Some people typically refer to the United States as a “melting pot” to describe the culturally diverse makeup of our nation.  While we are proud to be culturally diverse, most Americans also take a great deal of pride in the notion that we are “free.”  “Free” of tyranny and oppressive regimes through our ability to actively partake in the election process through voting, our constitutional rights and a multitude of other safeguards enacted to protect democracy.  It can be argued that we are the founders of modern democracy, however similar to Germany we are a relatively young nation (less than 300 years) and major themes of our political and judicial systems can be traced back through history for thousands of years. 

            An entire library could be dedicated to books entailing the influence Rome had on the formation of the Western world, but Schulze says it quite perfectly: “The foundations of national statehood and low the customs of urban life, our languages and ways of thinking, our alphabet and books, our architecture—in short, the whole basis of the modern world in the West is unimaginable without the contributions of Roman civilization and the two older civilizations interwoven with it, those of Greece and the Hellenistic Orient (Schulze 2).”  Most college students would agree that Rome and Greece have had a significant impact on the Western world, however I believe that we often overlook the impact that more modern nations have left on Germany and us.  Neither nation started off as a “thoroughbred” and to put it bluntly, we were both “mutts” from a collection of different European “states.”  Our culturally diverse makeup contributed to our ability to use European states as an example on how to or how not to mold our nation. 

            The first two chapters of Schulze’s book have given me more information on the formation of Germany that I could have ever known, but what I have appreciated most about the book is Schulze’s ability to clearly define the historical context leading up to the creation of Germany, and the role that certain individuals played in that event.  Further, the first two chapters have started to indirectly point out multiple similarities between the formation of the United States and Germany, and I look forward to finding out more! (W/C 381)