Introductory note / Erich Angermann -- Slavery and the idea of progress / David Brion Davis -- Paternalism, serfdom, and emancipation in Prussia / Robert M. Berdahl -- The "take-off" in Germany / Richard H. Tilly -- Economic growth under capitalism : the American experience to 1870 / William N. Parker -- Germany's "peculiar institution" : the Beamtentum / Erich Angermann -- Civil service reform in the United States of America / Ari Hoogenboom -- American foreign relations -- an American style? / Knud Krakau -- National style in diplomacy : Germany / Gerhard L. Weinberg