The Peculiarities of German History: Bourgeois Society and Politics in Nineteenth Century Germany

David Blackbourn, Geoff Eley

Is German history really a special case that explains Nazism, or is that view built on a flawed picture of how Britain developed?

At a glance

You will learn to test a famous claim that one country took a special path by asking what it is being compared with
You will see how a middle class can reshape a country through its economy and laws without a dramatic revolution
You will understand how national myths can make a country's past look stranger than it was

Introduction
The British Model and the German Road: Rethinking the Course of German History Before 1914
I. Basic Assumptions of German Historiography
II. German Historians and the Problem of Bourgeois Revolution
III. Theoretical Bearings: The British Societal Model
IV. Bourgeoisie—Liberalism—Democracy: Some Necessary Distinctions
V. Backward State/Modern Economy: Unscrambling the German Couplet
VI. Possibilities of Reform in Britain and Germany
VII. The Realpolitik of the Bourgeoisie and the Redundancy of Liberalism
VIII. Defining the State in Imperial Germany
IX. Some Provisional Conclusions
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie: Reappraising German History in the Nineteenth Century
I. German Peculiarities
II. Economy and Society: A Silent Bourgeois Revolution
III. Economy and Society: The Shadow Side
IV. The State and Politics
V. The Political Stage and the Problem of Reform
VI. Conclusion
Bibliographical Note
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