The Unmasterable Past: History, Holocaust, and German National Identity, with a New Preface

by Charles S. Maier

Book Overview

Bringing his book up to date with reflections since its first publication a decade ago, Charles S. Maier writes that the historians' controversy gave Germany a chance to air the issues immediately before unification and, in effect, the controversy substituted for the constitutional debate that a united Germany never got around to holding. The premises of national community, whether formulated in terms of legal culture, inherited collective responsibilities, or patriotic habits of the heart, had already been subjects for vigorous discussion.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674929772
• ISBN13: 9780674929777
• Release Date: March 1998
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A sterling reivew of historiography

This outstanding text has received a great deal of criticism over the past couple of years for not being up to date, but has more to do with the fact that books, unlike our evergrowing knowledge, must be published at some point. Chapters three and five in this text have no equal that I know of, and few historians understand the historiograpy of Germany as well as Maier. Don't exclude this book from your reading just because it's not current, and fresh (how many historians are tossing their Collingwood or Croce?), but DO read it for it's remarkable scholarship and insight.