PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Geoff Eley is Karl Pohrt Distinguished University Professor of Contemporary History and Professor of German Studies at the University of Michigan, USA. He is the author of Forging Democracy: The History of the Left in Europe, 1850-2000 (2002), A Crooked Line: From Cultural History to the History of Society (2005) and Nazism as Fascism: Violence, Ideology, and the Ground of Consent in Germany, 1930-1945 (2013). Jennifer L. Jenkins is Associate Professor of German and European History at the University of Toronto, Canada, where she holds a Canada Research Chair in Modern German History. She is the author of Provincial Modernity: Local Culture and Liberal Politics in Fin-de-Siècle Hamburg (2003), as well as a number of articles on German culture and politics. Tracie Matysik is Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. She is the author of Reforming the Moral Subject: Ethics and Sexuality in Central Europe, 1890-1930 (2008).
[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 * A comprehensive and well-structured collection of articles on modern German history ... This multi-author survey is helpful not only for readers first approaching modern German history, but also for those experts who want to refresh their knowledge through the lens of non-mainstream and recent topics of historical writing about Wilhelmine and Weimar Germany. * European Review of History * This fine collection of sophisticated essays mounts an important challenge to received notions of modern German history. The book’s distinguished authors 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 Universität 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 *
