Germany and 'The West' : the history of a modern concept

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Germany and 'The West' : the history of a modern concept

edited by Riccardo Bavaj & Martina Steber

Berghahn, 2015

  • : hardback

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Germany and "The West" : the history of a modern concept

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Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

"The West" is a central idea in German public discourse, yet historians know surprisingly little about the evolution of the concept. Contrary to common assumptions, this volume argues that the German concept of the West was not born in the twentieth century, but can be traced from a much earlier time. In the nineteenth century, "the West" became associated with notions of progress, liberty, civilization, and modernity. It signified the future through the opposition to antonyms such as "Russia" and "the East," and was deployed as a tool for forging German identities. Examining the shifting meanings, political uses, and transnational circulations of the idea of "the West" sheds new light on German intellectual history from the post-Napoleonic era to the Cold War.

Table of Contents

Preface Introduction: Germany and 'the West': The Vagaries of a Modern Relationship Riccardo Bavaj & Martina Steber PART I: RISES AND SILENCES OF 'THE WEST' Chapter 1. In Search of 'the West': The Language of Political, Social and Cultural Spaces in the Sattelzeit, from about 1770 to the 1830s Bernhard Struck Chapter 2. The Kaiserreich and the Kulturlander: Conceptions of the West in Wilhelmine Germany, 1890-1914 Mark Hewitson Chapter 3. World War I and the Invention of 'Western Democracy' Marcus Llanque Chapter 4. Perceptions of 'the West' in Twentieth-Century Germany Anselm Doering-Manteuffel PART II: EAST-WEST ENTANGLEMENTS Chapter 5. Russian and German Ideas of the West in the Long Nineteenth Century: Entanglements of Spatial Identities Denis Sdvizkov Chapter 6. 'Orient' and 'Occident', 'East' and 'West' in the Discourse of German Orientalists, 1790-1930 Douglas T. McGetchin Chapter 7. German Jews and the West: Identification, Dissimilation and Marginalization around the Turn of the Century Stefan Vogt PART III: LIBERAL AMBIGUITIES AND STRATEGIES OF 'WESTERNIZATION' Chapter 8. Between 'East' and 'West'? A Liberal Dilemma, 1830-48/49 Benjamin Schroeder Chapter 9. Before 'the West': Rudolf von Gneist's English Utopia Frank Lorenz Muller Chapter 10. Weimar and 'the West': Liberal Social Thought in Germany, 1914-1933 Austin Harrington Chapter 11. Germany and 'Western Democracies': The Spatialization of Ernst Fraenkel's Political Thought Riccardo Bavaj PART IV: NATIONALIST SELF-CENTEREDNESS AND CONSERVATIVE ADAPTATIONS Chapter 12. 'The West' in German Cultural Criticism during the Long Nineteenth Century Thomas Rohkramer Chapter 13. No Place for 'the West': National Socialism and the 'Defence of Europe' Philipp Gassert Chapter 14. 'The West', Tocqueville, and West German Conservatism from the 1950s to the 1970s Martina Steber PART V: SOCIALISTS BETWEEN 'EAST' AND 'WEST' Chapter 15. 'The West' as a Paradox in German Social Democratic Thought: Britain as Counterfoil and Model, 1871-1945 Stefan Berger Chapter 16. Bridge over Troubled Waters: German Left-Wing Intellectuals between 'East' and 'West', 1945-49 Dominik Geppert Chapter 17. Antipathy and Attraction to the West and Western Consumerism in the German Democratic Republic Katherine Pence Selected Bibliography List of Contributors Index

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