European urban elites underwent a substantial transformation between the Ancien Régime and Liberalism. The importance of this process is still an open debate among historians. This book discusses the making of liberal elites in nineteenth-century Spain from a transnational perspective. Through asymmetric case studies of Valladolid and Magdeburg, the Spanish path to liberalism is interpreted in a broader European framework. By so doing, this book compares the political and social contexts of Spain and Prussia at the beginning of the nineteenth century in order to contribute to debates about social change in the Era of Revolutions.
The urban sphere functions as a laboratory for analyzing this process. This brings into relief the subtle mechanisms of social reproduction among elites. Specifically, the holding of institutional offices and the construction of kin strategies can be seen as crucial for understanding the power of liberal elites in the European town of early nineteenth century.
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