Germania: In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History
by:
Simon Winder (author)
Germania is propelled by a wish to reclaim the brilliant, chaotic, endlessly varied German civilization that the Nazis buried and ruined, and that, since 1945, so many Germans have worked to rebuild. A very funny book on serious topics---how we are misled by history, how we twist history, and how...
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Germania is propelled by a wish to reclaim the brilliant, chaotic, endlessly varied German civilization that the Nazis buried and ruined, and that, since 1945, so many Germans have worked to rebuild. A very funny book on serious topics---how we are misled by history, how we twist history, and how sometimes it is best to know no history at all. It is a book full of curiosities: odd food, castles, mad princes, fairy tales, and horse-mating videos. It is about the limits of language, the meaning of culture, and the pleasure of townscape, and “a book you will return to time and again” (The Florida Times-Union).
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780312680688 (0312680686)
Publish date: March 1st 2011
Publisher: Picador
Pages no: 480
Edition language: English
There's history here, if you can squint through the haze of British distaste for the German language, food (really? You're going to judge?), and culture. I do recommend it for the subject matter alone, but wish it had a different author.
I've never found European History all that interesting, it always seems to dwell on France and Italy (which are a bit dull really), and apart from the obvious 20th century madness, I've not known much about Germany. Simon Winder corrects this omission with Germania – as a Germanophile it is difficul...
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