Problems with Culture: German History After the Linguistic Turn

Abstract

I recently edited a volume of essays on the Kaiserreich, under the titleSociety, Culture, and the State in Germany, 1870–1930(Ann Arbor, 1996), which set out deliberately to explore the possible forms of new approaches to the history of the Second Empire; and in the circumstances it’s hard for me to approach this topic without saying something about Hans–Ulrich Wehler’s extended review of this volume inCentral European History, which came out during the summer. Wehler’s response is interesting. He actually likes most of the fifteen contributions to this collection, but reserves extended hostility for the ones by Geroge Stainmetz and Elisabetn Domansky, who clearly placed themselves beyond the pale of tolerable discourse by opting for non-Weberian sociology, Foucauldian perspectives, and gender critique.