History of Germany, 1780-1918: The Long Nineteenth Century (Blackwell Classic Histories of Europe)
David Blackbourn
Language: English
Pages: 480
ISBN: 063123196X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
This history offers a powerful and original account of Germany from the eve of the French Revolution to the end of World War One.
- Written by a leading German historian who has transformed the historiography of modern Germany over the past two decades.
- Covers the whole of the long nineteenth century and emphasizes continuities through this period.
- Brings together political, social and cultural history.
- Combines a comprehensive account with a feel for the human dimension and the history of everyday life.
- Accessible to non-specialists, thought-provoking and entertaining.
- The updated second edition includes a revised bibliography.
states, among them Bavaria and Hanover, the real shift did not come until the middle of the 18 Sos. The clampdown also varied in intensity. It was more severe in Austria than in Prussia, most severe in several of the medium-sized and small states: Saxony, Hanover, Thuringia, Hesse-Darmstadt, Hesse-Nassau. That was where the swings between revolution and reaction had also been most violent before 1848. In the historically less authoritarian south, Baden generally remained more liberal than Bavaria
urbanization (as distinct from the growth of towns) they are referring to a spreading familiarity with urban material goods, consumption patterns and mores even in rural areas - a process accelerated by the railway.' At a time when German cities were being completely reshaped, they offered other new sights and sources of recreation for their inhabitants and visitors. There was the modern iron and glass architecture most conspicuously displayed in the new railway stations, then the parks and
degree of obedience from parishioners. The `machinery' of the church (Max Weber) showed how Catholicism adapted the forms, if not the content, of the age of progress.45 In the railway era, the new model pilgrimages to Kevelaer or Aachen were more disciplined than their often ragged predecessors: they were expected to run to timetable. And the church learnt from the great exhibitions of the period how to use electric lighting effectively in displaying hones and other holy objects.46 The renewed
the antisocialist law was lifted the Social Democratic Party had I oo,ooo members. By 1907 it had half a million, by 1914 over a million. What this meant is best indicated by comparison. In 1909-io, the SPD had some 720,000 members, which was comfortably more than the major socialist parties of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK combined. The core membership remained Protestant male skilled workers, but the party was now making
parliament was eventually dissolved by Prussian troops in June. By then, the polarization always implicit in the revolution had become complete. The last act pitted a radicalized popular movement against counterrevolutionary soldiers. This may have been an epilogue to the revolution, but it was a long and bloody one that deserves to be called a `second revolution'." For fully three months, from the third week of April to the third week of July, some of the leading German states became the scene