Awards

• Winner of European Studies Book Award, Council for European Studies 2016

Overview

The Weimar Century reveals the origins of two dramatic events: Germany's post-World War II transformation from a racist dictatorship to a liberal democracy, and the ideological genesis of the Cold War. Blending intellectual, political, and international histories, Udi Greenberg shows that the foundations of Germany's reconstruction lay in the country's first democratic experiment, the Weimar Republic (1918-33). He traces the paths of five crucial German emigres who participated in Weimar's intense political debates, spent the Nazi era in the United States, and then rebuilt Europe after a devastating war. Examining the unexpected stories of these diverse individuals--Protestant political thinker Carl J. Friedrich, Socialist theorist Ernst Fraenkel, Catholic publicist Waldemar Gurian, liberal lawyer Karl Loewenstein, and international relations theorist Hans Morgenthau--Greenberg uncovers the intellectual and political forces that forged Germany's democracy after dictatorship, war, and occupation. In restructuring German thought and politics, these emigres also shaped the currents of the early Cold War.Having borne witness to Weimar's political clashes and violent upheavals, they called on democratic regimes to permanently mobilize their citizens and resources in global struggle against their Communist enemies. In the process, they gained entry to the highest levels of American power, serving as top-level advisors to American occupation authorities in Germany and Korea, consultants for the State Department in Latin America, and leaders in universities and philanthropic foundations across Europe and the United States. Their ideas became integral to American global hegemony. From interwar Germany to the dawn of the American century, The Weimar Century sheds light on the crucial ideas, individuals, and politics that made the trans-Atlantic postwar order.

Full Product Details

Author:   Udi Greenberg
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
Imprint:   Princeton University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.539kg
ISBN:  

9780691159331

ISBN 10:   0691159335
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   04 January 2015
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable  
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Language:   English

Table of Contents

"Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 The ""Miracle"" of Germany's Reconstruction 5 The Foundations of Postwar Thought: The Weimar Republic and Its Discontents 11 Emigres and the American Cold War: Knowledge and Power 17 Chapter I: The Search for ""Responsible Elites"": Carl J. Friedrich and the Reform of Higher Education 25 Protestant Legitimacy and Elite Education in Heidelberg 28 The Heidelberg Mission in the United States: The Creation of a New American Academia 45 Cold War Universities: ""Responsible Elites"" in Cold War United States and Germany 56 Chapter II: Socialist Reform, the Rule of Law, and Labor Outreach: Ernst Fraenkel and the Concept of ""Collective Democracy"" 76 Democracy, Labor, and Law in Frankfurt and Berlin 79 Social Democracy and U.S. Power: Fraenkel in the United States and Korea 89 The German Left and the Cold War 107 Chapter III: Conservative Catholicism and American Philanthropy: Waldemar Gurian, ""Personalist"" Democracy, and Anti-communism 120 Catholicism, ""Personalism,"" and Democracy in the Rhineland: The Origins of Gurian's Thought 122 The Path to the ""Theory of Totalitarianism"": The Personalist Campaign against Nazism in Exile 134 Personalism and American Philanthropy: Transatlantic Democracy and Anti-communism 144 Chapter IV: Individual Liberties and ""Militant Democracy"": Karl Loewenstein and Aggressive Liberalism 169 The Internal Struggle of Liberal Democracy 172 ""Militant Democracy"" and U.S. Diplomacy in Latin America 181 ""Militant Democracy"" in the Cold War: Liberalism and Anti-communism in West Germany 198 Chapter V: From the League of Nations to Vietnam: Hans J. Morgenthau and Realist Reform of International Relations 211 International Politics, Law, and War 213 Morgenthau and the Cold War Establishment 225 Power and Morality: Opposition to the Intervention in Vietnam 237 Conclusion 256 List of Abbreviations 263 List of Archives 265 Index 267"

Reviews

The Weimar Century is a stimulating, original, and timely meditation on politics and ideas. --Michael Kimmage, New Republic [A] fantastic new study. --Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, Dissent A fascinating and readable study of five thinkers who are mainly forgotten but were influential in the early Cold War era and postwar Germany. --Jorg Meindl, Yearbook of German American Studies

The Weimar Century is a stimulating, original, and timely meditation on politics and ideas. --Michael Kimmage, New Republic

The Weimar Century is a stimulating, original, and timely meditation on politics and ideas. --Michael Kimmage, New Republic [A] fantastic new study. --Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, Dissent

Greenberg has written a highly original book that reshapes scholarship on the role of German emigres in the United States, and opens a broader agenda for historical research about continuities and discontinuities in political thought and the traffic of political ideas across long distances in the twentieth century. --Hubertus Buchstein, Max Weber Studies A most ambitious and important work that spans several fields and offers new interpretations of the post-World War II democratization of West Germany, the consolidation of the Atlantic alliance, and the character of US Cold War thought and policy. --Mary Nolan, Journal of Modern History A fascinating and readable study of five thinkers who are mainly forgotten but were influential in the early Cold War era and postwar Germany. --Jorg Meindl, Yearbook of German American Studies [A] fantastic new study. --Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, Dissent The Weimar Century is a stimulating, original, and timely meditation on politics and ideas. --Michael Kimmage, New Republic Winner of the 2016 European Studies Book Award, Council for European Studies

Author Information

Udi Greenberg is assistant professor of history at Dartmouth College.

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