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Rolf Brandt (1886-1953) was a German journalist, author, and political commentator. His first work was as a war reporter on the Eastern Front during the opening months of the Great War (World War I). His reports appeared in several important German newspapers (Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung and Frankfurter Zeitung) and were compiled and published in 1915 as Fünf Monate an der Ostfront: Kriegsberichte (Five months on the Eastern Front: War reports). Brandt's reports were more than just army-approved press releases. He wrote in a way that constructed a bridge between the home front and the front lines. In the process he employed techniques now associated with literary journalism. With a clear point of view, he told his story through a sequence of scenes, instead of a simple historical narrative, and included genuine dialogue and status details. While scholars of German literary journalism point to Egon Erwin Kisch as the originator of German literary journalism, this study suggests Brandt should be considered an early practitioner of literary journalism in the German language. More interestingly, Brandt's particular brand of literary journalism had an unmistakably conservative nationalist perspective, thus suggesting that it is possible to have a conservative form of literary journalism. © 2019 Literary Journalism Studies. All Rights Reserved.

Contesting the Origins of the First World War challenges the Anglophone emphasis on Germany as bearing the primary responsibility in causing the conflict and instead builds upon new perspectives to reconsider the roles of the other Great Powers. Using the work of Terrance Zuber, Sean McMeekin, and Stefan Schmidt as building blocks, this book reassesses the origins of the First World War and offers an explanation as to why this reassessment did not come about earlier. Troy R.E. Paddock argues that historians need to redraw the historiographical map that has charted the origins of the war. His analysis creates a more balanced view of German actions by also noting the actions and inaction of other nations. Recent works about the roles of the five Great Powers involved in the events leading up to the war are considered, and Paddock concludes that Germany does not bear the primary responsibility. This book provides a unique historiographical analysis of key texts published on the origins of the First World War, and its narrative encourages students to engage with and challenge historical perspectives.

World War I and Propaganda offers a new look at a familiar subject. The contributions to this volume demonstrate that the traditional view of propaganda as top-down manipulation is no longer plausible. Drawing from a variety of sources, scholars examine the complex negotiations involved in propaganda within the British Empire, in occupied territories, in neutral nations, and how war should be conducted. Propaganda was tailored to meet local circumstances and integrated into a larger narrative in which the war was not always the most important issue. Issues centering on local politics, national identity, preservation of tradition, or hopes of a brighter future all played a role in different forms of propaganda. Contributors are Christopher Barthel, Donata Blobaum, Robert Blobaum, Mourad Djebabla, Christopher Fischer, Andrew T. Jarboe, Elli Lemonidou, David Monger, Javier Pounce,Catriona Pennell, Anne Samson, Richard Smith, Kenneth Andrew Steuer, María Inés Tato, and Lisa Todd.

German attitudes toward and stereotypes of Russia before the First World War and how they were inculcated in the public.

World War I highlighted the influence of newspapers in rousing and maintaining public support for the war effort. Discussions of the role of the press in the Great War have, to date, largely focused on atrocity stories. This book offers the first comparative analysis of how newspapers in Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary attempted to define war, its objectives, and the enemy. Presented country-by-country, expert essays examine, through use of translated articles from the contemporary press, how newspapers of different nations defined the war for their readership and t., World War I highlighted the influence of newspapers in rousing and maintaining public support for the war effort. Discussions of the role of the press in the Great War have, to date, largely focused on atrocity stories. This book offers the first comparative analysis of how newspapers in Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary attempted to define war, its objectives, and the enemy. Presented country-by-country, expert essays examine, through use of translated articles from the contemporary press, how newspapers of different nations defined the war for their readership and t

Walter Benjamin’s observation that fascism turns politics into aesthetics is, by now, a well-worn idea. This article argues that Benjamin’s critique of politics can apply just as much to the modern democratic politics of the United States. Borrowing from Benjamin, Jürgen Habermas, and Carl Schmitt, this article suggests that modern political discourse in the United States does not follow the classical liberal ideal of rational discourse in the marketplace of ideas within the public sphere. Instead, contemporary politics has become spectacle where images and slogans replace thought and debate in a 24/7 news cycle and political infotainment programs. The result is that progressives and conservatives have their own political “ecospheres” which enable them to have their own perspective reinforced, and debate is replaced by straw man arguments and personal attacks.

