A Berlin Republic: Writings on Germany (Modern German Culture & Literature) (Modern German Culture and Literature) - Softcover

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"A Berlin Republic" (Die Normalitat einer Berliner Republik) brings together writings on the new, united Germany by one of that country's most original and trenchant commentators, Jurgen Habermas. Among other topics, Habermas addresses the consequences of German history, the challenges and perils of the post-Wall era, and Germany's place in contemporary Europe. Here, as in his earlier Past as Future, Habermas emerges as an inspired analyst of contemporary German political and intellectual life. He repeatedly criticizes recent efforts by historians and political commentators to 'normalize' and, in part, to understate the horrors of modern German history.He insists that 1945 - not 1989 - was the crucial turning point in German history, since it was then that West Germany decisively repudiated certain aspects of its cultural and political past (nationalism and anti-Semitism in particular) and turned toward Western traditions of democracy, free and open discussion, and respect for the civil rights of all individuals. Similarly, Habermas deplores the renewal of nationalist sentiment in Germany and throughout Europe.Drawing upon his vast historical knowledge and contemporary insight, Habermas argues for heightened emphasis on trans-European and global democratic institutions - institutions far better suited to meet the challenges (and dangers) of the next century.

Jurgen Habermas is one of the best-known and most influential philosophers in Europe today. Steven Rendall is a professor in the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Oregon. He is the author of "Distinguo: Reading Montaigne Differently" and the translator of Marlis Steinert's Hitler. Peter Uwe Hohendahl, Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Cornell University, is the author of "Building a National Literature: The Case of Germany, 1830-1870" and the editor of "A History of German Literary Criticism, 1730-1980" (Nebraska 1988).