Reviews for History of Germany Eighteen Fifteen to Nineteen Forty-Five

The average rating for History of Germany Eighteen Fifteen to Nineteen Forty-Five based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-11-15 00:00:00 Chris Bierbaum This was one of the textbooks for the History of Germany course I took during the summer session, 2019. For our compressed summer schedule, we were focused on the history of Germany from the foundation of the German Empire in 1871 through the end of World War II in 1945, so we did not use the entire text. As far as the quality of this book goes, Carr is incredibly thorough. However, the writing is insanely dense throughout, with little in the way of headings or outline to give form to the pages of historical narrative. Arguably, this forces students to take good notes and create an outline that allows them to absorb the information within. This probably makes for a "good" teaching tool, but it also makes it a challenging reference. Stylistically, Carr's treatment of individuals is to incorporate their stories into the larger narrative. This means that instead of getting an introduction to, for example, Otto von Bismarck, which explains his life in a concise or centralized way, his personal details are spread out through the greater narrative of the story of the Empire. While this is a good way to break away from the traditional "Great Man" approach to history, it does make that narrative harder to follow if one is unfamiliar with the individuals involved. For a major figure like Bismarck, or an obviously powerful character like Emperor Frederick William, a reader may be able to make sense of the story and assemble a picture of who these individuals were. But when it comes to less recognizable people or discussions of the various political parties and unions involved in the development of the Empire, it can be difficult to follow. This difficulty is exacerbated by the lack of subject headings, as he will refer to an individual by their surname without providing much in the way of background or context, and it will be up to the reader to parse back through pages of dense text to find earlier more explanatory references. If you are a casual reader of history, these features may prevent you from getting through this book - but if you are committed to active reading and note-taking, you would do well to spend some time with it.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-03-31 00:00:00 Tanner Morris Interesting, critical analysis of Bismarck.