Pekka Hamalainen, Uniting Germany: Actions and Reactions, Westview Press, San Francisco, 1994 Pp. xiv, 286.

Uniting Germany: Actions and Reactions is deceptively enjoyable. Although not necessarily mistakable for an exhaustive explanation, nor a detailed documentative text, Uniting Germany seeks, and fills the essential need for "immediate scholarship" on the recent history of German unification. The author, Pekka Hamalainen, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, has written untranslated publications in Finnish, and frequently reviews in and on Foreign publications. Uniting Germany is not in Hamalainen's native language, but this is far from evident. His compelling, succinct delivery is a commendable strength of this work. His enthusiasm for the subject is admitted, obvious, and contagious, but adequately professional and academic in structure, and does not seriously degrade nor contaminate his scrutiny (with the possible exception of his amusing "Helmut Kohl love-hate fascination").

Hamalainen's historiographical theory is also commendable, and tremendously perceptive. His expressed understanding of the challenges and requirements of writing contemporary history show his astute and informed grasp on the keynotes of such endeavors. In the Introduction to Uniting Germany, Hamalainen points out concerns for accounting recent history as: ". . . access to only a small section of sources . . . historians do not write about contemporary history . . . [challenge] to discern the essential [from the trivial] . . . [inability to see] the process of causation in a long term perspective and wider context . . . [deemed] a fundamental criterion."

Although he notes from the start that "The full story of the international ramifications of reunification will have to await the opening of archival documentation for research." Hamalainen seeks to provide a critically important historical approach to achieving a "preliminary analysis and and synthesis" and "indicate some directions which additional research could take." Though lacking in any sweeping finalized theoretical conclusions, it is authoritative and concise.

Hamalainen's work should not be pigeon-holed as a simple or premature political history, this would be a hasty conclusion. While he raises political questions and admits that any complete answer would be premature, he goes further. Hamalainen addresses the ever rising social, cultural, economic, extremist, philosophical, micro and macro political questions head on, and keeps a focus on the context of global impact. He is also kind to his reader. He is exceptionally short winded and at times amusing with minimal anecdotosis.

Uniting Germany: Actions and Reactions was well received for it's upbeat stance, adequate impartiality, but criticized as less-than-original ( Based unabashedly on journalistic summaries which are helpful, but not wholly conclusive). However, for such recent history, such sources as a first person interview published in a popular magazine, should not draw the criticism: "based on too little primary research."

The strength of Hamalainen's journalistic sources is in their vastness. Contemporary accounts, written and spoken by such a large contingent of the event's participants, are as primary as birth records when it comes to reading the popular pulse. It is only in the (hyper-significant) behind-the-scenes, classified, or confidential transactions that contemporary history falls short.

Uniting Germany: Actions and Reactions takes its place as a useful academic text for both graduate and undergraduate study in 20th Century Germany as it attempts to briefly (250 pages) analyze and chronicle from a contemporary historical position an inexorable decisive point in German history. Hamalainen's theory and parameters of recent history are not yet disclaimers and , (if his awareness of current events is as accurate as his perception for their pitfalls) they may never be.

Reviews and applicable sources:

Weber, Tim, International Affairs, APR'95, vol. 71 #2, p. 406.
Mitchell, R. J. Choice JUN'95, vol. 32 #10, p. 1666.
Prowe, Dietheim, American Historical Review, 1996, vol. 101, # 3, p. 870.
Stassen, Donna, "A United Germany in a Uniting Europe" Social Education, APR'93 vol. 57 #4, p. 187.
Prowe, Dietheim, Review of Europe: Uniting Germany: Documents and Debates, 1944-1993,
K. Jarausch, V. Gransow (Ed.) Choice, FEB'95, vol. 32, #6 p. 933.

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