Customer Reviews

Germany 1866-1945 (Oxford History of Modern Europe)

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Craig assumes basic literacy in the overall history of Europe in the period he covers; this is not a good First Book of Modern Germany. But his coverage and analysis are first-rate. He covers foreign and domestic policy, as you'd expect, but also the culture of Germany before and after the Great War (tho with an understandable leaning to political implications).

Craig sees a continuity in German ends, if not means, from Bismarck through to Hitler, and is withering in his criticisms of the German passion for "pounding the table" as a substitute for politics or, indeed, thought. His book doesn't completely explain the mystery of how the Germans could follow Hitler, but it made that clearer for me than it was before I read it. As we might expect of a professor, his analysis of German academic culture & its subservience to authority is especially good.

It provides a well organised overview of the period, though it "jumbs" to different eventsand people without keepinga coherent flow.