"In this book - originally published in German, and now available for the first time in English - Dieter Langewiesche analyzes the foundation and development of liberalism from the late eighteenth century to the late twentieth century. He considers the particular nature of liberalism in Germany, its centrality to our understanding of the course of modern German history, and he questions and analyzes the role liberalism has played in the German path to modernity."--BOOK JACKET.