
Gendering Modern German History
. Ed(S): Hagemann, Karen; Quataert, Jean H.
Writing on the history of German women has - like women's history elsewhere - undergone remarkable expansion and change since it began in the late 1960s. Today Women's history still continues to flourish alongside gender history but the focus of research has increasingly shifted from women to gender. This shift has made it possible to make men and masculinity objects of historical research too. After more than thirty years of research, it is time for a critical stocktaking of the "gendering" of the historiography on nineteenth and twentieth century Germany. To provide a critical overview in a comparative German-American perspective is the main aim of this volume, which brings together leading experts from both sides of the Atlantic. They discuss in their essays the state of historiography and reflect on problems of theory and methodology. Through compelling case studies, focusing on the nation and nationalism, military and war, colonialism, politics and protest, class and citizenship, religion, Jewish and non-Jewish Germans, the Holocaust, the body and sexuality and the family, this volume demonstrates the extraordinary power of the gender perspective to challenge existing interpretations and rewrite mainstream arguments.
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About . Ed(S): Hagemann, Karen; Quataert, Jean H.
Reviews for Gendering Modern German History
including extensive footnotes and a bibliographical chapter
that gender has not only challenged mainstream ('malestream') German history but has in many cases, indeed, rewritten it. This rich and thought-provoking book is a 'must' for scholars and students concerned with historiographical debates, the transatlantic dialogue among scholars, and issues of theory and methodology. It will also attract a public interested in gender history and is intrigued by the effects of gender more generally. · Marion Kaplan, New York University This incisive collection of essays details the impact of a focus on women and gender on historical writing on modern Germany. Attuned to developments in the United States and Germany, the essays carefully distinguish points of convergence and divergence in approach and methodology between the two academic cultures and provide a nuanced overview of the current state of the field as well as desiderata for the future. Leading scholars illuminate how gendered perspectives have revolutionized understanding of the conventional stuff of history — such as nation, politics, military, religion, and the state — while opening up critical new avenues of analysis around citizenship, family, sexuality, colonialism, minority relations, and memory. An invaluable resource for students and scholars of German history and gender studies alike. · Heide Fehrenbach, Northern Illinois University