The Epochs Of German History

Originally published in 1930. This book is not intended to be a discussion on German history, but to talk about its epochs, a period in which some fresh beginning is made, some fresh determining element enters, some event occurs to give a new direction to the course of history. The book is concerned with the critical moments of German history, the turning points in its course. Those are what we want to consider, wnd also to select as points of vantage from which we may survey the development of the German nation, viewing the panorama section by section.

This book opens the debate about German history in the long term – about how ideas and political forms are traceable across what historians have taken to be the sharp breaks of German history. Smith argues that current historiography has become ever more focused on the twentieth century, and on twentieth-century explanations for the catastrophes at the center of German history. Against conventional wisdom, he considers continuities - nation and nationalism, religion and religious exclusion, racism and violence - that are the center of the German historical experience and that have long histories. Smith explores these deep continuities in novel ways, emphasizing their importance, while arguing that Germany was not on a special path to destruction. The result is a series of innovative reflections on the crystallization of nationalist ideology, on patterns of anti-Semitism, and on how the nineteenth-century vocabulary of race structured the twentieth-century genocidal imagination.

This comprehensive survey of German history traces the origins of the Germanic tribes to the reunification of Germany in 1990. Along the way, it covers the rise of the Holy Roman Empire, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Napoleonic Wars, the rise of Prussia, World War I and II, and the division and reunification of Germany. Written by two renowned historians, A History of Germany provides a thorough and engaging overview of one of Europe's most important nations. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

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