Required Background Materials

As you know, I made Orlow's A History of Modern Germany a "recommended" text. There, you will find the basic narrative of political, social, and some cultural history that lies behind the specific issues/themes/sources we are discussing. I will discuss the take-home assignment this week, but you will need to use Orlow, or some other basic history, to set up the background to the era that you write about more specifically. Lecture notes will help, but your exams will need to be more specific than my summaries.

I could scan portions of Orlow for you, in case you didn't buy it. But in this age of online resources, I'm not sure that is necessary. In the mean time, you can use a variety of general German histories online (or on paper = books). For the moment, I have added to your _required background readings_ links to this site: "German History in Documents and Images," which was a collaboration among some of the leading historians of Germany. It provides some basic information about each era we are covering, as well as some other primary sources.

The key think to realize is that Wikipedia is just the TIP OF THE ICEBERG. More and more _professional_ materials are now online, with more added every day. At least search Google Books when looking for references to use in any of your written course work. But even better, take advantage of the resources that the LUC libraries are using YOUR TUITION MONEY to purchase--these are VERY excellent resources that YOU ARE PAYING FOR. Impress your professors by citing these rather than the Wikipedia articles we read over and over!

For instance, I just did a search on the LUC libraries site, within the EBL database, which is getting more and more full e-books that you can use for all your classes. The keywords "history germany" brought up over 4,000 titles (!). I will look through these, but here are a couple of obvious sources to use on this excellent resource:

• Kitchen, Martin. A History of Modern Germany : 1800 to the Present. Chicester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. http://luc.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=706774
• Fulbrook, Mary. A History of Germany 1918-2008 : The Divided Nation. Chicester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. http://luc.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=819437
• Mustafa, Sam A.. Germany in the Modern World : A New History. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011. http://luc.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=662343
• McElligott, Anthony. Weimar Germany. Oxford: OUP Oxford, 2009. http://luc.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=1079712

EBSCO Search

ACLS Humanities Search Results: these are CLASSICS

• Modern Germany: society, economy, and politics in the twentieth century, Berghahn, Volker R. link to this item directly
• Germany, 1866-1945, Craig, Gordon Alexander, 1913-2005.link to this item directly

Cambridge Histories: unbelievable resources for any classes

Cambridge Handbooks unbelievable resources for any classes

Read on! -DD