An international team of twelve expert contributors provides both an introduction to and an interpretation of the key themes in German history from the foundation of the Reich in 1871 to the end of the First World War in 1918.

A comprehensive history of German society in this period, providing a broad survey of its development. The volume is thematically organized and designed to give easy access to the major topics and issues of the Bismarkian and Wilhelmine eras. The statistical appendix contains a wide range of social, economic and political data. Written with the English-speaking student in mind, this book is likely to become a widely used text for this period, incorporating as it does twenty years of further research on the German Empire since the appearance of Hans-Ulrich Wehler's classic work.

This carefully crafted ebook: "IMPERIAL GERMANY AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: The Background Origins of World War I - Economic Rise as a Fuel for Political Radicalism" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. The book was published in 1915, after the First World War began. Veblen considered warfare a threat to economic productivity and contrasted the authoritarian politics of Germany with the democratic tradition of Britain, noting that industrialization in Germany had not produced a progressive political culture. Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution is in major part a study of the deviations in cultural and social growth between the English and the German. It deals with the consequences those differences created in social, economic and other domains. Veblen here describes, through the study of German culture, historical and social aspect, how it came to forming of the Third Reich, even before it was formed. He suggests that the Germany's autocracy was an advantage compared to democratic countries. After it was censored during the war, it was later released and it represents a substantial contribution in its sphere of influence. Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) was an American economist and sociologist. He is well known as a witty critic of capitalism. Veblen is famous for the idea of "conspicuous consumption." Conspicuous consumption, along with "conspicuous leisure," is performed to demonstrate wealth or mark social status. Veblen explains the concept in his best-known book, The Theory of the Leisure Class. Within the history of economic thought, Veblen is considered the leader of the institutional economics movement. Veblen's distinction between "institutions" and "technology" is still called the Veblenian dichotomy by contemporary economists.

OF INTEREST TO: students of economics, readers of European historyThe traditions of the German people, including the personnel of the civil service, are traditions of frugality and parsimony... and these are fortifed in this connection by a traditional loyalty of service to a master, to whom the civil servant stands in a relation of personal stewardship.-from "Economic Policy of the Imperial State"One of the great thinkers of the early 20th century, American economist and sociologist THORSTEIN BUNDE VEBLEN (1857-1929) is best remembered for coining the phrase "conspicuous consumption" and, in this 1915 work, explaining how the stage was set for something like the Third Reich in Germany decades before its appearance. Veblen describes: . how the pagan past of the Germans gave rise to their modern character. how Germany's appropriation of industrial technology limited its cultural growth. how a medieval perspective endured in Germany into its imperial era. how the dominance of Prussia impacted Germany as a whole. and more.ALSO FROM COSIMO: Veblen's The Vested Interests and the Common Man, The Theory of Business Enterprise, and An Inquiry into the Nature of Peace and the Terms of Its Perpetuation

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2018 BY THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE AND SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE By a prize-winning young historian, an authoritative work that reframes the Industrial Revolution, the expansion of British empire, and emergence of industrial capitalism by presenting them as inextricable from the gun trade "A fascinating and important glimpse into how violence fueled the industrial revolution, Priya Satia's book stuns with deep scholarship and sparkling prose."--Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies We have long understood the Industrial Revolution as a triumphant story of innovation and technology. Empire of Guns, a rich and ambitious new book by award-winning historian Priya Satia, upends this conventional wisdom by placing war and Britain's prosperous gun trade at the heart of the Industrial Revolution and the state's imperial expansion. Satia brings to life this bustling industrial society with the story of a scandal: Samuel Galton of Birmingham, one of Britain's most prominent gunmakers, has been condemned by his fellow Quakers, who argue that his profession violates the society's pacifist principles. In his fervent self-defense, Galton argues that the state's heavy reliance on industry for all of its war needs means that every member of the British industrial economy is implicated in Britain's near-constant state of war. Empire of Guns uses the story of Galton and the gun trade, from Birmingham to the outermost edges of the British empire, to illuminate the nation's emergence as a global superpower, the roots of the state's role in economic development, and the origins of our era's debates about gun control and the "military-industrial complex" -- that thorny partnership of government, the economy, and the military. Through Satia's eyes, we acquire a radically new understanding of this critical historical moment and all that followed from it. Sweeping in its scope and entirely original in its approach, Empire of Guns is a masterful new work of history -- a rigorous historical argument with a human story at its heart.

Twenty-three chapters by American, British, and German scholars explore the meanings of German socialism and communism from a variety of methodical and thematic perspectives often influenced by feminist and poststructuralist theories. Among the topics explored are: the Lassallean labor movement; depictions of gender, militancy, and organizing in the German socialist press at the turn of the century; communism and the public spheres of Weimar Germany; cultural socialism, popular culture, mass media, and the democratic project, 1900-1934; unity sentiments in the socialist underground, 1933-1936; population policy in the DDR, 1945-1960; the post-war labor unions and the politics of reconstruction; communist resistance between Comintern directives and Nazi terror; and the passing of German communism and the rise of a new New Left. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Wilhelmine period is a crucial period of German history and the focus of great historical controversy; greater understanding of this period is also vital to explain the rise of the Third Reich. The authors focus on Germany's role as a major military and imperial power, industrialiastion and the economy, the crucial effects of the war years and the disturbing evidence that Germany's response to Hitler is to be found in the Wilhelmine era.

This book represents the most comprehensive history of Germany during the First World War.