Reformers, critics, and the paths of German modernity
Subtitle: anti-politics and the search for alternatives, 1890-1914
By: Kevin Repp.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 358
Subjects: Political culture -- Germany -- History -- 19th century.; Social reformers -- Germany -- History -- 19th century.; Germany -- Politics and government -- 19th century.; Germany -- Social policy.; Germany -- Intellectual life -- 19th century.
Description: "This look at Wilhelmine perceptions of modernity challenges both the traditional emphasis on anti-modernism as a peculiarly German response that led to the rise of National Socialism, and the more recent post-Foucauldian studies on the "pathologies of modernity," which point instead to an unreflective faith in science and efficiency on the part of German progressives.

Shifting the focus away from radical extremes on either side, Kevin Repp explores the more moderate agendas of hundreds of mainstream intellectuals and activists from diverse social backgrounds who sought to surmount the human costs of industrialization without relinquishing its positive potential.".

"Repp combines detailed case studies of Adolf Damaschke, Gertrud Baumer, and Werner Sombart with an innovative prosopography of their milieu to show how leading reformers enlisted familiar tropes of popular nationalism, eugenics, and cultural pessimism in formulating pragmatic solutions that would be at once modern and humane."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 329-350) and index.