The German Predicament: Memory and Power in the New Europe

MARKOVITS, Simon and Andrei Reich,

ISBN 10: 0801428025 / ISBN 13: 9780801428029

Published by Cornell University Press, 1997,, 1997

About this Item

Hbk 248pp small rubber stamping "athetic department' on front pastedown and dj is slightly shelfworn now in protective sleeve otherwise the text is excellent clean tight unmarked as new. Seller Inventory # Ger211

Bibliographic Details

Title: The German Predicament: Memory and Power in ...

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 1997,

Publication Date: 1997

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Near Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis:

What does the unification of Germany really mean? In their stimulating exploration of that question, Andrei S. Markovits and Simon Reich sketch diametrically different interpretations than are frequently offered by commentators. One is that Germany, well aware of the Holocaust, has been 'Europeanized' and is now prepared to serve as the capitalist and democratic locomotive that powers Europe. The other is that the proclivities behind Auschwitz have been suppressed rather than obliterated from the German psyche. Germany's liberal democracy was imposed by the allied victors, according to this view, and will one day dissolve, revealing the old expansionist tendencies to try to 'Germanize' all of Europe.

Markovits and Reich argue that benign contemporary assessments of Germany's postwar democracy, combined with admiration for the country's economic achievements, contribute to German influence far greater than military might was able to achieve. Yet, at the same time, some Germans have internalized liberal and pacifist principles and now see their nation as powerless, simply a larger Switzerland. As a result, while the Germans have enormous influence and latitude, they have not taken responsibility for leadership. The prime reason for this gap beween ideology and structure, Markovits and Reich suggest, lies in the politics of collective memory.

About the Authors:

Simon Reich is Professor of Global Affairs and Political Science at Rutgers University, Newark. He is the author of Global Norms, American Sponsorship and the Emerging Patterns of World Politics and coauthor most recently of Good-bye Hegemony!.

Andrei S. Markovits is Karl W. Deutsch Collegiate Professor of Comparative Politics and Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism.