A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People - Softcover

Ozment, Steven

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060934832 ISBN 13: 9780060934835

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2005

Synopsis

Paperback. Pub Date: 2005 Pages: 432 in Publisher: Harper Collins The word German was being used by the Romans as early as the mid-first century BC to describe tribes in the eastern Rhine valley. Nearly two thousand years later the richness and complexity of German history have faded beneath the long shadow of the country's darkest hour in World War II. Now. award-winning historian Steven Ozment. whom The New Yorker has hailed as a splendidly readable scholar. gives us the fullest portrait possible in this sweeping. original. and provocative history of the German people. from antiquity to the present. holding a mirror up to an entire civilization - one that has been alternately Western Europe's most successful and most perilous.

About this title

Review:

"A masterly synthesis. (It) fizzes with bold hypotheses and subtle allusions. A heroic feat of scholarship."--The New Criterion

"Brilliant. A highly stimulating book and a pleasure to read, combining serious scholarship with verve and good storytelling."--The Washington Times

"Insightful. . . . Persuasive. . . . Remarkable."--First Things

"Readable and absorbing. An enjoyable and well-done work that is ideal for the general reader."--Booklist

"Clever and fascinating."--The Chicago Tribune

Synopsis:

From one of our most distinguished historians comes a sweeping, original, and provocative history of Germany, from antiquity to the present, shedding a fresh, empathetic light on the nation and its people. A Mighty Fortress is a work of penetrating, virtuoso scholarship that holds a mirror to an entire civilization - - one that has been alternately Western Europe's most successful and most perilous. It boldly examines Germany's tumultuous twentieth century in light of its earliest achievements as a prosperous, civil, and moral society, tracing a line of continuity that began in ancient times and has endured through the ages, despite its enemies and itself. The book tells the story of the well-known men -- Luther, Kant, and Beethoven, Marx, Bismarck, and Hitler -- to the masses of ordinary Germans. The Germans are a people who desire national unity, yet have always kept themselves from it by aligning with autocratic territorial governments and regional cultures.

Indeed, Germans living centuries apart have shared in different ways a common defining experience that is unique to their culture: a convergence of external provocation, wounded pride, and an unusual ability to exercise great power in response to both. Ozment captures the soul of a nation that is at once ordered and chaotic, disciplined and obsessive, proud and uncertain. Epic in scope, refreshing in its insights, and written with nuance, acumen, and verve, it presents the history of the German people as the story of humanity writ large.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0060934832
• ISBN 13: 9780060934835
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432