This essay revisits the work of the German historian Friedrich Meinecke and offers new interpretation of his major works, Weltbürgertum und Nationalstaat (1907), Die Ideen der Staatsräson in der neuen Geschichte (1924), and Die Entstehung des Historismus (1936). The standard interpretation of Meinecke's work maintains that World War I caused a break in his thinking and caused him to rethink the role of power in the state. By stressing the first half of Weltbürgertum rather than the second, this article delineates a continuity of Meinecke's thought and points to the limitations of historicism as a historical narrative. It offers a possible explanation for how the conservative implications in the thought of an individual, who personally and politically was a Vernuftrepublikaner, could escape the author himself. This article also discusses what could be called the classical liberal critique of Meinecke's historicism, points to some of its limitations, and offers a more measured criticism of Meinecke that examines him on his own terms—and finds him wanting.

This article examines the description of Russia in German history and geography textbooks. Nineteenth-century German pedagogical theory linked the natural sciences and the human sciences; the connection supplies further evidence of the perceived organic nature of the nation-state. Although regional and confessional differences among the German states affected the description of German history, the depiction of Russia was consistent. Russia was depicted as a barbaric, backward, and Asiatic empire. The implicit, and often explicit, comparison in the texts was between Russia and Germany. The description of a foreign power served to reinforce German national identity. Moreover, an examination of German geography and history textbooks reveals striking similarities between the perception of Russia in Germany and the Anglo-French depiction of the Near East. Dieser Aufsatz befaßt sich mit dem Rußlandbild in deutschen Schulbüchern für Geschichte und Geographie. Deutsche Pädagogik im 19. Jahrhundert verband die Naturwissenschaft mit der Geisteswissenschaft; diese Verbindung ist noch ein Beweis für die Auf- fassung des Nationalstaats als organisches Wesen. Obwohl regionale und konfessionelle Unterschiede unter den deutschen Ländern die Darstellung von deutscher Geschichte beeinflußten, war die Schilderung von Rußland übereinstimmend. Rußland wurde als ein barbarisches, rückständiges, asiatisches Reich gezeichnet. Der unausgesprochene, und manchmal doch ausgesprochene Vergleich in den Büchern galt Deutschland und Rußland. Die Darstellung der fremden Macht verstärkte die deutsche Nationalidentität. Außerdem enthüllt eine Untersuchung der Schulbücher überraschende Ähnlichkeiten zwischen der deutschen Beschreibung von Rußland und den englischen und französischen Darstellungen des Nahen Osten. L'auteur de cet article analyse l'image de la Russie dans les manuels scolaires allemands d'histoire et de géographie. La pédagogie allemande du 19ème siècle faisait le lien entre les sciences naturelles et les sciences humaines; cette association fournit une preuve supplémentaire du fait que l'Etat-nation était perçu comme un organisme vivant. Alors que les différences régionales et confessionnelles existant entre les différents Etats allemands influençaient la présentation de l'histoire allemande, la description de la Russie était concordante. La Russie était dépeinte comme un empire barbare, arriéré et asiatique. La comparaison implicite, et souvent explicite des textes scolaires concernait la Russie et l'Allemagne. La représentation d'une puissance étrangère servait à renforcer l'identité allemande. En outre, l'analyse de ces manuels révèle des ressemblances étonnantes entre la perception de la Russie et les portraits français et anglais du Proche-Orient.

Dr. Paddock spent the year completing a book and revising an article.

"This collection explores the various forms of narrative, semiotic, and technological mediation that shape the experience of place. From the East End of London to Navajo lands to Ground Zero, Lived Topographies examines the great effect of language, mass media, surveillance, and other incursions of the contemporary world on topographical experience and description. Gary Backhaus and John Murungi have assembled a wide array of scholars to provide an interdisciplinary approach to this subject, giving this collection a unique perspective on the phenomenology of place."--Jacket.