Terror and Democracy in West Germany

Karrin Hanshew is Assistant Professor of History at Michigan State University.

• 1. Democracy made militant: the Federal Republic of Germany; 2. Disobedient Germans: resistance and the extraparliamentary left; 3. 'Mister Computer' and the search for internal security; 4. The security state, new social movements, and the duty to resist; 5. The German autumn, 1977; 6. Civility, German identity, and the end of the postwar.

'This excellent book traces the torturous process by which West Germans negotiated the relationship between security and civil liberties in the shadow of the Nazi dictatorship. It highlights the German autumn in 1977 as a culmination point for both the Left's and Right's reconciliation with the basic institutional framework of the Federal Republic. A major contribution to the history of postwar democratization and to the contemporary debate on terror and democracy that underscores the essential role of vibrant public discourse and popular vigilance in preserving democratic freedoms.' Frank Biess, University of California, San Diego