The Weimar Republic: The Crisis of Classical Modernity

Everything you would ever want to know about the state of the State and the softer edges of the Weimar years. A wonderful compliment to a study in Weimar era films!

This concise,clear book is primarily an interpretative analysis of the Weimar experience. It is not a narrative introduction and to get the most out of this book, knowledge of the basic narrative history is required. The book has a hybrid but effective organization, it alternates between chronologically organized sections covering the different periods of Weimar and sections discussing major themes in social, economic, and political history of Weimar. The chronologically based sections contain some narrative but are primarily analytic is the sense that Peukert identifies major trends and features of events and ties them to his broader analytic sections. Peukert also has some nice sections placing the Weimar experience in the larger frame of German history.This book has 2 major themes. One is that the Weimar experience was partly a specific manifestation of general conflicts arising over modernization. The turbulence of Weimar was partly the consequence of industrialization, urbanization, and massive social change. The second is that this crisis occurred under particularly difficult circumstances in the aftermath of the German defeat in WWI. Peukert demonstrates that the Weimar founders attempted to address quite a few of the challenges of modernization but that the constricted economic and political environment of the 1920s, culminated by the Great Depression, severely undermined the Weimar experiment. Perhaps the most surprising point is that Weimar lasted as long as it did.Peukert has a large number of insightful analyses. His discussion, for example, of the erosion of legitimacy resulting from the inability of the Weimar state to achieve the social goals set out in the constitution and the limitations of Streseman's foreign policy are really interesting. I'm not sure that all of his analyses are on target. I think some knowledgeable scholars would disagree with his discussion of the genesis of the Dawes plan. At least one prominent historian has described Hitler's accession to power in more contingent terms.For readers interested in understanding the Weimar experience, I recommend reading a good narrative history and then this book.

History does seem to repeat it self, I still have hope that this nation of ours will wake up sooner than later

Unlike Eric Weitz's fascinating book, which focused on social and cultural developments, this book focused on politics, and it was exceedingly dull. The great question is why a great modern nation's first experiment with democracy failed so conspicuously; while Weimar was troubled from its inception, it seems to me that it might have had a chance to survive if the Great Depression had not intervened and given Hitler the opportunity he needed. There is not much else I take away from this wordy analysis of Germany's first democratic republic, other than these interesting statistics: in 1932 there were 85 suicides per million inhabitants in Great Britain, 133 in the United States, 155 in France...and 260 in Germany. Troubled times indeed.

Nicely done. Perfect!!

I was able to get a copy of this at a local used book store after it had been on my Amazon list for a long time. I was very happy to get it, I have not been able to put it down. There are obviously many books about modern European history and the transition from monarchies, the emergence of the mass man, as well as the two World Wars. I find that this book situates so many relevant historical events, political and social themes in a short 300 some pages. It covers the political parties involved and their origins, the constitution that founded the republic, demographics and ethnic populations in the region, the post WWI treaties and their impacts, American influence, industrialization and global economics (not in that order). I especially appreciate Peukert's ability to dispassionately parse contradictions in policy and culture with a fairness that is hard to come by in more recently published books of history. I hope to acquire some of his other works that have been translated, I'm impressed. I wish I could find comparable historical studies of this quality for every country in Europe. I'm a non-academic student of history and I feel this book is in reach of anyone who is curious about the subject. I'm sure Google and Wikipedia could fill in the gaps when references are made to persons or events that the reader is not familiar with. What a shame Peukert's life was so short, but what a contribution he made to our understanding!

I'm really disappointed in this book. I should have read the other reviews before I bought it. If you aren't doing your thesis on Weimar Germany, this book is not for you. It is not a good introduction to this period. It is filled with an amazingly large number of facts, but if you are looking for a primer on Germany between the world wars and the social policies that led to its own demise, this book is a bit hard to get that from, unless you are a historian, which I am not. Now, on to find a book that IS a good intro to this period.

In my opinion, you have to be really in to this subject to enjoy this book. It's almost like reading a text book. Very informative if you love the subject but a little dry if you are just a causal reader.

Exactly what I needed for my University module, has all the information that I need, very useful.

Good read