The Nation as a Local Metaphor: Wurttemberg, Imperial Germany, and National Memory, 1871-1918

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How local identities shaped German national memory.

If you're intrigued by how national identities are forged from local narratives, Confino's study is a compelling dive into German history. It's a thoughtful read, especially if you're interested in the cultural and memory-driven aspects of nation-building. The book's focus on Wurttemberg's local lens providing a blueprint for German national memory offers a unique perspective that history enthusiasts and scholars will find enriching.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.

The Nation as a Local Metaphor: Wurttemberg, Imperial Germany, and National Memory, 1871-1918

Regular price $27.90
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per
Compare to estimated retail price: S$79.09  
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ISBN: 9780807846650
Authors: Alon Confino
Date of Publication: 1997-10-27
Format: Paperback
Related Collections: History, Sociology, Politics
Goodreads rating: 3.4
(rated by 25 readers)

Description

All nations make themselves up as they go along, but not all make themselves up in the same way. In this study, Alon Confino explores how Germans turned national and argues that they imagined the nation as an extension of their local place. In 1871, the work of political unification had been completed, but Germany remained a patchwork of regions with different histories and traditions. Germans had to construct a national memory to reconcile the peculiarities of the region and the totality of the nation. This identity project, examined by Confino as it evolved in the southwestern state of Württemberg, oscillated between failure and success. The national holiday of Sedan Day failed in the 1870s and 1880s to symbolically commingle localness and nationhood. Later, the idea of the Heimat, or homeland, did prove capable of representing interchangeably the locality, the region, and the nation in a distinct national narrative and in visual images. The German nationhood project was successful, argues Confino, because Germans made the nation into an everyday, local experience through a variety of cultural forms, including museums, school textbooks, popular poems, travel guides, posters, and postcards. But it was not unique. Confino situates German nationhood within the larger context of modernity, and in doing so he raises broader questions
 

How local identities shaped German national memory.

If you're intrigued by how national identities are forged from local narratives, Confino's study is a compelling dive into German history. It's a thoughtful read, especially if you're interested in the cultural and memory-driven aspects of nation-building. The book's focus on Wurttemberg's local lens providing a blueprint for German national memory offers a unique perspective that history enthusiasts and scholars will find enriching.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.