What was distinctive-and distinctively "modern"-about German society and politics in the age of Kaiser Wilhelm II? In addressing this question, these essays assemble cutting-edge research by fourteen international scholars. Based on evidence of an explicit and self-confidently "bourgeois" formation in German public culture, the contributors suggest new ways of interpreting its reformist potential and advance alternative readings of German political history before 1914. While proposing a more measured understanding of Wilhelmine Germany's extraordinarily dynamic society, they also grapple with the ambivalent, cross-cutting nature of German "modernities" and reassess their impact on long-term developments running through the Wilhelmine age.

"It is one of the main merits of this volume to historicize the 'modern' concept of parliamentarianism and democracy ... offers a stimulating contribution to the scholarship on Imperial Germany."  · H-Soz-u-Kult

"[this] brief review cannot do justice to the breadth of contributions offered in this slender volume. While the collection does not cover all aspects of Wilhelmine history?it does provide a good introduction to the current state o f the field?these essays offer avenues for further exploration rather than definitive statements."  · German Studies Review

"?a valuable volume which makes some substantial contribution to a number of subfields in modern German history?the editors are to be thanked for assembling a volume of original and insightful works, one which ought to be in the collection of every library that supports programs in contemporary German history, cultural studies, or political science."  · Canadian Journal of History/Annales canadiennes d'histoire