The Search for Normality: National Identity and Historical Consciousness in Germany Since 1800

by Stefan Berger

The Historikerstreit of the 1980s has ended inconclusively amidst heated debates on the nature and course of German national history. The author follows the debates beyond the unexpected reunification of the country in 1990 and analyzes the most recent trends in German historiography. Reunification, he observes, has brought in its wake an urgent search for the "normality" of the nation state. For anyone interested in the development of the national master narrative in more recent German historiography, this book will provide an essential guide through the multitude of historical debates surrounding the nation state.

336 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Stefan Berger is a Professor of Social History at the Ruhr University Bochum. He specializes in nationalism and national identity studies, historiography and historical theory, comparative labour studies, and the history of industrial heritage.