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Germany
- A Nation in Its Time: Before, During, and After Nationalism, 1500-2000
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 20 hrs and 23 mins
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Germany
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Summary
For nearly a century, historians have depicted Germany as a rabidly nationalist land, born in a sea of aggression. Not so, says Helmut Walser Smith, who, in this groundbreaking 500-year history, challenges traditional perceptions of Germany's conflicted past, revealing a nation far more thematically complicated than 20th-century historians have imagined.
Contrary to widespread perception, the people who first described Germany were pacific in temperament, and the pernicious ideology of German nationalism would only enter into the nation's history centuries later. Tracing the significant tension between the idea of the nation and the ideology of its nationalism, Smith shows a nation constantly reinventing itself and explains how radical nationalism ultimately turned Germany into a genocidal nation. Smith's aim, then, is nothing less than to redefine our understanding of Germany: Is it essentially a bellicose nation that murdered more than six million people? Or a pacific, 21st-century model of tolerant democracy?
Smith recreates the national euphoria that accompanied the beginning of World War I, followed by the existential despair caused by Germany's shattering defeat. This psychic devastation would simultaneously produce both the modernist glories of the Bauhaus and the meteoric rise of the Nazi party.
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What listeners say about Germany
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Matthew and Tracy Johnson
- 30-10-21
review response
the first review shown is a bit chilling. antisemitism still unfortunately exists. join modern society people
2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Joseph Sullivan
- 10-11-21
interesting but unbalanced and somewhat biased
most of the 500 years covered were very balanced and interesting, with considerable information new to me. That said, it would have been helpful to at least touch on the elements of German character and culture over time to help put the concepts of nationhood into perspective.
coverage of the Nazi period quite rightly emphasized the brutality of the Holocaust, German knowledge of it, and the ramifications. I learned much new and quite horrifying. that said, all else in post Weimar Germany got short shrift, including the discussion of German reactions to huge numbers of foreign immigrants.
there is than that to know about Germany, the German state and German people.
the impression is given that the authors discussion of modern n Germany is largely and expression of his disappointment that Germany has transitioned away from nationhood and into a progressive/left multicultural location. His favorable notice of theodor adorno and jurgen habermos of the Marxist new school for social research may be a window into the authors own yearnings.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Raminak
- 28-02-23
unbelievably boring
The guy is really into maps. why should there be minimum of 15 words when 6 would do?