The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany, 1780-1918

Many European historians consider the 19th century, at least on their continent, to have lasted over a hundred years, getting a head start on the calendar with the French Revolution of 1789 and extending until the onset of World War I in 1914 (when the "short 20th century" began). During this period, writes David Blackbourn in this fine, compact history, Germany evolved from a confused patchwork of municipalities and principalities with several layers of rulers (one village of 50 families, he notes, answered to four lords) into the most powerful unified nation in Europe.

Blackbourn examines the rise of the idea of "Germanness," the development of presumed national traits such as obedience and antimodernism, and the growth of the bureaucratic state, which favored a kind of corporatism that clashed with trade and agrarian associations and paved the way for the class conflict Karl Marx would analyze--as well as what Blackbourn calls "a strong sense of suffocation." --Gregory McNamee