Peter Blickle – författare

By focusing on three key aspects of life and change as the European state developed, Peter Blickle brings together a wealth of scholarly experience from all over the continent to discuss the subject's role in State formation. Europe has undergone a remarkable process of democratization since the end of the Second World War, shifting the thrust of government policy away from foreign affairs and towards internal matters, and rendering social interest and conflict the driving forces in the historical process. This widespread acceptance of democracy has led to a renewed study of the history of the estates, and a corresponding increase in debate over the concept of representation. Here the debate is taken further with an examination of the role of the city constitution, and developments in rural settlements. Inextricably linked with the advent of wide-scale representation was an increase in resistance: this book examines the geographical spread of such uprisings, and offers explanations of why revolts were so few in Northern Europe but so prevalent in the Central states. The questions of who gained from the uprisings, and what they contributed to the development of the different forms of representation and community are addressed from a pan-European angle. The cities and villages of the late Middle Ages and early modern period were instrumental in building the political structure of the time. These settlements were determinative of the spirit of community, and a close inspection of these communities throws interesting light on the differences between peasant and burgher morality, and how these norms and values were integrated into the legitimizing of the state. This fascinating work examines the citizen's role in European development with a theoretical and conceptual, but also practical and pragmatic approach. The discussion crosses all national boundaries, and in a Europe which is constantly evolving is a relevant and timely addition to the series.

This book, first published in 1984, brings together three essays written by specialists in German history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries whose important work is little known to English-speaking historians. Peter Blickle argues for a strong connection between the theology of the Reformation and the ideologies of the social protest movements of the period. Hans-Christoph Rublack takes a wider theme of the political and social norms in urban communities in the Holy Roman Empire and emphasises the ideas of justice, peace and unity held within the community despite the upheavals of revolution and protest. Winfried Schulze provides a comparative assessment of early modern peasant resistance within the Holy Roman Empire.

This book, first published in 1984, brings together three essays written by specialists in German history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries whose important work is little known to English-speaking historians. Peter Blickle argues for a strong connection between the theology of the Reformation and the ideologies of the social protest movements of the period. Hans-Christoph Rublack takes a wider theme of the political and social norms in urban communities in the Holy Roman Empire and emphasises the ideas of justice, peace and unity held within the community despite the upheavals of revolution and protest. Winfried Schulze provides a comparative assessment of early modern peasant resistance within the Holy Roman Empire.

A new analysis of one of the most loaded terms in the German language: Heimat, or Homeland.The idea of Heimat (home, homeland, native region) has been as important to German self-perceptions over the last two hundred years as the shifting notion of the German nation. While the idea of Heimat has been long neglected in English studies of German culture--among other reasons because the word Heimat has no exact equivalent in English--this book offers us the first cross-disciplinary and comprehensive analysis, in English or German, of this all-pervasive German idea. Blickle shows how the idea of Heimat interpenetrates German notions of modernity, identity, gender, nature, and innocence. Blickle reminds us of such commonplace expressions of Heimat sentimentality as Biedermeier landscapes of Alpine meadows and castles on the Rhine, but also finds the Heimat preoccupation in Hegel, Nietzsche, and Freud. Always aware of the many literary representations of Heimat (for instance in Schiller, Hölderlin, Heine, Kafka, and Thomas Mann), Blickle does not argue for the fundamental innocence of Heimat. Instead he shows again and again how the idealization of a home ground leads to borders of exclusion.Peter Blickle is associate professor of German at Western Michigan University.