This volume analyzes both the successes and failures of the East German economy. The contributors consider the economic history of East Germany within its broader political, cultural and social contexts, and trace the present and future of the East German economy, suggesting possible outcomes.

In this panoramic study of Catholic book culture in Germany from 1770-1914, Jeffrey T. Zalar exposes the myth that the clergy defined Catholic reading habits. He shows that readers disobeyed the book rules of their church and read diverse literature, even works from the Index of Forbidden Books.

This study of the 1930s German-Japanese alliance employs sources in both languages to reveal the role of mass media in shaping and promoting an ideology which, by creating a niche for Japan in the Nazi worldview, convinced German Nazis to identify with non-Aryans and non-Germans to become adherents of Hitler.