Abstract | Acknowledging Germany's central role in twentieth-century life has hardly made things easy for historians, however. In large measure the challenge has been to devise clear and compelling storylines to explain the country's dramatically changing political fortunes, its transformation from warfare to welfare state, as well as its complex historical legacy in remaking German identities, European politics and even global history. Betts addresses how ideas of Germany as modernity's consummate "rogue state" have deeply colored twentieth-century views of international justice, exploring as well what is at stake in the recent collapse and even ironic reversal of this long-standing political perception.
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