This volume brings together essays by leading German and American historians on the subject of the eighteenth-century German emigration. Scholars have traditionally studied the nineteenth century, when the overwhelming majority of German emigrants came to the New World. In this book, contributors focus on an earlier period, when Germans were moving to a variety of destinations: Russia, Prussian Lithuania, and various other German territories as well as North America.

What drove men and women from different regional and social backgrounds to leave their homes during this time? Some...

Panorama of Paris offers English-language readers an introduction to one of the forgotten masterpieces of French literature, Louis-Sebastien Mercier's twelve-volume Le Tableau de Paris (published from 1781 to 1788), an important and original work that helped shape many kinds of French writing. Colorfully written, the text provides a fascinating portrait of everyday life in Paris on the eve of the French Revolution, describing the interactions of workers, street peddlers, prostitutes, police spies, actresses, noblemen, parish priests, servants, and criminals. Based on...