Time and Power: Visions of History in German Politics, from the Thirty Years' War to the Third Reich

310 Pages·11.508 MB·English

by  Christopher Clark

Time and Power
The Lawrence Stone Lectures
Sponsored by:
The Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies and Princeton
University Press

A list of titles in this series appears at the back of the book.
Time and Power
Visions of HisTory in
German PoliTics, from
THe THirTy years’ war
To THe THird reicH
Christopher Clark
PrinceTon UniVersiTy Press
PrinceTon & oxford
Copyright © 2019 by Christopher Clark
Published by Princeton University Press
41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR
press.princeton.edu
All Rights Reserved
LCCN 2018960827
ISBN 978‑0‑691‑18165‑3
British Library Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data is available
Editorial: Brigitta van Rheinberg, Amanda Peery, and Eric Crahan
Production Editorial: Brigitte Pelner
Jacket Design: C. Alvarez‑Gaffin
Jacket/Cover Credit: Jacket Images (left to right): 1) Frederick William, Elector
of Brandenburg, 2) Frederick William II of Prussia, 3) Otto von Bismarck,
4) Adolf Hitler
Production: Erin Suydam
Publicity: James Schneider
Copyeditor: Joseph Dahm
This book has been composed in Miller
Printed on acid‑free paper ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Kate and Justin Clark, siblings for all seasons

conTenTs
Acknowledgements · ix
Introduction 1
cHaPTer 1 The History Machine 19
cHaPTer 2 The Historian King 72
cHaPTer 3 Boatman on the River of Time 118
cHaPTer 4 Time of the Nazis 171
Conclusion and Epilogue 211
Notes · 227
Index · 281

acknowledGemenTs
in THeory, the pool of intellectual debt ought to shrink with
each new book, as one grows older and more independent.
In my experience, the opposite has been the case. As you get
older, you get less shy about asking for help and you venture
further into terrain where you depend on the guidance of oth‑
ers. This book could not have been written without the en‑
couragement, conversation, and advice of many friends and
colleagues. Special thanks go to the following, who read all
or part of the manuscript and offered detailed comments and
stimulating suggestions: Deborah Baker, David Barclay, Peter
Burke, Marcus Colla, Amitav Ghosh, Oliver Haardt, Charlotte
Johann, Duncan Kelly, Jürgen Luh, Annika Seemann, John
Thompson, Adam Tooze, Alexandra Walsham, and Waseem
Yaqoob. As then‑anonymous reviewers for Princeton Univer‑
sity Press, François Hartog, Jürgen Osterhammel, and Andy
Rabinbach made enormously helpful comments on the man‑
uscript. Nora Berend, Francisco de Bethencourt, Tim Blan‑
ning, Annabel Brett, Matthew Champion, Kate Clark, Allegra
Fryxell, Alexander Geppert, Beatrice de Graaf, Paul Hartle,
Ulrich Herbert, Shruti Kapila, Hans‑Christof Kraus, Jona‑
than Lamb, Rose Melikan, Bridget Orr, Anna Ross, Kevin
Rudd, Magnus Ryan, Martin Sabrow, and Quentin Skinner all
offered precious a dvice on specific issues or passages of text.
Nina Lübbren’s writing and thinking about time and nar‑
rative in art have shaped the book in many ways. Josef and
Alexander, once happy distractions from the work of writing,
have grown into thoughtful conversation partners whose in‑
sights nudged me through various bottlenecks. Kristina Spohr
[ ix ]