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German history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is notoriously inaccessible to non-specialists. When other European countries were well on the way to becoming nation states, Germany remained frozen as a territorially-fragmented, politically and religiously-divided society. The achievement of this major contribution to the new History of Germany is to do justice to the variety and multiplicity of the period without foundering under the wealth of information it conveys.
List of contents
List of maps. Preface. 1. Germany in 1600: The Land and the People. 2. Drifts and Eddies Towards War. 3. The Nightmare Begins: The Bohemian War. 4. Habsburg Triumphs, Protestant Defeats. 5. From One Insecure Peace to Another: 1629-1635. 6. Eternal War as Lifestyle. 7. Peace at Last. 8. The Development of Territorial Autocracy I
9. Development of Territorial Autocracy II. 10. The German Economy 1650-1800: Industry, Commerce and Finance
11. The German Economy 1650-1800. 13. German Culture after 1648: Religion and Education. 14. German Culture after 1648: Literature, Architecture and Music. 15. The Early Enlightenment to 1750. 16. The Legacies of Westphalia and Beyond 1648-1685/99. 17. Germany in the Maelstrom of War 1685-1721. 18. Austria and the Larger German States to 1740. 19. The Northern Sparta: Brandenburg-Prussia 1640-1740. 20. The Austro-Prussian Dualism 1740-1763. 21. The Development of Prussia and Austria 1763-1790. 22. The German Powers, the Empire and the Territories at the end of an Era. 23. The Later German Enlightenment. 24. The Revival of German Letters after 1740
Bibliography. Maps. Index.
About the author
John G. Gagliardo
Summary
German history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is notoriously inaccessible to non-specialists. When other European countries were well on the way to becoming nation states, Germany remained frozen as a territorially-fragmented, politically and religiously-divided society. The achievement of this major contribution to the new History of Germany is to do justice to the variety and multiplicity of the period without foundering under the wealth of information it conveys.
