Mike Tyldesley

Matthew Jefferies

A controversial figure of the interwar period, with an enthusiasm for hiking, nudism, folk dancing and voluntary labour camps, Rolf Gardiner, organic farming pioneer and co-founder of the Soil Association, believed in ever closer union with Britain's 'kin folk, kin tongued' neighbours in Germany, The Netherlands and Scandinavia. Whilst Gardiner's activities of the 1920s appeared harmless to many, by the late-1930s his continued engagement with Germany was to have altogether darker connotations.

Folk, Nature and Culture in Interwar Britain

Rolf Gardiner

Jefferies offers a historiographical overview of more than a century of works on the German empire, presenting varying perspectives on gender, cultural history, foreign relations, colonialism, and war. He also explores the controversial historical reputations of Bismark and Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Contesting the German Empire 1871 - 1918

Germany's imperial era (1871-1918) continues to attract both scholars and the general public alike. The American historian Roger Chickering has referred to the historiography on the Kaiserreich as an 'extraordinary body of historical scholarship', whose quality and diversity stands comparison with that of any other episode in European history. This Companion is a significant addition to this body of scholarship with the emphasis very much on the present and future. Questions of continuity remain a vital and necessary line of historical enquiry and while it may have been short-lived, the Kaiserreich remains central to modern German and European history. The volume allows 25 experts, from across the globe, to write at length about the state of research in their own specialist fields, offering original insights as well as historiographical reflections, and rounded off with extensive suggestions for further reading. The chapters are grouped into five thematic sections, chosen to reflect the full range of research being undertaken on imperial German history today and together offer a comprehensive and authoritative reference resource. Overall this collection will provide scholars and students with a lively take on this fascinating period of German history, from the nation’s unification in 1871 right up until the end of World War I.

The Ashgate Research Companion to Imperial Germany

It has often ben suggested that artists and writers in Germany's imperial era shunned social engagement, preferring instead apolitical introspection. However, as Matthew Jefferies reveals, whether one looks at the painters, poets and architects who helped to create an official imperial identity after 1871; the cultural critics and reformers of the later nineteenth century; or the new generation of cultural producers that emerged in the years around 1900, the social, political and cultural were never far apart. In this attractively illustrated book, Jefferies provides a lively introduction to the principal movements in German high culture between 1871 and 1918, in the context of imperial society and politics. He not only demonstrates that Germany's 'Imperial culture' was every bit as fascinating as the much better known 'Weimar culture' of the 1920s, but argues that much of what came later has origins in the imperial period. Filling a significant gap in the current historiography, this study will appeal to all those with an interest in the rich and diverse culture of Imperial Germany.

Matthew Jefferies

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