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Since the 1970s West German historiography has been one of the main arenas of international comparative history. It has produced important empirical studies particularly in social history as well as methodological and theoretical reflections on comparative history. During the last twenty years however, this approach has felt pressure from two sources: cultural historical approaches, which stress microhistory and the construction of cultural transfer on the one hand, global history and transnational approaches with emphasis on connected history on the other. This volume introduces the reader to some of the major methodological debates and to recent empirical research of German historians, who do comparative and transnational work.
“The volume makes available to English readers an important ongoing discussion centred in Germany but having clear connections with international developments in historiography.” · European History Quarterly
“The essay offers an excellent and nuanced discussion of comparative history’s fundamental assumptions and approaches, its strengths and weaknesses, its possibilities and limits…Scholars or students looking to refresh their understanding of the methods and challenges of comparative history and to learn how German historians discuss transnational approaches will find much to appreciate in this collection, which is particularly well suited to the needs of graduate seminars. If this book helps end the overblown and sometimes petty arguments over which method will reign supreme and helps us take advantage of the obvious benefits of each approach, Haupt and Kocka will have done us a great service.” · Canadian Journal of History/Annalees canadiennes d’histoire
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Comparison and beyond: Traditions, scope and perspective of comparative history
Jürgen Kocka and Heinz-Gerhard Haupt
PART I: COMPARATIVE AND ENTANGLED HISTORY IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
Chapter 1. The debate between comparison and transfers - and what now?
Hartmut Kaelble
Chapter 2. A ‘Transnational’ History of Society: Continuity or New Departure
Jürgen Osterhammel
Chapter 3. Double Marginalization: A plea for a transnational perspective on German history
Sebastian Conrad
Chapter 4. Entangled histories of uneven modernities: Civil society, caste councils and legal pluralism in postcolonial India
Shalini Randeria
Chapter 5. Lost in translation? Transcending boundaries in comparative history
M. Juneja and M. Pernau
PART II: TRANSNATIONALIZATION AND ISSUES IN EUROPEAN HISTORY
Chapter 6. The Nation as a Developing Resource Community: A Generalizing Comparison
Dieter Langewiesche
Chapter 7. Birds of a Feather: A Comparative History of German and U.S. Labour in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Thomas Welskopp
Chapter 8. Common challenges, common solutions? Visions of the future during the 1960s. GDR, CSSR and the Federal Republic of Germany in comparative perspective
Jörg Requate
Chapter 9. Comparisons, Cultural Transfers and the Study of Networks: Towards a Transnational History of Europe
Philipp Ther
Chapter 10. Germany and Africa in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: An Entangled History?
Andreas Eckert
Chapter 11. Losing National Identity or Gaining Transcultural Competence: Changing Approaches in Migration History
Dirk Hoerder
Notes on Contributors
Selected Bibliography
Index