Popular Culture, Crime, and Social Control in 18th-Century Wurttemberg.

Swabia, with its abundant source materials, has attracted much attention from historians, and since the 1980s this historiography has been dominated by social/cultural historians. A recent and compelling addition comes from Karl Wegert. In his study of criminal cases (approximately 300) that passed through Wurttemberg's privy council during the eighteenth century, Wegert focuses on those capital crimes that drew the most attention: homicide, infanticide, and bestiality. According to Wegert, the first two are correctly defined as crime, but the last should be defined as a deviance, for there are no human victims in bestiality. This distinction is only one example of the meticulous work done by Wegert. When considering his goal - to elucidate the complex relationship between the ancien regime endeavors to control and acculturate the populace and the reactions of that populace to such efforts - it is easy to appreciate why Wegert takes extreme care. His pains are rewarded by a solid and, for the most part, convincing argument: In the case of capital offenses, there were not only instances where the desires of state bureaucrats and villagers converged, but also instances where the state took its cue from the village. Thus, argues Wegert, our understanding of the nexus that linked popular culture and state in early modern Europe must be more balanced and less negative, for bureaucratic institutions were not autocratic forces in the development of state and society.

Detailed analysis of the three aforementioned transgressions provides the foundation for Wegert's argument. The author does not, however, plunge directly into the gruesome, and oftentimes disturbing, details. Instead, Wegert's first three chapters deal with the background material crucial to his argument. The first chapter traces the roots of the complicated and overlapping institutions that were intended to discipline the inhabitants of southwestern Germany. Relying on the rich secondary material produced by historians like Sabean, Vann, and Wunder, Wegert convincingly portrays a village society that was overrun by institutions not only imposed from above, but also developed from within. Moreover, this intricate web of control was infused with deep and divisive corporate interests. 'State policies' and 'local needs' were, therefore, not always at opposite ends of the spectrum; they could, contends Wegert, oftentimes reinforce each other.

Yet there were, to be sure, moments when the enlightened ideologies of state bureaucrats came into conflict with popular mentalities that reflected pre-Christian superstitions and customs. Wegert delves deeply into this popular culture, basing his lucid and informed exegesis on the work of folklorists and historians, but also realizing the problems that are implicit to this pursuit and mitigating them as best he can. As a result, Wegert successfully argues that, even though state and church initiatives were widespread, the countryfolk of Swabia held onto many of their traditional values and mores. In some cases, suggests Wegert, the peasants actually exploited and adapted outside initiatives for their own purposes and not necessarily for the goals that were intended.

The third chapter, where Wegert delineates the development of both elite and common beliefs about punishment and justice, bolsters the main thesis, too. Once again, he finds that the state and the populace came to the gallows with different, but often overlapping, intentions. State and church officials hoped that gruesome, public executions would lead the rustics to further veneration of the state's power, whereas the people saw these events as significant rituals that guaranteed the maintenance of their cosmic order. They feared that if a deviant was not executed in the proper, traditional manner, then her or his spirit might wreak further havoc on the community. The ritualistic nature of these affairs was so important that if the executioner botched it up, then oftentimes his life was threatened by a distressed mob. Given the traditional roots of state penal practice and the influence of the populace, Wegert posits an incisive question: Did the "authorities themselves" retain "some of the beliefs which they condemned in others?" (p. 120)

The reader is left to ponder this question as Wegert moves to the next three chapters - in effect, the second half of his book - on homicide, infanticide, and bestiality. Providing straight-forward accounts of the cases discovered in the Hauptstaatsarchiv, Wegert substantiates his main line of argument with sound, primary evidence, while also developing a second, albeit related, line of argument: Criminology and sociobiology have been, insists Wegert, erroneously scorned and summarily dismissed by the discipline of history. Even though some criticism is deserved, the work of criminologists and sociobiologists does, in his opinion, offer insight into the behavior of past criminals. Without their theories on genetics and physical conditions, historians' interpretations of criminality and the ensuing responses by the state and the populace remain dubious. There is much to be said for commingling our sometimes obstinate field with new theories and disciplines. For this Wegert should be applauded.

On the other hand, some weaknesses in Wegert's study mar its otherwise shiny veneer. In his argument for physiological circumstances, Wegert presents lopsided evidence: The crimes of homicide, infanticide, and bestiality are replete with instances of 'abnormal' behavior that suggest mental defects to 'normal' observers. Of course, Wegert is well aware of this and does address this bias, but even more deleterious to his primary argument is the relatively isolated nature of these crimes. They did not threaten the state with mass, social unrest, and therefore they were probably not issues of social control that demanded quick state action. The crimes obviously disturbed social control within the village; that is most likely why villagers took such interest in the punishment. Given these conditions, it is not so surprising that there were moments where the state took its cue from the peasants. Notwithstanding these quibbles, Wegert's work is a perceptive investigation not only into certain ties that bound together the state and the people, but also into popular culture and penal traditions of early modern Swabia.

Dennis Frey, Jr. Syracuse University