Author(s): Jürgen Kocka
Series: The Menahem Stern Jerusalem Lectures
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 177
Title Page......Page 4
Contents......Page 6
Foreword......Page 8
1 | Introduction......Page 14
2 | Bourgeois Culture and Civil Society: The German Case in a European Context......Page 20
The Opportunities of Semantic Ambivalence......Page 22
Bürgertum: Bourgeoisie Defined by Its Opponents and Its Culture......Page 23
Civil Society: The History and Definition of a Concept......Page 28
Bourgeoisie and Civil Society during the Kaiserreich......Page 35
A Short View on the Twentieth Century......Page 41
3 | Comparing Dictatorships: Toward a Social History of the German Democratic Republic......Page 46
Why a History of the GDR?......Page 48
Social Blockades and the Limits of Political Control......Page 61
1949–1989: Four Periods of GDR History......Page 67
The GDR in Comparative Perspectives......Page 69
4 | Dealing with Difficult Pasts: Collective Memories and Politics in Germany after 1945 and 1990......Page 80
How West Germans and East Germans Dealt with Their Nazi Past, 1945–1990......Page 83
Remembering the GDR after Unification: Different Layers, Controversial Debates......Page 95
Memories Compete and Reinforce One Another......Page 101
5 | Historians, Fashion, and Truth: The Last Fifty Years......Page 112
History: A Changeable Discipline......Page 114
An Example: Changing Views of World War I......Page 116
Five Major Trends......Page 121
The Productivity of Fashion and the Attainability of Truth: History as a Profession......Page 124
Notes......Page 130
Index......Page 172
