The Period of European Imperialism: 1885-1918
(Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt, 1969), p. 101.
Conservatism and Progress in Conflict:
the West-European States
The internal political development displayed by each of the various European states from 1885 to 1906 was anything but uniform. The multiplicity of the states' societal and political conditions, and likewise the differences in their economic and social development, could scarcely have been greater. But diversity was not total, and we are still able to make a number of general observations about the period.
We find, for instance, that as one looks eastward across Europe, the degree to which democratic forms spread falls off markedly. Directly related to this political gradient is a parallel west-east falling-off in the degree to which machine-technology and capitalistic forms of enterprise took hold in each land. What most decisively determined the direction and pace of each land's political developments, however, was not economic progress, important as that was, but rather the particular societal and political conditions already obtaining in the land at the point of departure in 1885. Everywhere the established political system, whatever it might be, showed signs of becoming unstuck. Ruling elites were seized by a strange disquiet.
The above snippet is hardly sufficient to show Mommsen's outstanding historical perspective, but at least it suggests it.
I would love to translate the whole book, but the effort I would have to expend to do so is too high. The above translation took me 3-1/2 hours to do, and that was twenty years ago, when my German was better. As far as I know, this book has never been released in an English translation, but also the German version is not present in the university libraries of Stanford or The University of Chicago, and it is no longer in print in Germany.
Many other books by Mommsen, however, areavailable both in English and German (and in many other languages), and he is commonly acknowledged to be one of the leading historians of the day.
Wolfgang J. Mommsen was born in 1930 in Marburg. He studied history, philosophy, political science, and history of art in Marburg and Cologne. He attained a doctorate in 1958 with Theodor Schieder for his work Max Weber and German Policy 1890-1920. From 1959 to 1966 he was a research assistant in Cologne. After his Habilitation in 1967, he was an Assistent Professor (Privatdozent), then in 1968 was appointed Chair of Medieval and Modern History at the University of Düsseldorf. From 1977 to 1985, Mommsen also chaired the German Historical Institut in London. From 1988 to 1992 he was chairman of the German Federation of Historians. Mommsen is now emeritis professor and lives in Berlin.
Links--
See Mommsen bibliography -- astonishing,
admonishing, amazing in its magnitude: 354 entries! So Mommsen wrote about 9 articles or books
each year for the past 40 years. Wahre deutscher Fleiss.
Great, detailed, autobiographical interview with Mommsen [English].
Another excellent Mommsen interview [German].
Mommsen speaks about the Univ. of Chicago.
|
|
back to "Books that changed my life" --> |