Harvard Historical Monographs

Since the beginning of modern warfare, one of the favorite crusades of the international peacemakers has been toward disarmament. Crosby investigates the British origin of the disarmament idea—from World War I through the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

During this period, Exeter was characterized by its self-sufficiency and by an oligarchical control over every aspect of its civic life. Wallace MacCaffrey describes a semi-autonomous world in itself, in which a small interlocked group of merchant families, related by marriage, kept tight control over the economy, politics, religion, education and social activities.

This is a relatively brief, interpretive treatment of the man whom Bakunin called “the greatest conspirator of the century” but whom most English-speaking scholars know, if at all, as an obscure, misspelled name. In the introduction, a distinction is drawn between the “amateur” revolutionist and the frequently unemployed professional who attempted to create a situation that would make possible the practice of his craft and who had a vested interest in “revolution” in general but did not necessarily play a part in any particular revolution.

Contemporaries of Wright (1840–1909) lived through the transformation of American society by the industrial revolution. For the most part they thought the transformation represented growth and progress, but many found occasion for doubt and fear in its consequences. Their anxieties collected around notions of a “labor problem” and “labor reform.”

This book is the first thorough account of the Jewish Naturalization Act of 1753, a notorious but little–understood episode in English history. Using a largely narrative form the author first discusses the position of the Jews in the mid-eighteenth century and explains why they sought and obtained passage of the bill. He then recounts the beginnings of opposition to it and discusses the religious, economic, political, and psychological reasons for the opposition. He describes in detail the propaganda campaign against the bill and the resultant effect on the election.

Baron Friedrich vom Stein’s leadership of the reform movement in Prussia has long been considered part of a critically important phase of early nineteenth-century German history. R. C. Raack describes in vivid detail the combination of forces and circumstances which brought about Stein’s fall from power as chief minister of Frederick William III.

First published in 1971, this book offers an exploration of the insurrection as part of the nationwide struggle for municipal and departmental liberties, bringing to the fore the Commune’s relationship to the broader historical problem of the consolidation and future character of the Third Republic, especially in the provinces.

Spitzer demonstrates that the secrets of a conspiracy and its place in the broader history of a nation can nevertheless be brought to light by evaluating one kind of evidence against another. His book is much more than the story of the conspirators. In showing why the conspiracy developed and how it was handled, the author has illuminated the workings of the political system of the Restoration—the structure and organization of its administration and political police and the operation of political justice in its courts.

The decision to fortify northeastern France has usually been considered a tragic mistake, an example of bad planning and missed opportunities. Not so, says Judith M. Hughes, who provides a convincing view of how France’s military and political leaders tried to safeguard their nation and why they failed.

Scholars have long recognized that Florence’s deficit-financing of its wars of independence against the Visconti of Milan had far-reaching economic, political, and social effects, but this is the first document-based history to provide concrete support for that general knowledge.

This monograph contributes research findings to the historical controversy over the political motives and conduct of the upper bourgeoisie during the French Revolution. Philip Dawson makes use of a variety of manuscript materials pertinent to the magistrates as he treats their activities as members of corporate groups before 1790 and follows many of them as individuals through the revolutionary years to 1795.

Lewes—consort of George Eliot, biographer of Robespierre and Goethe, novelist, editor, and critic—was also a scientist and philosopher. Tjoa not only reconstructs Lewes’ theory of criticism and his social and political opinions but also evaluates his contributions to Darwinian science both as original thinker and as popularizer.

In the first modern history of the Huguenots’ New World experience, Butler traces the Huguenot diaspora across late seventeenth-century Europe, explores the causes and character of their American emigration, and reveals the Huguenots’ secular and religious assimilation in three remarkably different societies—Boston, New York, and South Carolina.

Nowhere in Europe has the Roman Catholic Church exerted a more mystical hold on the life of a nation than it has in Spain. Yet this hold has not been unchanging or unchallenged. This contribution to European historical literature provides a clear and dispassionate account of successive ecclesiastical-secular conflicts and controversies, and deftly summarizes the diverse ideological and intellectual currents of the times.

This investigation not only revises what historians have long thought of the attitude of barristers toward the French Revolution, but also offers insights into the corporate character of Old Regime society and how the Revolution affected it.