Protestants, Catholics and Jews in Germany, 1800-1914

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In the course of the nineteenth century, the boundaries that divided Protestants, Catholics and Jews in Germany were redrawn, challenged, rendered porous and built anew. This book addresses this redrawing. It considers the relations of three religious groups--Protestants, Catholics, and Jews--and asks how, by dint of their interaction, they affected one another. Previously, historians have written about these communities as if they lived in isolation. Yet these groups coexisted in common space, and interacted in complex ways. This is the first book that brings these separate stories together and lays the foundation for a new kind of religious history that foregrounds both cooperation and conflict across the religious divides. The authors analyze the influences that shaped religious coexistence and they place the valences of co-operation and conflict in deep social and cultural contexts. The result is a significantly altered understanding of the emergence of modern religious communities as well as new insights into the origins of the German tragedy, which involved the breakdown of religious coexistence.

Reviews

'This is an exciting collection of essays. It charts religious history as the history of relations between religious groups and breaks new ground in many ways. The book is full of new insights and replete with suggestions for new research.' Dr Thomas Mergel, University of Bielefeld 'One of the most compelling works in this field ... those with an interest in the religious dimension can do no better than this excellent book about Protestants, Catholics and Jews.' German History 'This collection of thirteen essays by younger scholars, ...is to be welcomed as an example of fruitful collaboration taking pace now between German and Anglo-American scholars.' English Historical Review

Author Bio

Dr. Helmut Walser Smith Associate Professor of History,Vanderbilt University