A History of Germany, 1815-1985

by William Carr

The formidable economic power and political influence the new Germany is likely to exert in Europe make more desirable than ever an understanding of its past. The latest edition of Carr's classic text and been thoroughly revised and includes a new chapter on the revolution of 1989-90.

Genres: History, Germany, Textbooks

432 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1979

About the author

A specialist in the history of modern Germany, William Carr taught at the University of Sheffield from 1952 until his retirement in 1986.

Reviews

[Tad Callin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of the textbooks for the History of Germany course I took during the summer session, 2019. For our compressed summer schedule, we were focused on the history of Germany from the foundation of the German Empire in 1871 through the end of World War II in 1945, so we did not use the entire text.

As far as the quality of this book goes, Carr is incredibly thorough. However, the writing is insanely dense throughout, with little in the way of headings or outline to give form to the pages of historical narrative. Arguably, this forces students to take good notes and create an outline that allows them to absorb the information within. This probably makes for a "good" teaching tool, but it also makes it a challenging reference.

Stylistically, Carr's treatment of individuals is to incorporate their stories into the larger narrative. This means that instead of getting an introduction to, for example, Otto von Bismarck, which explains his life in a concise or centralized way, his personal details are spread out through the greater narrative of the story of the Empire. While this is a good way to break away from the traditional "Great Man" approach to history, it does make that narrative harder to follow if one is unfamiliar with the individuals involved.

For a major figure like Bismarck, or an obviously powerful character like Emperor Frederick William, a reader may be able to make sense of the story and assemble a picture of who these individuals were. But when it comes to less recognizable people or discussions of the various political parties and unions involved in the development of the Empire, it can be difficult to follow. This difficulty is exacerbated by the lack of subject headings, as he will refer to an individual by their surname without providing much in the way of background or context, and it will be up to the reader to parse back through pages of dense text to find earlier more explanatory references.

If you are a casual reader of history, these features may prevent you from getting through this book - but if you are committed to active reading and note-taking, you would do well to spend some time with it.

[Titus Hjelm · Rating 3 out of 5]

An old edition, but interesting because of its proximity to WWII. Much of the book is anyway, justifiably, 19th century history. The age shows mostly in the fact that ’a history’ here means political and military history. There is maybe five pages about the economy, two about intellectual history, and zero about culture. The perspective is a liberal ’rational’ one and Marxism and Nazism both are depicted as secular/political religions, which obviously undermines the perfectly valid reasons why many were attracted to both. Nevertheless, a good place to start for understanding the complicated way modern Germany came to be.

[Nael_5 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, critical analysis of Bismarck.

[Henri Tournyol du Clos · Rating 3 out of 5]

This rather sloppily written book has not aged well.

[Eric Stutzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an overall enjoyable read from start to finish. It enhanced my knowledge of Germany in many places and filled in any blanks that occupied my mind prior to the reading of this book. I was particularly fascinated by the way the author described Bismarck and I do wish he had lived long enough to write about the happenings of the last thirty years, but alas, that will not be happening anytime soon.

[Peter]

Have only read the oldeer version (1815 - 1845) but that appears not to be available on good reads.

[Sal Viglietta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the sections on Hitler's rise to power and WWII. Heavy on the political history, lighter on the military stuff.

[Geoff Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it whilst at uni but it left a lasting impression