Time and Power: Visions of History in German Politics, from the Thirty Years' War to the Third Reich
Christopher Clark
Jun 2025 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Grant Cartwright
headphones
Audiobook
7 hr 39 min
Unabridged
family_home
Eligible
info
Want a free 46 min sample? Listen anytime, even offline.
Add
About this audiobook
This book presents new perspectives on how the exercise of power is shaped by different notions of time. Acclaimed historian Christopher Clark draws on four key figures from German history—Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Prussia, Frederick the Great, Otto von Bismarck, and Adolf Hitler—to look at history through a temporal lens and ask how historical actors and their regimes embody unique conceptions of time.
Inspired by the insights of Reinhart Koselleck and François Hartog, pioneers of the "temporal turn" in historiography, Clark shows how Friedrich Wilhelm rejected the notion of continuity with the past, believing instead that a sovereign must liberate the state from the entanglements of tradition to choose freely among different possible futures. He demonstrates how Frederick the Great abandoned this paradigm for a neoclassical vision of history in which sovereign and state transcend time altogether, and how Bismarck believed that the statesman's duty was to preserve the timeless permanence of the state amid the torrent of historical change. Clark describes how Hitler sought to evade history altogether, emphasizing timeless racial archetypes and a prophetically foretold future. From the Thirty Years' War to the fall of the Third Reich, this book reveals the connection between political power and the distinct temporalities of the leaders who wield it.
Inspired by the insights of Reinhart Koselleck and François Hartog, pioneers of the "temporal turn" in historiography, Clark shows how Friedrich Wilhelm rejected the notion of continuity with the past, believing instead that a sovereign must liberate the state from the entanglements of tradition to choose freely among different possible futures. He demonstrates how Frederick the Great abandoned this paradigm for a neoclassical vision of history in which sovereign and state transcend time altogether, and how Bismarck believed that the statesman's duty was to preserve the timeless permanence of the state amid the torrent of historical change. Clark describes how Hitler sought to evade history altogether, emphasizing timeless racial archetypes and a prophetically foretold future. From the Thirty Years' War to the fall of the Third Reich, this book reveals the connection between political power and the distinct temporalities of the leaders who wield it.
This book presents new perspectives on how the exercise of power is shaped by different notions of time. Acclaimed historian Christopher Clark draws on four key figures from German history—Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Prussia, Frederick the Great, Otto von Bismarck, and Adolf Hitler—to look a...
Discover more
Rate this audiobook
Tell us what you think.
Listening information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
