The German Empire has been the focus of enormous historical interest, particularly during the last thirty years, when its relationship to the Third Reich became an acute historical and civic problem. This volume provides a comprehensive introduction to the rich historical literature on the subject. In topical chapters, a group of leading scholars from six different countries, who have themselves participated in crafting the historiography of Imperial Germany, address the principal interpretive issues that have informed this literature. The volume provides a central reference for students of modern German and European history.

The chapters present historiographical surveys, which integrate original analyses and extended bibliographies. The topics covered include historical geography, agriculture, technology and industrial growth, demographic and social change, regionalism and particularism, confessionalism, state and society, education, political mobilization, the socialist labor movement, the academic disciplines and social thought, literature and the arts, foreign policy, colonialism and colonial empire, the armed forces and military planning, and Imperial Germany during World War I. The volume provides a central reference for students of modern German and European history.