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Title: The Germans by Gordon Alexander Craig ISBN: 0-399-12436-5 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Pub. Date: January, 1982 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.09 (11 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Too brief
Comment: A brief history of Germany, with a comprehensive Bibliography for anyone who wishes to further their reading on the subject. This book was written in 1982, with an Afterword written by Gordon Craig in 1991, addressing the unification of East and West Germany. As a novice to the subject of German history, I found this book to be a basic introduction, with many things referred to within the book not given a clear definition, and therefore to get a better understanding one would absolutely need to read other material.
I liked that chapters were divided into subjects such as "Religion", "Women", and "Literature and Society", but not knowing more about the different time periods that are referred to (such as the Weimar Republic), I was left feeling that the book was incomplete as a general history.
Rating: 5
Summary: Worth Reading!
Comment: This book is an excellent overview of the history of Germany before the fall of the wall. True it needs to be updated and it isn't so easy to get through, but it is interesting and it gives you a better understanding of why Germans today act and work as they do. I had been living in Germany for 2 years when I read this book, and learned a multitude of things that it helped me identify with the society I was living in. I strongly recommend this book if you are planning to move to Germany or spend a large amount of time there.
Rating: 4
Summary: Topical enrichment
Comment: How, one might ask, could an American academic try to explain the nature of the German people to other Americans? He might do what I do, and talk about the Germans he's met at work and around town, and also the popular and classical culture he sees (not counting the dubbed episodes of Star Trek on TV), but that's just me. If he professionally studied the history and literature, and spent years in Germany during the early years of the twentieth century, he might produce a book like Gordon Craig's The Germans.
This is a scholarly book, and might be difficult for someone with no knowledge of German history to follow. The subjects, covering things like religion, economics, gender relations, literature, and so forth, are done topically, and only chronologically within each chapter. This allows Craig to focus in on certain subjects and hold the focus for as long as he needs, but it also makes it difficult to synthesize the topics and integrate them into the passage of time.
The goal is to "explain" as well as possible the nature of the German people. Thus, there is no general history of wars or kings. As I mentioned, the chronological aspect is difficult to pin down here. If I had to summarize in a sentence, it would be that Craig attempts to relate how Germans have related to each other over the centuries, and to a lesser extent, how they have related to others. Of course, any time someone sets out to explain a people the effort is almost certain to fail if the author asks "Why did they behave so?" This is true for Germany or any other country. But if the goal is to attempt a coherent discussion of "How did they behave?" then there is better hope for success, and I think Craig has succeeded reasonably well here. One gets, if not a feel for the flow of time, then a feel for ideas. One can say, "So this is how German literature developed." One can say, "So this is why their language is so simple, yet so confounding." As an idea book, Craig has produced a useful work.
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Title: A Concise History of Germany by Mary Fulbrook ISBN: 0521368367 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 25 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: The German Way : Aspects of Behavior, Attitudes, and Customs in the German-Speaking World by Hyde Flippo ISBN: 0844225134 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books Pub. Date: 11 May, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Germany and the Germans: The United Germany in the Mid-1990s by John Ardagh, Katharina Ardagh ISBN: 0140252665 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: June, 1996 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: When in Germany, Do as the Germans Do by Hyde Flippo ISBN: 0844225533 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books Pub. Date: 28 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: The Cambridge Illustrated History of Germany by Martin Kitchen ISBN: 0521794323 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 04 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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