Bodie A. Ashton makes an important contribution to the German and regional history of the 19th century with his book. It is recommended.

H-German

[The book] offers in a concise way a good overview of Württemberg's room for manoeuvre and initiatives with regard to the German Question between 1815 and 1871.

German History

This comprehensive book represents nothing less than the current state of research on the history of nineteenth-century Württemberg, and it will surely find readers in the other remaining Mittelstaaten as well.

European History Quarterly

A succinct book, whose valuable contribution to the transfer of knowledge across different historiographies should be acknowledged.

German Historical Institute London Bulletin

This is a clearly presented, well-researched, and very readable account of the multifaceted role the middle-seized German state of Württemberg – the home of Friedrich Schiller, Hermann Hesse, and Albert Einstein – played in the process of German unification. Intimately familiar with the historiography, Bodie Ashton offers a fresh and interesting perspective on this rich topic.

Hermann Beck, Professor of History and International Studies, University of Miami, USA

This is a very welcome contribution to nineteenth-century German history. Bodie Ashton's new study of the small South-west German state of Württemberg retells the history of the movement for German unification from an unfamiliar vantage point. In calling into question some of the assumptions of an older body of literature, Ashton gives us the benefit of a more plural and more open-ended history of German unification, at the same time as demonstrating why some alternative ideals of the nation-state ultimately failed.

Andrew Bonnell, Associate Professor in History, University of Queensland, Australia