Traces the course of German literature from the late Middle Ages to the present, focussing especially on the last 250 years. Emphasizing the economic and religious context of many masterpieces of German literature, it highlights how they can be interpreted as responses to social and political changes within an often violent and tragic history.

Emphasizing demographic, economic, and political history, this Handbook places German history in a denser transnational context than any other general history of Germany. It underscores the centrality of war to the unfolding of German history, and shows how it dramatically affected the development of German nationalism and the structure of German politics.

Discusses the idea that that German philosophy forms one of the most revealing responses to the problems of ‘modernity’, addressing questions such as the relationships between knowledge and faith, reason and emotion, and scientific, ethical, and artistic ways of seeing the world.

Provides a comprehensive overview of some of the major issues of German domestic politics, economics, foreign policy, and culture by leading experts in their respective fields. This book serves primarily as a reference work on Germany for scholars and an interested public, but through this broader lens it also provides a magnifying glass of global developments which are challenging and transforming the modern state.

Looks at the history of the Habsburgs from their 10th-century origins in Switzerland, to the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire in 1918. It introduces the pantheon of Habsburg rulers and discusses the lands and kingdoms that made up the Empire and the moments that shaped their history.