“Father Christmas Comes Tomorrow”: Catching Up with History
Filling out the Department of History’s stellar year for book publications is Prof. Joe Perry’s Christmas in Germany: A Cultural History, published this September by the University of North Carolina Press.
From the publisher:
This richly illustrated volume explores the invention, evolution, and politicization of Germany’s favorite national holiday. According to Perry, Christmas played a crucial role in public politics, as revealed in the militarization of “War Christmas” during World War I and World War II, the Nazification of Christmas by the Third Reich, and the political manipulation of Christmas during the Cold War. Perry offers a close analysis of the impact of consumer culture on popular celebration and the conflicts created as religious, commercial, and political authorities sought to control the holiday’s meaning. By unpacking the intimate links between domestic celebration, popular piety, consumer desires, and political ideology, Perry concludes that family festivity was central in the making and remaking of public national identities.
As Christmas approaches, check out this thought-provoking interpretation of relationships between holiday celebrations and national identity!