Germany Through Jewish Eyes - A History From the Eighteenth Century to the Present

What can Jewish history tell us about German history? How can we understand the history of modern Germany from a Jewish perspective? And how do we bring the voices of German Jews to the fore? Germany through Jewish Eyes explores the dramatic course of German history, from the Enlightenment, through wars and revolutions, unification and reunification, Nazi dictatorship, Holocaust, and the rebuilding of a prosperous, modern democracy - all from a Jewish perspective. Through a series of chronologically ordered life-stories, Shulamit Volkov examines how the lived experience of German Jewry can provide new insights into familiar events and long-term developments. Her study explores the plurality of the Jewish gaze, considering how German Jews sought full equality and integration while attempting to preserve a unique identity, and how they experienced security and integration as well as pronounced hatred. Volkov's innovative study offers readers the opportunity to look again at the pivotal moments of German history with a fresh understanding.

List of contents

Introduction: A Jewish Gaze - Plural and Unique; Part I. Learning to Know Germany: 1780-1840; 1. Enlightenment without Toleration; 2. Benevolent Autocracy; 3. The Half-Open Society; Part II. Liberty, Unity, Equality: 1840-1870; 4. Pogroms and Revolution; 5. Germany's Entangled Modernities; 6. Unification as Rupture; Part III. Living in Germany: 1870-1930; 7. Achievements and Unacknowledged Dangers; 8. Joined and Disjoint in War; 9. Hopes Shattered; Part IV. A Lost Homeland: 1930-2000; 10. The Abyss; 11. Victims, Witnesses, Plaintiffs; 12. Strangers at Home; Epilogue: Berlin is No Weimar.

About the author

Shulamit Volkov is Professor Emerita of History at Tel Aviv University. She holds research interests in German social history, the history of Antisemitism and the history of the German Jews. Previous publications include Germans, Jews, and Antisemites: Trials in Emancipation (Cambridge, 2006), and Walther Rathenau: Weimar's Fallen Statesman (2012).

Product details

• Authors: Shulamit Volkov, Shulamit (Tel-Aviv University) Volkov, Volkov Shulamit
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.11.2024
• EAN: 9781009506489
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0950648-9
• No. of pages: 246
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Social structure research; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, SOCIAL SCIENCE / General, HISTORY / Europe / Germany, European History, Germany, 20th Century, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, HISTORY / Jewish, 21st Century, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, 21st century history: from c 2000 -, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, Jewish Studies, Social issues & processes, c 2000 to c 2010, c 2000 to c 2009, c 2010 to c 2020, c 2010 to c 2019, Relating to Jewish people and groups, C 1700 To C 1800, c 2020 to c 2029, Social Integration and assimilation