Book Reviews - Review 227

This is a 1995 edition of a book originally published in 1988. Though now rather out of date, it offers very piquant insights into post-war German life, society and thinking. It's a long time since I read it, but it's extraordinarily comprehensive in scope, covering politics, home life, the arts and the absorption of the old East Germany into the Federal Republic. I found the book a near-perfect blend of the analytical and the impressionistic: Ardagh is positive about the country, but never uncritical; he has a real ability to get to the heart of what makes a nation tick. A "noughties" update would have been nice, but unfortunately Ardagh is no longer with us.