Winner of the Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. Prize "The best large-scale synthesis in any language of what we currently know and understand about this multidimensional, cataclysmic conflict." -Richard J. Evans, Times Literary Supplement In this monumental history of the First World War, Germany's leading historian of the period offers a dramatic account of its origins, course, and consequences. Joern Leonhard treats the clash of arms with a sure feel for grand strategy. He captures the slow attrition, the race for ever more destructive technologies, and the grim experiences of frontline soldiers. But the war was more than a military conflict and he also gives us the perspectives of leaders, intellectuals, artists, and ordinary men and women around the world as they grappled with the urgency of the moment and the rise of unprecedented political and social pressures. With an unrivaled combination of depth and global reach, Pandora's Box reveals how profoundly the war shaped the world to come. "[An] epic and magnificent work-unquestionably, for me, the best single-volume history of the war I have ever read...It is the most formidable attempt to make the war to end all wars comprehensible as a whole." -Simon Heffer, The Spectator "[A] great book on the Great War...Leonhard succeeds in being comprehensive without falling prey to the temptation of being encyclopedic. He writes fluently and judiciously." -Adam Tooze, Die Zeit "Extremely readable, lucidly structured, focused, and dynamic...Leonhard's analysis is enlivened by a sharp eye for concrete situations and an ear for the voices that best convey the meaning of change for the people and societies undergoing it." -Christopher Clark, author of The Sleepwalkers

"Definierbar," so Friedrich Nietzsche, sei nur, "was keine Geschichte hat." Das Problem einer verbindlichen Definition von Liberalismus ist selbst das Ergebnis eines komplexen historischen Prozesses, in dem aus antiken Ursprungen, aus liberalis und liberalitas, und aus vorpolitischen Bedeutungen schliesslich der moderne Begriff Liberalismus entstand. Aber innerhalb des Umbruchs der altstandischen Lebenswelt seit dem Ausgang des 18. Jahrhunderts bundelten sich in der Geschichte des neuartigen Deutungsmusters Liberalismus ganz unterschiedliche Erfahrungen und Erwartungen der Zeitgenossen. Eine europaisch komparative Untersuchung der historischen Semantik und die Rekonstruktion der zeitgenossischen Debatten uber Gehalt und Strategie von Liberalismus vermitteln Einsichten in die Wahrnehmung vergangener Gegenwart, ohne die sich politisches Denken und Handeln in der Schwellenepoche des 19. Jahrhunderts nicht nachvollziehen lassen. Aus der quellennahen und systematischen Gegenuberstellung der Ursprunge und Wandlungen von liberalisme, Liberalismus, liberalismo und liberalism in Frankreich, Deutschland, Italien und England ergibt sich die Vielgestaltigkeit des Phanomens: Mit dem historisch-semantischen Vierlandervergleich tragt die Arbeit uber begriffsgeschichtliche Unterscheidungsmerkmale zu einer Typologie epochenspezifischer Liberalismen im europaischen Kontext bei."

In this volume on the history of the European nobility in the modern era, the boundary between the early modern and 'real' modern periods around 1800 is deliberately crossed. By centring on the nobility, the authors undertake a new exploration of the continuities and ruptures in European history. In the three thematic areas of law, politics and aesthetics, the noble knights' utilisation of the early modern courts in the Holy Roman Empire is considered, along with the social and political identity of the English nobility in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The contributions make clear the virtuosity with which the nobility met the challenges of their time, and how they managed to be simultaneously 'contemporary' and retain a specific aristocratic character.

An exploration of the reunification in historical, constitutional, legal, political and economic terms. Among the topics covered are: * The reunification as a German revolution * East Germany and the Third Reich compared * Criminal law and the fusion of two hostile states * The political economy of reunification * New German economic policy