[A] theoretically ambitious volume ... admirable for its clear focus and coherence ... [It] is not only characterized by a high level of scholarship but also succeeds in showing the complexities of German history.
Journal of Modern History
This fine collection of sophisticated essays mounts an important challenge to received notions of modern German history. The book's distinguished ... Read moreauthors collectively wrestle the discussion of modernity in German history away from an earlier concern with transitional narratives - the overcoming of tradition, of feudal remnants, of militarism, and the like. Instead, they explore modernity as a claim made by historical actors, and as a set of practices more than a theoretical concern. German modernity here is not so much virtue or vice, but a global condition. Collectively, the authors thus rewrite the history of the Wilhelmine and Weimar periods for our times.
Sebastian Conrad, Chair of Modern History, Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany
German Modernities is a rich and original collection of essays on the multiple ways in which possible modern futures were imagined and struggled for in Wilhelmine and Weimar Germany. Theoretically and empirically these essays challenge arguments about Germany's incomplete or pathological modernization as well as those about the inevitably disciplinary and repressive nature of modernity. Essays by scholars of several generations explore topics ranging from social reform and welfare to secularism, sexuality, and citizenship. They view Germany not only from within but also in a global, transnational, and colonial context. They illustrate in fascinating detail that Wilhelmine Germany was far from stagnant and unmodern and Weimar more than crisis-ridden in unproductive ways. This collection is a valuable addition to the ongoing debates about the diversity and ambivalence of German modernities and the complex ways they played out in the politics of everyday life.
Mary Nolan, New York University, USA
Together the contributions to this important volume create a powerful mosaic of German modernities from the late 19th century to the onset of National Socialism. Ranging from studies of empire and reform to citizenship, aesthetics, and subjectivity-and the interactions of such forces-the articles collected here reveal the complex and contradictory ways, in which contemporaries conceptualized and fought over what it means to be modern. Engaging with theory, revising old stories and telling new ones, the volume shows just how entangled Germany's history is and must be with broader debates about the nature of modernity.
Uta G. Poiger, Northeastern University, USA
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