This entire bookis devoted to alleged apparitions in Marpingen in the Saar. The apparitions were never accepted by an official Church study--tho never publicly condemned by any bishop. It is a fascinating account, and even though this is a very balanced book, I found myself attracted toe the people who believed in the validity of the visions. The heavy-handed effforts of Bismarck's Kulterkampf to stifle the innocent faith of the believers was part of what attracted me. The visionaries all went into convents, and did not live long. The main one made a written retraction--which was not made public at the time. This is a very carefully researched, heavily-footnoted book, and certainly a classic in the subject. There is amulti-page bibliography, listing many books which I would like to read.

Some of us are blessed with opportunities. One of mine was to hear many lectures from this work's author, David Blackbourn, in college. He is tall, somewhat thin, with big hands and akward limbs. When he lectures, he moves from one side of the podium to the other, pausing only to look at the ceiling in search of just the right word, the right description for a riot in the Rhineland or a bourgeouis household in Berlin. As many of you might know, describing these scenes as they really were, but yet also emphasizing the important trend, is a difficult task. Blackbourn has that gift. It was evident in his lectures, in his hands swinging across the podium, even in the dramatic pauses to seek that right word. Finally he has shared that excitment with a reading audience. I do not want to imply that his previous books lacked excellence. As any student of the field knows, his Peculiarities of German History has quickly become a basic text. I would recomend all his writing. But he had never told an exciting story. In a sense, he did not live up to his potential. Marpingen is a moment in a career. Still on the verge of ever greater academic accomplishment, Blackbourn has left us a synthesis of two valuable things; outstanding intelligence and literary skill. For that reason it is the rarest of rare academic works. A study enjoyable to the beginer and revealing to the expert. I recomend it to everyone who does not have the opportunity of hearing him lecture.

I picked up this book, intrigued by the slice of German history that it took--from roughly the time of Frederick the Great to the end of World War I, a clearly seminal time in the history of the part of Central Europe that became the German Empire. This was a time populated by many of the major figures in German history, among them Frederick, Bismarck, Wilhelm I and II, Nietzsche, Wagner, Marx, Hauptmann, Fontane, the Mann brothers, and others. But at most, many of these key players seem to have walk-on roles in Blackbourn's history.

Blackbourn seems to have bent over backwards to avoid writing history along the lines of the "great man" model. In essence, he has written a history of Germany that downplays the political and cultural, and emphasizes instead the sociological and economic. He focuses on the Industrial Revolution, class divisions, agriculture, imports and exports, etc. He neglects the rise of political parties and the evolution of parliamentary democracy, and gives short shrift to the dominance of Prussia over the other smaller German states. He seems to downplay the power exerted by the Prussian General Staff, both before and after Unification. After 1871, the relationship of Germany with Austria-Hungary, the other major German-speaking power, largely drops out of the discussion, though it continued to be crucial thoughout the period. International relations generally gets minimal attention.

The book is, to say the least, a chore to read. It is downright boring in places, only occasionally engaging. While one certainly learns something by plodding through it, it seems to come at a great price. This is history for the academic audience, not the general reader.

People looking for a well written, fast-paced account of German history in the 19th century need look no further than The Long Nineteenth Century. Author David Blackbourne has written what should be the standard for years to come. His work covers German political, economic, social, religious, and even intellectual history during this lengthy but formative period.

Some of his phrases are clichés (i.e., Germany had "no 1789" which might imply they skipped a year) but his understanding of German history is undeniably acute. He also often stresses how issues like ideas and/or revolutions came "from above" but again this detracts nothing from the overall effort. Unlike earlier others, he works to keep all personalities and occurrences into perspective. His handling of the 1850 Treaty of Olmutz is significantly different than Erich Eyck. Likewise Bismarck, though obviously influential, is referred to as "a giant among pygmies." Bismarck's wars against Denmark, Austria, and France are intentionally glossed over, but a bit more detail might have been warranted.

Perhaps Blackbourne's most important message is how Germany ultimately developed into what Eyck referred to as a "machtstadt." Arrogance, chauvinism, and bellicose attitudes eventually led Germany into World War One. Blackbourne does not conclude that Germany caused the Great War, but its machtstadt-like tendencies did not help its case, either.

If there is a flaw to the book its how Blackbourne chose to end it. Rather than reflect on the 138 years covered, he projects towards Nazism as if setting the stage for another study. This is fine, but he never really tied the years mentioned in the subtitle together.

But Blackbourne's effort remains important nonetheless. This work is very readable and the enthusiastic reader will find it difficult to set down. As mentioned above, this book should be the standard introduction to German history for years to come.

David Blackbourn presents the latest scholarship on 19th century German history in an interesting and provocative way. His thesis is that German society experienced a faster rate of industrialization in the mid and late 19th century than either Britain or France, and that this change created new social problems as well as societal winners and losers. It is against this background of change and social fissures that Blackbourn traces the events that moved Germany from a fragmented, aristocratic society to a "modern" industrial society.

Of course, the modern Reich of 1871-1918 included aristocratic survivals, but these survivals had themselves undergone change. Blackbourn notes that Wilhelmine Germany has been described as "sham parliamentarianism," but he also calls it a "sham autocracy" as well.

Blackbourn's discussions add nuance to our understanding of German history by puncturing many myths common among English-speaking readers. He exposes many half-truths about German history, such as the idea that Germans were more docile towards authority than other Europeans.

I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking an understanding of German history in the 19th and 20th centuries. The book includes an extensive reading list of works in English, while the notes direct the reader to German and other sources.

This book was written by a professor, for a group of professors. Material on the Marpingen apparitions is hard to come by, and so I was grateful to find this. However the "scholarly" treatment makes it a difficult read. Framing the visions within the context of the geographical area and time is very enlightening, however the language and "perspective" reflect those found in textbooks. The author's own religious denomination is also seen to influence his opinions intensely, and therefore the whole work is a little "slanted". Overall, it's very good, if a little difficult to wade through.

This book was terrible. The writing was simply dreadful and is not conducive to understanding the author's thesis. Good luck to anyone who has to read this for class, you are going to need it.

This book is a very important counter argument to the Sonderweg thesis and should be read by anyone wishing to understand why Germany ended up with a leader like Hitler.
However, while this book is incredibly important it's just unreadable. The authors use evidence and other information from the English and French revolutions to back up their point and sometimes its difficult for the reader to grasp if this book is about Germany or France and England. This book should be classified as one of the "really bad books" that despite being absolutely a wretched read is important for a historian to have on their shelf.

For historians of modern Germany, this book is essential reading. Refuting the long-standing Soderweg Thesis, Geoff Eley and David Blackbourn present a revisionist interpretation of the German bourgeoisie in the nineteenth century. The authors beautifully display the faults that are inherent in the Sonderweg, and illustrate how the German middle class was actually at the forefront of German politics and finance during this period. The implications of this idea is essential to understanding the course of German history in the twentieth century, particularly with regards to the ascent of the Nazis. I found Geoff Eley's half of the book to be the most useful. In addition to being the easier of the two sections to read, Eley's portion is less muddled in "technical jargon" that anyone who is not familiar with German history could understand. In summary, this book is highly recommended for anyone wishing to learn more about the development of modern Germany.