Brilliant! I have an MA in history, and focused much on the German and European history (besides American and Chinese). The East-West parallel has been there always. I just read the book this week - what a brilliant surprise! This is simply brilliant! Prof. Hawes is a strong storyteller, who understands also culture and gets aspirations beyond the classical "political historical" themes, such as arts, and very creatively creates an original and interesting story, which holds strongly through the whole book. I enjoyed it probably as much as Colin Woodard's "American Nations", where a regional viewpoint is also raised as a deciding force in history. This is thoroughly researched, the writer has personal connection to the story, however he keeps a general bird-eye perspective and manages to create a comprehensible, brilliant, smart story for us all to understand. His novelist background also shows, and it brings an interesting original color to the conclusions and interpretations of the events we thought we knew. Just to mention a few: Hitler's voters were primarily PROTESTANT; AfD is primarily a radical "East Elbian" product, with the Left it covers 40% of the whole region; 1990-91 reunification was a RETURN to the Prussian system, where the West "feeds" and subsidizes the East Elbian side and Berlin; the Nazi-era radical financial reforms were brought back to life to modernize the German economy post WWII; and so much more. The allegories between the Napoleonic "Confederation of the Rhine", Charlemagne's empire, Caesar's era Western Germany, and the Allied Occupation Zones are just staggering - and history made smartly simple and cleverly popularized. This is what popular history writing should be. Of course much stuff is left out, but like Brecht, Heiner Muller, Anne Bogart, or any appreciated theater director know, sometimes you have to "kill your darlings" to make the play tick, cohesive and understandable for the audiences. In this Prof. Hawes has succeeded super well. Big thanks for the fascinating book - and for this important and interesting interview (there should be more of these)... :) Br from Finland, Lauri
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Brilliant! I have an MA in history, and focused much on the German and European history (besides American and Chinese). The East-West parallel has been there always. I just read the book this week - what a brilliant surprise! This is simply brilliant! Prof. Hawes is a strong storyteller, who understands also culture and gets aspirations beyond the classical "political historical" themes, such as arts, and very creatively creates an original and interesting story, which holds strongly through the whole book.
I enjoyed it probably as much as Colin Woodard's "American Nations", where a regional viewpoint is also raised as a deciding force in history. This is thoroughly researched, the writer has personal connection to the story, however he keeps a general bird-eye perspective and manages to create a comprehensible, brilliant, smart story for us all to understand.
His novelist background also shows, and it brings an interesting original color to the conclusions and interpretations of the events we thought we knew. Just to mention a few: Hitler's voters were primarily PROTESTANT; AfD is primarily a radical "East Elbian" product, with the Left it covers 40% of the whole region; 1990-91 reunification was a RETURN to the Prussian system, where the West "feeds" and subsidizes the East Elbian side and Berlin; the Nazi-era radical financial reforms were brought back to life to modernize the German economy post WWII; and so much more. The allegories between the Napoleonic "Confederation of the Rhine", Charlemagne's empire, Caesar's era Western Germany, and the Allied Occupation Zones are just staggering - and history made smartly simple and cleverly popularized. This is what popular history writing should be.
Of course much stuff is left out, but like Brecht, Heiner Muller, Anne Bogart, or any appreciated theater director know, sometimes you have to "kill your darlings" to make the play tick, cohesive and understandable for the audiences. In this Prof. Hawes has succeeded super well.
Big thanks for the fascinating book - and for this important and interesting interview (there should be more of these)... :) Br from Finland, Lauri
Thank you!
☺️☺️☺️