Steven Ozment (1931–2019)

The largest part of this book consists of transcriptions of letters to and from three different teenagers & young men growing up in Germany during the early 16th century, late 16th century, and early 17th century respectively. As such, it will not necessarily appeal to readers looking for a single dramatic narrative story. The details that emerge from the letters about daily life during these times, however, are truly fascinating. From what people ate and drank, to how the mail system show more worked, to how tailoring and laundry were taken care of (often by mailing laundry back to their mothers, in the case of these boys while they were in school), one gets a vivid and recognizable portrait of how people lived on a day-to-day basis that is generally missing from histories that focus on politics, ideas, or grand narratives.

The contrast between the different outcomes and levels of success among the three boys is fascinating to follow as well, and many parents will grimace in particular as the third boy -- who seems to have been as dishonest as they come -- continues to try to play on his mother's feelings to get ever more money out of her after repeatedly squandering everything she has sent in the past. By the end, he is protesting in respect to the bills he has once again run up that "a lot of money has been irresponsibly and extravagantly spent, very much against my will and to my very great sorrow. As painful as such spending has always been for me, and as much as I regret it, I cannot explain it. As one who is very judicious, Brother can easily see that this is very much out of character for me [ed. note: um, no] and has happened contrary to all my plans and against all odds" and on and on in a similar vein. By this time, the last bills he is running up for his family to settle are just before taking a ship to Brazil to try and seek his fortune there, again without success.

Anyhow, this book is primarily directed at an academic audience, but anyone seeking a range of real-life details about daily experience in the 16th and 17th centuries will find real riches here. And as someone who has worked with manuscripts like the ones transcribed here, I will add that the amount and quality of work that went into tracking down, transcribing, and translating such difficult materials into clear prose is awe-inspiring. show less

By attempting to cover over 2000 years of history in just over 300 pages, Harvard historian Steven Ozment set himself a daunting task, one that was never going to satisfy every kind of reader. The need to compress so much history means leaving a great deal out, assuming some basic prior knowledge on the part of the reader, and focusing on cultural and intellectual trends and themes rather than mere politics and battles. The result is surprisingly effective, as long as the reader does not show more approach the book with false expectations.

Ozment is a fine writer, whose previous work has tended to focus on social history in Early Modern Germany. This gives him a perspective that allows him to get away from the clichéd approach to German history which sees it always through the prism of the Nazi era. As he points out in a substantial introductory chapter where he discusses the historiography of Germany, far too often “a tour of German history can be a circular journey around a magnetic Nazi pole, mesmerizing the general public and distracting historians and politicians eager to move on. This enduring perspective has also turned Germany’s pre-twentieth-century past into a hunting ground for fascist forerunners and defeated democratic alternatives to the absolute territorial state.” At the same time, neither can any single segment of history be singled out as an aberration, a fateful and atavistic detour from an otherwise straightforward journey of progressive liberalism, as some would like to see it. Again, as Ozment reminds us, no one “doubts that the past casts powerful shadows on the present, and more recent decades more powerful ones.” Ozment’s own approach is to write history “from past to present, not from present to past”.

In attempting to create a “reliable history” that does this, Ozment has fashioned a readable, informative, and insightful book. One may not always agree with all of his interpretations, but there is much food for thought here. Perhaps the best sections are those on the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, and on the stretch of history from Frederick the Great to Bismarck. There is also a lengthy and intriguing discussion of Luther and the effect of the Reformation on German society, but this was, at least to my mind, somewhat undermined by a lack of factual details concerning the period. It was sometimes difficult to follow discussions of Luther’s ideas about social hierarchies, peasant-lord relations and the treatment of Jews, when the events alluded to were not described or narrated. I can see similar complaints arising about the Nazi period, though given my own background knowledge about that era, I didn’t find it a problem there.

This brings me back to the point about reader expectations. My guess is that readers who already have some familiarity with German history are the ones who are going to get the most out of this book. Those readers who are looking for a narrative history, which lays out the basic timeline of political and intellectual events, will probably be disappointed. Want to know how World War 2 was fought and lost? How Prussia went about uniting the German states into a unified German Reich? Germany’s role in dragging Europe into the First World War? Why the Berlin Wall fell? These events are merely alluded to here or discussed in only the most general terms. True, one does not need to know about these events in detail to get something out of this book, but some readers may specifically be looking for these explanations. Another issue is that one becomes increasingly aware that there is a great deal of history being completely ignored. The high Medieval period seems to get a particularly bum deal. While one can understand the need to pick and choose from the wealth of material available, did so much time have to be spent discussing Luther, his theology and its vision of the ideal civil society?

These caveats aside, there is much to enjoy and mull over here for even a casual history buff. The writing is fluid and a pleasure to read – no dull, dust-dry tome this. For those looking for an intelligent overview of the history of the German people, this is a fine place to look. show less

Excellent historical study of marriage and family during the Protestant Reformation that combats the typical PC doctrine of university history departments ("the Reformation was oppressive to women!") by bringing German and Swiss primary source documents to bear on the subject. In doing so, Ozment shows that Reformation family life was both loving and liberating to men, women, and children. Solidly academic, but with good storytelling and a provocative thesis. Highly recommended.

I began this book because I wanted to learn about German history. My knowledge of that subject prior to the Franco-Prussian War was very sketchy, superficial, and mostly missing, and this book seemed like a promising way to begin. Boy was I disappointed.

I can't say it wasn't well researched and written. That it was. The author, Steven Ozment, is a history professor at Harvard. What better credentials can you get? But I question what audience he was writing for. Certainly not me. He presumes show more way too much of his reader and the result is a cumbersome and academic read more designed with his professional colleagues in mind than the lay reader. For example, I quote the following paragraph found on page 192 of his text: "These early revolutionaries had also sought a final solution to the contradictions of history - Eckhart by a spiritual unity 'beyond all division,' Muntzer by a 'bloody cleansing' of sociopolitical establishment. Both projects, deemed Icarian by contemporaries, died aborning."

"Icarian?" That was a reference to Icarus. In Greek mythology, he attempted to escape Crete by making wings out of feathers and wax, flew too close to the sun resulting in his wings melting, and with predictable results. It is sometimes used to mean too ambitious. I am 70 years old and have never heard it used before. "Aborning." New. The process of being born. Wikipedia says it started in the mid-20th Century. Again, I have never heard this word before. By no means is this passage unique within this text.

If you are an Ivy League scholar or a well entrenched member of Mensa, then maybe try this book. Otherwise, may I suggest something else. And if you find one, let me know. show less