Synopses & Reviews
These nine papers, by leading British, Irish and German scholars show how and why, in a crucial period of history, these countries preferred change that was gradual and consensual to radical and violent revolution. In the study of late eighteenth-century Europe the concept of reform, both in theory and in practice, has been neglected compared to the attention lavished on its more glamorous relation revolution. Yet it was reform not revolution which characterised the experience of both Great Britain and Germany from 1750 to 1850. This volume takes a comparative approach to shed all manner of new light on old problems. The British ship of state sailed untroubled through the turbulence created by the French Revolution without having to do much more than take in the occasional sail and flog the odd mutineer. Germany was certainly revolutionised after 1789, not least by the destruction of the Holy Roman Empire, but it was change imposed from outside, not generated from within by domestic subversion. Indeed, the various forms of exploitation suffered at the hands of the French Revolutionaries and their heir, Napoleon, only served to strengthen a long-established German preference for gradual change through reform. Though violent and rapid change may be more dramatic than gradual adaptation, this volume reveals that the study of the latter stimulates just as much intellectual excitement.
Synopsis
In the study of late eighteenth-century Europe the concept of `reform' has been neglected compared to the attention lavished on its more glamorous relation `revolution'. Yet it was reform not revolution which characterized the experience of both Great Britain and Germany from 1750 to 1850. This volume takes a comparative approach to shed new light on old problems.
Synopsis
This book brings together nine papers by leading British, Irish and German scholars on why these countries chose gradual, rather than radical, change during this period of history. Reform can be seen as a less exciting topic of study than revolution, but this book aims to redress this view.
Table of Contents
Introduction, T. C. W. Banning and Peter Wende
Why does Corruption Matter? Reforms and Reform Movements in Britain and Germany in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century, Eckhart Hellmuth
The Whigs, the People, and Reform, L. G. Mitchell
Legal Reforms: Changing the Law in Germany in the Ancien Regime and in the Vormarz, Diethelm Klippel
The Prussian Reformers and their Impact on German History, Hagen Schulze
Reform in Britain and Prussia, 1797-1815: (Confessional) Fiscal-Military State and Military-Agrarian Complex, Brendan Simms
The English as Reformers: Foreign Visitors' Impressions. 1750-1850, Paul Langford
Riding a Tiger, Daniel O'Connell
Reform, and Popular Politics in Ireland, 1800-1847, K. Theodore Hoppen
1848: Reform or Revolution in Germany and Great Britain, Peter Wende
The Idea of Reform in British Politics 1829-1850, Derek Beales