Rebellious Prussians : urban political culture under Frederick the Great and his successors / Florian Schui.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schui, Florian.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political culture--Germany--Prussia--History--18th century.

Political culture.

Prussia (Germany)--History--Frederick II, 1740-1786.

Prussia (Germany).

Prussia (Germany)--History--1740-1815.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (236 p.)

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This work challenges the accepted view that an oppressive Prussian state casts a shadow on the development of civil society and sheds light on a little-known historical reality in which weak Hohenzollern monarchs - and a still weaker Prussian bureaucracy - were confronted with prosperous, fearless, and argumentative Prussian burghers.

Contents:

Cover; Table of Contents; List of Illustrations; Introduction; Historiography; Sources; 1. The Paradoxes of State Building; The father of the Prussian state; The growing financial appetite of the state; Town vs. country; The making of Prussian burghers; The military-fiscal state as seen from the towns; The economics of the excise; Soldiers in the town; Religion and state building; Sex and the Prussian town; The 'state-free' schools of Prussia's towns; 'Where individual life carries its own centre of gravity within itself '; 2. Urban Navel-Gazing; Urban growth; The causes of urban growth

The wealth of townsEpicurean Prussians; 'Wealth is a mother of poverty'; The perils of wealth; The perils of poverty; The dangers of religious individualism; Recalibrating relations with the state; 3. Official Perspectives on the Towns; Knowing the towns; For whose benefit?; Tranquillity; Prosperity; The visible hand of the Prussian state; Guided consumers; The utility of specie; An English bank for Prussia; The long shadow of Colbert; Start-up industry protection; 4. Taxation and its Discontents; Membranes made of stone; Making an administration one official at a time

The creation of the RégieTaxpayer opposition; The power of the written word; The fall of the Régie; After the end; Reaping the benefits; Long-term outcomes; A soft landing for the Prussian state; 5. Religion and the State; A new hymnal for Prussia; Forms of resistance; Frederick the Great flees from a flock of burghers; The causes of rebellion; Religious Realpolitik; Woellner's machinations; The intellectual origins of the edicts; The dangers of 'self-thinking'; Opposition to the edicts; A people of 'self-thinkers'; Woellner, Voltaire, and subversiveness; 6. A Prussian on Liberty; On religion

On educationOn scarcity and abundance; On change; On the limits of state action; Conclusion: 'Le Sonderweg est mort, vive le Sonderweg?'; Bibliography; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; U; V; W; Z

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on Mar. 12, 2013).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-165104-4

1-299-13278-2

OCLC:

927460991