A History of Modern Germany: 1871 to Present (2nd Ed.) Orlow Detrich Prentice Hall, Inc, New Jersey, 1991, 1987. Pp. xi, 370.

In a limited sense, Detrich Orlow's A History of Modern Germany is a useful academic text for undergraduate study of 19th and 20th Century Germany as it attempts to chronicle and analyze (in 12 chapters and 370 pages including an index and suggestions for further reading by separated by chapter heading) the decisive points of a century and a half of German-European events. Each chapter includes key terms in italics, and a commentary conclusion for each period.

As a close inspection reveals, Orlow is authoritative and concise, but lacking in finalized theoretical conclusions. The text gives a depth of attention to the geography, chronology, terminology, and economic development of modern Germany, and gives adequate demographic data to track basic political history (to include from a macro-biographical perspective). Although many events are explained with social and cultural details, Orlow does not fully address the most pressing social, cultural, and philosophical questions head on, and lacks an overall focus on the context of European and global impact.

Orlow begins with the political situation after the end of the Napoleonic Era, 1815 and briskly sets the stage for the preindustrial era. He mentions the German Enlightenment, but does not give it adequate attention that it could possibly have a recurrent theme, cause, impact, or even question in tracking Germany's path to the 20th century. Orlow concludes that the new German Reich of the early nineteenth century held two major threads:

"One is the peculiarly unsynchronized development of German society ... rapid industrialization, urbanization, technology, education, economic structures ... [but with] decision making powers in the hands of men who opposed the forces of parlementarism and democratic responsibility.

"The second dominant Characteristic was the persistence of German Federalism and particularism ... The trend toward national and economic unification stood in marked contrast to the evidence of political backwardness and fragmentation."

Pace

In this introductory foundation, Orlow has set the pace for this text. He focuses on political and economic struggles, but does not fully convey the cultural fragmentation, social and class differences, or the significance of an early causal account of pre and post modernism.

In chapter two: "The Founder's Generation, 1871-1890" Orlow shows his 'true color' by labeling "Economic and Political Power Structures" as "The Fabric of Society." Although his account of the boom and bust of the Bismark era has merit, (and much packaged into 28 pages) it is a straightforward political-economic account on a grand scale. Orlow does not leave enough room for other cultural, social questions that will have to be addressed later, but are without prestaging here.

Chapter three addresses "Wilhelminian Germany, 1890-1914" and continues hard and fast on the politcal-economic focus. Orlow attempts to address some cultural issues briefly in the latter part of the chapter, (before moving on to the small issue of the causes for the First World War) but this is restricted mostly to how such things as impressionist and expressionist art reflected the political tempo rather than showing how the details of everyday life reveal political, class differences and social structures. Totally missed are the influences and attitudes of unparalleled urbanization, the bourgeoisie, the immigrant workers, and the social elite of later 19th century. A tip from Evans here would assert that "the solution of these problems was closely bound up with the structures of social inequality and social conflict in the city."

Such a perspective would give an alternate (ultra-politcal) explanation to the demise of nineteenth century German liberalism, and mark the rise of Prussianism, and "a triumph of state intervention over laissez-faire." This broader accounting gains significance later with the Third Reich, and today, with the reunification of modern Germany, but Orlow's text is a pre-unification text, amended as an afterthought, and thus unable to foresee and address such causal relationships without a significant rewrite.

Other nineteenth century issues untouched are ethnic divisions (such as the Jewish middle class), the 1894 feminist movement, and a non-economic account of socialism, protests and the working class in Germany before the First World War.

The fourth and fifth chapters cover "The First World War, 1914-1918" and its tumultuous aftermath, "Revolution, Inflation, and Putsches, The Search for a New Consensus, 1918-1923."

The War is adequately chronicled, once again from a political-economic standpoint, with the treaty of Versailles acting as the typical lightning-rod for post war hardship explanations. The only mention of "seeds of ethnic violence to come" comes in a mention of (a German Jewish statesman) Walter Rathenau's assassination while serving as Reich foreign Minister in 1922. The most predominant causal issue discussed at this stage is inexcusably "Hitler centric."

