Skip to content

The Inverted Mirror: Mythologizing the Enemy in France and Germany, 1898-1914
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

The Inverted Mirror: Mythologizing the Enemy in France and Germany, 1898-1914 (Studies in Contemporary European History, 2) Paperback - 2006

by Nolan, Michael

  • Used
  • Paperback

This study explores a particularly virulent phase during which France and Germany projected certain assumptions about national character onto the other, which contributed to the growing hostility between the two countries in the years before the First World War.

Drop Ship Order

Description

Berghahn Books, 2006-09-01. 1. paperback. Used: Good.
Used: Good
NZ$37.89
FREE Shipping to USA Standard delivery: 5 to 10 days
More Shipping Options
Ships from Ergodebooks (Texas, United States)

Details

About Ergodebooks Texas, United States

Biblio member since 2005
Seller rating: This seller has earned a 3 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.

Our goal is to provide best customer service and good condition books for the lowest possible price. We are always honest about condition of book. We list book only by ISBN # and hence exact book is guaranteed.

Terms of Sale:

We have 30 day return policy.

Browse books from Ergodebooks

From the publisher

It is hard to imagine nowadays that, for many years, France and Germany considered each other as "arch enemies." And yet, for well over a century, these two countries waged verbal and ultimately violent wars against each other. This study explores a particularly virulent phase during which each of these two nations projected certain assumptions about national character onto the other - distorted images, motivated by antipathy, fear, and envy, which contributed to the growing hostility between the two countries in the years before the First World War. Most remarkably, as the author discovered, the qualities each country ascribed to its chief adversary appeared to be exaggerated or negative versions of precisely those qualities that it perceived to be lacking or inadequate in itself. Moreover, banishing undesirable traits and projecting them onto another people was also an essential step in the consolidation of national identity. As such, it established a pattern that has become all too familiar to students of nationalism and xenophobia in recent decades. This study shows that antagonism between states is not a fact of nature but socially constructed.

First line

Throughout history the enemy has been a ubiquitous figure, though his manifestations have changed from time to time.