Beyond the Barricades: Government and State-Building in Post-Revolutionary Prussia, 1848-1858

by Anna Ross

Overview

Beyond the Barricades is an original study of government after the 1848 revolutions. It focuses on the state of Prussia, where a number of conservative ministers sought to learn lessons from their experiences of upheaval and introduce a wave of reform in the 1850s. Using extensive archival research, the work explores Prussia's entry into the constitutional age, charting initiatives to transform criminal justice, agriculture, industry, communications, urban life, and the press. Reform strengthened contact with the Prussian population, making this a classic episode of state-building, but Beyond the Barricades seeks to go further. It makes a case for taking notice of government activity at this particular juncture because the measures endorsed by conservative statesmen in the 1850s sought to remove the feudal intermediaries that had lingered long into the nineteenth century and replace them with an array of government institutions, legal regimes, and official practices. In sum, this book recasts the post-revolutionary decade as a period which saw the transition from an old to a new world, pivotal to the making of modern Prussia and ultimately, modern Germany.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198833826
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/17/2019
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Anna Ross, Associate Professor, University of Warwick

Anna Ross is Associate Professor of Modern European History at the University of Warwick. She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge, and later held a Junior Research Fellowship at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. At Warwick, she is a member of the European History Research Centre, and the Global History and Culture Centre.

Table of Contents

Introduction1. Cabinets, Constitutions, and Parliamentary Representation2. Bureaucratic Geographies of the State3. Crime and Punishment4. Agriculture, Industry, and Communications5. Cities and Urban Life6. Public Opinion and Press ManagementConclusion

Editorial Reviews

"This book changes how we understand the history of nineteenth-century Prussia in fundamental ways, and it will be required reading for students and scholars of modern Germany for decades to come." — Abigail Green, Brasenose College, University of Oxford, American Historical Review

"Ross's work ... not only stands as an impressive study of Prussia in its own right, but also reminds scholars of other German states (and of Germany in general) that we write off the immediate post-revolutionary years at our peril. This work will become a standard reference for nineteenth-century German studies in the years to come." — Bodie A. Ashton, University of Passau, European History Quarterly

"Mercifully free of jargon, and grounded in thorough research, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the evolution of the state in modern German history." — David E. Barclay, Kalamazoo College, Journal of Modern History

"Ross's book marks a notable contribution to the literature on Prussian, German and European history in a transitional moment of the mid-nineteenth century." — Brian Vick, Emory Unviersity, German History

"...Ross has produced a fresh and well-written re-interpretation of Prussia's post-revolutionary moment. Her study is thus a very valuable addition to the latest scholarship on German state-building, which foregrounds transnational entanglements and a capacity for change." — Jasper Heinzen, University of York, The English Historical Review

"Ross recognizes parallels with previous state-building projects in the Napoleonic era, illuminating threads of continuity that are too often overlooked in histories of the nineteenth century." — Wolfram Siemann, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, German Historical Institute London Bulletin

From the Publisher