A Concise History of Germany

This book is not an easy read. In many places the language is difficult, and I was sometimes left wondering what the author's point was. Nevertheless, it broadly succeeds at offering a concise history of Germany from its origins to the present day. The coverage expands significantly the closer one gets to the present era, as one would expect.I was really quite surprised to read it is recommended for (among others) businessmen visiting Germany - I have no doubt the vast majority of these would be bored or lost. As an introduction for students of history, or for those somewhat more than casually interested in German history, however, it does well.As others have pointed out, in more than a few places the author criticizes the point of view of other historians (AJP Taylor, for example), without really offering more than a casual alternate viewpoint.One really MUST read this book with access to Wikipedia, at least; otherwise many points will go over the reader's head - names and concepts are often just "thrown out there", and their significance is not immediately apparent. One sometimes wishes the book were not QUITE so "concise". However, such further study will be rewarded.I enjoyed reading this volume, and certainly learned a considerable amount. I was definitely left feeling that I understood Germany and the Germans better as a result. Recommended with the above caveats in mind.

I read a few books about Germany in preparation for my week-long vacation in Berlin. I selected this brief overview of German history to get me thinking about German history and culture before I got there. I enjoyed this portrayal of Germany which starts with the Middle Ages and brings us to the early 21st century. The second edition was published in 2004 so more recent events are left out. Chapters cover medieval Germany, the Reformation, the rise of Prussia, industrialization and the First World War, WWII, and the split into two countries. A very brief chapter addresses the period after reunification.This was fun to read while I was in Germany and after I got back. I will need to make a much deeper dive into German history if I'm going to keep all the Friedrichs and Wilhelms separate! This book contains an index, suggestions for future reading that are organized chronologically and topically, and many black and white photographs throughout.

I purchased this book last month and had the opportunity to read it while travelling. This is a well written book that provides an overview of German history. The language is easy to understand and Fulbrook does a nice job of placing events in both the immediate and big-picture context. This is especially helpful in gaining an understanding of how events unfolded and how some events (i.e the Nazi rise to power) could have occurred. Although the material is understandably broad in scope, there are many specifics tying the larger context to a variety of topics including literature, arts, music, philosophy, etc. Readers with knowledge of European history ranging from little to extensive will learn of broad themes and details of the rise, fall, and rebirth of the German state. The book is as titled - it is a concise history of Germany.

The book introduces the German history from about the fall of Rome until after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and manages so in just a few hundred pages so that the uninitiated reader can take away complete summary that is reasonably balanced and complete at a high level.My germanness was left wanting occassionally when certain details where omitted. On the other hand, this book being written by a non-German avoids the often typical heaviness of German historians wading deep into tangential details and naming every relative to be found of the family tree of any one character introduced.The names of people in the book who made history seemed to be mostly political leaders. Personally I prefer the history made by local leaders, by artists, by inventors, by architects, by military leaders, by agricultaral leaders and by business people. Therefore this historical summary is somewhat shallow.Nevertheless, as an introduction, this is worthy. The book was recommended to me by the former honorary consul of Germany in Cincinnati, Prof. Richard Schade. I have recently taken over his office.I bought this book as a gift for the Mayor of Cincinnati in his preparation for visiting Germany for the 25-year anniversary celebration of the Munich-Cincinnati sister-city relationship.

This is a great little book for referencing German history. I highly suggest it.

good

This book provides a good telling of German history up to the creation of the European Union. It's written in a way that is interesting but a bit dry. A good book for learning history that doesn't feel like a textbook.

There are very, very few illustrations, maps, or graphs and nothing resembling "bullet points" that summarize the details about a king or a war. The reader encounters huge paragraphs that resemble BRICKS on each page; worse, the prose style is mind-numbing / boring. Wikipedia is a better source for an overview of German history.

A very useful and easy to read book for my GCSE History. After wading through the syllabus about the Cold War and the text book, I knew something about the subject. This slim book recapped all of that and seemed to bring it together. It was like reading a novel - what happened next? I have now ordered another 7 books in the same series which cover other topics in the course.I am 70 next year, so this book is good to read, whatever age you are. I am sure the other 7 will be as well.

A useful reference which occasionally gave unexpected detail on subjects which must have appealed to the writer. I passed it on to a holiday guide.

Great buy replacing a 'lost' copy

I enjoyed this very much.Until about half way through it, if asked, I would have described the book as written in the style of an essay, and felt the author sometimes assumed a greater knowledge of European history than I possessed.The truth is that my knowledge of European history prior to the French Revolution is sketchy, and this criticism may well reflect my own relative ignorance.These doubts fell away once I got onto the nineteenth century. I felt Fulbrook was very careful at most if not all points of German history to elucidate the federal character of the country which created a very different and perhaps more diverse culture to our own (British) history. In particular the role of the Holy Roman Empire/Habsburg Empire as a kind of protector seems to have allowed this federal structure to survive for centuries longer than it might have done otherwise.Of course in the nineteenth century, with new centralising influences emanating from the influence of the Napoleonic era, Germany eventually united, and then faced the modern world with its own Junker militarism holding the reigns, especially once the subtle Bismarck had been disposed of by the Kaiser.Fulbrook has a real go at trying to map out the different social and political elements in a very various society. I especially appreciated her account of the socialist movement in the early twentieth century, and also her account of the division and reunification of Germany after the Second World War.She raised one or two questions for me. She is less critical of East Germany than others have been - but then she doesn't discuss the role of the Stasi at all -, and also, although she doesn't really go into this much, suggests there was less support for Hitler than I had assumed. This is not the impression I got from reading Kershaw's biography of Hitler, which left me with the impression he had overwhelming support until about 1942. However Kershaw's book, being a biography of Hitler, gives a 'top down' view of German society which on its own does not necessarily reflect the whole social picture.Nevertheless this book is immensely valuable as Fulbrook makes a sustained effort to give a measured and balanced portrait of a country whose history has been eventful and significant not only for its own inhabitants but for the rest of the world, for better and for worse.

This is a well-written concise guide to the History of Germany. I certainly learned a lot, particularly about the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime during the Third Reich. I would have liked more information on the massacre of Senegalese soldiers though. Great book!