Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. 261 pages; 22 cm

Summary

1. "A moving and unsettling exploration of a young man's formative years in a country still struggling with its past. As a Jew in postwar Germany, Yascha Mounk felt like a foreigner in his own country. When he mentioned that he is Jewish, some made anti-Semitic jokes or talked about the superiority of the Aryan race. Others, sincerely hoping to atone for the country's past, fawned over him with a forced friendliness he found just as alienating. Vivid and fascinating, Stranger in My Own Country traces the contours of Jewish life in a country still struggling with the legacy of the Third Reich and portrays those who, inevitably, continue to live in its shadow. Marshaling an extraordinary range of material into a lively narrative, Mounk surveys his countrymen's responses to "the Jewish question." Examining history, the story of his family, and his own childhood, he shows that anti-Semitism and far-right extremism have long coexisted with self-conscious philo-Semitism. But of late a new kind of resentment against Jews has come out in the open. Unnoticed by much of the outside world, the desire for a "finish line" that would spell a definitive end to the country's obsession with the past is feeding an emphasis on German victimhood. Mounk shows how, from the government's pursuit of a less "apologetic" foreign policy to the way the country's idea of the "Volk" makes life difficult for its immigrant communities, a troubled nationalism is shaping Germany's future"--

Subject

1. Mounk, Yascha, 1982-
2. 1939-1945
3. Jews > Germany > Biography
4. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) > Germany > Influence
5. National characteristics, German
6. Germans
7. Juifs > Allemagne > Biographies
8. Allemands
9. HISTORY > Europe > Germany
10. SOCIAL SCIENCE > Jewish Studies
11. Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.)
12. Jews
13. Juden
14. Antisemitismus
15. Philosemitismus
16. Jugend
17. Identitätsfindung
18. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) > Germany > Influence
19. Jews > Germany > Identity
20. Antisemitism > Germany
21. Germany > Biography
22. Germany
23. Deutschland

Genre/Form

1. Autobiography.
2. autobiographies (literary works)
3. Autobiographies
4. Biographies
5. Autobiographies.

Contents

1. pt. I. The past lingers -- 1.A Boy Named Jew -- 2. The Remnant -- 3. Silence, Reverberating -- pt. II. The tyranny of good intentions -- 4. Sweet Surrender -- 5. The Silent Jew -- 6. Failed Friendships -- pt. III. Ding dong, the Jews are gone -- 7. The Closed Season Ends -- 8. Poisoning the Well -- pt. IV. The past and Germany's future -- 9. The New German Question -- 10. The Rebellion Against Pluralism.

Owning institution

1. Harvard Library

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-258).

Processing action (note)

1. committed to retain