Preface to the 2016 Reprinting ix
Preface to the 1988 Reprinting xix
Preface xxvii
Abbreviations xxxi
Introduction: From Bourgeois to Corporatist Europe 3
PART 1: THE CONTAINMENT OF THE LEFT
Chapter 1: The Dimensions of Social Conflict at the End of World War I 19
The Language of Class Anxiety (1900-1925) 22
Elites--Resilient and Vulnerable 39
Business Accommodation in Germany and France 53
Chapter 2: Politics among the Victors: Issues and Elections in November 1919 88
Bourgeois Cohesion in France 91
Bourgeois Disarray in Italy 109
Chapter 3: The Limits of Economic Restructuring 135
The Evolution of Leftist Objectives 136
Strategies of Bourgeois Defense 153
The Coal Crisis 194
PART II: THE FAILURE OF THE PARLIAMENTARY CENTER
Chapter 4: The Politics of Reparation 233
The Wager on "Fulfillment" 233
Reparation, Taxes, and the Demands of German Heavy Industry 249
The Bankruptcy of Moderation (1922) 272
Chapter 5: The Attrition of the Liberal Regime in Italy 305
The Political Ecology of Fascism 305
From Giolitti to Mussolini: The Liberals' Search for Order 322
PART III: PATHS TOWARD CORPORATIST STABILITY
Chapter 6: Between Nationalism and Corporatism: The Ruhr Conflict 355
Inflation, Social Democracy, and the Challenge to Sovereignty in Germany 356
Corporatist Forces voices Poincaré and Stresemann 387
Chapter 7: Majorities without Mandates: Issues and Elections in the Spring of 1924 421
The Limits of Mussolini's Majority 422
The Limits of Social Democratic Eclipse 440
The Limits of the Cartel des Gauches 458
Chapter 8: Achieving Stability 481
Inflation, Revaluation, and the Decomposition of Parliamentary Politics 483
Iron, Steel, and the International Organization of Capitalism 516
Corporative State in Corporatist Europe 545
Conclusion: The Structure and Limits of Stability 579
Bibliography 595
Index 609

Charles Maier, one of the most prominent contemporary scholars of European history, published Recasting Bourgeois Europe as his first book in 1975. Based on extensive archival research, the book examines how European societies progressed from a moment of social vulnerability to one of political and economic stabilization.
Arguing that a common trajectory calls for a multi country analysis, Maier provides a comparative history of three European nations and argues that they did not simply return to a prewar status quo, but achieved a new balance of state authority and interest group representation. While most previous accounts presented the decade as a prelude to the Depression and dictatorships, Maier suggests that the stabilization of the 1920s, vulnerable as it was, foreshadowed the more enduring political stability achieved after World War II.
The immense and ambitious scope of this book, its ability to follow diverse histories in detail, and its effort to explain stabilization-and not just revolution or breakdown-have made it a classic of European history.

Charles S. Maier is the Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History at Harvard University. His many books include Among Empires: American Ascendancy and its Predecessors, and Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany (Princeton). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations