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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Unique View of German History, October 6, 2006
This review is from: Five Germanys I Have Known (Hardcover)
Fritz Stern, emeritus professor of European history at Columbia, has produced quite a distinctive book on German history: it is at once an autobiography as well as an examination of Germany during its five most recent identities: Wilhelmine; Weimar; Third Reich; Divided Germany; and finally unified Germany. This dual focus serves Stern rather well--since he was born in 1926, forced to flee Silesia (now part of Poland) for the United States in 1936, and has had extensive involvement with Germany and things German since at least the early 1950's, his personal perspective and activities are quite valuable. Particularly his discussion of the German Democratic Republic (aka East Germany) is full of insights, as is the book's discussion of the Federal Republic (West Germany) and the reunification process. I found it helpful to have a copy of Stern's "Dreams and Delusions: The Drama of German History", a collection of his essays, handy for reference. At over 500 pages, this is a long book, which has a large cast of characters (such as Haber, Kohl, Schmidt, and a whole slew of academics, diplomats, journalists, and others) about whom Stern offers some perceptive insights. To be sure, Stern on Stern sometimes resembles one of those Christmas letters, but after all it is his life he is recounting. An unusual way to learn a good deal about Germany from one who has sought over the last 50 years or so to explain it to the rest of us.
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25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The historian as celebrity, September 30, 2006
This review is from: Five Germanys I Have Known (Hardcover)
Occasionally an historian becomes famous -- usually posthumously. There are Thucydides, Herodotus, Edward Gibbon, a couple of American historians ending recently perhaps with Arthur Schlesinger. But for the most part historians are archival and campus moles who influence people in small and indirect ways. Here a Columbia historian, Fritz Stern, because of his trans-atlantic life, his brilliant insight into the mind and heart of the Germans who forced his emigration in the Third Reich, his ability to connect sympathetically with many people of influence and enlightenment --here is a man who is an historian and truly an intellectual celebrity. He has lived through a flight from the Nazis, campus upheaval over the Vietnam War, the reunification of a Germany unable to define itself or its history, and the probable end of American hegemony in the world. He has taken all this in and written about it with brilliance and insight. He is the model of an historian of European and world history on the American scene.
Just compare this book to the self-serving, arrogant and self-righteous autobiography published a few years ago by another American historian transplanted from Europe, Richard Pipes. Both are accomplished historians and very able in their fields, but Pipes is not the man you would go to in a personal or professional crisis. Stern would be a real mentor, something rare on American or European campuses.
This is the book for those interested in Germany, in academia, and in America's role in the world. It is also well written and elegant.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Part history, part autobiography, awesome and engrossing, January 10, 2007
This review is from: Five Germanys I Have Known (Hardcover)
Fritz Stern is an impressive writer. This book takes one from 19th century Germany to about 2002, mostly in the context of his own family history. I had a particular interest in the book, because Stern comes from Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland). I've spent time there and have many relatives living in and around that city. In addition, a family friend escaped the Nazis out of Breslau in much the way Stern's family did. Anyone who is interested in German history should read this book, especially as a starting point. Stern gives many explanations and insights into events that are not commonly known and gives the reader plenty to think about. I have one of his other books, Gold and Iron, that I now can't wait to read.
One criticism I had was the chapter on German Themes in Foreign Lands. I can understand the author's wanting to put the lessons of 20th century in a global context, but to me this material seemed like a diversion, with too tenuous a connection to German history. If I want to study China, India, Argentina or other countries, I'd read a book exclusively on that subject. I thought the book started to drag at this point.
Otherwise, anyone interested in German history from a German/Jewish/American perspective shouldn't miss this.
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