Social Foundations of German Unification, 1858-1871, Volume II: Struggles and Accomplishments

This volume, together with its predeccessor (Ideas and Institutions, 1969), is an examinataion of the social and economic foreces that helped shape Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. The previous volume established the ideological and institutional framework; in Struggles and Accomplishments Mr. Hamerow discussess, within that framework, the forma nd achievement of German unification.

Using documentation from business, artisan, and workers’ organizations, the press, and government archives, Mr. Hamerow considers the changes effected by the growth of an industrial society: among them, the new, mid-century confrontation between the established order (the crown and aristocracy) and the advocates of change (the propertied and educated bourgeoisie). The German Empire was, lie shows, the product of an unwritten compromise between the two groups, ready now to sacrifice the ideological principles that separated them for economic and political expediency.

Originally published in 1972.

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