Introduction: The return of history? -- The German question -- Idealism and realism -- Continuity and change -- Perpetrators and victims -- Economics and politics -- Europe and the world -- Conclusion: Geo-economic semi-hegemony
Summary
Since the Euro crisis began, Germany has emerged as Europe's dominant power. During the last three years, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been compared with Bismarck and even Hitler in the European media. And yet few can deny that Germany today is very different from the stereotype of nineteenth and twentieth-century history. After nearly seventy years of struggling with the Nazi past, Germans think that they more than anyone have learned its lessons. This book explains how Germany got to where it is now and where it might go in future
