This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.

This second volume of a three-volume reassessment of the last five centuries of German history covers the two centuries from the crucial aftermath of the Thirty Years' War to the eve of the revolution of 1848-49. Dealing with the growth of absolutism, the author traces the founding of the Hapsburg empire and the rise of Bradenburg-Prussia, culminating in the conflict between Maria Theresa and Frederick the Great. Professor Holborn explores the impact of the French Revolution on Germany, its part in the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, and the subsequent reorganization of the German states. In his section on the Congress of Vienna, he shows the struggle between the conservatism of Metternich and the incipient liberal and national movement. Students of German history will appreciate the attention given religious, intellectual, and social developments, colorfully presented in chapters on Baroque civilization and the age of Kant, Goethe, and Beethoven.

This first volume of a major reassessment of the last five centuries of German history deals with that age of German history which had the widest effect on the rise of modern Western civilization. Against the background of medieval culture, the author shows the origins of Luther's religion and the growth of various Protestant churches, as well as the subsequent restoration of the Roman Catholic Church. The history of the religious movements of the Reformation and the Counter Reformation is closely co-ordinated with the great transformation simultaneously taking place in the social, economic, and intellectual institutions of Europe. Included are detailed discussions of the effects of the Black Death, the rise of the cities, Luther's social ethics, The Thirty Years' War, and the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.

This concluding volume of a three-volume reassessment of the last five centuries of German history develops the theme of power into what Gordon A. Craig calls a "masterly account of the dramatic, tragic and often shameful history of Germany in the most recent age" ("New York Times Book Review"). It deals with the period of nationalism and imperialism, from the abortive attempt of popular forces to found a liberal national state and Bismarck's German unification through the Prussian military monarchy to the expansionist programs of the age of William II and Hitler's world conquest.

This is a new release of the original 1947 edition.

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Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!