Synopses & Reviews
In the late eighteenth century, German-speaking Europe was a patchwork of principalities and lordships. Most people lived in the countryside, and just half survived until their late twenties. By the beginning of our own century, unified Germany was the most powerful state in Europe. No longer a provincial "land of poets and thinkers," the country had been transformed into an industrial and military giant with an advanced welfare system.
The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany, 1780-1918, is a masterful account of this transformation. Spanning 150 years, from the eve of the French Revolution to the end of World War I, it introduces students to crucial areas of German social and cultural history -- demography and social structure, work and leisure, education and religion -- while providing a comprehensive account of political events. The text explains how Germany came to be unified, and the consequences of that unification. It describes the growing role of the state and new ways in which rulers asserted their authority, but questions clichés about German "obedience." It also looks at the ways in which the factory, the railway, and the movement into towns created new social relations and altered perceptions of time and place. Drawing on a generation of work devoted to migration, housing, crime, medicine, and popular culture, Blackbourn offers a powerful and original account of a changing society, trying to do justice to the experiences of contemporary Germans, both women and men. Informed by the latest scholarship, The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany, 1780-1918, provides a complete and up-to-date alternative to conventional political histories of this period and is essential reading for undergraduates in German history and political science courses.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [527]-547) and index.
Table of Contents
List of Maps
List of Tables and Figures
List of Plates
Preface
Acknowledgments
Prologue: Germany in the Late Eighteenth Century
Small Worlds
Political Fragmentation and the Territorial State
The Forces of Social and Cultural Change
PART ONE: The Age of Revolutions, 1789-1848
Chapter 1. In the Shadow of France
The French Revolution in Germany
The Impact of War
Reform from Above
Chapter 2. Germany in Transition
Rulers, States, Identities
A Changing Society
The Development of Political Life
Chapter 3. The Revolutions of 1848-9
From Spring to Autumn
Counter-Revolution and 'Second Revolution'
The Causes of Failure
PART TWO: The Age of Progress, 1849-80
Chapter 4. Economy and Society Transformed
Industrialization
Emigration, Migration, Urbanization
A New Class Structure
Chapter 5. From Reaction to Unification
The Age of Reaction and the New Era
The Making of a United Germany
Division and Consolidation
Chapter 6. Progress and its Discontents
The Culture of Progress
Religion
Doubts and Anxieties
PART THREE: The Age of Modernity, 1880-1914
Chapter 7. 'Made in Germany': A New Economic Order
Agriculture, Industry, Small Business
Germany and the International Economy
Organized Interests, Politics and the State
Chapter 8. Society and Culture
For Better, For Worse
Order and Discipline
Culture and Revolt
Chapter 9. The Old Politics and the New
Elites, Parties and Popular Politics
Nationalism, Imperialism, Racism
Germany and the Coming of War
Epilogue: Germany at War, 1914-18
Front and Home Front
War Aims and Domestic Politics
Revolution and Beyond
Notes
Select Bibliography of English-Language Works
Index