Provincial Modernity

Jennifer Jenkins is Associate Professor of History and Canada Research Chair in Modern Germany History at the University of Toronto.

Jennifer Jenkin's Provincial Modernity... embeds Lichtwark and his project... deeply in the social and political history of Hamburg.... Jenkins shows that the divisions within the world of Hamburg's patrons of culture were closely intermeshed with the divisions that opened up within Hamburg's political world as the mercantile elite was squeezed between the loss of autonomy to the growing central power of the Reich administration, on the one hand, and the massive growth of the local labor movement, on the other.... Jenkins's impressive book... shows in absorbing and illuminating detail how central culture life was to the public sphere.(Journal of Modern History) The book is well-written and solidly grounded in the city's archives and memoirs... This study offers several contributions to German imperial historiography, in particular a nuanced cultural understanding of Heimat and an alternative view of civic liberalism.(H-Net Reviews) Jenkins does a wonderful job of capturing the visions of cultural reformers, museum directors, teachers, architects, artists, and others who sought to transform Hamburg and its image around the turn of the century. She has a talent for describing their efforts and showing how their shifting sense of place motivated, and was reinforced by, their achievements.(Central European History) Jenkins's book offers a handy overview of key aspects within society and politics during the period.... Jenkins interweaves a history of Hamburg's Art Museum and Art Association with an analysis of how political structures and participation were reshaped under the pressure of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). This is a sophisticated discussion, an important contribution to social-cultural history.... In examining the educational programs Lichtwark developed in the museum, Jenkins offers a wide survey of both middle and working-class movements in this area, drawing on the work of Patrick Joyce to make interesting parallels with English developments.- William Weber, California State University, Long Beach (American Historical Review)