The Age of German Liberation, 1795-1815

by Friedrich Meinecke

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.

Genres: History

225 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 1977

Reviews

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this in German, but the German edition doesn't seem to be available on here.

It's an interesting book by one of Germany's most important 20th century intellectuals, but it can't be of much interest to people who aren't either studying Meinecke or studying the period in question. And if, like me, you *are* studying the period in question, its current value is mostly as a brief overview, to provide well-written illustrative quotes and/or for something to critique.

Needless to say, as historiography it is well out of date. This is not in itself a problem - I regularly use German historiography from the early 20th century (when they are useful and accurate), and I'm slowly working my way through (and enjoying) The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire. The book certainly has some literary merits but, perhaps in part because of its brevity, it also lacks the kind of comprehensive, wide-ranging narrative that Gibbon's work offers. Instead, the reader gets ~250 pages of Prussian triumphalism (and it is, pretty much, all about Prussia), crude patriotism and not a whole lot else.

It's certainly interesting, but probably not worth anybody's time who wouldn't read it regardless of reviews.

[Hugolane · Rating 3 out of 5]

My specialty is not German history, but an adjacent one, but my scholarly knowledge of German history was indirectly shaped by Meinecke. Until quite recently, I would have used terms like the German War of liberation, for example, and I certainly picked up this book with an eye on learning more about that moment. Funny thing is that by the time I actually got around to reading this book I'd just read David Blackbourn's history of the 19th C, where among other things Blackbourn debunks the idea of the German wars of liberation. I'm pretty sure Blackbourn is right about this, but reading Meinecke gave me a sense for how influential he had been, and also the importance of Prussian-centered historiography in shaping the narrative of modern German history. Like all national narratives what Meinecke has presented is a kind of Whig history, where Prussian reforms were all driven by an inchoate German nationalism that just hadn't been fully recognized but was in fact already animating German history. Not sure at this point I have much use for this book beyond that reading. Can't see assigning such a text, and don't feel compelled to return to it.