Saxony in German History
Culture, Society, and Politics, 1830-1933
(Social History, Popular
Culture, and Politics in Germany)
Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2000.
Edited by
James Retallack
Abstract
During
the hundred years examined in this volume, ordinary Germans discovered a new
and powerful attachment to the nation. But throughout this period, national
loyalties competed with preexisting loyalties to the locality and the region.
The resulting tension made it difficult for Germans to assign clear priorities
to one kind of symbolic attachment over another.
Focusing
on the east German state of Saxony, the contributors to this volume refuse easy
resolution of that tension, seeking instead to illustrate how local, regional,
and national cultures commingled, diverged, and influenced each other over
time. By considering both the erosion and the persistence of traditional
identities and regional boundaries, these essays help to restore an
appreciation of regional “ways of seeing,” suggesting they really did matter –
in their own right, and for the nation as a whole.
Topics
considered include the expansion of a German reading public, Jewish
emancipation, the formation of socio-moral milieus, working-class leisure, the
expansion of the public sphere, the rise of consumer co-operatives, gendered
attempts to fashion the “new” liberal man, and degradation rituals in the
1920s. Presenting to English-reading audiences the fruits of cutting-edge
research conducted in Saxon archives since 1989, the contributors offer
innovative ways to reassess the larger sweep of German history.
This
book serves as a how-to guide for the study of any region in history. Beyond
its primary appeal to European historians, it will also speak to students and
scholars in comparative politics and sociology.
This information is provided by the Department of History at the
University of Toronto.
All contents (c) 2001-2003 James
Retallack and the University of Toronto.
All rights reserved.
Last Updated: 25 April 2003.