Table of Contents

List of illustrations; List of maps; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. La grande peur of November 1918; 2. Karl Liebknecht and the Spartacist threat; 3. Terror and order; 4. The edge of the abyss; 5. The January uprising; 6. Atrocities and remobilisation; 7. Weimar's order to execute; 8. Death in Munich; Conclusion; Bibliography.

Promotional Information

The first study to reveal the key relationship between violence and fears of violence during the German Revolution of 1918–1919.

About the Author

Mark Jones is a historian of modern Europe. He is currently an Irish Research Council Marie Curie Fellow at University College Dublin and the Free University of Berlin. He was educated at the European University Institute, the University of Cambridge, the University of Tübingen, and Trinity College Dublin, where he graduated with a first class honours degree in history and political science, placed first in his class.

Reviews

'A book that revolutionizes our understanding of the German Revolution of 1918-19 and the long term history and long term origins of Nazism. A major achievement.' Richard Evans, University of Cambridge

'Based on meticulous archival research and written by one of the most promising young historians of modern Germany, Founding Weimar is an important scholarly corrective to our understanding of the difficult birth of German democracy after the First World War. Its emphasis on violence and rumours challenges the traditional high-politics focus and opens up new questions about German history in the fateful first half of the twentieth century.' Robert Gerwarth, University College Dublin

'A remarkable new account of the German Revolution of 1918–1919 … Jones manages to mix military and political history together with social and cultural history in a book that merits a wide readership.' Peter C. Caldwell, Central European History

'A major contribution to historiography … there are reasons to believe that it will be regarded as a turning point in the way in which historians explain post First World War revolutionary processes and political violence on the European continent … Original and well written, Founding Weimar is an innovative, intriguing, and persuasive analysis of violence during the German revolution of 1918–19. Mark Jones must be congratulated on his new and provocative contribution to the topic.' Ángel Alcalde, Reviews in History