History of Germany 1780-1918: The Long Nineteenth Century

by David Blackbourn

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Germany, European History, Politics, 19th Century

452 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Anab · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m currently reading this for a course and I must say it’s one of the worse books I’ve read in a long time. The author rambles for 30 pages without headings or clear chronology ...makes strong claims without really justifying or supporting them. Not a fun read

[Aura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The excessive focus on social and economic History makes it lose the line of events that lead to the creation and development of the German nation. It's still a good overview of it's History in the 19th century for a beginner like me, since you get the basics to understand the complicated issues that are involved and that you can get more specifically in other sources.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seemed a solid work but I didn’t give it the attention I should have.

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tremendously competent piece of research, which portrays and measures wave after wave of social change. For example, Blackbourn shows the rise of women in public service vocations, which quickly surpassed the numbers of clergymen or members of religious orders. By the 1880s and 90s their efforts generated whole new industries in previously unvalued "welfare" work -- mother and child welfare, campaigns to eradicate tuberculosis and venereal disease, to raise awareness about nutrition or implement standards for sanitation and housing. In Germany, Fürsorge (welfare) became a catchword for a hundred newly popular initiatives to "improve" people's lives and relations.

Blackbourn captures the kinds of news that mattered more than the same old political and military contests.

[Daniel Schotman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential book. Although probably better if you first read the 2 volumes go Joachim Whaley : Germany And The Holy Roman Empire first and then move on to this one.

Mainly a political history about Germany from the death of Frederik The Great and WO1.

[William Shep · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very fine example of the way history should be written. Excellent.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview, though it moves quickly. Mostly political, economic, and social history, cultural figures and movements are mostly referenced in passing.

[Hugolane · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I started grad school, David Blackbourn was one of the British young Turks in German history. Together with Geoffrey Eley, who was at Michigan when I was there, Blackbourn wrote what was the definitive challenge of the so-called Sonderweg thesis -- the idea that modern Germany history had followed a special path from Bismarck to Hitler. When Blackbourn got the chance, he fled Thatcherite reorganization of British universities thanks to an offer from Harvard. Since then Blackbourn has continued to do excellent work, and in many ways this is a summation of a rethinking of German history Blackbourn has been pioneering since the 1980s.

Typical of his generation Blackbourn is deeply involved in social history, and uses it effectively to challenge older narratives of German political history, and there is a lot to be rewritten. As I noted in a review of the English translation of Friedrich Reinecke's book The Age of German Liberation, Blackbourn is able to debunk that Prussian centered argument, undoubtedly not through his own scholarship, but the work of others, but then this book is a survey that his heavily dependent on the breadth of Blackbourn's reading of other scholarship. I thought he did a fine of helping readers who might not be familiar that there really were multiple ideas about what Germany was, together with multiple centers of power until the 1860s, when suddenly there were not.

I can't single out a chapter that particularly blew me away, but that to my view is more evidence of the book's quality. My students were generally able to make sense of it, although, I found it helpful in class to explain some of the historical tropes Blackbourn was challenging. Had I not been familiar with those, it might well have been harder for them, and the book might have posed a bigger challenge.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat conflicted on this. Good at parts, but excessively focused on social and cultural history to the detriment of a more conventional approach, and even in these areas I didn't take too much away from this book. If I were not informed about the period in general I would have been utterly bewildered. As it is, Blackbourn seems to have struggled in structuring the book, and stylistically leaves a lot to be desired; I couldn't stand his constant rhetorical questions, for instance.

[Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly one of the most thorough accounts of imperial Germany I've read, using an acute sense of balance between the historiography and underlining the importance of contextualising political events.

This covers a wide array of topics including unification, the kulturkampf, WW1, the arms and naval race, imperialism and so much more. Very indepth indeed and probably the best historical book I've read so far for its attention to detail.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked it up to get some insight into why my relatives might have come from Germany. But OMG yaaawwwwwn. It's a pretty typical male-perspective history: all about who ruled this area and which battles were won and lost in that area. I picked up a few interesting details, but nothing that suggests why there would have been a massive emigration during that period.

[Paul Clarkson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative but hardgoing. I wanted an overview, which I got. I preferred the later in years narrative I think as I was familiar with some of the history.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, yes, the 139 year century. Compare that with the 20 year long 18th century or the 43.22 year long 21st century. A very useful book from a very intelligent author.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the textbooks for my German history class, and on its own I'm not sure I would have found it super satisfying, but it was great with supplementation.

[Chloe Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

prolly my fav history book that’s academic and accessible! total history of germany, all important but i thought migration, nation building, and colonialism sections were especially interesting

[Ci · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is this reader's mistake to pick up this book as her first introduction to pre-war Germany history. This is a learned, dense, academically oriented account of the political, economic, social and cultural history of the stated period. With multiple maps, figures, multiple strands of thoughts in the densely packed text, this reader is bewildered in the forest of a complex segment of time and space, loosely called Germany. A better approach would be to read something with a simpler structure and an overall drive of narrative.

The preface and prologue are the best segments of the book given their intended nature of brevity. Perhaps they are the only segments that I could summarize in my own words. (The rest are lost to the miasma of numerical and textual details).

(1) Germany, or the “Holy Roman Empire of the Germany Nation”, is a loose confederation of various nation-state, dukedom, and other forms of towns and feudal estates. Three major states of note: Austria, Saxony and Bavaria, which were major players on stage, along with main other more agile and no less aggressive units of power. There was no such thing as “Germany” per se.

(2) A new word for the Germanic science of administration: cameralism. Along with law and administration, Germany’s own version of political economy was largely driven topdown instead of bottom-up.

(3) Militarism dominates in Prussia while a general push among rulers to shun religious mysticism or obscurantism. Especially, “ we have already seen the practical impact of Catholic Enlightenment, a backlash among theologians, academics and clergy against the Baroque piety associated with the Jesuits”, Rationality, top-down leadership, industry and administration were recognized as backbones for society.

(4) A pithy summary of the period (courtesy of reader WWH) is “The British were building things (industrial revolution), the French were doing things (French revolution), and the German were reading things (lagging behind but had a reading culture in upper- and middle-classes)”. A more direct quote comes from Rolf Engelsing’s observation that in the late eighteenth century, Britain had an industrial revolution, France a political revolution, Germany had a mere “reading revolution”.

(5) In the shadow of French “Enlightened Absolutism”, the ideal of reason and equality did not set Germany ablaze. Why? Many factors from political to cultural accounts for the setting of limits of the Enlightenment craze. The reform staged at a top-down, meliorative and incremental even though agitations and revolts frequented in different time and location.

Before moving on to Bismarck and the emerging of the modern Germany, I have mired myself in the details leading up to such grand narrative. So time to move on to a simpler book and back to square one.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like many history books, the content is more interesting than how it is written. If the subject matter interests you, then this book will provide you with what you want to know.