Orlow spends a commendable amount of effort covering the "Weimar Republic, 1924-1930" and entitles the chapter "Fools Gold" which is again revealing of his economic sentiments. Most of this coverage tracks the Reichsbank and industrialist ties to the rise of Naziism. The text pays some attention to the German Communist Party's resistance to the Nazi regime, but totally misses a last chance (before the Second World War and holocaust accounts) to build any causal questions outside of political-economic action-reaction.

In his Weimar Republic coverage Orlow does not fully address the abandonment of [potential Weimar] democracy and the acceptance of [Nazi] totalitarianism, nor the "crisis of modernity" that Peukert considered a decisive point in German history. According to Peukert, this "crisis" was attributable to "the old elites who had been all too successful in destroying the republic, but too feeble to restore the pre- war order."

Orlow is also incomplete here on other issues such as gender, ethnic, and generational conflicts, cultural complexities, details of everyday life, class differences and irresolvable social structures which are often given as causes for the failure of democracy in post WW I Germany. To say that Orlow is not preoccupied with the Holocaust is an understatement. In covering the Nazi prelude to the Second World War and the War itself, Orlow has one subchapter heading entitled "The Holocaust" which begins:

"It is impossible to think of the history of the Third Reich and Nazi rule in Europe without at the same time mentioning the Holocaust. This systematic program of genocide was not an incidental aspect of the Nazi's drive for power, but an essential part of their program."Only mentioning the Holocaust is Orlow's greatest failure. He might have been more honest to have omitted it entirely. He is careful to separate Hitler and the Nazi's from any mention of Germans and Germany.

This account falls very typically into the category of those referred to in Richard J. Evans' book In Hitler's Shadow: West German Historians and the Attempt to Escape from the Nazi Past (Pantheon Books 1989). Aside from speculation that Orlow has produced a sterilized history of twentieth century Germany, the educational impact is also a missed oppurtunity. So many volatile and thought provoking issues stem from the Holocaust causes and roots, that a significant amount of broad based, multi-focused historiography is diffused when it is to pay lip service as an afterthought, and not intertwined throughout any account of modern Germany.

An example of social issues addressable would stem from Christopher R. Browning's Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101, and the Final Solution in Poland. And could also raise questions to address Daniel Goldhagen's attempt to analyze what he called a pre-holocaust national anti-semitism in Hitler's Willing Executioners. While indeed the Second World War was not of and about the Holocaust, Orlow's entire text is loudly silent on the causes effects, and recurrent questions of this phenomenon.

Chapter's nine and ten covering the post World War Two eras "The Compendium of allied Powers, 1945-1949" and The Federal Republic of Germany are focused on internal politics, the Marshal Plan, and (again) economic recovery. Most of the text is an illustration of the "economic miracle" of West Germany. Post World War II holocaust issues are ignored, along with most internal, social, ethnic, cultural and gender controversies. This is unfortunate, because the era is boring without it.

Coverage of East Germany and the international political struggles (this time east and west), is include under chapter 11 on "The German Democratic Republic, 1949-1990." and since it was mostly written before the unification misses it's chance to show some early sources for current developments in Germany today. The text is also lacking in recently declassified data on the significant behind-the-scenes and confidential transactions that shaped the period. A later edition might include such recent revelations as the East German internal power struggles and those with Soviet occupation, but this 1991 version needs to be amended.

Every text book worth its salt was reedited and amended in 1990-91 to include the reunification of East and West Germany. This ultra-significant recent history of German unification is briefly covered in chapters ten and eleven, and in the twelfth chapter, the conclusion. This is an obvious afterthought, and does not cover the event fully. Even an early rewrite of these events would defer mostly to Journalistic sources since few historians have extensively addressed contemporary events. As Pekka Hamalainen describes it in his account of the German Unification: "The full story of the international ramifications of reunification will have to await the opening of archival documentation for research."

However, in any text, especially this one on modern Germany, it is critically important to seek a contemporary historical (as opposed to journalistic) approach to achieving a "preliminary analysis and and synthesis" of current events. This is missing, and though it is not Orlow's fault, the text is incomplete without it.

The limits of Detrich Orlow's A History of Modern Germany as a useful academic text for undergraduate study lie in the broader based early preparation of gender, cultural, and ethnic issues, and recent events. These questions are not raised, and an educator would be forced to use additional sources to address them.

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