James Retallack studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and received his DPhil in 1983. He joined the History Department at the University of Toronto in 1987 and served as Chair of the German Department from 1999 to 2002. In 1993 to 1994, he spent a year at the Free University Berlin as a Humboldt Research Fellow in the Political Science department. He also held a Visiting Professorship in History at the University of Göttingen in 2002 and 2003 when he was awarded the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Bessel Research Prize by the Humboldt Foundation. He became an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2011.

Retallack's magnificent study explores election battles - encompassing both election campaigns and debates over suffrage laws - as the best site for understanding the course of regime transformation Historians will be impressed by [Retallack's] breathtaking knowledge of political life in Saxony, based on a firm command of the archival and secondary materials.

• Introduction 1: On the Threshold of a New Age 2: The Possibilities of Liberal Reform 3: Enemies of the Reich 4: The Struggle Against Revolution 5: Against Liberalism and the Jews 6: Authoritarianism Under Siege 7: Suffrage Reform as Coup d'Etat 8: "Red Saxony" 9: Deflecting Democracy 10: Crisis and Retrenchment 11: Dance 12: Politics in a New Key 13: Adrift 14: Democracy Deferred

James Retallack studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and received his DPhil in 1983. He joined the History Department at the University of Toronto in 1987 and served as Chair of the German Department from 1999 to 2002. In 1993 to 1994, he spent a year at the Free University Berlin as a Humboldt Research Fellow in the Political Science department. He also held a Visiting Professorship in History at the University of Göttingen in 2002 and 2003 when he was awarded the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Bessel Research Prize by the Humboldt Foundation. He became an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2011.

Retallack's magnificent study explores election battles - encompassing both election campaigns and debates over suffrage laws - as the best site for understanding the course of regime transformation Historians will be impressed by [Retallack's] breathtaking knowledge of political life in Saxony, based on a firm command of the archival and secondary materials.

• Introduction 1: On the Threshold of a New Age 2: The Possibilities of Liberal Reform 3: Enemies of the Reich 4: The Struggle Against Revolution 5: Against Liberalism and the Jews 6: Authoritarianism Under Siege 7: Suffrage Reform as Coup d'Etat 8: "Red Saxony" 9: Deflecting Democracy 10: Crisis and Retrenchment 11: Dance 12: Politics in a New Key 13: Adrift 14: Democracy Deferred

James Retallack studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and received his DPhil in 1983. He joined the History Department at the University of Toronto in 1987 and served as Chair of the German Department from 1999 to 2002. In 1993 to 1994, he spent a year at the Free University Berlin as a Humboldt Research Fellow in the Political Science department. He also held a Visiting Professorship in History at the University of Göttingen in 2002 and 2003 when he was awarded the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Bessel Research Prize by the Humboldt Foundation. He became an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2011.

Retallack's magnificent study explores election battles - encompassing both election campaigns and debates over suffrage laws - as the best site for understanding the course of regime transformation Historians will be impressed by [Retallack's] breathtaking knowledge of political life in Saxony, based on a firm command of the archival and secondary materials.

• Introduction 1: On the Threshold of a New Age 2: The Possibilities of Liberal Reform 3: Enemies of the Reich 4: The Struggle Against Revolution 5: Against Liberalism and the Jews 6: Authoritarianism Under Siege 7: Suffrage Reform as Coup d'Etat 8: "Red Saxony" 9: Deflecting Democracy 10: Crisis and Retrenchment 11: Dance 12: Politics in a New Key 13: Adrift 14: Democracy Deferred