The practical imagination : the German sciences of state in the nineteenth century / David F. Lindenfeld.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lindenfeld, David F.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social sciences--Germany--History--19th century.

Social sciences.

Public administration--Germany--History--19th century.

Public administration.

Policy sciences--History--19th century.

Policy sciences.

History.

Germany--Intellectual life--19th century.

Germany.

Intellectual life.

Physical Description:

x, 382 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [1997]

Summary:

Drawing on the work of Foucault and Bourdieu, David Lindenfeld illuminates the practical imagination as it was exhibited in the transformation of the political and social sciences during the changing conditions of nineteenth-century Germany. Using a wealth of information from state and university archives, private correspondence, and a survey of lecture offerings in German universities, Lindenfeld examines the original group of learned disciplines that originated in eighteenth-century Germany as a curriculum to train state officials in the administration and reform of society and included economics, statistics, politics, public administration, finance, and state law, as well as agriculture, forestry, and mining. He explores the ways in which some systems of knowledge became extinct, and how new ones came into existence, while others migrated to different subject areas.

Lindenfeld argues that these sciences of state developed a technique of deliberation on practical issues such as tax policy and welfare that serves as a model for contemporary administrations.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 337-370) and index.

ISBN:

0226482413

0226482421

OCLC:

35526312