Patricians and Parvenus: Wealth and High Society in Wilhelmine Germany

Description

This many-sided study of the wealthy business elite of Wilhelmine Germany is based on comprehensive quantitative data on the 502 wealthiest businessmen of the time, material from public and private papers and 200 autobiographies. Not only business history, but family and social history, gender roles, ethnicity, class relations, consumption patterns and broader historical factors are synthesised in the first coherent view of the social world of the wealthy business elite of Wilhelmine Germany. Selected for the CHOICE list of Outstanding Academic Books for 1995 (Choice current reviews for Academic Libraries)

Dolores Augustine, St. John's University, New York

'... a splendid and informative work of social history that calls orthodox views of the German economic elite in the Wilhelmine period into question. Her work is a fine combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis and presents a portrait of this important group in society that is as convincing in its evidence as it is fascinating in its detail.' Gerald D. Feldman, Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley 'This is a highly interesting study on the very rich in the urban, industrial and financial world of Imperial Germany.' Hartmut Kaeble, Professor of Social History, Humboldt-University, Berlin '... a crisp, analytical collective biography of the financial elite in Wilhelmine Germany ... With firm primary research, extensive use of printed resources in English and German, comparative techniques, and imaginative analytical methodology, this work is an excellent model for subsequent social history research.' Choice 'Professor Augustine has made a significant contribution to the attack on the traditional historiography of the Wilhelmine elite ... It deserves a wide audience among both historians and scholars of Wilhelmine literature.' H_German '... this is a model study of its kind, wide-ranging, original and very sensible in its conclusions.' International Review of Social History ' ... offers a wealth of detailed information ... with its impressive bibliography constitutes a valuable addition to the literature of Wilhelmian Germany and its society.' Central European History "This is a fascinating book which makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the social elites of Wilhelmine Germany. It deserves to find a wide readership." English Historical Review "The book presents a penetrating and wide-ranging analysis of a previously neglected subject. It reaches some thought-provoking conclusions which will contribute to the reassessment of the social history of the Second Reich ... Both specialists and non-specialists will find much of interest here." History "German socio-economic history, based on primary sources and with a large range of implications taken into consideration, has seldom been described so thoroughly" Journal of European Economic History'the book opens a fruitful line or inquiry into German cultural and social history of the late eighteenth century, providing valuable resourcese for further scholarly research.' Journal of Modern History 'Accomplished contribution to a much-needed history of the bourgeoisie in Imperial Germany.' MGM