Theodore S. Hamerow - Böcker

Questions of international politics, as they relate to German history, are explored in this authoritative and controversial volume. Of the seven essays that constitute the book, four—those by Schroeder, Lauren, Rupieper, and Abenheim—center on diplomatic history and international politics, while the other three—by Barclay, Chickering, and Post—illuminate related political and cultural transformations. The Afterword by the two editors, Wetzel and Hamerow, deals with the works and philosophy of Gordon Craig, the preeminent historian of Germany to whom the book is dedicated. Craig's achievement has been to bring knowledge and interpretation into narrative history and to show that history is a self-sufficient and self-contained discipline, important for its own sake. These essays are bold and provocative; they can rightly claim originality, new insights, hitherto unrecognized aspects, new techniques of analysis for the subjects they cover; and for these reasons, as much as for any other, they deserve the attention of all those who care about German or international history.

The Allies stood by and watched Nazi Germany imprison and then murder six million Jews during World War II. How could the unthinkable have been allowed to happen? Theodore Hamerow reveals in the pages of this compelling book that each Western nation had its own version of the Jewish Question—its own type of anti-Semitism—which may not have been as virulent as in Eastern Europe but was disastrously crippling nonetheless. If just one country had opened its doors to Germany's already persecuted Jews in the 1930s, and if the Allies had attempted even one bombing of an extermination camp, the Holocaust would have been markedly different. Instead, by sitting on their hands, the West let Hitler solve their Jewish Question by eliminating European Jewry.

In the beginning, they rallied behind Hitler in the national interest of Germany; in the end, they sacrificed their lives to assassinate him. A history of German resistance to Hitler in high places, this book offers a glimpse into one of the most intractable mysteries. Why did high-ranking army officers, civil servants, and religious leaders support Hitler? Why did they ultimately turn against him? What transformed these unlikely men, most of them elitist, militaristic, and fiercely nationalistic, into martyrs to a universal ideal?The resisters in On the Road to the Wolf's Lair are not the singular souls doomed to failure by the massive Nazi machinery, but those who emerged from the Third Reich itself--those people whose cultural, administrative, and military positions allowed them, ultimately, to form a systematic, organized opposition to the Nazi regime. These were people with a vested interest in the Third Reich, and their slow and painful awakening to its evils makes a dramatic story, marked as much by temporizing and compromise, vacillation and reluctance--a resistance to conscience--as by the intrigue and heroics of political resistance that finally emerged. Hamerow follows these men as, one by one, they find themselves overwhelmed by guilt and contrition over their support of a murderous regime. He shows how their awakened moral reckonings and higher interests overrode lifetime habits and disciplines on the road to "the wolf's lair."The result is an unsparing history of the German resistance to Hitler--one where the players emerge for the first time as real people with complex motives and evolving characters. Almost a history of the possibility of an emerging collective moral conscience within a destructive environment, the book adds to our understanding of the fall of the Third Reich and of the task of history itself.

A study of the economic and social changes which shaped the movement for German unification. The author emphasizes the effect of industrialism on urban life, traces the decline of manorialism in agriculture and seeks to show that the political movements of these years were profoundly influenced by the economic transition from agrarianism to capitalism.

The diplomatic and political events leading to the establishment of the German Empire have been studied extensively, but the social matrix of civic activity has been sadly neglected. Professor Hamerow fills this gap by dealing first with the development of the economy and the community under the influence of industrialization. He then considers the ideologies of the era and the groups supporting them: liberalism and the middle class; conservatism and the outlook of the old order; socialism and the emerging industrial working class. The final section of his book is on the structure of politics: the system of parties, the nature of civic organizations, and public opinion. Originally published in 1969. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions.The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This volume, together with its predeccessor (Ideas and Institutions, 1969), is an examinataion of the social and economic foreces that helped shape Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. The previous volume established the ideological and institutional framework; in Struggles and Accomplishments Mr. Hamerow discussess, within that framework, the forma nd achievement of German unification. Using documentation from business, artisan, and workers' organizations, the press, and government archives, Mr. Hamerow considers the changes effected by the growth of an industrial society: among them, the new, mid-century confrontation between the established order (the crown and aristocracy) and the advocates of change (the propertied and educated bourgeoisie). The German Empire was, lie shows, the product of an unwritten compromise between the two groups, ready now to sacrifice the ideological principles that separated them for economic and political expediency. Originally published in 1972. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press.These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The diplomatic and political events leading to the establishment of the German Empire have been studied extensively, but the social matrix of civic activity has been sadly neglected. Professor Hamerow fills this gap by dealing first with the development of the economy and the community under the influence of industrialization. He then considers the ideologies of the era and the groups supporting them: liberalism and the middle class; conservatism and the outlook of the old order; socialism and the emerging industrial working class. The final section of his book is on the structure of politics: the system of parties, the nature of civic organizations, and public opinion. Originally published in 1969. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions.The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This volume, together with its predeccessor (Ideas and Institutions, 1969), is an examinataion of the social and economic foreces that helped shape Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. The previous volume established the ideological and institutional framework; in Struggles and Accomplishments Mr. Hamerow discussess, within that framework, the forma nd achievement of German unification. Using documentation from business, artisan, and workers' organizations, the press, and government archives, Mr. Hamerow considers the changes effected by the growth of an industrial society: among them, the new, mid-century confrontation between the established order (the crown and aristocracy) and the advocates of change (the propertied and educated bourgeoisie). The German Empire was, lie shows, the product of an unwritten compromise between the two groups, ready now to sacrifice the ideological principles that separated them for economic and political expediency. Originally published in 1972. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press.These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Between the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars and the outbreak of the First World War, Europe underwent a transformation unparalleled in its history. No comparable degree of change had occurred on the Continent since the New Stone Age. Theodore Hamerow examines the innovations that challenged nineteenth-century Europe, using a perspective that transcends events that occurred within national boundaries. He brings together political, social, diplomatic, and national developments to demonstrate how they relate to the profound transformations brought about by the industrial revolution. Using a wealth of statistics and other documentation to buttress insightful generalizations, Hamerow broadly appraises the implications of the shift in Europe from an agricultural to an industrial society. Among the subjects he considers are the rise of the middle and working classes, the spread of literacy and the enfranchisement of the masses, the growth of urban centers of manufacture and trade, the acquisition of colonies, the spread of military technologies, and the changes in the functions of governments.

Theodore Hamerow, a prominent historian, was born in Warsaw in 1920 and spent his childhood in Poland and Germany. His parents were members of the best-known Yiddish theater ensemble, the Vilna Company. They were part of an important movement in the Jewish community of Eastern Europe which sought, during the half century before World War II, to create a secular Jewish culture, the vehicle of which would be the Yiddish language.Combining the skills of an experienced historian with the talents of a natural writer, the author not only brings this exciting part of Jewish culture to life but also deals with ethnic relations and ethnic tensions in the region and addresses the broad political and cultural issues of a society on the verge of destruction. Thus a vivid image emerges that captures the feel and atmosphere of a world that has vanished forever.