"It is one of the main merits of this volume to historicize the "modern" concept of parliamentarianism and democracy . . . offers a stimulating contribution to the scholarship on Imperial Germany." - H-Soz-u-Kult "[this] brief review cannot do justice to the breadth of contributions offered in this slender volume. While the collection does not cover all aspects of Wilhelmine history . . . it does provide a good introduction to the current state of the field . . . these essays offer avenues for further exploration rather than definitive statements." - German Studies Review What was distinctive-and distinctively "modern"-about German society and politics in the age of Kaiser Wilhelm II? In addressing this question, these essays assemble cutting-edge research by fourteen international scholars. Based on evidence of an explicit and self-confidently "bourgeois" formation in German public culture, the contributors suggest new ways of interpreting its reformist potential and advance...