The Weimar Republic

Rating:
Summary: Crisis made clear
Review: A masterly translation of a remarkable book! The radical shifts of Peukert's thought are lucidly rendered in an English as limpid as it is urgent.

Rating:
Summary: Crisis made clear
Review: Detlev Peukert's analysis of Weimar Germany exceeds any other in breadth and readability. His book not only examines the experiment of Weimar democracy from social, economic, political, and cultural angles, but provides an interesting thesis for why Weimar democracy failed, namely that Weimar Germany epitomized the crisis of classical modernity. I have read many books on Weimar Germany, most of which focus on one particular aspect. Peukert synthesizes all of the most important aspects into one, offering a clear account of why Hitler happened.

Rating:
Summary: Concise, Precise and free of Jargon
Review: I'm doing some research into the years immediately prior to WW2 and needed a good recap of Weimar for context. This book was superb for the purpose. Not long after starting it I concluded that I might as well save my yellow hi-lighter and simply dip the whole book in florescent yellow ink. There is hardly a page that is not a superbly concise rendering of an important point. Peukert, who died at age 39, was a star of German history of the 20th century, and this book, intended as both a primer and a summary, shows why. Excellent grasp and presentation of both statistics and economics. Few if any hacknied answers to banal questions, but rather a probing for new questions as well as new answers. A willingness to say "I don't know" when that is the proper thing to say. Peukert's intellectual honesty shines through, and all his traits inspire confidence. This book is not, however, a delightful read, being so thoroughly boiled-down to its essence. It contains very little in the way of flowing narrative, witty vignette, or deft portraiture -- mostly it sticks pretty close to what might, with a wink and a nod, be called the "objective facts" of Weimar. It is nonetheless well written, crammed with information, and free of jargon (this last point not to be taken for granted in academic writing of the 70s and 80s) -- and apparently well-translated. A very good job of what it sets out to do. That said, I got very little in the way of the "flavors" of Weimar from it, and now feel the need to read something else for that -- perhaps Doblin's "Berlin Alexanderplatz" will provide that.

Rating:
Summary: Concise, Precise and free of Jargon
Review: I'm doing some research into the years immediately prior to WW2 and needed a good recap of Weimar for context. This book was superb for the purpose. Not long after starting it I concluded that I might as well save my yellow hi-lighter and simply dip the whole book in florescent yellow ink. There is hardly a page that is not a superbly concise rendering of an important point. Peukert, who died at age 39, was a star of German history of the 20th century, and this book, intended as both a primer and a summary, shows why. Excellent grasp and presentation of both statistics and economics. Few if any hacknied answers to banal questions, but rather a probing for new questions as well as new answers. A willingness to say "I don't know" when that is the proper thing to say. Peukert's intellectual honesty shines through, and all his traits inspire confidence. This book is not, however, a delightful read, being so thoroughly boiled-down to its essence. It contains very little in the way of flowing narrative, witty vignette, or deft portraiture -- mostly it sticks pretty close to what might, with a wink and a nod, be called the "objective facts" of Weimar. It is nonetheless well written, crammed with information, and free of jargon (this last point not to be taken for granted in academic writing of the 70s and 80s) -- and apparently well-translated. A very good job of what it sets out to do. That said, I got very little in the way of the "flavors" of Weimar from it, and now feel the need to read something else for that -- perhaps Doblin's "Berlin Alexanderplatz" will provide that.

Rating:
Summary: scholarly to the point of unreadability
Review: Unless you are doing graduate-level work on the Weimar era (which I am), stay far away from this book as an intro. It is not for the timid reader. I'm trying to get my hands on the original German edition, but whether it is the writing or the translation, Peukert's book reads as if it were authored by the illegitimate, illiterate love-child of James Joyce and Henry James. Contentwise, it has very little to do with the popular perception of "Weimar Culture;" for that, check out Peter Gay. This book deals primarily with social and economic conditions, and hardly ever mentions politics, and even more rarely, art. If you like charts and graphs and figures though, this is full of them. That said, this is the preeminent book on Weimar Germany. It helps to have a philosophy degree to read it, though. Anthony Heilbut's excellent Exiles in Paradise is more than worth checking out if you're interested in the mass emigration of German artists and intellectuals to the US.

Rating:
Summary: scholarly to the point of unreadability
Review: Unless you are doing graduate-level work on the Weimar era (which I am), stay far away from this book as an intro. It is not for the timid reader. I'm trying to get my hands on the original German edition, but whether it is the writing or the translation, Peukert's book reads as if it were authored by the illegitimate, illiterate love-child of James Joyce and Henry James. Contentwise, it has very little to do with the popular perception of "Weimar Culture;" for that, check out Peter Gay. This book deals primarily with social and economic conditions, and hardly ever mentions politics, and even more rarely, art. If you like charts and graphs and figures though, this is full of them. That said, this is the preeminent book on Weimar Germany. It helps to have a philosophy degree to read it, though. Anthony Heilbut's excellent Exiles in Paradise is more than worth checking out if you're interested in the mass emigration of German artists and intellectuals to the US.