This review is for both volumes of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire: Vol. 1: Maximilian I to the Peace of Westphalia, 1493-1648; and vol. 2: Germany and the Holy Roman Empire: from the Peace of Westphalia to the Dissolution of the Reich, 1648-1806 (Oxford University Press, 2012.
Joachim Whaley has written the most authoritative and important study on the Holy Roman Empire that has been written in the last 50 years. The author is professor of modern German history and thought in the University of Cambridge, and his scholarship and attention to detail is on display in this set and is really unrivaled. The books are part of the larger 'Oxford History of Modern Europe" which has been coming out for some time but which has lacked volumes for precisely this time period-a complex and difficult one to research and understand. Up till now it has really not been treated very well by historians at least in terms of full-scale syntheses. One of the reasons this has not been the case is because of the complexity of the material, the difficulty of the source materials, and just putting the period into a cohesive narrative/analysis. Whaley has done it in these books.
The first volume is very important and is devoted to what one might call long-term factors in German history-in particular the nature of the fragmented territories that comprised the Reich, what kinds of political power existed and how it was exercised. Whaley rapidly moves on to discuss the tremendous effects of the Reformation upon the lands of this area-(I hesitate to call it Germany because of the sheer number of principalities alone). In some senses this first volume might be looked at as one long discussion on the effects of the Reformation upon the Reich (the term Whaley uses). Most of the other chapters in the book are essentially discussions of the political and religious fallout from Luther and 1517. The Peasant's War and the Schmalkaldic League, the Peace of Augsburg are all discussed in detail. Religion is discussed, but this is not a work that is designed to cover theological developments-it's main emphasis is political, economic and where necessary social developments. Although Luther's theology is discussed of course, the reader will want to consult more specific works for a fuller discussion. Lutheranism is discussed and contrasted with Pietism and German Catholicism, and Whaley sketches the social impact of the Reformation very well.
The second volume covers the Reich from 1648 on. Here, Whaley introduces topics the reader may be unfamiliar with-such as the threats posed by the Turks to the Reich, and the educational controversies that developed in the Reich There is a very good and descriptive account of Pietism and late baroque Catholicism and it's manifestations in various areas of the Reich, and an excellent account of the German Enlightenment and it's impact on Europe. Michael Printy's book Enlightenment and the Creation of German Catholicism (Cambridge, 2009) is also very helpful on this topic. The volume ends with the great traumas of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Whaley explains in detail the lasting effect this had on the Reich. His discussion helps bring into focus why it was so hard for the Reich lands to achieve anything like unification, and why it took so long to achieve. The second volume is focused a little more on the culture of Germany-literature, music, art- what it's court culture was under Joseph II and what the contributions were. Bibliographies comprise roughly 25 pages of each volume- very detailed, useful and current-but heavily weighted to German sources as you might expect. A last point. Many of the controversies that have involved German scholarship from the Medieval period on-preconceptions, historiography, long-held and deeply felt convictions about what the Empire was, and how it finally collapsed are here put to rest. The author performs an immense service to scholarship in doing so.
Although these books are meant for the specialist, general readers who love history will also enjoy them. The works presume considerable prior knowledge (even though the maps, bibliographies, language tools are all provided).but to be honest, it is hard to find a good book on Germany and Europe in this period that doesn't require prior knowledge. In the case of these books, you will find yourself reading them again and again.
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Reviewed in Germany on November 22, 2012