Germany from Napoleon to Bismarck: 1800-1866

by Thomas Nipperdey, Daniel Nolan (Translator)

Overview

Thomas Nipperdey offers readers insights into the history and the culture of German nationalism, bringing to light much-needed information on the immediate prenational period of transition. A subject of passionate debates, the beginnings of German nationalism here receive a thorough-going exploration, from the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire to Bismarck's division of the German-speaking world into three parts: an enlarged Prussian state north of the Main, an isolated Austria-Hungary in the south, and a group of Catholic states in between. This altering of power structures, Nipperdey maintains, was the crucial action on which the future of the German state hinged. He traces the failure of German liberalism amidst the rise of nationalism, turning it from a story of inevitable catastrophe toward a series of episodes filled with contingency and choice.

The book opens with the seismic effect of Napoleon on the German ancien-régime. Napoleon's modernizing hegemony is shown to have led to the gradual emergence of a civil society based on the liberal bourgeoisie. Nipperdey examines the fate of this society from the revolutions of 1848-49 through the rise of Bismarck. Into this story he weaves insights concerning family life, working conditions, agriculture, industrialization, and demography as well as religion, learning, and the arts.

Originally published in 1996.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691607559
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	07/14/2014
Series:	Princeton Legacy Library , #333
Pages:	770
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.70(d)

Table of Contents

List of Tables

I The Great Upheaval 1

1 The End of Empire: Germany under Napoleon 1

2 The Great Reforms 19

3 The Great War and a Difficult Peace 67

II Life, Work, Business 85

1 Population 85

2 Family, Gender, Generations 97

3 Everyday Life 111

4 Agriculture and Rural Society 125

5 Industrialisation 155

6 Crafts 182

7 The Lower Classes, Factories, Industrial Workers, Social Problems 191

8 The Problem of Minorities: the Jews 217

9 Bourgeois Society 223

III Restoration and Vormarz, 1815-48 237

1 The End of the Reforms: Constitutions and Restoration 237

2 The Great Movements 250

3 The State and the States 280

4 German and European Politics 313

5 The Effects of the July Revolution 323

6 The Formation and Restructuring of the German Political Parties 333

7 Vormarz 350

IV Faith and Knowledge; Education and Art 356

1 Religion, Church, De-Christianisation 356

2 Education: School and University 398

3 The Sciences 428

4 Aesthetic Culture: Music, Art and Literature 472

5 The Reading Revolution and the Rise of the Press 520

V The Revolution of 1848-49 527

1 The March Revolution 527

2 The Road to the Paulskirche 537

3 Extraparliamentary Movements: Denominational and Social Problems 547

4 Germany and Europe 553

5 Between Radicalisation and Counter-Revolution 560

6 The Imperial Constitution and the Empire 579

7 The End 588

8 The Failed Revolution 590

9 Epilogue: Germany as a Union of the States? 595

VI Between Reaction and Liberalism: Bismarck and the Problem of German Unity, 1849-66 599

1 Reaction in Germany, 1849-59 599

2 German Policy in the 1850s 608

3 Germany in Europe: From the Crimean War to the Italian War 612

4 The New Era 620

5 The German Question, 1859-63 627

6 Politics and Society: Changes in the Parties 636

7 The Constitutional Conflict in Prussia and Bismarck's Minister-Presidency 667

8 The Decision concerning Germany: German and European Politics, 1863-66 684

9 Consequences 704

Epilogue 716

Index 717

Editorial Reviews

"Nipperdey has produced a history of German unification for the 1980s and 1990s and, one suspects, beyond.... Essential reading."

The Times Literary Supplement

"Nipperdey has produced a history of German unification for the 1980s and 1990s and, one suspects, beyond.... Essential reading."—The Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher