Civil Society and Dictatorship in Modern German History
ISBN: 9781584659105
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / Brandeis University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Dictatorship; Civil society;

In this rich and thought-provoking work, Jürgen Kocka focuses his analytic lens on Germany's long twentieth century, from the empire to the present. He begins by establishing the semantic problematic in the German term Bürgertum and presenting an analytical survey of German civil society over the past 120 years. He then offers a fascinating social history of the GDR, along with a comparative analysis of the East German dictatorship and that of the Third Reich. He further compares Germany's "two dictatorships" in regard to historical memory, post-regime justice, and historiography before and after reunification. Kocka concludes with a wonderfully expansive view of historical interpretation and even argues for the place of trendiness and fashion in the profession.

JÜRGEN KOCKA was president of the Social Science Research Center in Berlin until 2007 and professor of modern history at the Free University of Berlin until 2009. He has published numerous books, including Industrial Culture and Bourgeois Society.

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