Marxist historiography in transformation : East German social history in the 1980s /

Iggers argues that despite the rigidity of the German Democratic Republic, beginning in the 1970s, scholars there began to escape Marxist ideology through historical research. His lengthy introduction is a welcome extension of Andreas Dorpalen's German History in Marxist Perspective: The East German Approach (CH, Oct'86). The volume's ten representative essays on German social history over the last 300 years include a programmatic essay by J. Kuczynski, who first called for attention to the daily life of the underclasses; an example of H. Zwahr's work on the Leipzig proletariat through statistical evidence; a detailed essay by J. Peters on the tragicomic power struggles in 18th-century churches to secure prestige through pew assignments; an energetic paper by S. Schoetz on the recruitment of the middle strata from Leipzig's working class between 1830 and 1870; S. Jacobeit's essay on fashion under the Nazis; and a fascinating analysis by H. Schultz of an 18th-century Berlin master baker's chronicle. The translations are straightforward and lively. Each essay cites archival and secondary source materials, often to Western German works, tending to confirm Iggers's thesis. Strongly recommended for insight into the direction of recent East German historiography and for details about the essay topics themselves. Upper-division undergraduates and above.-D. R. Skopp, SUNY College at Plattsburgh