Originally published in 1981, this book discusses key issues such as the origins of the First World War, the psychological impact of that war on the Germans, the enigmatic personality of Walter Rathenau, anti-semitism and paramilitarism, as well as German Ostpolitik during the Weimar period.

Volker R. Berghahn, Martin Kitchen

1. Francis Carsten: Politics and History in Two Culture Volker R. Berghahn 2. The Topos of Inevitable War in Germany in the Decade before 1914 Wolfgang J. Mommsen 3. Walther Rathenau - Intellectual or Industrialist? James Joll 4. Poles, Czechoslovaks and the 'Jewish Question', 1914-1921: A Comparative Study Antony Polonsky and Michael Riff 5. War and the Appropriation of Nature George L. Mosse 6. Rapallo - Strategy in Preventive Diplomacy: New Sources and New Interpretations Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann 7. The 'Baltic Problem' in Weimar's Ostpolitik, 1923-1932 John W. Hiden 8. Paramilitarism and Social Democracy: Theodor Körner and the Schutzbund Martin Kitchen 9. Democracy and the Power Vacuum: The Problem of the Party State during the Disintegration of the Weimar Republic Karl Dietrich Bracher 10. The Third Reich and the Problem of 'Social Revolution': German Officers and the SS Gunnar C. Boehnert 11. German Reactions to Military Defeat, 1945-1947: The British View Barbara Marshall 12. The 'Missing Revolution' in Industrial Societies: Comparative Reflections on a German Problem Richard Löwenthal . Appendix: F. L. Carsten's Writings