Thomas M. LEKAN's Books

Imagining the Nation in Nature

Landscape Preservation and German Identity, 1885-1945

By: Thomas M. LEKAN,Thomas M Lekan

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Imagining the Nation in Nature

Landscape Preservation and German Identity, 1885-1945

By: Thomas M. LEKAN,Thomas M Lekan

One of the most powerful nationalist ideas in modern Europe is the assertion that there is a link between people and their landscape. Focusing on the heart of German romanticism, the Rhineland, Thomas Lekan examines nature protection activities from Wilhelmine Germany through the end of the Nazi era to illuminate the relationship between environmental reform and the cultural construction of national identity. In the late nineteenth century, anxieties about national character infused ecological concerns about industrialization, spurring landscape preservationists to protect the natural environment. In the Rhineland's scenic rivers, forests, and natural landmarks, they saw Germany as a timeless and organic nation rather than a recently patchworked political construct. Landscape preservation also served conservative social ends during a period of rapid modernization, as outdoor pursuits were promoted to redirect class-conscious factory workers and unruly youth from "crass materialism" to the German homeland. Lekan's examination of Nazi environmental policy challenges recent work on the "green" Nazis by showing that the Third Reich systematically subordinated environmental concerns to war mobilization and racial hygiene. This book is an original contribution not only to studies of national identity in modern Germany but also to the growing field of European environmental history. Table of Contents: Introduction 1. Nature's Homelands: The Origins of Landscape Preservation, 1885-1914 2. The Militarization of Nature and Heimat, 1914-1923 3. The Landscape of Modernity in theWeimar Era 4. From Landscape to Lebensraum: Race and Environment under Nazism 5. Constructing Nature in the Third Reich Conclusion Abbreviations Notes Sources Acknowledgments Index Writing squarely within the idiom of the 'invented tradition' and the 'imagined nation,' Thomas Lekan argues that in the wake of belated unification and at a time of rapid industrialization, the German landscape came to be seen as a touchstone of national identity. He questions the idea that those engaged in landscape preservation were simply 'antimodern,' and he challenges both scholars who have seen a straightforward continuity from pre-1933 preservationist sentiment to Nazism and those who have made exaggerated claims for the Third Reich as the progenitor of modern green politics. This is a welcome contribution to the literature on local and national identity, joining works by Celia Applegate and Alon Confino, and on the environmental history of modern Germany. Both scholarly and original, Imagining the Nation in Nature is an impressive achievement. --David Blackbourn, Harvard University This important and timely book contributes to our understanding of German identity as well as to modern concepts of environmentalism and nature. Lekan's valuable contribution elucidates the modern, technocratic, and therapeutic vision of preservation that linked Weimar and the Third Reich. His analysis of Nazi bio-nature is significant and thought-provoking. --Alon Confino, University of Virginia

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343

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Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674040074

ISBN 13

9780674040076

Our Gigantic Zoo

A German Quest to Save the Serengeti

By: Thomas M. Lekan

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Our Gigantic Zoo

A German Quest to Save the Serengeti

By: Thomas M. Lekan

Our Gigantic Zoo tells the story of Bernhard Grzimek, the most important European wildlife conservationist, and his role in creating a permanent sanctuary for innocent animals in Serengeti National Park.

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349

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ISBN 10

0199843678

ISBN 13

9780199843671

Germany's Nature

Cultural Landscapes and Environmental History

By: Thomas M. Lekan,Thomas Zeller

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Germany's Nature

Cultural Landscapes and Environmental History

By: Thomas M. Lekan,Thomas Zeller

Annotation Includes a survey of the country's natural and cultural landscapes. Essays by scholars of history, geography, and the social sciences move beyond the Green movement to uncover enduring cultural patterns and social institutions. This book is for students and professionals working in European history, and the history of science and technology.

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280

Publisher

Rutgers University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813536677

ISBN 13

9780813536675

Imagining the Nation in Nature

Landscape Preservation and German Identity, 1885–1945

By: Thomas M. Lekan,Thomas M Lekan

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Imagining the Nation in Nature

Landscape Preservation and German Identity, 1885–1945

By: Thomas M. Lekan,Thomas M Lekan

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343

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Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674010701

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9780674010703

Our Gigantic Zoo

A German Quest to Save the Serengeti

By: Thomas M. Lekan

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Our Gigantic Zoo

A German Quest to Save the Serengeti

By: Thomas M. Lekan

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349

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ISBN 10

0199843678

ISBN 13

9780199843671

Germany's Nature

Cultural Landscapes and Environmental History

By: Thomas Lekan,Thomas Zeller

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Germany's Nature

Cultural Landscapes and Environmental History

By: Thomas Lekan,Thomas Zeller

Germany boasts one of the strongest environmental records in the world. The Rhine River is cleaner than it has been in decades, recycling is considered a civic duty, and German manufacturers of pollution-control technology export their products around the globe. Yet, little has been written about the country's remarkable environmental history, and even less of that research is available in English. Now for the first time, a survey of the country's natural and cultural landscapes is available in one volume. Essays by leading scholars of history, geography, and the social sciences move beyond the Green movement to uncover the enduring yet ever-changing cultural patterns, social institutions, and geographic factors that have sustained Germany's relationship to its land. Unlike the American environmental movement, which is still dominated by debates about wilderness conservation and the retention of untouched spaces, discussions of the German landscape have long recognized human impact as part of the "natural order." Drawing on a variety of sites as examples, including forests, waterways, the Autobahn, and natural history museums, the essays demonstrate how environmental debates in Germany have generally centered on the best ways to harmonize human priorities and organic order, rather than on attempts to reify wilderness as a place to escape from industrial society. Germany's Nature is essential reading for students and professionals working in the fields of environmental studies, European history, and the history of science and technology.

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Page Count

277

Publisher

Rutgers University Press

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ISBN 10

0813537703

ISBN 13

9780813537702

Book's by Thomas M. LEKAN

Imagining the Nation in Nature

Imagining the Nation in Nature

Our Gigantic Zoo

Our Gigantic Zoo

Germany's Nature

Germany's Nature

Imagining the Nation in Nature

Imagining the Nation in Nature

Our Gigantic Zoo

Our Gigantic Zoo

Germany's Nature

Germany's Nature

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