This history offers a powerful and original account of Germany from the eve of the French Revolution to the end of World War One.

• Written by a leading German historian who has transformed the historiography of modern Germany over the past two decades.
  
• Covers the whole of the long nineteenth century and emphasizes continuities through this period.
  
• Brings together political, social and cultural history.
  
• Combines a comprehensive account with a feel for the human dimension and the history of everyday life.
  
• Accessible to non-specialists, thought-provoking and entertaining.
  
• The updated second edition includes a revised bibliography.

David Blackbourn is Coolidge Professor of History at Harvard University. His previous publications include Class, Religion and Local Politics in Wilhelmine Germany (1980), The Peculiarities of German History (with Geoff Eley, 1984), Populists and Patricians (1987), and the prize-winning Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Bismarckian Germany (1993).