Xenophobia in United Germany: Generations, Modernization, and Ideology (Hardcover)

by Meredith W. Watts (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Watts, a political science professor, worked with German researchers from the mid-1980s on studies of German youth. Here, he focuses on the impact of reunification of the two Germanys, studying "the malaise of the German political culture . . . at the turn of the 1990s," trends in attitudes and behavior regarding foreigners, the ideological polarization of German young people, the complex sources of xenophobia, an approach to intervention with street youth that proved helpful in the former East Germany, differences between the two Germanys (and between xenophobia and anti-Semitism), and the growing virtual communities--in Germany and around the world--created by hatemongers to elude the attention of traditional law enforcement. Where interest in interethnic and right-wing violence is strong, this relatively academic study should circulate. Mary Carroll

Card catalog description
As the first book to analyze the dramatic surge of xenophobic violence in post-unification Germany, Xenophobia in United Germany draws on a variety of sources to examine not only xenophobic expression in Germany but also its relation to the broader phenomenon of racism and xenophobia in Western industrial societies. In this groundbreaking book, Meredith Watts makes use of data gained from interviews conducted with East German anti-violence youth workers as well as his long association with East and West German youth researchers. What emerges from Watts's study is a complex portrait of modern Germany that includes a comprehensive analysis of formerly suppressed East German studies of anti-foreigner hostility and neo-nazism; the first comparative studies of East and West German youth after four decades of separation; and national surveys conducted in the early years of unification that show patterns of anti-foreigner and anti-Semitic sentiment among East and West Germans. Xenophobia in United Germany provides a thorough examination of this phenomenon in Germany during the era of "unification stress," while also pointing out its parallels to xenophobia and hate crime throughout all industrial societies.

• Hardcover: 329 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st ed edition (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312162502
• ISBN-13: 978-0312162504
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
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• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,908,475 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
  
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