Germany

This three-volume history represents an attempt to understand social and economic change in Germany from the Middle Ages to the present. The series demonstrates the usefulness of applying historical and interdisciplinary approaches across a broad spectrum of major topics. With contributions from an international team of scholars, this third volume focuses on Germany's late but explosive economic transformation after 1800, the cycles of war, defeat and dictatorships from 1914 to 1950, and the "German miracle" after 1950. The picture is one of rapid change, but within a fraework of recognizable long-term continuities. Agricultural and industrial productivity increased, living-standards rose, and people flocked into the cities. Fertility and mortality fell, migration flows were reversed, and women began to enjoy greater opportunities. Yet at the same time, long-term tensions endured between regional diversity and political unification, between welfare and provision and social exclusion, between tradition and technology, and between rural allegiances and urban diversity. This book shows how Germany participated in this rapid transformation since 1800, of all western societies and economies, while retaining distinctive features that had long characterized this central region of Europe.