ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the eighteenth century Prussia was but one in a mosaic of German states, but it rose to be the unchallenged leader of German-speaking Europe after the fall of Napoleon. The book goes beyond the political, military and diplomatic concerns of the Prussian elite, whose record of events is the one upon which most histories of Prussia are based, and explains its rise in relation to Prussian society as a whole. Political analysis is integrated with material on such areas as agrarian society, urban life and religion, which are not fully examined in existing histories.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter Chapter One|18 pages
Prussia in history and historiography from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century
part One|63 pages
Politics, religion and society
chapter Chapter Two|21 pages
Frederick William I and the beginnings of Prussian absolutism, 1713–1740
part Two|42 pages
The rural and urban environment
chapter Chapter Five|18 pages
The transformation of the rural economy in East Elbian Prussia, 1750–1830
part Three|86 pages
The state and the army
part Four|41 pages
Prussia, the French Revolution and Napoleon