History : Germany

In the predominantly non-literate culture of migration period Germania gold bracteates were an authentic statement of the identity of those who wore them and of how they saw the world. Their standardised programme of designs demonstrates that they were all produced according to strict, common rules governing motifs and style. The fact that the designs were diffused by a process of copying allows us to reconstruct a network of interrelations between central places, so that bracteates are one of the primary sources for research into early medieval Germanic society. more...

Price: $266.00

Analyses the issues of national and regional identity during a phase of nation-state formation in mid-nineteenth century Europe. This book provides local studies of the national question in regions on the border between Germany and Austria, and Italy and Austria. It presents the process of nationalization in German, Austrian and Italian histories. more...

Price: $110.00

Provides an essential and original introduction to the challenges facing Germany in its recent past and the problems still confronting it today. more...

Price: $28.95

For decades it has been assumed that the Allied bombing of Dresden -- a cultured city famous for its china, chocolate, and fine watches -- was militarily unjustifiable, an act of retribution for Germany's ceaseless bombing of London and other parts of England. Now, Frederick Taylor's groundbreaking research offers a completely new examination of the facts and reveals that Dresden was a highly militarized city actively involved in the production of military armaments and communications. Incorporating first-hand accounts, contemporaneous press material and memoirs, and never-before-seen government records, Taylor proves unequivocally the very real military threat Dresden posed -- and how a legacy of propaganda shrouded the truth for sixty years. more...

Price: $12.99

This is the most detailed and up-to-date study of the division of Germany after the Second World War. Drawing on a wealth of unpublished documents, Dirk Spilker reveals the political realities of the situation in post-war Germany, and reassesses the motivations and actions of the Western Allies and the Soviet bloc as they manoeuvred to achieve their ends. - ;Would it have been possible to build a unified and democratic Germany half a century before the fall of the Berlin Wall? This book reassesses this question by exploring Germany's division after the Second World War from the point of view of the SED, the communist-led and Soviet-sponsored ruling party of East Germany. Drawing on unpublished documents from the SED archives, Dr Spilker rejects claims that the East German comrades and their Soviet masters had abandoned their struggle for socialism and were willing to accept a democratic Germany in exchange for a pledge to neutrality. He argues that the communists' sudden switch to a multi-party approach at the end of the war was a tactical move inspired not by a desire for compromise but by the mistaken belief that they could win political hegemony - and the. chance to introduce socialism throughout Germany - through the ballot box. Communist optimism, as this book shows, rested on specific assumptions about the situation after the war, all of which revolved around the prospect of political instability and social unrest in West Germany. The comrades in East Berlin did not just say that their regime would ultimately prevail, they genuinely believed it. Nor should their hopes be dismissed as a mere fantasy. In the aftermath of the war, the economic gap between the two Germanies was still relatively narrow and West Germany's. future success as a magnet for the people in East Germany was by no means guaranteed. - ;...cogent and persuasive...Specialists will find the book stimulating...But the book's vigorous argument, and direct, unpretentious prose will more...

Price: $161.00