Social Stud Reacts | Otto von Bismarck - A Man of Great Ideas - Extra History - #2

Mini-bio: My name is Brady. I'm 24 years old and am a graduate student in history. I started this channel as something fun to do while I finish my schooling. My primary area of study ranges roughly from the American Revolution through the first sixty years of the 19th century. While I am a historian (with a B.A. in Liberal Arts), I am a very new historian. I am more of a learner than a teacher, so I use the react format to do a little bit of both. Also, flags are fun, and I like them very much... and video games... and maybe some other stuff. While my videos are not all history related, this channel has a serious social studies bend to it.

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[melkor]

Bismarck has a plan Bismarck always has a plan.

[cuso]

in my opinion, Bismark’s obsession with monarchy is more towards a strong central government. Up to his time, the strong power in Europe is almost all monarchy. And the French Revolution was very chaotic until Napoleon became ruler( the infighting before Napoleon did not look nice in any sense). So he as a conservative would naturally consider democracy as inefficient and somehow

[semiefficientgamer]

just imagine our relationship with guns or america's obsession with becoming a self made success, or capitalism in general. Viewed as tradition, heavily romanticized, beneficial at times, self damaging at others. I'm sure Europeans view of nobles was the same, so I'm sure Americans should have some basis of empathizing..

[LightxHeaven]

The monarchic and royal traditions of European countries may be hard to understand for someone who has never lived in a country with a monarchy. For us, the monarchy represents a living and breathing link to our past and it’s also a part of our shared national identities.

[boomamathics]

Brady has a reaction. Brady *always* has a reaction

[dv]

The 1848 revolution wasn't universally liked by the people it was supposed to give power to. Some simply liked to stick to what they knew, some considered the rule by the king ordained by divine right, so they had religious objections and some had relatively cordial relationships with whomever was in charge of them and were apprehensive in changing that. The revolution seemed to be more popular in the cities and more carried by the middle class.

If I gauge Otto von Bismarck correctly he might actually have been liked by his peasantry and he would have had little to fear from them. I have studied some aspects of late feudal power dynamics and in many cases it seems it was at least at the bottom levels rather cooperative rather than forceful, as long as the lord didn't overstep his bounds and treated his peasants equally.

[carprincess]

What a crazy story, it's wild how many people shared a name back in the 'olden days' and all the drama that it took to find a figurehead.

[nikolaiquack]

Bismarck is one of those figures who's pretty controversial among German historians. One of the profs from my university is pretty much constantly working on demystifying him.

Also, I wouldn't say that a real German identity had existed long before the first German nation state. Sure, there was some semblance of a shared identity, but not a clear cut picture. Even nowadays, Germany is pretty diverse certain cultural ways.

[AmberAHue]

The "Lies" episode of this series will have the books that they used for research. I'm sure there are great biographies on Bismark!

[BradyPostma]

12:43
Social Stud: Anybody got any books on the guy?
Me: My time has come!

_Bismark_ by Edward Crankshaw. I recommend it, and also I literally have it. I actually bought it after seeing this exact _Extra History_ series on Bismark made me want to know more. Also, my name is Brady, too. Hi, mirror universe me!

Fun fact: the capitol of North Dakota, which was settled mostly by German emigrants, was renamed in Otto Von Bismark's honor after he united Germany.

[Great_Olaf]

They are definitely being sarcastic about the first few "good" ideas.

[hiltibrant]

I haven't checked lately if there are any good new biographies of Bismarck out there, but from the one's I've read, I'd recommend A.J.P Taylor's and Jonathan Steinberg's biographies.

[oquic]

You guys have the electoral college and slot of other weird traditions

[wnnr]

I don't think most europeans even have any attachment to monarchies. Of the 40 something countries in Europe only 12 are monarchies and, of those, 5 are microstates. Most people in Europe haven't experienced living under a monarchy so I don't really believe monarchy is something that truly represents the general European culture in the 21st century. If anything, Asia is the continent where monarchy is most prevalent

[geraldgrenier]

Constitutional Monarchy isn't about being "Born Better", it about being "Raised to the Duties". This is from an American who lived ages 8-25 in New Zealand. part the issue the American vs European Rights vs Responsibilities, so see as if the born with the right to rule whereas they seen them as raised to the responsibilities of the position

[hiltibrant]

German identites before unification were closely tied to whatever German state or region you belonged to, but there is also a lot of differences induced by religious differences dating back to the 30 Years War (Mainly, a Catholic South and A Protestant North), but by Bismarck's time, both Prussia and Austria had firmly divided Germany into spheres of influence following the Napolepnic Wars. German national identity was definitely on the rise though, but it was mistly tied to artistic, intellectual and radikal expressions until Bismarck, well, appropriated it.

[wizardchap]

Bismark wasn't trying to play kingmaker in the sense you are thinking. It sounds like what you mean when you say kingmaker is a powerful noble who can just decide he doesn't like the king and replace him with a new king. What bismark is trying to do is push one of the kings relatives to campaign among the major nobles of prussia to get support for an affective conservative coup. He doesn't have the power or influence to help make anyone king but he can start pushing them to want to be king.

[Fordo]

As someone born in the USA and raised with American culture and ideas... as I've gotten older I've grown a lot more appreciation to the ideals of European conservatism and monarchism. I've begun to see a lot of benefits of a monarchy and royal family and nobility in terms of stability and putting a check on the people and government.

[HistoryNerd]

It's not a book I've read or even own but I do have a biography of him on my huge books-to-buy list(my lisy is filled with books I've seen around the Internet or recommended from Reddit, etc.) It's titled "Bismarck: A Life" and the author is Jonathon Steinberg.

[ms_scribbles]

America is just as obsessed with tradition as Europe is. The Constitution, for example. If you listen to most Americans, the Constitution is something that was set in stone and must NEVER change, despite the fact that it was DESIGNED to change, and HAS been changed almost 30 times. And yet, it's still seen as holy and untouchable. The idea that a woman can't be President is another one. The President has always been a man, therefore the President must always be a man, or else it means the country has... **GASP!** changed, and that can't happen because the USA is a perfect nation, the best in the world, and for it to change would make it no longer perfect! The arguments against revamping the healthcare system in this country is also met with what's essentially a long-winded version of, "Our healthcare system has always been this way, therefore it must always be this way."