Property and the German Idea of Freedom: From the End of the Thirty Years' War to the Eve of the French Revolution in Germany (Studies in Central European Histories, 75)

Wilder, Colin F.

ISBN 10: 9004685162 / ISBN 13: 9789004685161

Published by Brill, 2024

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 26399384591

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Property and the German Idea of Freedom: From the End of the Thirty Years' War to the Eve of the French Revolution in Germany (Studies in Central European Histories, 75)
• Publisher: Brill
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9004685162
• ISBN 13: 9789004685161
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This book offers a new interpretation of German law and politics during the era between the Thirty Years’ War and the French Revolution. Liberal ideas of freedom and equality were prototyped in Germany in property law: through the free disposition of estates, freedom from taxation and other extractions, and free use of paper money. Civil liberty, ideas about equality, and restrictions on arbitrary state power were real, recognized, and meaningful. These freedoms were enjoyed by all classes of Germans. They were thought to have been built atop Germans’ ancient heritage of freedom and a federalist imperial constitution which inspired Montesquieu and the American Founders. Driving these trends were ideas about political economy, enlightened reform, practical problem-solving, as well as forces of supply and demand in everything from the market for books to the market for justice. This book places the story of early modern German freedom close by the side of more familiar stories of England, North America, France, and the Netherlands.

About the Author

Colin F. Wilder, Ph.D. (2010), University of Chicago, is Assistant Professor of German and Digital History at the University of South Carolina.