1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910814340803321

Autore

Jarausch Konrad Hugo

Titolo

Shattered past : reconstructing German histories / / Konrad H. Jarausch and Michael Geyer

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Princeton, N.J. : , : Princeton University Press, , 2003

©2003

ISBN

1-282-69602-5

9786612696022

1-4008-2527-X

Edizione

[Course Book]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xi, 380 pages)

Altri autori (Persone)

GeyerMichael <1947->

Disciplina

943.08/07/2043

Soggetti

Historiography - Germany - History - 20th century

History - Philosophy

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) - Historiography

Nationalism - Germany - History - 20th century

Germany Social conditions 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction. Twentieth-Century Germany: Rethinking a Shattered Past -- PART I. THE ECLIPSE OF THE MASTER NARRATIVES -- PART II. RECONSTITUTING GERMAN HISTORIES -- PART III. LOOKING BACK AT THE TWENTIETH CENTURY -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Broken glass, twisted beams, piles of debris--these are the early memories of the children who grew up amidst the ruins of the Third Reich. More than five decades later, German youth inhabit manicured suburbs and stroll along prosperous pedestrian malls. Shattered Past is a bold reconsideration of the perplexing pattern of Germany's twentieth-century history. Konrad Jarausch and Michael Geyer explore the staggering gap between the country's role in the terrors of war and its subsequent success as a democracy. They argue that the collapse of Communism, national reunification, and the postmodern shift call for a new reading of the country's turbulent development, one that no longer suggests continuity but rupture and conflict. Comprising original essays, the book begins by reexamining the nationalist, socialist, and



liberal master narratives that have dominated the presentation of German history but are now losing their hold. Treated next are major issues of recent debate that suggest how new kinds of German history might be written: annihilationist warfare, complicity with dictatorship, the taming of power, the impact of migration, the struggle over national identity, redefinitions of womanhood, and the development of consumption as well as popular culture. The concluding chapters reflect on the country's gradual transition from chaos to civility. This penetrating study will spark a fresh debate about the meaning of the German past during the last century. There is no single master narrative, no Weltgeist, to be discovered. But there is a fascinating story to be told in many different ways.