CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2017
This book examines the 1871 unification of Germany through the prism of one of its ‘forgotten states’, the Kingdom of Württemberg. It moves beyond the traditional argument for the importance of the great powers of Austria and Prussia in controlling German destiny at this time. Bodie A. Ashton champions the significance of Württemberg and as a result all 38 German states in the unification process, noting that each had their own institutions and traditions that proved vital to the eventual shape of German unity.
The Kingdom of Württemberg and the Making of Germany, 1815-1871 demonstrates that the state’s government was dynamic and in full control of its own policy-making throughout most of the 19th century, with Ashton showing a keen appreciation for the state’s domestic development during the period. The book traces Württemberg’s strong involvement in the national question, and how successive governments and monarchs in the state’s capital of Stuttgart manoeuvred the country so as to gain the greatest advantage. It successfully argues that the shape of German unification was not inevitable, and was in fact driven largely by the desires of the Mittelstaaten, rather than the great powers; the eventual Reichsgründung of January 1871 was merely the final step in a long series of negotiations, diplomatic manoeuvres and subterfuge, with Württemberg playing a vital, regional role.
Making use of a wealth of primary sources, including telegrams, newspaper articles, diary entries, letters and government documents, this is a vitally important study for all scholars and students of 19th-century Germany.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 9781350079700
Number of pages: 240
Weight: 345 g
Dimensions: 234 x 156 mm
Bodie A. Ashton makes an important contribution to the German and regional history of the 19th century with his book. It is recommended. - H-German
[The book] offers in a concise way a good overview of Württemberg’s room for manoeuvre and initiatives with regard to the German Question between 1815 and 1871. - German History
This comprehensive book represents nothing less than the current state of research on the history of nineteenth-century Württemberg, and it will surely find readers in the other remaining Mittelstaaten as well. - European History Quarterly
A succinct book, whose valuable contribution to the transfer of knowledge across different historiographies should be acknowledged. - German Historical Institute London Bulletin
This is a clearly presented, well-researched, and very readable account of the multifaceted role the middle-seized German state of Württemberg – the home of Friedrich Schiller, Hermann Hesse, and Albert Einstein – played in the process of German unification. Intimately familiar with the historiography, Bodie Ashton offers a fresh and interesting perspective on this rich topic. - Hermann Beck, Professor of History and International Studies, University of Miami, USA
This is a very welcome contribution to nineteenth-century German history. Bodie Ashton's new study of the small South-west German state of Württemberg retells the history of the movement for German unification from an unfamiliar vantage point. In calling into question some of the assumptions of an older body of literature, Ashton gives us the benefit of a more plural and more open-ended history of German unification, at the same time as demonstrating why some alternative ideals of the nation-state ultimately failed. - Andrew Bonnell, Associate Professor in History, University of Queensland, Australia
It is hard to give this book sufficient praise; lucid and thoroughly researched, it brings the past to life, and the sections on politics, economic growth (or the absence of it in southern Germany), and warfare are equally effective. If the unification of Germany came in a way that was unexpected (the author notes in closing), what came afterward was equally unpredictable. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. - CHOICE
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