In this illuminating comparative study, three generations of leading American and German scholars explore the phenomenon of nationalism in Germany and the United States, from the Declaration of Independence to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The book identifies and defines the similarities and differences between American nationalism, based on an ideology of inherent rights and faith in the 'American dream', and the 'blood and soil' nationalism of Germany. In the process, contributors encounter striking differences between the role of national symbols and the representation of the nation in both countries, and equally revealing parallels regarding the role of political and social movements, as well as the way in which colonial aggression has been related to a nationalistic discourse at home.
This interdisciplinary book focuses on five areas:
politics (American republicanism and German monarchism)
culture (art, architecture, and the arts)
warfare and militarism
the writing of national history
the role of political and social movements
This book not only represents a major contribution to studies of German and American history, but, through the uniqueness of its comparative approach, provides profound insights into the concept of nationalism and signals the way for future comparative research.

Of the thousands of children and young adults who fled Nazi Germany in the years before the Second World War, a remarkable number went on to become trained historians in their adopted homelands. By placing autobiographical testimonies alongside historical analysis and professional reflections, this richly varied collection comprises the first sustained effort to illuminate the role these men and women played in modern historiography. Focusing particularly on those who settled in North America, Great Britain, and Israel, it culminates in a comprehensive, meticulously researched biobibliographic guide that provides a systematic overview of the lives and works of this "second generation."

Of the thousands of children and young adults who fled Nazi Germany in the years before the Second World War, a remarkable number went on to become trained historians in their adopted homelands. By placing autobiographical testimonies alongside historical analysis and professional reflections, this richly varied collection comprises the first sustained effort to illuminate the role these men and women played in modern historiography. Focusing particularly on those who settled in North America, Great Britain, and Israel, it culminates in a comprehensive, meticulously researched biobibliographic guide that provides a systematic overview of the lives and works of this "second generation."

This book provides a detailed picture of the equity and efficiency of economic restructuring, focusing on the two most important successor states to the Soviet Union. Analysis is based on a careful examination of micro level data, documenting the experiences of workers, households and firms.

Paths of Continuity examines the impact of the Third Reich on the German historical profession before and after 1945. The essays look at ten prominent historians whose lives and work spanned the period from the 1930s to the 1960s. Their response to the Nazi regime ranged from open resistance to willing collaboration. Ironically, however, much of the impetus for scholarly innovation after 1945 came from historians with earlier ties to the antiliberal "folk history" of the Nazi era. All in all, this insightful collection of essays provides fresh insight into the development of West German historical scholarship since 1945.

This collection explores different approaches to contextualizing and conceptualizing the history of Pietism, particularly Pietistic groups who migrated from central Europe to the British colonies in North America during the long eighteenth century. Emerging in German speaking lands during the seventeenth century, Pietism was closely related to Puritanism, sharing similar evangelical and heterogeneous characteristics. Dissatisfied with the established Lutheran and Reformed Churches, Pietists sought to revivify Christianity through godly living, biblical devotion, millennialism and the establishment of new forms of religious association. As Pietism represents a diverse set of impulses rather than a centrally organized movement, there were inevitably fundamental differences amongst Pietist groups, and these differences - and conflicts - were carried with those that emigrated to the New World. The importance of Pietism in shaping Protestant society and culture in Europe and North America has long been recognized, but as a topic of scholarly inquiry, it has until now received little interdisciplinary attention. Offering essays by leading scholars from a range of fields, this volume provides an interdisciplinary overview of the subject. Beginning with discussions about the definition of Pietism, the collection next looks at the social, political and cultural dimensions of Pietism in German-speaking Europe. This is then followed by a section investigating the attempts by German Pietists to establish new, religiously-based communities in North America. The collection concludes with discussions on new directions in Pietist research. Together these essays help situate Pietism in the broader Atlantic context, making an important contribution to understanding religious life in Europe and colonial North America during the eighteenth century.

This collection explores different approaches to contextualizing and conceptualizing the history of Pietism, particularly Pietistic groups who migrated from central Europe to the British colonies in North America during the long eighteenth century. Emerging in German speaking lands during the seventeenth century, Pietism was closely related to Puritanism, sharing similar evangelical and heterogeneous characteristics. Dissatisfied with the established Lutheran and Reformed Churches, Pietists sought to revivify Christianity through godly living, biblical devotion, millennialism and the establishment of new forms of religious association. As Pietism represents a diverse set of impulses rather than a centrally organized movement, there were inevitably fundamental differences amongst Pietist groups, and these differences - and conflicts - were carried with those that emigrated to the New World. The importance of Pietism in shaping Protestant society and culture in Europe and North America has long been recognized, but as a topic of scholarly inquiry, it has until now received little interdisciplinary attention. Offering essays by leading scholars from a range of fields, this volume provides an interdisciplinary overview of the subject. Beginning with discussions about the definition of Pietism, the collection next looks at the social, political and cultural dimensions of Pietism in German-speaking Europe. This is then followed by a section investigating the attempts by German Pietists to establish new, religiously-based communities in North America. The collection concludes with discussions on new directions in Pietist research. Together these essays help situate Pietism in the broader Atlantic context, making an important contribution to understanding religious life in Europe and colonial North America during the eighteenth century.

