Germany's Two Unifications: Anticipations, Experiences, Responses(New Perspectives in German Political Studies)

Germany's unique historical experience of undergoing national unification twice in a little over a century makes it a fascinating object of study. In this volume the processes of unification are analysed from the point of view of historians, political scientists and literary historians. Because each event had quite different historical pre-conditions (the first having been long anticipated and pursued, whereas the second took virtually all participants by surprise), the processes of adjustment to it have differed in many ways. Yet in each case the idea of national unity has held sway powerfully as a norm guiding the responses of those involved.

Table of Contents:
The Concept of National Unification; J.Breuilly & R.Speirs Beginning and End? The To German Unifications and the Epoch of Territoriality; J.Paulmann Illegitimate Unions? German and European Unifications Viewed in Comparative Perspective; L.McFalls Cultural Critique in the Two Unificationsof Germany; S.Brockmann Identity in Difference: Collective Symbols and the Interplay of Discourses in the Two German Unifications; R.Parr Nationalism and the First Unification; J.Breuilly How did German Federalism Shape Unification?; A.Green 'Something Magical in the Name of Prussia...' British Perceptions of German Nation Building in the 1860s; J.Retallack For Country, Court and Church: The Bavarian Patriots' Party and Bavarian Regional Identity in the Era of German Unification; E.Fink The Structure of German National Consciousness: Protestants, Catholics and Jews, 1871; H.W.Smith German Literature and the Foundation of the Second Empire; R.Speirs Provincialism, Private Life and the Marginal Hero: Germany After Unification in the Works of Gustav Freytag, Friedrich Spielhagen and Paul Heyse; E.Griffiths Theodor Fontane: Post-War Novelist; J.Osborne Nationalism in the Second German Unification; M.Fulbrook Historians, Unification and the 'New National Paradigm'; C.Ross Cultural Polarities? Grass, Walser, Wolf: Reflections on the Process of Unification; M.Butler From a 'Multinational Republic' to 'The Promised Land': Journals and Unification; K.Von Oppen Conclusion; J.Breuilly Outline Chronology Further Reading

About the Author :
John Breuilly is Chair in Nationalism in the Department of Government, at the London School of Economics. He previously taught at Manchester University from 1972 until 1995 and at Birmingham University from 1995 until 2004. He has held visiting Professorships at Hamburg and Bielefeld Universities and was a Research Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin in the academic year 2001-2. Ronald Speirs is Professor of German at the University of Birmingham. He has written or edited three books on Bertolt Brecht, one on Franz Kafka and one on Thomas Mann, co-edited a volume on Fascism and European Literature, and edited and translated the writings of the social and political theorist, Max Weber, and the philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche.

Review :
'A unique academic collaboration to address a unique historical phnomenon.' - Daniel Johnson, Times Higher Education Supplement