Although Conservative parties did not exist in Germany until after the Napoleonic Wars, there did emerge, around 1770, traceable organized political activity and intellectual currents of a clearly Conservative character. The author argues that this movement developed as a response to the challenge of the Enlightenment in the fields of religion, socioeconomic affairs, and politics- and that this response antedated the impact of the French Revolution. Believing that Conservatism cannot be treated properly as a specialized phenomenon, or simply as an intellectual movement, Professor Epstein correlates it with the political and social forces of the time.
Table of Contents
Frontmatter, pg. i
Preface, pg. vii
Acknowledgments, pg. ix
Contents, pg. xi
Abbreviations, pg. 1
Introduction, pg. 3
Chapter 1. The Enlightenment, the Constellation of Social Forces, and the Rise of Conservatism, pg. 29
Chapter 2. Masons, llluminati, and Rosicrucians, pg. 84
Chapter 3. Religious Controversies, pg. 112
Chapter 4. Social Controversies, pg. 176
Chapter 5. Political Controversies, pg. 237
Chapter 6. Justus Moser: Portrait of a Prerevolutionary Conservative, pg. 297
Chapter 7. Prussia from Frederick the Great to Frederick William III, pg. 341
Chapter 8. The Habsburg Monarchy from Maria Theresia to Francis II, pg. 394
Chapter 9. The Challenge of the French Revolution, pg. 434
Chapter 10. The Conspiracy Theory of the Revolution, pg. 503
Chapter 11. Rehberg and the Hannoverian School, pg. 547
Chapter 12. The Napoleonic Revolution in Germany: The End of the Ecclesiastical States and the Imperial Knights, pg. 595
Chapter 13. The Napoleonic Revolution in Germany: The End of the Imperial Cities and the Final Agony of the Empire, pg. 638
Chapter 14. Conclusion and Prospectus, pg. 672
Bibliographical Essay, pg. 677
Index, pg. 711