| Date | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, October 23, 2015 | 4:00PM - 6:00PM | Seminar Room 108N, Munk School of Global Affairs 1 Devonshire Place M5S 3K7 |
How did Germans see themselves, and how did others see them, as modern times arrived between 1866 and 1918? With a kaleidoscopic approach designed to reassess accepted views of this transformative epoch, Retallack sketches Germans who rejoiced in reform and others who celebrated stability, Germans who protested injustice and others who girded themselves against revolution. These chapters also address open questions about the continuities of German history: they chart new paths into and out of the Second Reich, taking readers across geographical and temporal boundaries that were acknowledged or forsaken by Germans at the time. As familiar images of Germany begin to fade from view, Retallack twists the perspective again: some of the portraits he paints are miniatures, others depict “another country” as though it were seen through telescopic and panoramic lenses at the same time.
In Germany’s Second Reich, Retallack continues his career-long inquiry into social and political conflict in the time of Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm II. He argues that a strong, ambitious German bourgeoisie valorized achievement, education, and cultural pluralism, but it was divided from other ranks of German society by important cleavages. Many burghers paid no heed to the ideals of social equality or political inclusiveness. Those who also carried anti-socialist, anti-liberal, and antisemitic banners hardly merit our esteem. Against this backdrop, Retallack’s conclusions are iconoclastic but persuasive: they help us reappraise attempts to plant democracy in stony soil.
Host: Richard Ratzlaff, Editor (Humanities), University of Toronto Press
Walter Stechel, Consul General (Toronto) of the Federal Republic of Germany,
“Reflections of a Diplomat”
Doris Bergen, Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Chair of Holocaust Studies,
University of Toronto,
“War and Violence”
James M. Brophy, Francis H. Squire Professor of History, University of Delaware,
“Reflections of a Cultural Historian”
James Retallack, Professor of History and German Studies, University of Toronto,
“Response”
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