The fourteenth, seventeenth and twentieth centuries in European history were marked by exceptionally intense experiences of power, violence and mass death. Power, Violence and Mass Death in Pre-Modern and Modern Times undertakes the ambitious and entirely new task of analyzing, through comparison, the importance of power, violence and mass death in these centuries. Death and the excesses of power were characteristics of the twentieth century, but this volume teaches about the causes and possible consequences of this oppressive individual and collective experience. We now have a more established historical perspective for understanding the importance of power and the causes and results of the rapid increase in mortality in the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. In this way, this volume makes progress towards reaching new perceptions of all three 'crisis' epochs. Appealing to a wide readership, Power, Violence and Mass Death in Pre-Modern and Modern Times will be of interest to scholars not only of the three centuries highlighted, but also to anyone with an historical and sociological interest in the larger questions raised about the nature of power, violence and mass death on European society.

The essays in An Interrupted Past describe the fate of those German-speaking historians who fled from Nazi Europe to the United States. Their story is set into several contexts: the traditional relationship between German and American historiography, the evolution of the German historical profession in the twentieth century, the onset of Nazi persecution after 1933, the special situation in Austria, and the difficulty of settling the refugees in their new homeland. In addition to articles on prominent scholars, there are accounts of the group as a whole, including information on more than ninety individuals, and of their family lives. An Interrupted Past is set in one of the darkest periods in human history, a time of political catastrophe and personal suffering. Yet the lives recorded here also illustrate people's capacity to survive, adjust, and create under difficult circumstances.

This is the first comprehensive account of Jewish-Gentile relations in central Europe from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, with particular emphasis on cultural, economic, social, and political issues, and incorporating much new research. Individually, the essays probe the central questions of Jewish development within the territorial states, secular and clerical, and in both rural and urban environments. The authors grapple with such relevant issues as cultural identity, representation, toleration, and minority/majority relations.

The essays examine the role of economics, politics, social organization, language, and religion in the relations between Jews and non-Jews in central Europe from the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries. The authors grapple with such relevant issues as cultural identity, representation, toleration, and minority-majority relations. Individually, the essays probe the central questions of Jewish social, economic, and cultural development within the territorial states, secular and clerical, and in both rural and urban environments. Collectively, they focus more attention on the period before the emancipation of the nineteenth century and the destruction of German Jewry in the middle of the twentieth, emphasizing both continuities and discontinuities in the history of Jews in Germany.

Paths of Continuity examines the impact of the Third Reich on the German historical profession before and after 1945. The essays look at ten prominent historians whose lives and work spanned the period from the 1930s to the 1960s. Their response to the Nazi regime ranged from open resistance to willing collaboration. Ironically, however, much of the impetus for scholarly innovation after 1945 came from historians with earlier ties to the antiliberal "folk history" of the Nazi era. All in all, this insightful collection of essays provides fresh insight into the development of West German historical scholarship since 1945.

Although Weber's path-breaking work on the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism has received much attention ever since it first appeared in 1904-5, recent research has uncovered important new aspects. This volume, the result of an international, interdisciplinary effort, throws new light on the intellectual and cultural background of Weber's work, debates recent criticism of Weber's thesis, and confronts new historical insight on the seventeenth century with Weber's interpretation. Revisiting Weber's thesis serves to deepen our understanding of Weber as much as it will stimulate further research.

The essays in An Interrupted Past describe the fate of those German-speaking historians who fled from Nazi Europe to the United States. Their story is set into several contexts: the traditional relationship between German and American historiography, the evolution of the German historical profession in the twentieth century, the onset of Nazi persecution after 1933, the special situation in Austria, and the difficulty of settling the refugees in their new homeland. In addition to articles on prominent scholars, there are accounts of the group as a whole, including information on more than ninety individuals, and of their family lives. An Interrupted Past is set in one of the darkest periods in human history, a time of political catastrophe and personal suffering. Yet the lives recorded here also illustrate people's capacity to survive, adjust, and create under difficult circumstances.

The historical relationship between Protestantism, capitalism, and democracy remains one of the most controversial intellectual themes of out time. Max Weber's famous thesis about the link between the 'Protestant ethic' and the 'spirit of capitalism' and its dissolution in his own era has been both widely acclaimed and heatedly disputed since its publication in 1904-5. This volume, the result of an international, interdisciplinary effort, throws new light on the intellectual and cultural background of Weber's work, debates recent criticism of Weber's thesis, and confronts new historical insight on the 17th century with Weber's interpretation.

This book provides a detailed picture of the equity and efficiency of economic restructuring, focusing on the two most important successor states to the Soviet Union. Analysis is based on a careful examination of micro level data, documenting the experiences of workers, households and firms.

Does modernity make religion politically irrelevant? Conventional scholarly and popular wisdom says that it does. The prevailing view assumes that the onset of western modernity--characterized by the rise of nationalism, the dominance of capitalism, and the emergence of powerful state institutions--favors secularism and relegates religion to the purely private realm. This collection of essays on nationalism and religion in Europe and Asia challenges that view. Contributors show that religion and politics are mixed together in complex and vitally important ways not just in the East, but in the West as well.

The book focuses on four societies: India, Japan, Britain, and the Netherlands. It shows that religion and nationalism in these societies combined to produce such notions as the nation being chosen for a historical task (imperialism, for example), the possibility of national revival, and political leadership as a form of salvation. The volume also examines the qualities of religious discourse and practice that can be used for nationalist purposes, paying special attention to how religion can help to give meaning to sacrifice in national struggle. The book's comparative approach underscores that developments in colonizing and colonized countries, too often considered separately, are subtly interrelated.

In addition to the editors, the contributors are Benedict R. Anderson, Talal Asad, Susan Bayly, Partha Chatterjee, Frans Groot, Harry Harootunian, Hugh McLeod, Barbara Metcalf, and Peter van Rooden.