The German Genius: Europe's Third Renaissance, the Second Scientific… (alkuperäinen julkaisuvuosi 2010; vuoden 2011 painos)

Firehose delivery of German Thought . Comprehensive, but just a handful of sentences for each of the hundreds of personalities, discoveries and philosophies. Breathless and unpleasant journey. Nothing at all like his "Age of Nothing" ( )

"The German predicament is not easy and the arguments in this book will not please everyone. It is to those who find it difficult to move beyond Hitler that the German Genius is dedicated."

Danke, Peter Watson! Damit widmest du es sehr vielen, darunter vielen Politikern und Journalisten. Die hätten diese Lektüre bitter nötig.

An dem Buch habe ich zweieinhalb Jahre herumgewerkt. Ich sollte bei military history bleiben.
Der Inhalt ist sehr umfassend, es zeigt viele Details und nennt Namen. Viele der Bereiche fand ich spannend, aber bei den Kapiteln zur Kulturgeschichte habe ich öfter den Faden verloren, und die Lust, das Buch zu nehmen und weiter zu lesen.

Was gebe ich nun als Bewertung? Zweieinhalb Jahre für 900 Seiten? Da spricht für einen oder zwei Sterne. Die (für mich) faden Passagen ignorieren und schon bin ich bei vier oder fünf. Also gebe ich vier Sterne mit dem Hinweis, dass man in der Mitte beim Schnelldurchlauf auch die eine oder andere Disziplin nur überfliegen muss und nicht genau lesen. ( )

Stopped reading after about 300 pages, because its level of research was clearly declining as I was progressing. Tended to read like a monstrously huge undergraduate term paper. ( )

An almost limitless source of information about the men and ideas that contributed to Germany's preeminence in culture, science, and the humanities ever since the middle of the eighteenth century. All the big names are here along with many others that you should know about due to their impact on our world. I find this a never-ending source of education and a resource to provide context for other reading. ( )

I would change the name to "The German Smart Guys." Men from the past 250 years getting anywhere from a paragraph to five pages each in the 900 plus pages that Watson has handed us. Literature, historiography, philology, psychology, philosophy, education, painting, sculpture, architecture, and more. Following ideas from idealism, romanticism, expressionism, dadaism, to fascism and communism and beyond.
The book starts by explaining how we non-Germans and Germans too have not paid enough attention the leadership of German thought, and then because of the book's breadth, it cannot not give enough attention to any single person or idea. More of an who's who of German thinking and feeling.
A weighty entry into the thick book shelf. ( )