The German bourgeoisie - David Blackbourn

The German bourgeoisie has received a consistently bad press from historians through the decades. It has been blamed for succumbing to the lure of titles and honours, for being enticed away from its historic committment to liberal values, for aping the aristocracy, for political indifference, for fear of democracy and distrust of the modern world. Yet until recently there has been surprisingly little written about the German bourgeoisie from the point of view of the social historian. This collection of essays by British, German, and American historians aims to remedy that deficiency. Bringing together original research, it tackles the central question of the extent to which the bourgeoisie was politically weaker or socially more subservient to the aristocracy than its counterparts in Britain and France. Framed by wide-ranging essays on the place of the bourgeoisie in German history and politics and in the so-called "Sonderweg" debate, are studies of the monied and propertied mercantile, industrial, and financial bourgeoisie, the bourgeois family, and educated bourgeois groups.