The modern idea of 'mastery' over nature always had its critics, whether their motives were aesthetic, religious or environmentalist. By investigating how the most fundamental element - water - was 'conquered' by draining fens and marshes, straightening the courses of rivers, building high dams and exploiting hydro-electric power, The Conquest of Nature explores how over the last 250 years, the German people have shaped their natural environment and how the landscapes they created...

Wie lebten Deutsche in Minnesota, in Südaustralien, in Liverpool oder im brasilianischen Rio Grande, wie prägten sie die dortige Kultur, zum Guten und zum Schlechten?Wer deutsche Geschichte erzählt, bewegt sich zumeist in den Grenzen der Staatsnation, oder konzentriert sich auf die deutsche Gewaltherrschaft und Eroberungsgeschichte des 20. Jahrhundert mit ihren Folgen bis heute. David Blackbourn beweist mit seinem augenöffnenden Buch, wie kurz diese Perspektive gre...

Brilliantly conceived and majestically written, this monumental work of European history recasts the five-hundred-year history of Germany.With Germany in the World, award-winning historian David Blackbourn radically revises conventional narratives of German history, demonstrating the existence of a distinctly German presence in the world centuries before its unification—and revealing a national identity far more complicated than previously imagined. Blackbourn trac...

First published in 1987, this collection of essays, from one of the leading historians in the field, is concerned with the central debates about German history from Bismarck to Hitler. David Blackbourn questions many previously held assumptions, whether about the natural conservatism of the German peasantry of the ‘feudalization’ of the middle classes, and offers an innovative approach to such subjects as liberalism, anti-semitism and the continuing importance of religion in German history...

Brilliantly conceived and majestically written, this monumental work of European history recasts the five-hundred-year history of Germany.With Germany in the World, award-winning historian David Blackbourn radically revises conventional narratives of German history, demonstrating the existence of a distinctly German presence in the world centuries before its unification—and revealing a national identity far more complicated than previously imagined. Blackb...

For centuries, duelling played an integral role in the preservation of the aristocratic order in Europe, defying attempts by both church and state to ban the practice. Moreover, the romance and drama of the duel has made it an enduring fixture in films, literature, and the theatre.In The Duel in European History, renowned historian Victor Kiernan writes with his characteristic wit and insight of duelling's evolution from its medieval origins – when it was regarded as a bad...

Academic studies of ‘terrorism’ grew exponentially in number after the September 11 attacks. The problem was that much of this work of ‘orthodox’ terrorism studies was biased, often shoddily researched and was too closely identified with the power centres of Western states. Its denizens were often former and sometimes current officials or officers in the military, intelligence services or the security industry or were funded by them.In response the project of Critical Terrorism Stu...

What makes a person call a particular place ‘home’? Does it follow simply from being born there? Is it the result of a language shared with neighbours or attachment to a familiar landscape? Perhaps it is a piece of music, or a painting, or even a travelogue that captures the essence of home. And what about the sense of belonging that inspires nationalist or local autonomy movements? Each of these can be a marker of identity, but all are ambiguous.Where you were born has a different...

First published in 1991, this collection of original studies by British, German and American historians examines the whole range of modern German bourgeoisie groups, including professional, mercantile, industrial and financial bourgeoisie, and the bourgeois family. Drawing on original research, the book focuses on the historical evidence as counterpoint to the well-known literary accounts of the German bourgeoisie. It also discusses bourgeois values as manifested in the cult of local roots...