The Unmasterable Past: History, Holocaust, and German National Identity [Hardcover]

Charles S. Maier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 9, 1988 | ISBN-10: 0674929756 | ISBN-13: 978-0674929753

Discusses how the Jewish Holocaust should be viewed as an historical event, and whether Germany can avoid a permanent stigma.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A full depiction of the continuing controversy within the Federal German Republic about the nation's murderous past and haunted present...For the very large segment of the American public that does not read German, the book is a discreet Baedeker to very unfamiliar--and often ugly--territory.
--Norman Birnbaum (The Nation )

Maier has written what is the best book available on the tangled and acrimonious debate among the German historians. It is incisive in its analysis of the arguments on all sides of the debate and admirably objective in its assessment of them.
--Gordon Craig (New York Review of Books )

A thorough and sensitive reflection on the 'historians' conflict' about the character and significance of Nazism that erupted in West Germany in 1986...[Maier contributes] to the understanding of how Germans are still trying to integrate the Third Reich into a vision of a democratic future, and into a cohesive national identity for Germany.
--Leon Botstein (The New Republic ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Charles S. Maier is the Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History at Harvard University, and the author of Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 227 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (November 9, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674929756
• ISBN-13: 978-0674929753
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,858,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sterling reivew of historiography, May 26, 2006

By 

jrockett - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Unmasterable Past: History, Holocaust, and German National Identity (Paperback)

This outstanding text has received a great deal of criticism over the past couple of years for not being up to date, but has more to do with the fact that books, unlike our evergrowing knowledge, must be published at some point.
Chapters three and five in this text have no equal that I know of, and few historians understand the historiograpy of Germany as well as Maier.

Don't exclude this book from your reading just because it's not current, and fresh (how many historians are tossing their Collingwood or Croce?), but DO read it for it's remarkable scholarship and insight.

4 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An Unmasterable Book, January 14, 2006

By 

Matthew J. Friday (Mt. Pleasant, MI, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Unmasterable Past: History, Holocaust, and German National Identity (Paperback)

The Unmasterable Past is exceedinly deficient as an historical analysis of the post-war German historical question. Maier's book deals with how historians have viewed Germany after the war, that is, how should German history be viewed in light of the horrors of the holocaust and National Socialism?

This book is an historiographical account of what had so far been said about how both conservative and liberal historians have viewed the complex issue of German history. Sadly, though, the book says absolutely nothing new on its own; that is to say, there are no new thoughs presented. The work is now seriously dated, as well. The text itself is quite poorly presented; the constant peppering of pages with words and phrases in myriad languages is not only confusing, it's just plain annoying.

It is not all bad, however. It is worth mentioning that if you are looking for a well researched account of what was current in the field until 1987 or so, then you've hit a gold mine here. Otherwise, there are more current books out there worth reading.