The German Myth of the East: 1800 to the Present (Oxford Studies in Modern European History) - Brossura

Liulevicius, Vejas Gabriel

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0199605165 ISBN 13: 9780199605163

Casa editrice: Oxford University Press, USA, 2011

Riassunto

Over the last two centuries and indeed up to the present day, Eastern Europe's lands and peoples have conjured up a complex mixture of fascination, anxiety, promise, and peril for Germans looking eastwards. Across the generations, a varied cast of German writers, artists, philosophers, diplomats, political leaders, generals, and Nazi racial fanatics have imagined (often in very different ways) a special German mission in the East, forging a frontier myth that paralleled the American myths of the 'Wild West' and 'Manifest Destiny' Through close analysis of German views of the East from 1800 to our own times, The German Myth of the East reveals that this crucial international relationship has in fact been integral to how Germans have defined (and repeatedly redefined) themselves and their own national identity. In particular, what was ultimately at stake for Germans was their own uncertain position in Europe, between East and West. Paradoxically, the East came to be viewed as both an attractive land of unlimited potential for the future and as a place undeveloped, dangerous, wild, dirty, and uncultured. Running the gamut from the messages of international understanding announced by generations of German scholars and sympathetic writers, to the violent racial utopia envisaged by the Nazis, German imaginings of the East represent a crucial, yet unfamiliar, part of modern European history, and one that remains fundamentally important today in the context of an expanded European Union.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

A captivating read and may be recommended as an overview to both students and researchers of east European and German history. (Jan C. Behrends, Slavic Review)

lucidly written, well-researched and far-ranging (William W. Hagen, Central European History)

L'autore:

Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius is the author of War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, National Identity, and German Occupation in World War I (2000). He has been awarded a fellowship by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Oxford University Press, USA
• Data di pubblicazione: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0199605165
• ISBN 13: 9780199605163
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 312