Originally published in 1977. Professor David Spring presents comparative histories of European landed elites in the nineteenth century, covering English, Prussian, Russian, Spanish, and French landed elites. European Landed Elites in the Nineteenth Century underscores the particularities of each case and underscores the differences between cases.
Historian Iván Berend turns his attention to Central and Eastern Europe in the 19th century, a turbulent period. Extending up to World War I, the period contained the seeds of developments and crises that continue to haunt the region today.
This Companion provides an overview of European history during the 'long' nineteenth century, from 1789 to 1914. Consists of 32 chapters written by leading international scholars Balances coverage of political, diplomatic and international history with discussion of economic, social and cultural concerns Covers both Eastern and Western European states, including Britain Pays considerable attention to smaller countries as well as to the great powers Compares particular phenomena and developments across Europe
How do democracies form and what makes them die? Daniel Ziblatt revisits this timely and classic question in a wide-ranging historical narrative that traces the evolution of modern political democracy in Europe from its modest beginnings in 1830s Britain to Adolf Hitler's 1933 seizure of power in Weimar Germany. Based on rich historical and quantitative evidence, the book offers a major reinterpretation of European history and the question of how stable political democracy is achieved. The barriers to inclusive political rule, Ziblatt finds, were not inevitably overcome by unstoppable tides of socioeconomic change, a simple triumph of a growing middle class, or even by working class collective action. Instead, political democracy's fate surprisingly hinged on how conservative political parties - the historical defenders of power, wealth, and privilege - recast themselves and coped with the rise of their own radical right. With striking modern parallels, the book has vital implications for today's new and old democracies under siege.
This book sets out to test the traditional view that for centuries English landed society has been open to new families made rich by business or public office.
This book addresses the reasons why the contemporary far-right has gained political resonance in a variety of states across both the Global North and South. The rise of far-right forms of politics in recent years throughout a range of geopolitical locales suggests the emergence of a distinct conjuncture in world politics, indicating a common set of enabling conditions and characteristics. It is this unprecedented context in the history of the post-war liberal international order that this edited volume aims to address. In doing so, it brings together a diverse range of scholars, many of whom have developed an internationally recognized expertise in the study of the far-right and International Relations (IR). Reflecting a plurality of methodological and theoretical perspectives, the chapters cover a variety of theoretical and conceptual issues, including analyses of different geopolitical and national expressions of the contemporary far-right. Notwithstanding such diversity, the primary analytical focus of the book is to situate and explain the far-right as a distinct part of the history of modern international relations especially with respect to the development of and crises within the contemporary international order. From this perspective, the contributions combine to demonstrate the deeply embedded symptoms of far-right politics centred on racialized imaginaries across the globe and re-produced within the sinews of an evolving liberal international order even as the far-right also represents an antagonism to some elements of said order. Providing a much-needed global perspective, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of populism, far-right politics, conservatism and international relations. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Globalizations and are accompanied by a new epilogue.
At the end of the twentieth century, many believed the story of European political development had come to an end. Modern democracy began in Europe, but for hundreds of years it competed with various forms of dictatorship. Now, though, the entire continent was in the democratic camp for the first time in history. But within a decade, this story had already begun to unravel. Some of the continent's newer democracies slid back towards dictatorship, while citizens in many of its older democracies began questioning democracy's functioning and even its legitimacy. And of course it is not merely in Europe where democracy is under siege. Across the globe the immense optimism accompanying the post-Cold War democratic wave has been replaced by pessimism. Many new democracies in Latin America, Africa, and Asia began "backsliding," while the Arab Spring quickly turned into the Arab winter. The victory of Donald Trump led many to wonder if it represented a threat to the future of liberal democracy in the United States. Indeed, it is increasingly common today for leaders, intellectuals, commentators and others to claim that rather than democracy, some form dictatorship or illiberal democracy is the wave of the future. In Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe, Sheri Berman traces the long history of democracy in its cradle, Europe. She explains that in fact, just about every democratic wave in Europe initially failed, either collapsing in upon itself or succumbing to the forces of reaction. Yet even when democratic waves failed, there were always some achievements that lasted. Even the most virulently reactionary regimes could not suppress every element of democratic progress. Panoramic in scope, Berman takes readers through two centuries of turmoil: revolution, fascism, civil war, and - -finally -- the emergence of liberal democratic Europe in the postwar era. A magisterial retelling of modern European political history, Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe not explains how democracy actually develops, but how we should interpret the current wave of illiberalism sweeping Europe and the rest of the world.
