The Course of German History (Routledge Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Perspective of a German history novice
Review: A couple of years ago, an economist I knew said the following to me "Germans are hard workers but they're easily led." First of all it was difficult to imagine someone as intelligent as an economist would use such a sweeping generalization about a particular ethnic group. But despite the silliness of the statement, I didn't know enough about German history to say anything.

"The Course of German History" covers over a thousand years of German history in about 300 pages. You would think this would make it a shallow overview (which is what I was looking for). But this was by no means an introductory level textbook; it seems to have been written for an advanced student of German history. It is not heavy on dates or events, but rather emphasizes interpretation of events and institutions that the reader is expected to already be familiar with.

Like my economist acquaintance, the book made some generalizations of its own- statements like, "The industrialists secretly resented the Chancellor" or "the farmland policy was a surface manifestation of prejudice against the Slavs".

Now these exact quotes you may not find in the book (I don't want to flip through 300 pages of the point 8 font to find one or two exact quotes). But the examples above are very characteristic of many passages. It made me wonder exactly what were the sources that clued the author in on hidden agendas and secret resentments of entire social classes? It was if the author was psychoanalyzing policies and politics.

In this book, "easily led" certainly did not characterize the German people when we take into account how difficult it was for the various dynasties, landowners, and industrialists to collaborate. The only thing it seems they could collaborate on was military expansion, which was in their interests of the upper classes. My interpretation of this book is that the Junkers, royal houses, and Prussian militarists were consciously avoiding liberalization and democratization at home by occupying the country's resources with military campaigns into new areas.

Unlike England or France, which were moving away from the feudal methods of governance, Germany's upper classes were able to hold onto their status for much longer. Those that wanted democratic reform were either not influential enough or could not cooperate enough to effect change, although there were a few revolutionary attempts. With the Napoleanic wars and the massive emigrations of Germans away from their homeland during the 1800s and early 1900s, Germany never developed the institutions or attitudes that would lay the foundation for a peaceful democracy.

I'm glad others can enjoy the book, but for me- a novice in German history- it was a tedious read.

Rating:
Summary: Fundamental for students of 20c Europe
Review: Taylor concentrates on the influence Germans divided history and expansion into Slavic areas had on their actions toward other nations. Not everyone will like his thesis, but it deserves a hearing. The book, which was long out of print, is well written, making it a pleasure to read.