"Hermann Beck's study of the authoritarian welfare state in Prussia in the generation before 1870 is an interesting combination of intellectual, social, and political history. The book is well-researched, strategically utilizing some documents from the old German Central Archive in Merseburg but based primarily on the wealth of published primary sources that historians of nineteenth-century Germany must master."
—Eric Dorn Brose, American Historical Review
— Eric Dorn Brose, American Historical Review
"Beck's approach of looking for connections between intellectual models and practical politics offers an interesting perspective. His analysis allows an ideoogical-critical view of the Prussian bureaucracy to be honed, and its actions to be seen as the expression of a conservative spirit."
—Bulleting of the German Historical Institute (London)
— Bulleting of the German Historical Institute (London)
"Yet another book on the Prussian bureaucracy? Yet, and a well-researched and well-written one raising new questions and using sources inadequately explored. [An] extended introduction on pauperism and the social question in Prussia between 1815 and 1870 . . . deserves to be read for its own sake . . . ."
—Loyd E. Lee, Central European History
— Loyd E. Lee, Central European History
"Beck has made a significant contribution to our knowledge of pre-Bismarckian social policy. The work will be of interest to historians of social policy and statebuilding, as well as to students of German political thought."
—Journal of Social History
— Journal of Social History