Synopses & Reviews
The nature of Weimar's terminal crisis - how a politically liberal and culturally progressive society could succomb to fascism - remains one of the central historical questions of our century. In this major work, Detlev J.K. Peukert offers a stimulating interpretation that not only places Weimar in the history of twentieth-century Germany but also reveals it as an archetype of the ambivalences and pathologies of advanced industrial society.
Review
"Taking the reaction to modernity as his central theme, Detlev Peukert has written a book on Weimar so densely packed with insights as to feel almost monumental in scope. Written formidable Teutonic density and weight, it is a study of trends, not people and events. Specialists will find it a richly rewarding
tour d'horizon . . . Peukert has not only an encyclopedic knowledge of the period, but a mind bristling with fresh and unexpected observations."—Ron Chernow,
Los Angeles Times Book Review"The late Detlev Peukert was one of the most innovative historians of twentieth-century Germany. I know of no other single work that so concisely presents the Weimar Republic in all its jagged openhandedness and contradictory aspirations."—Charles S. Maier, Harvard University
"A most informative and provocative study, The Weimar Republic is simultaneously a much needed English overview of this pivotal period of German history, an introduction to the most exciting new historical work on it, and an original challenge to traditional interpretations."—Mary Nolan, New York University
"This rich, imaginative, and challenging account of the Weimar Republic reminds us if how much German history will miss Detlev Peukert's analytic skills and intellectual energy. The Weimar Republic places the crisis of German democracy in the context of a larger European crisis and thus forces us to rethink the historical meaning of the republic's failure."—James J. Sheehan, Stanford University
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [314]-319 and index.
About the Author
Detlev J. K. Peukert is the author of
Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life, a highly accaimed study of daily life in the Third Reich. Former professor of modern history at the University of Essen and director of the Research Institute for the History of the Nazi Period, he died in 1990 at the age of thirty-nine.