Publications of the German Historical Institute Transatlantic Images and Perceptions

These essays analyse how German and American views of each other developed and periodically shifted, providing an analysis of the German-American relationship. The images reflect the contemporary relations, often foreshadow future trends, and illustrate how political agendas, prejudices, and stereotypes influence perceptions. Over the last two centuries, Germans and Americans have been rivals, friends, opponents, and, most recently, allies. This 1997 cross-disciplinary collection of essays analyses how German and American views of each other developed and periodically shifted, providing a fresh analysis of the often complex German-American relationship. The images that resulted from encounters between the two countries frequently reflected significant cross-currents of the contemporary relations, and often foreshadowed important trends. The nine German and eight American contributors to this volume analysed travelogues, private letters, diaries, diplomatic reports, and newspaper articles from the wake of US independence through the reunification of Germany, and also post-1945 movies, that reflect these cross-cultural encounters and illustrate how political agendas, prejudices, stereotypes, and pragmatic forces influenced individual, group and mass perceptions of the other society.