Restoration and Renewal? West Germany since 1945

Abstract

A. J. Nicholls, The Bonn Republic: West German Democracy, 1945–1990 (London: Longman, 1997), 341 pp. ISBN 0–582–49230–0 PPR; 0582–4931–9 CSD. Hb £44. Pb £14.99.

Gerhard A. Ritter, Über Deutschland: Die Bundesrepublik in der deutschen Geschichte (Munich: Verlag C. H. Beck, 1998), 303 pp., DM 39 80, ISBN 3–406–44039–8.

Rebecca L. Boehling, A Question of Priorities: Democratic Reforms and Economic Recovery in Postwar Germany, Monographs in German History 2 (Providence RI and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1996). 301 pp., IBSN 1–571–81035–8.

Anne Sa'adah, Germany's Second Chance: Trust, Justice, and Democraticization (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998). 352 pp., £24.95, ISBN 0–674–35111–8.

Volker Hentschel, Ludwig Erhard, die ‘Soziale Marktwirtschaft’ und das Wirtschaftswunder: Histo-risches Lehrstück oder Mythos. (Bonn: Bouvier Verlag, 1998), 95 pp., IBSN 3–416–02761–2.

Robert G. Moeller, ed., West Germany under Construction: Politics, Society, and Culture in the Adenauer Era (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997). 462 pp., IBSN 0–472–09648–6 (hb), 0–472–06648–X (pb.). Peter James, ed., Modern Germany (London & New York: Routledge, 1998), 220 pp., IBSN 0–415–15034–5.

For those who for whatever reason acquire an interest, the study of Germany since 1945 has to begin somewhere. It is hard to conceive of a more elementary introduction than that edited by Peter James and comprising the contributions of colleagues in the Department of German at the University of Northumbria plus his own. Although ‘aimed at all those who have an interest in life and society in modern Germany’, it is basically an introductory text for first-year students of German Studies. According to the editor of the slim volume, ‘Clearly the text is not intended to be exhaustive’; although one of the contributions, according to the blurb, claims to provide an ‘in-depth treatment of Germany's coming to terms with its past’ - within sixteen pages!