Jan Palmowski Book order

Twenty years after the collapse of the German Democratic Republic, historians still struggle to explain how an apparently stable state imploded with such vehemence. This book shows how 'national' identity was invented in the GDR and how citizens engaged with it. Jan Palmowski argues that it was hard for individuals to identify with the GDR amid the threat of Stasi informants and with the accelerating urban and environmental decay of the 1970s and 1980s. Since socialism contradicted its own ideals of community, identity and environmental care, citizens developed rival meanings of nationhood and identities and learned to mask their growing distance from socialism beneath regular public assertions of socialist belonging. This stabilized the party's rule until 1989. However, when the revolution came, the alternative identifications citizens had developed for decades allowed them to abandon their 'nation', the GDR, with remarkable ease.

Provides more than 2,500 entries covering world history in the twentieth century.

Debates about Liberalism in imperial Germany have focused almost exclusively on the national level. This book investigates liberal politics in local government; the only sphere in which liberals had direct access to power throughout Germany. Through the study of one of Germany's most progressive cities, Frankfurt am Main, Jan Palmowski examines more generally the processes of politicization and policy formulation at the local level. He argues that in Frankfurt as elsewhere, local affairshad become politicized not around 1900, as is generally assumed, but by the 1870s. Once in power, the liberals' concern for religion, social policy, and education, as well as their skilful use of fiscal policy shows that liberals in Germany were as sophisticated as liberals in Britain or France. Even in the face of an authoritarian state structure, German liberals received and made use of freedom for renewal and reform. German liberalism was not inherently weak. Instead, the crucial problem lay in the country's complicated federal structure, which made it impossible to transfer innovations from the local level to the state and national levels.

Authoritative and up-to-date, A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century World History provides in-depth coverage of the major historical figures and events of this century. Over 2,500 entries span political, diplomatic, and military history as well as offering both fact and analysis of these areas.Author Jan Palmowski combines full international coverage with detailed entries for every country in the world.Some of the special features of this volume are the biographies of such world leaders as Stalin, Kennedy, Thatcher, Yeltsin, Mandela, Rabin, and Netanyahu and the coverage of political events and movements from the rise and demise of communism to the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and from the endof apartheid to the Whitewater scandal. Key battles are highlighted from Yprès to the Gulf War campaign to the Bosnian Civil War and events such as the Chernobyl disaster. Comprehensive attention is paid to major treaties and political agreements from Versailles to Maastricht, and from theAnglo-Irish Agreement to the Dayton Accords. Useful tables including lists of office-holders for countries and organizations and winners of the Nobel Peace Prize are also provided.A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century World History is an invaluable reference work for student, teachers, and anyone with an interest in the major figures and events of our modern world.