Imperial
The Short
James Retallack, Editor
Opinion
Modern,
confident to the point of arrogance, divided by class, and graceless in its
tragic demise—this is how contemporaries described the Titanic as it sank to
the ocean floor on the night of
The second volume of the Short Oxford History of Germany … is an
immensely useful compendium intended for university students. The authors of
the individual essays are top-shelf historians, mainly from a mid-career cohort
of scholars of German history, especially as represented in Great Britain and
North America. Smartly conceived and well penned, the essays reflect the latest
state of the field and thus contribute a helpful introduction to a range of
themes. Short bibliographical essays tilted toward English-language
contributions augment the book’s usefulness. There is also a timeline that
attempts to integrate the various layers of Imperial German history—social and
cultural life, religion and gender, politics and the state ... Each chapter
begins with an anecdote, or literary reference, or a story from the archives,
that draws the reader in. There is pleasingly little in the way of polemic.
Whether in the editor’s introduction and conclusion, or in the individual
chapters, Retallack’s Kaiserreich is
free from the tone of indignation that once marked the history of Imperial
Germany. It is also bereft of strained apologetics. Instead, we have a no-nonsense
history that gives far more room to such topics as religion, bourgeois reform,
and gender than was the case twenty-five years ago. It is also a Kaiserreich liberated from the shadows
of the Third Reich …
The
volume serves as a fine introduction to the period, and its framing is
challenging and incisive … Perhaps what makes this compendium so helpful—for
teachers and researchers of German history—is that it allows us to see what we
have accomplished and what remains to be done.
— Helmut Walser Smith, Central European History 42, no. 3 (2009): 558-60.
Does
Imperial Germany resemble the Titanic?
… Both were brought down by an event external to them, but which they could
have prevented if they had really wanted to. … Retallack uses the comparison with
the Titanic to open the final essay
in this edited volume, which is well worth reading. He thus adopts the same
procedure as his eleven co-authors, each of whom develops their theme out of a
vignette. Retallack expertly sums up each of the contributions in a sentence
(pp. 268-9) …
Retallack’s co-authors do not make
it easy for their editor. All established experts on Imperial Germany, most of
them working at North American or British universities …, they draw on their
own primary research and a close reading of the German- and English-language
research. While they observe the guidelines laid down in the introduction … the
quality of most of the essays is so high that the editor has to work hard to
sum up their findings in the conclusion …
This book is useful, informative,
and entertaining in equal measure. It provides an introduction to the history
of Imperial Germany and presents it in all its complexity without trying to sum
it up conclusively. In his concluding essay, Retallack refers hopefully to the
internet, which, he suggests, is opening up completely new perspectives for
researching pictorial sources in particular. He describes future fields of work
derived from the logic of research, sources which have not yet been fully
utilized, and the need for international comparison. ‘Looking forward’ is an
appropriate title for this final chapter.
— Ewald Frie,
Bulletin of the German Historical
Institute London 33 (2011): 128-131.
The
Library of Congress online catalog shows 39 books whose titles begin with
“Imperial Germany” and 418 books with those words in their titles. These
numbers illustrate the popularity of Germany from 1871 to 1918 as a subject of
historical research and suggest the likelihood of a variety of interpretations.
Retallack (Toronto) and his colleagues provide an outstanding contribution to
the topic by their book’s content, organization, and authorship. Aside from
Retallack’s introduction and afterword, there are 11 thematic essays by
relatively verging-on-middle-age scholars and teachers based in Canada, the US,
UK, and Germany. Among the essays are “Gendered Germany” and “Transnational
Germany,” neither of which would likely have been found in new books even 10
years ago. Each essay begins with a vignette to introduce its topic, and each
focuses on what Retallack calls “key themes”: “social and economic change,”
“middle class and the state,” “conflict,” and “authoritarian or modern.” In the
process, the texts and endnotes engage with contemporary historiography, which
is also exemplified by a 22-page-plus bibliography, “Further Reading.” Aside
from the “key themes,” an 11-page “Chronology,” five maps, and an index help to
integrate the history of imperial Germany, especially for an undergraduate readership.
Summing up: Essential.
— H. D. Andrews, CHOICE
The
study of imperial Germany remains vibrant, as the essays in this volume of the Short Oxford History of Germany demonstrate.
A combination of well-established historians and the leading scholars of a new
generation have written a series of lively contributions … illustrating some of
the central issues identified in the excellent introduction by James Retallack.
…
These issues have been at the
heart of research since the 1960s, but in this volume they are reworked in
important ways. In particular, Retallack notes that historians have developed
different geographical frames in which to locate modern German history. The
attention to the local and, at the other end of the scale, the global framework
of German history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has
opened new perspectives. …
A second important development is
that the history of imperial Germany is no longer read as the precursor to the
Third Reich. … The relationship between imperial and Nazi Germany remains on
the research agenda, as recent debates about military culture and colonial
warfare have demonstrated. In this volume, however, the editor and the
contributors have generally resisted drawing a line between Bismarck and
Hitler. … By releasing imperial Germany from the teleological straitjacket of
1933, it encourages historians to explore a much wider range of themes and
issues than had been the case in the heyday of the Sonderweg debate. Topics such as reform-minded bourgeois groups and
the rich texture of civil society become more interesting if they are not
written off as the dead ends of German history.
… Retallack offers some sage
advice about future research directions. … Pushing the study of the emergence
of mass politics in the 1870s and 1880s might give a more rounded view of the
Bismarckian era ….
By summarizing the complexities of
the current debate and setting out fresh research agendas, Retallack’s volume
will offer an invaluable guide to both experts and students.
— William Mulligan, University of Toronto Quarterly 79, no. 1 (Winter 2010): 377-9.
This
book was required reading for my class in Modern Germany, taught by
Professor [Pieter] Judson at Swarthmore
College. The text, a compilation of several essays written by established
scholars of German history, is an excellent overview of the political, social,
and intellectual history of Germany from its unification under Bismarck in 1871
to its defeat in the First World War in 1918. The authors of the text write in
a clear and organized manner … The book is not meant to be a comprehensive
history of German history—it is appropriately called a ‘Short History,’ and my
professor incorporated many supplementary readings into the course readings …
Each chapter covers a different aspect of German history, each written by a
different scholar with his/her own point of view. Some chapters include very
fascinating tidbits, like the outburst of clubs and associations founded near
the end of the 19th century. The book also stresses certain themes of German
history, including Germany's policies towards its neighbors, the problems of
organizing people who came from so many different regions and lumping them all
into ‘Germany,’ and the conflicts of Germany’s political parties. For the
undergraduate enrolled in a course on German history from 1871-1918, the text
should be valuable.
D. Chow,
mathematics major, Swarthmore College, 5-star review on Amazon.com
This information is provided by the Department of History at the
All contents © 2011 James
Retallack and the University of Toronto.
All rights reserved.
Last Updated: 1 December 2011.