| Germania: A Personal History of Germans Ancient and Modern |  | Author: Simon Winder
Publisher: Picador
List Price: £18.99
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Rating:  56 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.8
ISBN: 0330451391
EAN: 9780330451390
Publication Date: February 5, 2010
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Mesmerized by Germany; its cuisine, and its fairytale landscape, the author is equally passionate about the region's history, its folklore, monarchs and its changing borders. In this book, he describes Germany's past afresh, taking in the story from the shaggy world of the ancient forests right through to the Nazis' catastrophic rise in the 1930s.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 56
"A book about things that can now be seen in Germany" August 22, 2010
Mr. Nicholas Dougan (Kent, UK)
So says Simon Winder towards the end of this longish (450 page) book, which seeks both to restore Germany's reputation as the cultural centre of Europe and as a tourist attraction. When I grabbed it from the bookshop at the airport, I was hoping for something like the excellent The Discovery of France by Graham Robb. It is indeed similar, but didn't quite impress me quite so much; Winder explains that he has never succeeded in learning German, and I cannot help thinking that there would be a more personal feel to the book if he had. So, the book is part travelogue, part history primer (up until 1933) and part focussed ultra-revisionist history, and whether you like it or not will depend substantially on whether you like Winder's style or not. I found it amusing and engaging - but I can quite see that some readers will not.
It does rather meander from descriptions of historical oddities - stories about the kings and princes of the tiny states that made up Germany until 1870, as evidenced from the local museums that Winder likes to haunt - to Winder's more profound points. Winder wants to rehabilitate Germany, to show that, up until the First World War, at any rate, it was no more militaristic than Britain or France. He does somewhat undermine that argument by pointing out the extent to which the Germans were always referencing back to imagined mediaeval greatness. While not exactly a historian himself - he edits histories - I am sure that his argument is sound, although I'm less sure that Germany still needs any more rehabilitation.
Winder clearly loves Germany and most things German, as often for being "ineffectual" as for any more possible virtues. Dipping into the book, however, you might be forgiven for missing that fact, as it is peppered throughout by some mocking descriptions. As early as the introduction he savages German cuisine, which I rather like. It may not be a great cuisine of the world, but it's a great place for game, not to mention the bratwurst and Wiener schnitzel!
So, a good book but perhaps not a great one; best tackled when you have time on your hands.
 A Do-it-yourself job on German history and culture August 22, 2010
Franz Skeptiker
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
A do-it-yourself job on German history and culture
As some of the others who have written reviews on `Germania' on these pages, I too have found it difficult to understand what it actually is that made the author fall in love with Germany. Is it her peculiar `houses, narrow alleys with cute and obscure names' (p.13)? Or her artery-gumming food (p. 15), experiences of Ratskellers and `slaughterhouse platter' (p. 34)? Or possibly a lurid fascination with National Socialism which he shares with so many of his compatriots?
Judging from the overall confusion which reigns in this book, I wouldn't be surprised if the author doesn't really know himself. Unrestrained by too much knowledge and with his sleeves turned up, he just grabbed a junk of roughly a thousand years of German history and worked it into a book, using tools such as `multi-culturism', `decentralism' and `Mediterraneanism' (i.e. the Mediterranean as the benchmark against which all European cultures are measured). These are the approved -isms which float around us every day and you can't really go much wrong if you pick them up and use them for whatever purpose you need them. This is exactly what our author has done and ended up with something botched up in comparison to which the average English terraced house with its paper thin walls and flimsy plumbing is a professional achievement of solid workmanship indeed.
Now and again, our author feels the need to pause, raise his finger and give a little lecture. So, he tells us on p. 117 that the people or the descendants of the people who did `terrible things across Europe in the 1940s' still live in their dreamy little Swabian town. And I wonder what is wrong with them living there? Does he suggest that the SAS should haul them out of their houses, line them up and shoot them? I guess I do have a slight problem with an Englishman taking a moral stance in history and lecturing about it. Who does he think he is?! Surely, despite his professed ignorance, even he must be aware of all `the terrible things' his lot have done on five continents over many centuries and God only knows what those `boys' are up to out there in Afghanistan this very moment!
Boring and unreadable August 22, 2010
Niloci
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
The most annoying book I have ploughed through in ages. Long, unwieldy sentences (almost as if translated from German!), pages of poinless waffle. I ended up skim-reading for any occasional topic that might look worthwhile. My wife (who is German) gave up after 20 pages.
 Very interesting August 21, 2010
S. Paterson (Brighton)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This really is a very good book for anone even slightly interested in Germany and German history
 As illuminating as a candle in a warehouse August 19, 2010
S. Day (Watford, UK)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm the first to admit my almost complete ignorance about German (even European) history, so I was greatly looking forward to the opportunity to educate myself and discover what made Germany what it is. Unfortunately, I found Mr Winder's book incoherent, overly subjective, lacking in illustrations, mapless, and generally hard to follow. He DOES make some good observations about German culture, and is occasionally amusing (though not often), but if I had invested as much time reading Wikipedia as trying to plough through this poorly-structured tome, I would have learned a good deal more.
One episode described with typical flippancy is the author's struggling through a volume by Thomas Mann over an extended period and, as a parting gesture, dumping it in a bin at (if memory serves) Woking station with a loud, satisfying final clunk. I was tempted to pay similar homage to this book.
Having said that, it may still inspire someone to want to learn more, and may be better received by a reader with greater background knowledge.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 56
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