From Reich to State

Napoleon's contribution to Germany's development was immense. Under his hegemony, the millennium-old Holy Roman Empire dissolved, paving the way for a new order. Nowhere was the transformation more profound than in the Rhineland. Based upon an extensive range of German and French archival sources, this book locates the Napoleonic episode in this region within a broader chronological framework, encompassing the Old Regime and Restoration. It analyses not only politics, but also culture, identity, religion, society, institutions and economics. It reassesses in turn the legacy bequeathed by the Old Regime, the struggle between Revolution and Counter-Revolution in the 1790s, Napoleon's attempts to integrate the German-speaking Rhineland into the French Empire, the transition to Prussian rule, and the subsequent struggles that ultimately helped determine whether Germany would follow its own Sonderweg or the path of its western neighbours.

"...an insightful political, economic, and cultural history of the Rhineland during a very turbulent period in German history...This is an important book that should be considered a "must read" for historians of Germany." John G. Gagliardo, Boston University, American Historical Review, "A work of broad scope that crosses sacrosanct chronological frontiers and navigates two national historiographies that have rarely been mastered by a single individual." | H-France, "An excellent and challenging work [...] useful reading for anyone interested in Napoleonic Germany (or Napoleonic Europe, more broadly), or in the development of political life in nineteenth-century central Europe." H-GERMAN, "The author of this study has written an excellent book about a crucial period of European history in one of the most important regions in the Western world." The Historian, "Rowe has crafted a carefully researched argument that, in unraveling the tangled legacy of transnational political cultures, demonstrates in measured and sensible terms how Rhenish society absorbed and adapted key elements of western European citizenship ideals. His scholarship not only provides an important regional supplement to Michael Broer's and isser Woloch's broader interpretations of Napoleonic Europe but also presents to German specialists a thesis of continuity that does justice to the Old Regime, Napoleonic and Restoration eras." Journal of Modern History James M. Brophy, University of Delaware

Dr Michael Rowe is a Lecturer at the School of Modern History, Queen's University, Belfast.