Wilhelminism and Its Legacies : German Modernities, Imperialism, and the Meanings of Reform, 1890-1930

What was distinctive-and distinctively "e;modern"e;-about German society and politics in the age of Kaiser Wilhelm II? In addressing this question, these essays assemble cutting-edge research by fourteen international scholars. Based on evidence of an explicit and self-confidently "e;bourgeois"e; formation in German public culture, the contributors suggest new ways of interpreting its reformist potential and advance alternative readings of German political history before 1914. While proposing a more measured understanding of Wilhelmine Germany's extraordinarily dynamic society, they also grapple with the ambivalent, cross-cutting nature of German "e;modernities"e; and reassess their impact on long-term developments running through the Wilhelmine age.