Comparative and Transnational History

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.

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