Faust's Metropolis: a History of Berlin by Alexandra Richie
In this magisterial new work, Oxford historian Alexandra Ritchie recounts how Berlin forged itself into the Schicksal Stadt Deutschlands -- the City of German Destiny -- and the consequences. With an assured sense of narrative, Ritchie follows Berlin from its pre-Roman roots and Medieval foundation to the nation-building dreams of Frederick the Great and Bismarck. She also traces its surprisingly heterogeneous social forces, which belie the Prussian and Nazi myths of a single German yolk. Most important, she concentrates on the city's pivotal position in the twentieth century's upheavals: the Weimar Republics decadent capital, which rivaled New York and Paris for culture; Hitler and Goebbels's attempt to build a fascist metropolis and its destruction; and the city divided by the Cold War.
Unique in its scope and scholarship, Faust's Metropolis is history at its most enthralling. It presents an encyclopedic history of this ever-changing city, a vivid social portrait of its citizens, and a thorough evaluation of its political and cultural legacy. Wresting Berlins actual past from its myths, Ritchie arrives as brilliant, authoritative new historian formidably in command of her fascinating subject.