| Description |
1 online resource (570 pages) |
| Contents |
Cover; Half Title; Title; Copyright; CONTENTS; List of Maps and Tables; List of Prussian Rulers; Preface; About the Contributors; Introduction: The rise of Prussia; The disparate nature of the Prussian state; Religious and intellectual movements: Pietism and the Enlightenment; The rural and urban environment; The state and the army; Expansion and consolidation; The French Revolution and Napoleon; 1. Prussia in history and historiography from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century; Prussian historiography in the eighteenth century; Prussian historiography in the early nineteenth century |
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The 'German vocation' of Prussia and the 'Hohenzollern legend'The critics of Prussianism; PART ONE: POLITICS, RELIGION AND SOCIETY; 2. Frederick William I and the beginnings of Prussian absolutism, 1713-1740; Frederick William I as king; Some obstacles to the development of Hohenzollern absolutism; Restructuring the central agencies of the state; The expansion of the army; Conclusion; 3. Piety, politics and society: Pietism in eighteenth-century Prussia; Philipp Jakob Spener and the origins of the Pietist movement; The alliance between Pietism and the monarchy |
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The impact of the Pietist movement on Prussian society and institutions4. Prussia and the Enlightenment; The social and political context of the Enlightenment; The two faces of the Enlightenment; Enlightenment institutions and sociability in Prussia; The debate in Prussia on the Enlightenment; PART TWO: THE RURAL AND URBAN ENVIRONMENT; 5. The transformation of the rural economy in East Elbian Prussia, 1750-1830; Prussian Gutsherrschaft around 1750; Prussian Gutsherrschaft in crisis, 1750-1807; Resolving the crisis of Gutsherrschaft; The agrarian reforms, 1807-21; Results of the reforms |
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Conclusion6. The development of the Prussian town, 1720-1815; The end of the Teutonic Knights' state and the towns of Royal (Polish) Prussia; Brandenburg-Prussian towns and Hohenzollern rule; The towns of Prussian Silesia; The annexation of the Polish Prussian cities; The impact of the urban reform work: the Städteordnung of 1808; PART THREE: THE STATE AND THE ARMY; 7. Prussia's emergence as a European great power, 1740-1763; The sinews of Prussian power; Prussia's emergence, 1740-6; Consolidation, 1746-56; Survival, 1756-63; 8. 1763-1786: The Second Reign of Frederick the Great? |
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Bureaucratic absolutism or personal monarchy?Aping the great powers?; Conquering new provinces in peacetime; The legacies of the second reign; 9. The Prussian military state, 1763-1806; Prussia's geopolitical imperative; The position of the nobility; The French Revolution and its consequences; 10. Prussia's army: continuity and change, 1713-1830; Geography, diplomacy and Prussia's military requirements; The nature of the army; PART FOUR: PRUSSIA, THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND NAPOLEON; 11. Prussia during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1786-1815 |
| Summary |
At the beginning of the eighteenth century Prussia was but one in a mosaic of German states, but it rose to be the unchallenged leader of German-speaking Europe after the fall of Napoleon. The book goes beyond the political, military and diplomatic concerns of the Prussian elite, whose record of events is the one upon which most histories of Prussia are based, and explains its rise in relation to Prussian society as a whole. Political analysis is integrated with material on such areas as agrarian society, urban life and religion, which are not fully examined in existing histories |
| Notes |
Frederick William II and the search for territorial aggrandizement |
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Print version record |
| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9781317887034 |
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1317887034 |
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