German Liberalism in the 19th Century

In his book German Liberalism in the Nineteenth Century, author James J. Sheehan examines the beginnings of liberalism, which he describes as "an attempt both to understand and to change the world" (1). The political thought, subsequent political movement, and related institutions of liberalism have become vitally important in the West, and in this book Sheehan examines the manifestation of liberalism in Germany. In so doing, Sheehan shows how the general tenets of liberalism are shaped and molded by the traditions and models of the society which adopts liberalism. The liberalism of western Europe was changed and reshaped in its encounters with other cultures, a process Sheehan calls translation and which he says has become more problematic the further liberalism has moved from its sources. Sheehan makes it clear at the outset that the Germans encountered difficulties in translating the ideas of liberalism to their particular social and cultural context, and he offers an examination of both liberalism and German society to show how these relationships developed and influenced one another.

The title Sheehan gives to his introductory section shows the thrust of his thinking about liberalism in the German context--"Liberalism in an Illiberal Society." Sheehan traces the rise and fall of German liberalism from the latter third of the eighteenth century to the First World War, and he finds the failure of liberalism at least in part in terms of the "traditional" German social

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nate the traditional institutions and structures from German society but instead creates resistance within them that perhaps makes them even stronger. The Revolution of 1848 was particularly important in terms of the degree to which it influenced liberal thought, though ultimately the revolution collapsed and did not prove to be the mark of the coming of liberalism that liberals hoped it would be. Sheehan's method of presentation is essentially chronological. His method of analysis is to isolate distinct trends and periods and to discern the connection between each and the social structure of the time. This social structure is what Sheehan sees as having more permanence and strength than liberal ideology. The ideology shapes itself to fit the German context, while that context proves remarkably persistent over time. Sheehan relates the growth and effects of liberal ideology to the social class structure of Germany, and he presents data on different social classes and their degree of political participation to show how they fit into the political thought in each era. In the long term, Sheehan shows how liberalism, along with other political forces in German society, united with the idea of nationalism to produce a certain dr

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