| The Emancipation of Writing: German Civil Society in the Making, 1790s-1820s Volume 48 Contributor(s): McNeely, Ian (Author) |
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ISBN: 0520233301 ISBN-13: 9780520233300 Publisher: University of California Press OUR PRICE: $84.15 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: January 2003 Annotation: "A superbly crafted major intervention into the hotly contested issue of German civil society - its origins, formation, and fate. McNeely turns the tables on deconstructive approaches to formalism in writing and shows how writing was thoroughly implicated in state power and corporate culture."--David Sabean, author of "Kinship in Neckarhausen, 1700-1870 "This work's use of archival evidence to overhaul grand theory puts it in a league of its own. McNeely crafts a startlingly original argument about the inventions of citizenship and of modern political culture. It will be required if unsettling reading for anyone pondering the legacies of Tocqueville, Habermas, or Foucault."--Richard Biernacki, author of "The Fabrication of Labor: Germany and Britain, 1640-1914
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| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Europe - Germany - History | Social History |
| Dewey: 300.943 |
| LCCN: 2002002314 |
| Lexile Measure: 1590 |
| Series: Studies on the History of Society and Culture |
| Physical Information: 1.09" H x 6.16" W x 9.46" (1.38 lbs) 345 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1800-1850 - Chronological Period - 18th Century - Cultural Region - Germany |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The Emancipation of Writing is the first study of writing in its connection to bureaucracy, citizenship, and the state in Germany. Stitching together micro- and macro-level analysis, it reconstructs the vibrant, textually saturated civic culture of the German southwest in the aftermath of the French Revolution and Napoleon's invasions. Ian F. McNeely reveals that Germany's notoriously oppressive bureaucracy, when viewed through the writing practices that were its lifeblood, could also function as a site of citizenship. Citizens, acting under the mediation of powerful local scribes, practiced their freedoms in written engagements with the state. Their communications laid the basis for civil society, showing how social networks commonly associated with the free market, the free press, and the voluntary association could also take root in powerful state institutions. |