{"product_id":"a-scandal-in-kzinigsberg-9798217060948","title":"A Scandal in Königsberg","description":"\u003cb\u003eNamed a Best Book of the Year by \u003ci\u003eTheTimes (London)\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs told by one of our greatest historians, the story of the scandal that took down two Lutheran preachers in the heart of nineteenth-century Prussia--a chamber piece of cultish esotericism, pseudoscience, and political resistance that conjures up Europe at the end of the age of reason and presages our current age of misinformation \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 1835, Johannes Ebel and Georg Heinrich Diestel were tried for having started a cult. Worse: It was a cult that encouraged scandalous sexual behavior in women, including the daughters of prestigious Prussian families--causing the deaths of two young women from sexual exhaustion. The trial would absorb and polarize the city of Königsberg for half a decade and ruin the lives and careers of its defendants, despite their eventual legal exoneration. The historical moment it encapsulates--a Europe reeling from the triumph and horror of a new industrial, imperial era, struggling to decide which principles will reign in the aftermath of Enlightenment reason--is a fable for our present time of political, social, and existential disquiet. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe great Cambridge historian Christopher Clark--known for \u003ci\u003eThe Sleepwalkers\u003c\/i\u003e, his monumental, defining study of the causes of the First World War--came across the files containing this story three decades ago; it has been swirling in his mind ever since. In gripping, narrative prose, Clark immerses us in a Königsberg scarred by the horrors of the Napoleonic Wars, where Immanuel Kant had recently inaugurated the theory of consciousness that completely reshaped humanity's understanding of itself--but where the distinction between reason and fanaticism was now up for grabs. \u003ci\u003eA Scandal in K\u003ci\u003eö\u003c\/i\u003enigsberg\u003c\/i\u003e is a European history in exquisite miniature--and a peerless lesson in the theological and philosophical debates that animated the Western world at one of its great moments of transformation. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRich and provocative, \u003ci\u003eA Scandal in K\u003ci\u003eö\u003c\/i\u003enigsberg\u003c\/i\u003e articulates an unsettling antecedent for our most fiercely litigated contemporary questions of sexual identity, freedom of thought, and who gets to decide what constitutes the truth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Christopher Clark\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Penguin Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/10\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 192\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.60lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.44h x 5.52w x 0.95d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798217060948\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/12\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/15\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/01\/2026 pg. 66\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eChristopher Clark\u003c\/b\u003e is a professor of modern European history and a fellow of St. Catharine's College at the University of Cambridge, UK. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eRevolutionary Spring, The Sleepwalkers, Time and Power, Iron Kingdom\u003c\/i\u003e, and other books.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Christopher Clark \/ Hardcover \/ English","offer_id":47733823570077,"sku":"9798217060948","price":46.29,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/files\/img_229240f9-c1e2-413c-8678-ef12a8e8eee2.jpg?v=1773736477","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/a-scandal-in-kzinigsberg-9798217060948","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}