Austro-Prussian War of 1866.

Combining the history of ideas, institutions, and architecture, this study shows how the museum both reflected and shaped the place of art in German culture from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. On a broader level, it illuminates the origin and character of the museum's central role in modern culture. James Sheehan begins by describing the establishment of the first public galleries during the last decades of Germany's old regime. He then examines the revolutionary upheaval that swept Germany between 1789 and 1815, arguing that the first great German museums reflected the nation's revolutionary aspirations. By the mid-nineteenth century, the climate had changed; museums constructed in this period affirmed historical continuities and celebrated political accomplishments. During the next several years, however, Germans became disillusioned with conventional definitions of art and lost interest in monumental museums. By the turn of the century, the museum had become a site for the political and cultural controversies caused by the rise of artistic modernism. In this context, Sheehan argues, we can see the first signs of what would become the modern style of museum architecture and modes of display. The first study of its kind, this highly accessible book will appeal to historians, museum professionals, and anyone interested in the relationship between art, politics, and culture.

From the End of the Old Regime to the Rise of Modernism

Museums in the German Art World

L'età post-eroica. Guerra e pace nell'Europa contemporanea

Morton Sosna

"An excellent interdisciplinary collage . . . of considerable interest to philosophers, psychologists, computer scientists (of a theoretical stripe), sociologists, and others. . . . Rethinking our relationship to animals is very relevant, I believe, to thinking clearly about our current relationships to current (and future) machines."--Keith Gunderson, University of Minnesota

Humans, Animals, Machines

The Boundaries of Humanity

Since 1945, the European states which had previously glamorised their military elites, and made going to war the highest expression of patriotism, have renounced violence as a way of settling their disputes. Violence has been eclipsed as a tool of statesmen. This astonishing reversal is the subject of James Sheehan's masterly book. It is also a timely reminder of the differences between Europe and America, at a time when the USA is asserting its right and duty to make war for ideological or self-interested ends. And how Europeans will live in this dangerous, violent world is a question that becomes ever more urgent as the chaos in the Middle East affects the stability of societies with open frontiers and liberal traditions.

James J. Sheehan

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