Response to Shorter's Essay

In Edward Shorter's essay, "Middle-Class Anxiety in the German Revolution of 1848," he attempts to show that the "disaffected middles classes" were the main source of unrest during the political upheaval in 1848 Germany. He uses a number of responses that were generated by Maximilian's royal essay contest as the main evidence for his claim. A few holes, however, develop over the course of his argument that do not fully bring his theory to a decisive conclusion. The first problem is that Shorter regards the 656 essays entered into the contest as a "remarkable response." He tries to make the reader believe that these essays are a comprehensive public opinion poll that adequetly represents the entire middle classes throughout the German-speaking nations. While useful information regarding the social changes seen through the lense of the middle class can certainly be derived from the essays, the responses are hardly all-inlcusive. Furthermore, he stretches the definition of what qualifies for inclusion in the middle class (p. 194). For instance, he includes certain peasants as middle class, which demonsrtates that he is just broadening his definition of middle classes to include those in the lower classes that actually were radical and reactionary. He also purports the middle class to account for a "hefty proportion" of the social makeup at this time, but this is an assumption based on no evidence. He uses this sentence to give weight to his overall argument, but without supporting evidence it is just baseless.
Shorter further states that they added a "radical element to the agitation" of the revolution. He describes instances where some of those who used to be considered middle class, such as impoverished artisins, are in the streets demanding action and change. However, the focus of his evidence is on the essays and in none of the responses he describes do they demostrate any type of reactionary or radical tones or calls to action. He defines the authors of these essays as middle class radicals and then takes the actual activities of perhaps some middle classes in the streets and lumps them together as evidence for all-inclusive middle class radicals thoughout the German-speaking nations. He uses invalid definitions of the middle class to draw his ultimate conclusion.