Ordinary Prussians: Brandenburg Junkers and Villagers, 1500-1840

Description

This book gives voice, in unusual depth and immediacy, to ordinary villagers and landlords (Junkers) in the Prussian-German countryside, from the late Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. The trials and fortunes of everyday life come into view - in the family, the workplace, in the private lives of both men and women, in courtroom and jailhouse, and under the gaze of the rising Prussian monarchy's officials and army officers. What emerges is a many-dimensioned, long-term study of a rural society, inviting comparisons on a world-historical level. The book also puts to a test the possibilities of empirical historical knowledge at the microhistorical or 'grass-roots' level. But it also reconceptualizes, on the scale of Prussian-German and European history, the rise of agrarian capitalism, challenging views widespread in the economic history literature on the common people's working standards, and including massive documentation on women's condition, rights and social roles.

William W. Hagen was born in 1942, and has taught at UC Davis since 1970. He is the author of Germans, Poles, and Jews: The Nationality Conflict in the Prussian East, 1772-1914 (Chicago, 1980). Ordinary Prussians is the culmination of his research over the past two decades, including two years in the Prussian State archive.

'... with its rich mines of data and insight on rural political, economic, gender and social history, this will be an essential text for years to come.' Roland Spickermann, H-German 'This book will be important for a long time to come. There is no study like it in English, and it can rightly claim to make some original contributions to German history.' The Agricultural History Review 'This work is full of ... iconoclastic approaches, which the author presents in a captivating, entertaining and yet scholarly manner.' Reviews in History 'Drawing upon a treasure-house of files and sources, William Hagen presents a vivid and colourful picture of the East Elbian people, and is determined to reshape the old-fashioned view of this rural society. This is an extraordinary people.' German Historical Institute '... this volume is a significant and convincing contribution to early modern European agrarian history.' Journal of Early Modern History '... this is an excellent, thought-provoking book ... Each chapter brims with compelling stories about local experience, while making a larger point about the transition to 'modernity'. all n all, this is a model study and fruitful ground for future comparative work.' Sixteenth Century Journal