A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People

Steven Ozment's A Mighty Fortress is the best comprehensive survey of German History I've ever read. If I were to teach a class on this subject, his would be my textbook. The extensive "notes" section offers the reader a variety of resources to expand knowledge in particular areas. Ozment offers a balanced and intelligent perspective on a people who have long been a source of high achievement but also profound disillusionment in the European experience. Without resorting to ideology or popular cant, he gives us the foundational understanding to find both unifying themes and surprising variations. He handles this massive and not a little controversial subject so well that I bought several copies as gifts.

Steven Ozment's "A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People" is an interesting and easy to read survey of German history, which should serve to refresh the memories of students of German history as well as whet the appetites of those whose eye this book catches. The most positive thing in this work is the new approach. Ozment does not use this book and its conclusions about German history to try to reach an ultimate stereotype about the German people, as some other writers on German history have done in recent years (e.g. Daniel Jonah Goldhagen). Instead, Ozment looks for both the positive and the negative in the culture and society of Germany, then establishes ties to the present (and, in the chapter titled, "The Composite German", to the future) to show that Germans are as much a product as a deviation from their own history. The most negative thing is the application of some "what if" scenarios. At some points in this book, Ozment seems to say that if Germans (or a particular German) had behaved differently, a certain result may not have been achieved. "What if" scenarios are certainly interesting in some sense, but I do not think they serve any meaningful purpose in a historical work. Generally, this is an excellent book, and one of the best books I have read in years on the subject of German history. I would recommend it to anyone who has an open mind and is willing to devote some time and effort toward forming a better understanding of one of Europe's most historically discussed cultures.

I find Germany history of all ages and eras to be a fascinating subject. This book is both a great introduction to German history for those who know little abou the subject and an admirable synthesis of overarching themes that seem to consistently pop up throughout German history. That said, I did feel at times that knowing about certain people, wars, themes, etc. did help me to understand the context of discussion in this book. However, as a general history, it is useful in for identifying areas that interest one as a reader for further study. This book could have used more maps and there was room for some expansion on early and medieval German history. Overall, however, this was a very enjoyable read. I was particularly pleased with the author's fluid writing style and the fact that the author did not focus solely or predominantly on one era (read Nazi Germany) but rather looked at the entirety of German history since the 1st century BCE to the early 21st century.

"A Mighty Fortress" undertakes to narrate the history of Germany as a cohesive story, beginning at the beginning and ending today. It is a mammoth task, covering over two millennia from the days of the Roman Empire: That is ten times as long as the United States of America has been in existence. The result is a massive amount of information packed into one book, but it does give an intelligence to events, which is missing when we randomly examine short periods of historical time with the benefit, and distortion, of our knowledge of the future.Fortunately, the book spends more time on some periods of history than others. We are taken at a fast clip up to the Middle Ages and through some less pivotal times. But the author slows the pace and looks in fine detail at such critical persona as Martin Luther and Otto von Bismarck, both complex and contradictory figures. Placed in historical context, much of what seems short-sighted or self-defeating today becomes understandable when approached forwards from the past, rather than backwards from the future. In this way, familiar names develop the immediacy and vivacity that they must have had to their contemporaries: Dürer, Kant, Goethe, Hegel, Beethoven, Marx, Nietzsche, Grass. The book contains eight pages of photographs and six maps. That is really not enough to follow the constantly changing borders of Europe and I found it helpful to keep a historical atlas handy. Less easily resolved was the author's practice of Americanizing names. This may have been a conscious choice to isolate us from pre-existing judgments about historical characters, but it would have been more forgiving to map in a footnote, for example, Ludwig von Yorck to Generalleutnant Hans David Ludwig Graf Yorck von Wartenburg. In addition, converting every Heinrich and Henri to Henry (or Frederick or William) made it hard to separate the players, given the lack of imagination of the European aristocracy in naming their offspring. These are, however, all very minor items.Judging from the reception "A Mighty Fortress" has received in Germany, Professor Ozment has correctly identified the frustration of modern Germans in being identified only through the dreadful years of the Third Reich. Ozment may be more willing than most to sound the all-clear on Germany's potential for belligerence, but he has served the interests of all of us in placing Germany in factual historical context.

Professor Ozment's new book "A Mighty Fortress" was hard to put down. He writes in a very engaging manner which carried me along with great anticipation from event to event. His explanation of the lead-up to the Nazi regime and the motives and actions of Hitler is particularly excellent.Ozment's condensed history of Germany from under the canopy of the primeval forests to its present stance against the war in Iraq with his hopeful message for the future is exactly what is needed for Germans and non-Germans alike today. Bravo!