Through explorations of such topics as the world wars, the Holocaust, women in the language-teaching professions, Jewish contributions, and technology, this work inspects the relationships of the two cultures as they interact through the teaching of German in American educational systems.

This multidisciplinary collection of readings offers new interpretations of Richard Wagner's ideological position in German history. The issues discussed range from the biographical - the reasons for Wagner's travels, his political life - to the aesthetic and ideological, regarding his re-creation of medieval Nuremberg, his representations of gender and nationality, his vocal iconography, his anti-Semitism, his vegetarian and Christian arguments, and, finally, his musical heirs.

This collection of essays was delivered at the 22nd Wisconsin Workshop in 1991. Their topics range across German cultural life, analysing developments in the arts, literature, poetry, architecture and cinema. They also consider women's writing, and Germany's political paroxysms of the past century.

Ranging from Hellenistic pastoral to the contemporary counterculture activities of the Greens, the essays in this volume underscore the complexity of simplicity. Whether the simple life is located in a culture's past or in its future, in a secluded corner or beyond society's boundaries, it remains a fascinating subject for discussion.