Toward the Century of Words: Johann Cotta and the Politics of the Public Realm in Germany, 1795-1832

In the decades between the French Revolution and the first stirrings of liberalism in the 1830s, German political culture defined itself apart from that of its neighbors to the west. Focusing on the career of Johann Cotta, the preeminent publisher of his generation, this book offers a lens through which we can more fully view and understand these turbulent years. Cotta is a familiar figure in the history of German letters, but his public life has never been studied comprehensively. He finan...