History Made Conscious

There is no better guide to the debates over politics and history writing in our times than Geoff Eley. His deep knowledge of US, British and German historiography enables him to make a compelling case that different questions demand different theories. -- Catherine Hall Praise for Nazism as Fascism -- : A tour de force. Whether revisiting his classic arguments about fascism or tackling the latest debates about the role played by imperialism in German history, Geoff Eley's major synthesis is a reminder of why he is one of the surest guides to twentieth century German and European history. -- Dan Stone, Royal Holloway, UK Geoff Eley has written an outstanding, compelling, and overall convincing book in which he masterfully evaluates recent historical research on Nazi Germany. [This] is a fascinating account providing a myriad of new ideas and insights written in a precise analytical prose, which will surely stimulate further research. It is grounded in a deep concern for the present political, economic and fiscal crisis and shows the author's continuing commitment to politically engaged history. -- Armin Nolzen, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany In this concise survey, Geoff Eley identifies the main shifts in perspective from the crude totalitarian models of the Cold War to the most recent approaches, summarising the more familiar positions ... before examining in more detail the newer trends in historiography ... This is an ambitious book, which combines summaries of the older historiographical debates with a perceptive and critical account of more recent developments. -- Tim Kirk, Newcastle University, UK Praise for A Crooked Line -- : Eley brilliantly probes transformations in the historians' craft over the past four decades. I found A Crooked Line engrossing, insightful, and inspiring. -- Lizabeth Cohen, Harvard University, USA, author of <i>A Consumers' Republic</i> Part genealogy, part diagnosis, part memoir, Eley's account of the histories of social and cultural history is a tour de force. -- Antoinette Burton, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA Eley's reflections on the changing landscape of academic history in the last forty years will interest and benefit all students of the discipline. Both a native informant and an analyst in this account, Eley combines the two roles superbly to produce one of most engaging and compelling narratives of the recent history of History. -- Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago, author of <i>Provincializing Europe</i> Praise for Forging Democracy -- : There is nothing, to my knowledge, in the scholarly literature on the history of the Left to compare with it in comprehensiveness, forceful interpretation, and historiographical mastery. It is a noble achievement. -- Vernon Lidtke, Johns Hopkins University, USA A magisterial overview. Sweeping not just in its chronological but also its geographic scope. Forging Democracy will certainly rank with Hobsbawm's Age of Extremes as one of the lasting political histories of the (very) long twentieth century. -- George Steinmetz, University of Michigan, USA Lucid, erudite, and provocative. Unusual in its geographic breadth. More than any other general history of socialism I have seen, this volume moves easily between Eastern and Western Europe, including unusually strong narratives on the history of Italy, Scandinavia, Poland, Spain, and Great Britain. This gives the book a genuinely pan-European dimension benefitting both the nature of the subject and the times in which it was written. -- Norman Naimark, Stanford University, USA An outstanding accomplishment. An astonishingly comprehensive work of comparative history. -- Leslie Derfler, Florida Atlantic University, USA A remarkable book that recounts a sweeping history. -- James E. Cronin, Boston College, USA Praise for From Unification to Nazism -- : Eley is one of the most interesting, trenchant, and controversial historians of Germany. -- Paul Kennedy, Yale University, USA Eley is perhaps the most original and exciting historian working in the field of late 19th and early 20th German history. -- Richard J. Evans, University of Cambridge, UK