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[[File:Blackbourn-marpingen.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|<I>Marpingen</I> by David Blackbourn]]David Blackbourn in his book, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679757783/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0679757783&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=2a01a955500f8fd54352a709a4f87953 Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in a Nineteenth-Century German Village]</I> examines the Marian apparitions reported by three young German girls in 1876. Blackbourn argues that the larger social, economic, and political pressures of the Kulturkampf, the depression of the 1870s, and the aggressive centralization and expansion of the state interacted with the discreet details of the personal lives of the visionaries, culminating in a phenomenon that was at once specific to the Marpingen community and indicative of broad European trends. Blackbourn approaches his subject with empathy and respect, drawing his evidence from a variety of sources in order to uncover the historical forces at play as well as the experiences of the people involved in the dramatic incident.

Blackbourn refers to historical and psychological analysis of Marian apparitions contributed by Michael Carroll from his book <I>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691028672/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0691028672&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=dcf60b77763f6616372970e219413113 The Cult of the Virgin Mary]</I> and the solid background of social history provided by Jonathon Sperber from his classic book <I>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691054320/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0691054320&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=2841b09aa6f180cee306625f65edbf46 Popular Catholicism in Nineteenth-Century Germany]</I>. Other treatments of Marian apparitions are often religious and reverential in approach, such as the recent work by Cheryl Porte, Pontmain, Prophecy and Protest or, at the other end of the short spectrum, anti-clerical in tone, like Nicholas Perry and Loreto Echeverria’s book, <I>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415012961/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0415012961&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=5517588fc1ade04d2dae8d64e21b4061 Under the Heel of Mary]</i>. In Marpingen, Blackbourn has successfully avoided either moralistic stance, neither embracing nor dismissing the spiritual significance of such incidents in the lives of nineteenth-century Catholics. Combining a variety of details about the visions themselves with a solid historical interpretation of nineteenth-century Germany, he explores many angles of the apparitions with curiosity and integrity.