In an attempt to understand the political history of the German middle class in the nineteenth century, Jeffry Diefendorf studies in detail the political, social, and economic behavior of three business communities on the Left Bank of the Rhine between 1789 and 1834. Originally published in 1980. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.