Heligoland: Britain, Germany, and the Struggle for the North Sea

ISBN-13: 9780199672479 / Angielski / Miękka / 2019 / 384 str.

Jan Ruger

Opis

The story of Heligoland, the North Sea island which for generations stood as a symbol of Anglo-German conflict. A fascinating microcosm of a long and often troubled relationship, covering two centuries and two world wars.

Recenzje

Ruger's Heligoland: Britain, Germany, and the Struggle for the North Sea succeeds brilliantly in exposing how Britons and Germans moved from admiration to antagonism, from cooperation to conflict, intermingling elements of both during the long nineteenth century, between the world wars, and after the Second World War. Focusing on the specific, it illustrates the shifting dynamics of the general relationship. The micro-study references higher level diplomacy and the military dimensions of the Anglo-German relationship but focuses on how art, poetry, music, and the everyday interactions of islanders, visitors, and representatives of the state made Heligoland into something more than two small islands buffeted by the waves of the North Sea.

O autorze

Jan Rüger teaches history at Birkbeck, University of London, having previously held a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale. He is particularly interested in comparative and transnational history, the cultural history of conflict, and the history of Anglo-German relations. His previous book is The Great Naval Game: Britain and Germany in the Age of Empire (2007), which explores the theatre of power and identity that unfolded between Britain and Germany in the decades before the First World War.