Volker Rolf Berghahn

from militarism and genocide to civil society, 1900-1950

Europe in the era of two World Wars

This text covers the major currents of European history in the first half of the 20th century. Within this timeframe it describes and analyses the origins, course, and consequences of the two world wars and explains the orgy of violence that twice devastated large areas of the European continent and Russia.

From Militarism and Genocide to Civil Society, 1900-1950

Europe in the Era of Two World Wars

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.

Economy, Society, Culture, and Politics

Imperial Germany, 1871-1918

Simone Lässig

While bookstore shelves around the world have never ceased to display best-selling "life-and-letters" biographies in prominent positions, the genre became less popular among academic historians during the Cold War decades. Their main concern then was with political and socioeconomic structures, institutions, and organizations, or--more recently--with the daily lives of ordinary people and small communities. The contributors to this volume--all well known senior historians--offer self-critical reflections on problems they encountered when writing biographies themselves. Some of them also deal with topics specific to Central Europe, such as the challenges of writing about the lives of both victims and perpetrators. Although the volume concentrates on European historiography, its strong methodological and conceptual focus will be of great interest to non-European historians wrestling with the old "structure-versus-agency" question in their own work. Contributors: Volker R. Berghahn, Hartmut Berghoff, Hilary Earl, Jan Eckel, Willem Frijhoff, Ian Kershaw, Simone Lässig, Karl Heinrich Pohl, John C. G. Röhl, Angelika Schaser, Joachim Radkau, Cornelia Rauh-Kühne, Mark Roseman, Christoph Strupp and Michael Wildt.

Volker Rolf Berghahn

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