Chosen as an Outstanding Academic Book for 1991-1992 by Choice

"An impressive, powerfully argued book....As the Germans forge their new polity and the discussion of German national identity enters a new phase, those who seek to understand that process and the diverse trends and experiences that have shaped it over the past two centuries will find no better guide than James Sheehan's wise and masterly book."--The New York Times Book Review

"Sheehan has produced what is by any account a magisterial exercise in historical reconceptualization."--American Historical Review

"An outstanding piece of historical literature that may well remain the standard volume in the English language on this period of German history for several decades."--The Historian

"Sure to be regarded as indispensable to students of German history. It has much to offer scholars in other fields as well, particularly those concerned with the genesis of modern nationalism."--International History Review

"The only study in English to cover German history from 1770 to 1866....The dustcover calls it 'uniquely authoritative and indispensable.' And for once the dustcover does not overstate. All who teach university courses in German history should keep it close at hand for consultation when covering the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries."--History: Reviews of New Books

"Leads the reader on a remarkable journey....I found the chapters on German society and culture absolutely fascinating."--European Studies Journal

"[An] important contribution....Will certainly become the standard account of German history from the end of the eighteenth century...until the Prussian victory over Austria at Königgrätz in 1866."--New York Review of Books

"Sheehan's well-documented and instructive accounts of German culture and German intellectual life are brilliant."--Journal of Modern History

"His text is enriched with telling anecdotes and is informed throughout by the concerns and methods of social history....Notably unjudgmental, evenhanded, and dispassionate...it belongs in every library."--CHOICE

"[A] splendid book."--The Eighteenth Century: A Current Bibliography