Review
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'Comprehensive and vivid... I don't know of a better short
history of this great country.'
PHILIP PULLMAN
'Here is Germany as you've never known it: a bold thesis; an
authoritative sweep and an exhilarating read. Agree or disagree,
this is a must for anyone interested in how Germany has come to
be the way it is today.'
PROFESSOR KAREN LEEDER, Prof. of Modern German Literature,
University of Oxford
'An excellent little book... [Hawes] knows what he's on about
and his conclusions are measured, but he favours clear, concise
prose over dense academese. He has a sense of humour, and a sharp
eye for similarities between then and now.'
SPECTATOR
'The Shortest History of Germany, a new, must-read book by the
writer James Hawes, [recounts] how the so-called limes separating
Roman Germany from non-Roman Germany has remained a formative
distinction throughout the post-ancient history of the German
people.'
ECONOMIST.COM
'A daring attempt to remedy the ignorance of the centuries in
little over 200 pages... not just an entertaining canter past the
most prominent landmarks in German history -- also a serious,
well-researched and radical rethinking of the continuities in
German political life.'
PROFESSOR NICHOLAS BOYLE, Schröder Professor of German,
Cambridge University
'An excellent, elegantly written overview of German history from
the Iron Age to Angela Merkel's chancellorship... Authoritative
and accessible'
NEW EUROPEAN
'A sparkling little book, which really does begin at the
beginning… Hawes exemplifies the remarkable contribution of
Anglo-Saxon scholarship to post-war German historiography... It
is not accidental that some of the best minds in the Anglosphere
have worried away at the German problem ever since 1945. The
preceding generation had been dragged into two world wars, the
Iron Curtain ran through Berlin, and getting to grips with German
history was the key to preventing the Cold War from becoming a
Third World War. Hawes has distilled all this into a primer that
might be slipped into a prime ministerial red box.'
STANDPOINT
'Brexit and Trump have given this sweeping story of Germany's
struggles with its demons an urgent topicality. For as Hawes
knows better than anyone, if there is a future for liberal
democracy, it will be a German one'
NICK COHEN
'Sweeping and confident... has a frightening urgency'
OBSERVER
'Engaging... I suspect I shall remember it for a lifetime'
OLDIE
'Fascinating … as an introduction to the most important country
in Europe today, this is a great read, and an ideal primer'
TRIBUNE MAGAZINE
'Yes, the Nazis are here, but so too is a history stretching
from the Germanic tribes who took on the Roman Empire, right up
to Chancellor Angela Merkel… Comprehensive, vivid, and
entertaining… if you want to understand a country on which much
of the free world is now pinning its hopes, you could do worse
than start here.'
IRISH EXAMINER
'Absolutely brilliant . . . Hawes sets about tearing up the
Prague picture postcard-image of Kafka with tremendous,
crowd-pleasing vigour'
Ian Sansom, GUARDIAN, on Excavating Kafka
'performed with wit and finesse . . . his book is full of
enlightening surprises . . . [Hawes] is an admirable guide,
leading us through this tangled intellectual copse.'
THE TIMES on Englanders and Huns
--...
About the Author
----------------
James Hawes was born in 1960. He studied German at Hertford
College, Oxford and UCL, then held lectureships in German at the
universities of Maynooth, Sheffield and Swansea. He has published
six novels with Jonathan Cape. Speak for England (2005) predicted
Brexit; it has been adapted for the screen by Andrew Davies,
though not yet filmed.
His last book, Englanders and Huns, was shortlisted for the
Political Books of the Year Awards in 2015. He leads the MA in
Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes University.