Full Description
Ever since the late 18th century, European society has been undergoing a transformation in which the most dynamic element has been the middle class. This provocative book contains the first comprehensive study of 18th and early 19th century bourgeois society by American, European and Israeli scholars in history, anthropology, literature, sociology and law. They examine the specific characteristics of the middle class social types, the extent to which their values and interests altered the texture of 19th century European society and national differences that emerged in their development.
Contents
Part 1 European society and the bourgeoisie: the European pattern and the German case, Juergen Kocka; liberalism and bourgeois society, Dieter Langewiesche; the nobility and the bourgeoisie in Europe, Werner Mosse; businessmen and the bourgeoisie in Western Europe, Youssef Cassis. Part 2 The bourgeoisie in Germany and England: the example of the English middle class, Eric Hobsbawn; associations of workers and bourgeois - an anglo-German comparison, 1820-1870, Christiane Eisenberg; moral standards and business behaviour in 19th-century Germany and England, Ute Frevert; property rights and the status of women in Germany and England, Ursala Vogel. Part 3 The bourgeoisie in Germany and France: the French and German bourgeoisie, 1870-1914, Hartmut Kaelble; the petty bourgeoisie and bourgeois types in France and Germany in the late 19th century, Heinz-Gerhard Haupt; authority relations in German and French enterprises, 1880-1914, Patrick Fridenson; bourgeois liberalism and public health in a Franco-German comparison, Allan Mitchell. Part 4 Special problems and perspectives: the embourgeoisement of the Jews as a paradigm, Schulamit Volkov; German Buergerlichkeit after 1800 - culture as symbolic practice, Wolfgang Kaschuba; the Italian and German bourgeoisie in comparison, Marco Meriggi; the development of the Hungarian bourgeoisie - some east-west comparisons, Gyogi Ranki.
