In the wake of the First World War, many Germans saw the future of their nation as contingent on a vision of municipal progress. In this well-researched study, Anthony McElligott uses an analysis of local politics to decipher the fate of the Weimar Republic. Focusing on the industrial city of Altona, McElligott locates his discussion of the contradictions of the Weimar "local state" along two axes--first, persistent financial, policy, and political conflict between the central and the loca...