The diplomatic and political events leading to the establishment of the German Empire have been studied extensively, but the social matrix of civic activity has been sadly neglected. Professor Hamerow fills this gap by dealing first with the development of the economy and the community under the influence of industrialization. He then considers the ideologies of the era and the groups supporting them: liberalism and the middle class; conservatism and the outlook of the old order; socialism and the emerging industrial working class. The final section of his book is on the structure of...

This volume, together with its predeccessor (Ideas and Institutions, 1969), is an examinataion of the social and economic foreces that helped shape Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. The previous volume established the ideological and institutional framework; in Struggles and Accomplishments Mr. Hamerow discussess, within that framework, the forma nd achievement of German unification.

Using documentation from business, artisan, and workers' organizations, the press, and government archives, Mr. Hamerow considers the changes effected by the growth of an industrial...