The Travails of Unification: East Germany's Economic Transition since 1990

The former German Democratic Republic underwent a unique post-communist transition because it was absorbed into the wealthy Federal Republic of Germany and has received massive subsidies. Nonetheless, serious difficulties have persisted, includingcurrency conversion; deindustrialization; market economy; transition, Treuhand,

What Have We Learned Since 1989?

Histor

The Two Postwar Eras and the Conditions for Stability in Twentieth-Century Western Europe

Histor

The travails of unification: East Germany's economic transition since 1989

The former German Democratic Republic underwent a unique post-communist transition because it was absorbed into the wealthy Federal Republic of Germany and has received massive subsidies. Nonetheless, serious difficulties have persisted, including higher unemployment, rapid deindustrialization, and greater political loyalty to the successor parties of the former Communists than in the West. The reasons for these phenomena remain debated, but seem to the legacy of concealed structural weakness in the old GDR, perhaps the one-to-one conversion of East German savings into Deutschmarks, and the commitment to elevate wage levels in the East close to those prevailing in the FRG

Empire’s Past . . . Empire’s Future

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Als wär’ es ein Stuck von uns . . . German Politics and Society Traverses Twenty Years of United Germany

This essay looks at postunification Germany through the pages of German Politics and Society. The articles published during this period reveal the evolution of intellectuals' understanding of the unified country—concerns that mirrored changes in social, political, and cultural reality. Of course, academics are beholden to their own histories and Weltanschauung, a fact that produced, at times, prescient, sometimes fragmentary, and sometimes alarmist interpretations and analyses of the country in an attempt to provide orientation. Nevertheless, this review shows how German watchers have slowly up-dated their paradigms and are now not worrying as much about a mellowed, less German country that has fascinated them over the decades.Histor

The Two Postwar Eras and the Conditions for Stability: Reply

Histor

Between Surprise and Social Science

Social scientists and historians have been living in a world of unexpected outcomes. The revival of passionate political ideologies in the l960s, the reversal of predicted secularization in the modern world, the collapse of communist regimes at the end of the l980s, and the contemporary economic crisis were all events that flew in the face of social-science predictions and analyses. But despite its prevalence most social science has not attempted to deal with surprise as a category of event. This essay seeks to analyze surprise at least as a category of explanation and narrative, one that mediates between counter-factual and factual.Histor

Economic Consequences of the Peace, Social Consequences of the War

The article presents a debate on John Maynard Keynes' "The Economic Consequences of the Peace" and the social consequences of war. The article presents biographical information pertaining to the economist as published in "John Maynard Keynes, vol. 1, Speranze tradite 1883-1920," written by R. Skidelsky. It then outlines Keynes' beliefs on the viability of the Versailles Treaty and the negative influence that United States president Woodrow Wilson played during the peace conference and discusses the public reaction to Keynes' book.Histor

A Sample for Pay Keeps the Lawyers Away: A Proposed Solution for Artists Who Sample and Artists Who Are Sampled

This comment proposes a modified version of the fair use analysis of section 107 of the Copyright Act and a modified version of the compulsory license provisions of section 115 of the Copyright Act, in light of the realities of today\u27s music environment and authorship, as well as the underlying purposes of our copyright laws