Dueling; The Cult of Honor in Fin-de-Siecle Germany
According to McAleer (history, Free Univ., Berlin), the ritual violence of a culture defines that culture. Here he argues that dueling in Wilhelmine Germany, although only practiced by an aristocratic minority, helped shape German attitudes toward honor, manhood, women, and other countries. McAleer gives a fascinating glimpse into a deadly icon of the German popular imagination during the Kaiserreich. Whether or not one was of sufficient rank to be able to give satisfaction in a duel of honor defined one's status. McAleer has a strong sardonic sense of humor that seems out of place in a scholarly book, and his conclusion that the duel was symptomatic of Germany's Sonderweg, or peculiar path, which led to the Nazis, is at best questionable. Nevertheless, this is an accurate look at a misunderstood topic in German culture with few comparable books in English. Recommended for academic libraries with a strong German studies collections.Randall L. Schroeder, Augustana Coll., Rock Island, Ill.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.