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T. Biskup, Rebellious Prussians: Urban Political Culture under Frederick the Great and his Successors, by Florian Schui, The English Historical Review, Volume 131, Issue 548, February 2016, Pages 205–207, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cev347
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Florian Schui’s book takes issue with the historiographical tradition of considering Prussian history as the epitome of the German Sonderweg , a ‘special path’ linking the supposed assertion of early modern absolutism vis-à-vis subservient subjects with authoritarianism and militarism in later German history. Schui offers a different interpretation, and insists that a thriving civil society had emerged already in eighteenth-century Prussia, which enabled burghers—the ‘rebellious brewers, merchants, coffee drinkers, and churchgoers’ whom he mentions on page 177—to articulate dissent against state decisions at critical moments, and in the crucial areas of taxation and religion. The book’s particular focus on finance (discussed in the wider context of urban commerce and social inequality) is particularly welcome, as many studies of the ‘public sphere’ in Germany ignore this area. Schui’s examination of Prussian towns promises a fresh perspective, as, despite the efforts of Frank Göse, Wolfgang Neugebauer and others, work on the provinces is scattered, often lacks a comparative perspective, and has hitherto not been brought together to provide a new comprehensive analysis of provincial Prussia.
