Justus Möser and the German Enlightenment

by Jonathan B. Knudsen

• ISBN13: 9780521522526
• ISBN10: 0521522528
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-08
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Justus Möser was a pivotal figure in the age of the German Enlightenment. Administrator, journalist, historian, man of letters, Möser is renowned as one of Germany's finest prose stylists and as one of its most articulate political writers. Known through his political writings for his commitment to conservative reform, he is often called the Edmund Burke of Germany and the father of German conservatism. He is also celebrated for his pioneering Osnabrück History, the first modern social and economic history and a forerunner to Ranke, Marx, and the German historical revolution of the nineteenth century. This work is the first extensive biography of Möser to place him within his society and the world of the German Enlightenment. Using Möser's published and unpublished writings, his letters, essays, and histories, the author has written a total history of Möser's world through Möser's eyes.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

1. Justus Mö

ser in the German Enlightenment

2. Mö

ser's social universe: urban notability and Enlightenment intelligentsia

3. Mö

ser's political universe: secular politics in a confessional state

4. Mö

ser's historical universe: regional history and cosmopolitan history

5. The party of incremental movement: social and economic reform in Mö

ser's Osnabrü

ck

6. Mö

ser's social theory: local patriotism and the defense of the estates

7. The dialectic of Enlightenment: the debate over theory and practice

Bibliography

Index.