Publishers Weekly
05/08/2023
In this far-flung narrative, historian Blackbourn (The Conquest of Nature) loosely surveys Germany’s place in global history, from 1500, when the Holy Roman Empire began to be referred to as “the German Nation,” through the 20th century. Among other topics, Blackbourn discusses the exploits of Germans in 16th-century Spanish and Portuguese empires as conquistadors, merchants, and financiers; the contributions to their adopted countries made by millions of German émigrés, who settled everywhere from America to Australia in the 19th century; and the academic and artistic movements that made Germany the global epicenter of philosophy and Romantic literature from the 18th century onward. In the book’s second half, a more detailed—and darker—account of the 20th century, Blackbourn again highlights international contexts, noting, for example, that Nazi antisemitic policies were inspired by British racial theorists and American anti-miscegenation and citizenship laws, and that the murder of Jews in German-occupied nations during WWII was often perpetrated by non-German locals. (On the other hand, he celebrates 1920s Berlin as a hothouse of inclusive modernism.) The book’s wide-angle perspective sometimes feels unbalanced—Blackbourn’s section on the Reformation discusses England more than Germany. Still, Blackbourn’s elegant writing and intriguing insights make for an insightful and stimulating take on German history. (June)
The Guardian - Neal Ascherson
"A rich and full-throated account of the past 500 years . . . From the intellectual giants who enriched the west to the descent into dictatorship and war, the story of Germany’s global impact – up to its modern rebirth – is told with real verve."
The Economist
"[An] all-embracing history of Germany's relationship with the outside world . . . readers of this book will never see Germany in quite the same way again."
Kirkus Reviews
2023-03-14
Ambitiously wide-ranging history of Germany that emphasizes influences and migrations over five centuries.
Blackbourn, the chair of the history department at Vanderbilt who has written extensively on German history, begins in 1500, when Nuremberg was the hub of printing and publishing, and ends with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s recent grudging move to increase military expenditure to aid Ukraine against Russia. Blackbourn makes a good case for how German people and ideas have been central to global events, whether positively or negatively. He emphasizes the Germans’ networks of learning and skilled labor, such as in printing; the rise of the university system, disciplines such as psychology and philology; the “invention of modern self” and the concept of “world literature.” But he also delves into the hideous militarism that spurred two world wars, virulent antisemitism, and the Holocaust. The author argues that the age of exploration was spurred by northern European lumber and pitch to make ships; by German mapmakers, gunners, and miners in Spanish America; and by printing presses that published the explorers’ accounts. At the same time, Protestant universities in Wittenberg and Heidelberg served as models for humanist learning. Germans led the way as writers, poets, and intellectuals, and their migrations created thriving German communities across the globe. Yet the 20th century would become the German century for horrific reasons, as the author fairly delineates. He moves fluidly into the postwar German economic miracle, progressive politics, terrorism, and ultimate reunification, yet another geopolitical spasm of global consequences. Angela Merkel’s acceptance of Syrian refugees proved another startling move, but the nation’s tendency to cozy up to Russia and China for exports has created new problems. Regardless, there’s no getting around Germany’s pivotal place in the world, and Blackbourn ably demonstrates how and why that position has been maintained, for better and worse.
A compelling exploration of “German history viewed through a global lens.
