British Images of Germany: Admiration, Antagonism & Ambivalence, 1860–1914

British Images of Germany is the first full-length cultural history of Britain's relationship with Germany in the key period leading up to the First World War. Richard Scully reassesses what is imagined to be a fraught relationship, illuminating the sense of kinship Britons felt for Germany even in times of diplomatic tension. British Images of Germany: Admiration, Antagonism & Ambivalence, 1860-1914 is the first full-length cultural history of Britain's relationship with Germany and the Germans in the key period before the First World War. Representing a recent about-face in scholarly appreciations of Anglo-German relations, Richard Scully reassesses the assumption that the relationship in the lead up to 1914 was increasingly fraught and reveals a more complex picture: that a longstanding sense of kinship felt by Britons for Germany and the Germans persisted right up to the outbreak of war, even surviving times of acute diplomatic tension. This innovative re-examination incorporates the reading of British images of Germany in maps, travel literature, fiction and political cartoons: forms which have never before been appreciated for the light they shed on this fascinating period of history Front Matter....Pages i-xx Introduction — ‘The Beginnings’....Pages 1-7 Front Matter....Pages 9-9 From Geographical Expression to German Empire....Pages 11-20 ‘North Sea’ or ‘German Ocean’? Britain and Germany in the Wider World....Pages 21-26 A ‘Pink Link’ — Race, Religion and the Anglo-German Cartographic Freemasonry....Pages 27-36 War and the Severing of the ‘Pink Link’....Pages 37-41 Front Matter....Pages 43-43 Britain and Baedeker’s Germany....Pages 45-52 The Rhine, the Spas, and Beyond; in War and Peace....Pages 53-61 Business as Usual: The 1880s and 1890s....Pages 62-71 The Last of the Summer Holidays — Twentieth Century Travel....Pages 72-82 Front Matter....Pages 83-83 Learned, Indefatigable, Deep-Thinking Germany....Pages 85-92 The German Invasion of Britain in 1872 and ‘What Became of the Invaders’....Pages 93-103 Two Georges and Two Germanies: Gissing and Meredith Commence Debate....Pages 104-119 Looking into the Abyss?....Pages 120-130 Front Matter....Pages 131-131 ‘Wilhelm in Wonderland’ — Germany in the Wars of Unification....Pages 133-183 Satiated and Satisfied? Bismarckian Germany....Pages 184-212 ‘Dropping the Pilot’ — Kaiser Wilhelm II and the New Course....Pages 213-260 The Coming of the ‘Horrible Hun’....Pages 261-315 Conclusions....Pages 316-320 Back Matter....Pages 321-384