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********************************************* Eric Dorn Brose. _German History 1789-1871: From the Holy Roman Empire to the Bismarckian Reich_. REVIEWED FOR H-GERMAN BY ANTHONY J. STEINHOFF ********************************************** Eric Dorn Brose. _German History 1789-1871: From the Holy Roman Empire to the Bismarckian Reich_. Providence, R.I.: Berghahn Books, 1997. Pp. x + 382. Cloth $65.00. ISBN 1-5781-055-2. Paper $19.50. ISBN 1-5781-056-0. After specialized studies on Christian labor in Imperial Germany and on technology in early nineteenth-century Prussia, Eric Dorn Brose has now turned his hand to producing a survey of German history between the French Revolution and Bismarckian unification. With this fine volume, Brose does not substantially rethink this seminal period in the history of German Europe. Rather, as he states in the preface, the book has two other, equally important goals. First, the work aims to provide what the monumental tomes of James Sheehan, Thomas Nipperdey, and Hans-Ulrich Wehler do not: a solid, manageable, English-language account of German history useful for both students and specialists. Second, Brose's synthesis incorporates the findings of the numerous studies that have appeared since Sheehan's work to "produce a composite image of Germany between 1789 and 1871." In concluding the justification for his work, Brose invites the reader to "put many of the available pieces together, step back, and see what the mosaic looks like" (x). The mosaic, though, is no random scattering of tiles. Instead, Brose structures his monograph to defend his decision to end the narrative in 1871. In short, he contends that 1871 marks the definitive resolution of three issues that had been debated in German Europe since 1789. First, a valid successor to the Holy Roman Empire emerged (the Second Empire), in which the power of the monarch was limited by an elected political body (viii). Second, the peasantry was emancipated and the socio-economic power of the guilds crushed. Third, after years of hesitation, barriers to the use of new technology and forms of industry were lifted, spurring the profound economic and social transformations that would characterize the Second Empire. Moreover, Brose points out how the debates on these questions spilled over into the realm of culture, affecting not only the perception of academic history, but also the very production of music, art, architecture, and literature. Does the book deliver? For the most part, yes. Brose uses crucial political events (the Congress of Vienna, the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848, the establishment of the Second German Empire) to divide his story into four relatively equal parts; indeed, he hangs his entire account on the back of this political chronology. Part I begins by painting the complex political, social, economic, and cultural landscape of German Europe on the eve of the French Revolution. It then proceeds chronologically, tracing the decline of the Holy Roman Empire, the effects of Napoleon's victories on Germans and their internal affairs, and the limits of reform (especially with respect to constitutions, guilds, and peasants) even in areas under direct French control. The section concludes with remarks on the emergence of German national spirit, which Brose explicitly describes as already strongly anti-Semitic in character (71). Whereas Part I is strictly chronological, the remaining three parts take a more topical approach to the three time periods they cover. In Part II, Brose adeptly summarizes the history of German Europe from 1815 to 1830. He sets not only politics, but also social and cultural life in the general atmosphere of reaction and repression following the Congress of Vienna. In social and economic terms, German Europe is still overwhelmingly agricultural and "preindustrial"; the old elites (nobles, the urban patriciate, guilds) are trying (with mixed success) to reassert their former powers against the wishes of both the state and the nascent _Bildungsbuergertum_. The 1820s are culturally important, for they mark the emergence of a new historical consciousness, evident not only in a preoccupation with the past (Hegel and Ranke), but also in the use of the past to create a notion of "Germanness" for the present (Schinkel, Weber, Grimm). Brose finishes the section by analyzing the Revolutions of 1830, in which once more the presumptions of the present were rebuffed. Part III is devoted to the _Vormaerz_ period. Interestingly, it is the least political of all the parts. In the first chapter (10), "The Politics of Industrialization," Brose demonstrates how difficult it was to introduce new forms of economic and industrial activity throughout the states of the Confederation, although Prussia and Saxony, for example, were among the states more open to them. In this context and in his discussion of the politics surrounding the _Zollverein_, Brose clearly foreshadows the emergence of Prussian hegemony between 1866 and 1871. The next two chapters sketch out the social and political frustration of the 1830s and 1840s: the emergence of an industrial-capitalist class and its inability to translate economic into political power, the growth of liberalism, and the rise of a working class. In the final chapter of the section, Brose argues that cultural trends prior to 1848 not only reflected but were part of the political struggles of the time. While his remarks on literature are insightful, notably the use of poetry as a genre of political resistance, the chapter as a whole is less successful, reading more like a catalog of important cultural and artistic figures. The final and longest section, Part IV, begins with the Revolutions of 