The Transitions of Politics and Society in Early Modern Germany

Qian Jinfei received his PhD in World History (with a focus on European Medieval History) from Peking University in 2004. Since then Qian has worked in the Department of History of Yunnan University, where he is now a professor and doctoral dissertation supervisor. The main areas of Qian’s teaching and research include European history in the late Middle Ages and early modern times, German history, and comparative history of China and the West. Supported by a grant from the China Scholarship Council, Qian spent a year at the University of Vienna, Austria from 2014 to 2015 as a visiting scholar. Qian has taken part in ten national- and provincial-level research projects in the capacity of lead researcher or researcher, and published more than ten articles in academic journals. Qian is also the translator or co-translator of a number of books, including The Revolution of 1525: The German Peasants’ War from a New Perspective (by Peter Blickle), Augustine of Hippo: A Biography (by Peter Brown), and History of Western Society (by John Buckler, Bennett D. Hill and others).

List of Figures


Foreword


Introduction


1. The Conditions for Transition of the Politics in Early Modern Germany


2. State-Building at the Imperial Level and the Backwardness of German Monarchy


3. The Choices of the German Cities in the Political Transitions of Early Modern Germany


4. The Common Man’s Path to State Building


5. Princes’ Path to the Early Modern State


6. Social Transition in Germany during the Reformation


7. Discontinuity or Continuity? Rethinking the Sonderweg


Afterword and Acknowledgments


Bibliography