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At the turn of the twentieth century, the United States and Germany were seen as rivals in a “race for modernity,” each pursuing distinct visions of the future. America’s image as a technological pioneer reshaped European self-perception, while Germany asserted its own path through science, engineering, and a far-reaching reform of design, architecture, and applied arts. This book explores the cultural encounters and confrontations between 1880 and the 1930s, moving beyond familiar narratives of Fordism and Taylorism to reveal technology as a dynamic cultural force. By tracing the adoption of German science in the United States, the American endeavors of conceptualizing technology in the search for a genuine American culture, and the German fascination and critique of “Americanism” in the Weimar republic, it offers new perspectives on transatlantic modernity.
Frank Trommler, Professor emeritus of German at the University of Pennsylvania, was a member of the Department of Germanics since 1970. A Guggenheim Fellow in 1984/85, President of the German Studies Association in 1991/92, and from 1995-2003 Director of the Humanities Program at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies in Washington, DC. In 2014 he received the Honorary Doctorate of Modern Languages from the Middlebury Language School. One of the leading cultural historians of modern Germany, Trommler has published widely in the field of German-American relations.
List of Figures
Introduction
Chapter 1. From Stingy Peasants and Romantic Dreamers to the German Industrial State
Chapter 2. America and German Science
Chapter 3. Culture as a Catch-up Process: Technology and Efficiency as Guarantors of the Nation
Chapter 4. Technology and Culture: Transatlantic Distances and Challenges
Chapter 5. French Enthusiasm for Technology and Deliberations on American Culture
Chapter 6. The Kaiser, the Engineers, and the Roots of Modernist Functionalism
Chapter 7. German Arts and Crafts and American Consumer Culture
Chapter 8. The Architects’ Encounter with Technology: Distance and Cross-Fertilization
Chapter 9. From Modernity to Modernism: A Transatlantic Undertaking
Chapter 10. The Military, the Engineers, and the Abysses of Sachlichkeit in War
Chapter 11. Weimar Culture: Departing from the Old to the New Sachlichkeit
Chapter 12. Weimar: Five Times Technology in Different Contexts
Conclusion: American Modernism with and without Europe
Bibliography
Index