1848. In contrast to both 1815 and 1830, Brose depicts the period after 1848 as one of increasing political, social, and economic realism: the monarchs and princes finally realized that they could not turn back the clock. Censorship returned, but written constitutions allowed for a significant increase in political participation. Restraints on industrial growth also began to fall away, as the power of the guilds receded and as governments recognized the fiscal benefits of industrial activity. It was a period of slow but meaningful urbanization and also significant emigration. Brose argues (indirectly) in the penultimate chapter that the variety in forms of cultural expression, whether in painting, architecture, music, or academic history, also testified to the onset of a new era. Befitting a work in which political events play such a key role, the final chapter recounts the victory of the "small Germany" solution (under Prussian leadership) to German political organization, culminating in the proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles in 1871. On balance, Brose's synthesis is a highly satisfactory one. His treatment of complicated political and diplomatic developments (the Napoleonic Wars, Austro-Prussian conflicts in the 1860s) is admirable; it focuses on the essentials without being too elementary. Not surprisingly, given his previous work, the sections on technology, workers, and the problems of labor are also exemplary. This reader also appreciates the extensiveness of Brose's definition of culture (particularly the attention to music and opera) and the author's efforts to integrate it into the overall narrative. It is not always successful, notably in the final sections where it takes on the appearance of intelligent name dropping, but no other account (including Sheehan's) engages such a catholic notion of culture. There are, nevertheless, a few areas in which the author does not quite achieve all he set out to accomplish. One goal involved communicating some of the major findings of recent, especially German scholarship to the English-language reader. Ironically, given the importance of social developments to the argument, the book is weakest in the area of social history. The chapter on "The Bourgeois Challenge," spends more time talking about industrialists and politics than on the bourgeoisie itself, even though two massive research projects on the _Buergertum_ (led by Lothar Gall and Werner Conze/Juergen Kocka) have led to an incredible amount of scholarly work. A second area in which much has been accomplished in the past few years has been the social history of religion. Brose's survey does not neglect the importance of confession as a social category; on the contrary, he returns time and again to highlight the significance of confessional divisions. What does not emerge, though, is the recognition of religion as social _activity_, which David Blackbourn, Wolfgang Schieder, Kurt Nowack, and Werner Blessing (among others) have been emphasizing for over fifteen years. This too represents an area in which the author passed on an opportunity to showcase new developments in the scholarship. One final set of concerns relate to the possible use of the work in the classroom. The first involves issues of presentation. Although we may commend Brose (or Berghahn press) for including maps and illustrations in the volume, especially since it is aimed at a general audience, the incorporation of these visuals is not ideal. The maps are too small and appear in gray-tones that are hard to read. The illustrations also take the form of miniatures, making more difficult a true appreciation of their value. Moreover, they are often printed several pages after they are first mentioned, in one case even a full chapter later. A second area of concern is the bibliography. While this reviewer appreciates the need to establish some limits on length, he still finds unfortunate the decision to limit the bibliography to a list of works cited, which are separated according to language. A more topically or chronologically oriented list would have helped more to guide the interested reader to further reading. Third, the decision to stop in 1871 remains problematic. One can agree with Brose that the political, social, and economic questions that had been debated between 1789 and 1871 _were_ indeed solved in 1871. However, as Brose also makes clear in Part IV, because of the way in which they were solved and because of their consequences, this story ends not in 1871 but only in 1918, when the "Old Regime" finally gave way in German Europe. In this respect _German History_ stops too early. As a general introduction to the first two-thirds of nineteenth- century German Europe, Brose's _German History 1789-1871_ does not disappoint. Indeed, it would be an excellent companion for any German Studies course focusing on all or part of this period. However, for the history teacher who seeks an introductory text for the entire nineteenth-century, to be supplemented by specialized readings, Brose's decision to stop in 1871 poses a problem: the students will have to buy another book. Yet, if Brose were to write a sequel moving from 1871 to 1918, perhaps this would not be such a bad thing. Anthony J. Steinhoff College of Charleston ************************************************* ************************************************* Copyright 1998 by H-net. All rights reserved. This work may be copied for non-profit educational use proper credit is given to the author and the list. For other permission contact H-Net@h-net.msu.edu. All H-German Book and Article Reviews are posted at the H-German WWW Site. Go to http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~german
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