Hartmut Lehmann & James Van Horn Melton, eds.

Paths of Continuity: Central European Historiography from the 1930s to the 1950s

Publications of the German Historical Institute. Cambridge University Press, 1994.


Paths of Continuity examines the impact of the Third Reich on the German historical profession before and after 1945. The essays look at ten prominent historians whose lives and work spanned the period from the 1930s to the 1960s. Their response to the Nazi regime ranged from open resistance to willing collaboration. Ironically, however, much of the impetus for scholarly innovation after 1945 came from historians with earlier ties to the antiliberal "folk history" of the Nazi era. All in all, this insightful collection of essays provides fresh insight into the development of West German historical scholarship since 1945.