Research Catalog

Title

The vanished kingdom : travels through the history of Prussia / James Charles Roy ; introduction by Amos Elon.

Author

Roy, James Charles, 1945-

Publication

Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 1999.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiii, 398 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm

Summary

• Twice in this century Germany initiated wars of unimagined terror and destruction. In both cases, defense of the "Prussian" realm, the German homeland, was the justification. Few today understand with any precision what "Prussia" means, either geographically or nationalistically, but neither would they deny the psychic resonance of the word. To most, it means unbridled aggression, the image of the goose-stepping Junker.
• But what was once Prussia is now a significant portion of Eastern Europe, a contested homeland first won by Christian knights of the Teutonic Order. For centuries thereafter its terrain has been crisscrossed by war and partitioned by barbed wire. Prussia remains a geography in shambles. Modern travelers can now, for the first time in decades, see and ponder for themselves what Prussia really was and now is.
• James Charles Roy and Amos Elon have gone to search through the rubble themselves. They intermingle present-day observations with moving vignettes from the German and Prussian past, sketching a portrait of the Europe we know today. The story is spiced with interviews and reminiscences, unforgettable in their sadness, of people looking back at a life now gone, a life full of turmoil and heartache, memories both fond and tragic.
• The final result: a far deeper understanding of the tattered lands of today's Eastern Europe.

Subject

• National characteristics, Prussian
• Political culture > Prussia
• Prussia (Germany) > Historiography
• Prussia (Germany) > Philosophy
• Europe, Eastern > Politics and government > 1989-

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 353-373) and index.

Contents

Introduction: Kaliningrad, the Nowhere City / Amos Elon -- Pt. 1. Beginnings: The Teutonic Knights. 1. Old Prussia: Finding the Way. 2. Marienburg: Crusades and the Birth of Prussia. 3. Danzig: Drive to the East. 4. Grunwald: The Knights Repulsed. 5. Frauenburg: Polish Inroads -- Pt. 2. Consolidation: The Hohenzollern Dynasty. 6. Grosse Werder: The Great Elector. 7. Neudeck: The Soldier-King. 8. Eylau: Napoleonic Disaster -- Pt. 3. Blood and Iron: Bismarck and Wilhelm. 9. Cadinen: Rush for Glory. 10. Tannenberg: The Siamese Twins. 11. Gross Potzdorf: Weimar Interlude -- Pt. 4. Extinction: The Second World War. 12. Suwalki: War. 13. The River Memel: Into Russia. 14. Stutthof: Final Solutions. 15. Rastenburg: Madness, Assassination, Honor. 16. Ostpreussen: Along Country Roads. 17. In the West: Survivors.

ISBN

0813336678 (alk. paper)

LCCN

99014278

OCLC

• ocm40830146
• SCSB-14301095

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries