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hawkwing_lb) wrote2010-09-26 11:43 pm
hawkwing_lb) wrote2010-09-26 11:43 pm
Entry tags:
Books 2010: the fall and rise (and fall)
Books 2010: 101
non-fiction
101. Christopher Clark, Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600-1947, London, 2006.
This work won the Wolfson Prize for History, which I did not know when I picked it up. It turns out that's not a bad endorsement, not in the least. This history stretches from the Electors of Brandenburg in the early 17th century through the Prussian kingdom of Frederick William I, German unification, the end of the monarchy, and the ultimate dissolution, after WWII, of Prussia as a corporate entity.
Clark's history is lucid, readable, and possessed of a generous sense of empathy. He nevers fails to discuss power-political developments in light of their social and cultural milieu, and retains - despite the wide scope of this work - firm control of the direction of his narrative. I could wish he digressed a little more, actually - the Germanies are only one of the many periods of history I'm shamefully underinformed about, and some of the episodes he touches on sound fascinating - but the book is already nearly 700 pages long, not including notes and index, so one can see why firm control of his priorities would be necessary.
He makes several very pointed observations, as well. One of them I think bears quoting, on the use and reuse of historical narratives for political purposes.
"Those who seek to legitimate a claim to power in the present often have recourse to the idea of tradition. They decorate themselves with its cultural authority. But the encounter between the self-proclaimed inheritors of tradition and the historical record rarely takes place on equal terms. The National Socialist reading of the Prussia past was opportunistic, distorted and selective. The entire historical career of the Prussian state was shoehorned into the paradigm of a national German history conceived in racist terms." [662]
It bears remembering.
non-fiction
101. Christopher Clark, Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600-1947, London, 2006.
This work won the Wolfson Prize for History, which I did not know when I picked it up. It turns out that's not a bad endorsement, not in the least. This history stretches from the Electors of Brandenburg in the early 17th century through the Prussian kingdom of Frederick William I, German unification, the end of the monarchy, and the ultimate dissolution, after WWII, of Prussia as a corporate entity.
Clark's history is lucid, readable, and possessed of a generous sense of empathy. He nevers fails to discuss power-political developments in light of their social and cultural milieu, and retains - despite the wide scope of this work - firm control of the direction of his narrative. I could wish he digressed a little more, actually - the Germanies are only one of the many periods of history I'm shamefully underinformed about, and some of the episodes he touches on sound fascinating - but the book is already nearly 700 pages long, not including notes and index, so one can see why firm control of his priorities would be necessary.
He makes several very pointed observations, as well. One of them I think bears quoting, on the use and reuse of historical narratives for political purposes.
"Those who seek to legitimate a claim to power in the present often have recourse to the idea of tradition. They decorate themselves with its cultural authority. But the encounter between the self-proclaimed inheritors of tradition and the historical record rarely takes place on equal terms. The National Socialist reading of the Prussia past was opportunistic, distorted and selective. The entire historical career of the Prussian state was shoehorned into the paradigm of a national German history conceived in racist terms." [662]
It bears remembering.