The Holy Roman Empire, Reconsidered - (Spektrum: Publications of the German Studies Association) (Paperback)

About the Book

• Major revision of the history of the Holy Roman Empire
• Studies in Early Modern European political communication
• Studies in Early Modern European symbolic systems
• Political cultures of Early Modern Germany

Book Synopsis

The Holy Roman Empire has often been anachronistically assumed to have been defunct long before it was actually dissolved at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The authors of this volume reconsider the significance of the Empire in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. Their research reveals the continual importance of the Empire as a stage (and audience) for symbolic performance and communication; as a well utilized problem-solving and conflict-resolving supra-governmental institution; and as an imagined political, religious, and cultural "world" for contemporaries. This volume by leading scholars offers a dramatic reappraisal of politics, religion, and culture and also represents a major revision of the history of the Holy Roman Empire in the early modern period.

Review Quotes

"...a meticulous reappraisal of the Holy Roman Empire in its early modern period. Informed and informative, "The Holy Roman Empire, Reconsidered" is a seminal work and strongly recommended for academic library European History reference collections in general, and Holy Roman Empire Studies supplemental reading lists in particular." - Library Bookwatch

"There is a strong sense of Aufbruchstimmung about this book, that is a readiness to explore pastures new, both in terms of launching an interdisciplinary publication series and in presenting an Anglophone audience with a survey of new departures in the historiography of German-speaking Europe. The result is a very welcome collection which will be useful for a range of purposes, be it general orientation about an innovative field of scholarship, framing new research questions in late medieval and early modern studies or adding fresh materials to courses for advanced students." - English Historical Review

"This is a lively and stimulating collection which many will wish to read." - German Studies Review

"If the editors of Spektrum: Publications of the German Studies Association were looking for an impressive collection with which to lead off their new series, they certainly succeeded admirably in choosing The Holy Roman Empire, Reconsidered...In sum, each individual paper in this collection repays careful reading. Taken as a whole, they reveal the vitality and variety of contemporary scholarship on the Holy Roman Empire." - Austrian History Yearbook

"Over the last two decades historians have promoted the Holy Roman Empire from a creaking fossil ready for history's ax to a relatively effective government of a decentralized, highly diverse polity. This well-edited volume by a distinguished international corps of specialists offers the most current views on political Germany from around 1500 to around 1800. The perspectives range between two views: the Empire as the forerunner of modern German states; the Empire as an example of a typically premodern political culture. Readers who know only what textbooks say about Germany before 1800, are in for a surprise." - Thomas A. Brady Jr., University of California, Berkeley

"Whereas a revised view of the Empire is now part of the historiography in Germany it is not yet widely known among Anglo-American scholars. [O]ne of the important contributions of [this volume] is that it makes some of these revisionist approaches to the Old Empire accessible...I know of no other work that offers such a rich spectrum of approaches to the Old Empire." - Thomas Robisheaux, Duke University

About the Author

David Warren Sabean is Henry J. Bruman Professor of German History at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has been the recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Prize. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His publications include Property, Production, and Family in Neckarhausen, 1700-1870 (1990); Kinship in Neckarhausen, 1700-1870 (1998). He is co-editor with Simon Teuscher and Jon Mathieu of Kinship in Europe: Approaches to Long-Term Development (1300-1900) (2007).