Intellectuals and the Nation: Collective Identity in a German Axial Age

by Bernhard Giesen, Nicholas Levis (Translator), Amos Weisz (Translator)

Overview

This book proposes a theory of collective and national identity based on culture and language rather than power and politics. Applying this to what he calls Germany's "axial age," Bernhard Giesen shows how the codes of nineteenth-century German identity in turn became those of the divided Germany between 1945 and 1989. The identity he describes derives from the ideas of German intellectuals, from the uprooted romantic poets to the influential German mandarins, and was borne by the newly emerging bourgeoisie.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521621618
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/06/1998
Series:	Cambridge Cultural Social Studies
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction: the nation in social science and history; 1. The construction of collective identity; 2. The encounter with Otherness; 3. The nation as invisible public: the patriotic code; 4. The nation as holy grail of the intellectuals: the transcendental code of Romanticism; 5. The people on the barricades: the democratic code; 6. The State-nation up to the founding of Empire: the code of 'Realpolitik'; 7. The national identity of the Germans; Epilogue.

Editorial Reviews

"This impressive monograph by one of the most reowned German sociologists" Canadian Jrnl of His...The book is much more stimulating than this summary may suggest." Wolfgang E.J. Weber

From the Publisher