Between 1750 and 1840, says Aaslestad (history, West Virginia U.), the north German city-state of Hamburg and its environs experienced a fundamental shift in its civic and local identity that would direct the city-state's development through the 19th century. Discovering from archival sources that the residents of the city-state did not identify themselves politically as German, she asks whether and to what extend they understood themselves as Hamburgers, Hanseatics, republicans, citizens, and urban residents. She also investigates the whether the international warfare, especially in the 25 years between the outbreak of the French Revolution and the triumph of the Vienna Conference, impacted their local culture and traditional lifestyles as much as it did their commerce. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)