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Fatherlands

Fatherlands

Fatherlands

State-Building and Nationhood in Nineteenth-Century Germany
Abigail Green , University of Oxford
December 2004
Paperback
9780521616232

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    Fatherlands is an original study of the nature of identity in nineteenth-century Germany, which has crucial implications for the understanding of nationalism, German unification and the German nation state in the modern era. The book approaches these questions from a new and important angle, that of the non-national territorial state. It explores the nature and impact of state-building in non-Prussian Germany. The issues covered range from railway construction and German industrialisation, to the modernisation of German monarchy, the emergence of a free press, the development of a modern educational system, and the role of monuments, museums and public festivities. Fatherlands draws principally on extensive primary research focusing on the three kingdoms of Hanover, Saxony and Württemberg. It is an attempt to 'join up the dots' of German history - moving beyond isolated local, regional and state-based studies to a general understanding of the state formation process in Germany.

    • Approaches the subject of German unification from the new and important angle of the non-national territorial state
    • Bridges the gulf between political, cultural and economic history and has important implications for many different fields of study
    • Offers a wide-ranging comparative study of three important but far-flung German states on which little has been written in English

    Reviews & endorsements

    '… it will be a great success which will make many stimulating contributions to early modern and modern European history … elegant, persuasive, and eminently readable … Abigail Green has succeeded in moving the goal posts for any enquiry into the growth of nationalism and the persistence of particularism in Germany in the second half of the nineteenth century.' Bulletin of the German Historical Institute, London

    '… closely argued and tremendously well researched … It should become required reading for those interested in the development of German nationalism … The book deserves to have a major impact.' Nations and Nationalism

    'State-building and nationhood are among German historiography's most durable subjects, but in Abigail Green's fine book we see them in a strikingly new context.' The English Historical Review

    'Green has devised a challenging but worthwhile and manageable comparative historical project.' German History

    '… for scholars interested in nationalism, state formation, or nineteenth-century Germany, this book is indispensable.' Journal of Social History

    See more reviews

    Product details

    September 2001
    Hardback
    9780521793131
    400 pages
    233 × 167 × 29 mm
    0.7kg
    18 b/w illus. 3 maps
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Introduction
    • 1. Variations of German experience: Hanover, Saxony and Württemberg
    • 2. Modernising monarchy
    • 3. Cultures of the fatherland
    • 4. Propaganda
    • 5. Educating patriots
    • 6. Communications
    • 7. Imagined identities
    • 8. Nationhood
    • Conclusion.
      Author
    • Abigail Green , University of Oxford