Im Kampf um die deutsche Republik. Erinnerungen eines Sozialdemokraten By Grzesinski, Albert. Hrsg. von Eberhard Kolb. [Schriftenreihe der Stiftung Reichspräsident-Friedrich-Ebert-Gedenkstätte, Band 9.] R. Oldenbourg Verlag, München 2001. 384 pp. Ill. EUR34.80

Using mainly scal records, the author compiled a database totalling roughly 30,000 records, which he evaluated and analysed in respect of the historical problems he wished to address. In all sections of the book, however, the focus is not solely on Ghent, as other cities, primarily in western Europe, are drawn into the comparative analysis. A nal objection to overstressing the concept of middengroepen: whoever concentrates on it risks neglecting the remaining 60 per cent of the population in Ghent (4 per cent upper-class, 56 per cent underclass), for the middle classes, as the social history of the nineteenth century has demonstrated, take their Book reviews 275 orientation and self-denition from the presence of these extremes and from conicts with them. Historical studies of society in the German language (Gesellschaftsgeschichte) to date have not produced an examination of urban development which could compare with the oeuvre of Dambruyne.