Comparative and Transnational History: Central European Approaches and New Perspectives PDF
Preview Comparative and Transnational History: Central European Approaches and New Perspectives
C T H C T Central European Approaches and New Perspectives (cid:1)•(cid:2) Edited by Heinz-Gerhard Haupt and Jürgen Kocka Berghahn Books New York • Oxford First published in 2009 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com ©2009, 2012 Heinz-Gerhard Haupt and Jürgen Kocka First paperback edition published in 2012 All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Comparative and transnational history : Central European approaches and new perspectives / edited by Heinz-Gerhard Haupt and Jürgen Kocka. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-84545-615-3 (hbk.)—ISBN 978-0-85745-603-8 (pbk.) 1. Germany (West)—Historiography. 2. Germany—Historiography. 3. Europe, .d evre Central—Historiography. 4. Germany—Social conditions—Historiography. se 5. Europe, Central—Social conditions—Historiography. 6. Transnationalism— r sth Historiography. 7 . Acculturation—Historiography. 8. Social history— g ir llA Methodology. 9. History—Methodology. 10. History—Comparative method. .de I. Haupt, Heinz-Gerhard. II. Kocka, Jürgen. ta rop D86.C65 2009 ro cn 907.2--dc22 I ,sko 2009025428 o B n h a h g re B British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data .0 1 0 2 © A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library th g iryp o C Printed in the United States on acid-free paper. ISBN 978-0-85745-603-8 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-85745-604-5 (ebook) Comparative and Transnational History : Central European Approaches and New Perspectives, edited by Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, and Jürgen Kocka, Berghahn Books, Incorporated, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docD=946863. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2022-06-19 17:32:43. (cid:15) (cid:16) CONTENTS Preface vii Comparison and Beyond: Traditions, Scope, and Perspectives of Comparative History 1 Jürgen Kocka/Heinz-Gerhard Haupt PART I Comparative and Entangled History in Global Perspectives Between Comparison and Transfers—and What Now? A French-German Debate 33 Hartmut Kaelble A ‘Transnational’ History of Society: Continuity or New Departure? 39 Jürgen Osterhammel Double Marginalization: A Plea for a Transnational Perspective on German History 52 Sebastian Conrad Entangled Histories of Uneven Modernities: Civil Society, Caste Councils, and Legal Pluralism in Postcolonial India 77 Shalini Randeria Lost in Translation? Transcending Boundaries in Comparative History 105 Monica Juneja / Margrit Pernau vi Contents PART II Transnationalization and Issues in European History Th e Nation as a Developing Resource Community: A Generalizing Comparison 133 Dieter Langewiesche Birds of a Feather: A Comparative History of German and US Labor in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 149 Th omas Welskopp Visions of the Future: GDR, CSSR, and the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1960s 178 Jörg Requate Comparisons, Cultural Transfers, and the Study of Networks: Toward a Transnational History of Europe 204 Philipp Th er Germany and Africa in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: An Entangled History? 226 Andreas Eckert Losing National Identity or Gaining Transcultural Competence: Changing Approaches in Migration History 247 Dirk Hoerder Notes on Contributors 272 Select Bibliography 276 Index 291 (cid:15) (cid:16) PREFACE Comparative history deals with similarities and diff erences between his- torical units, e.g., regions, economies, cultures, and national states. It is the classical way of transcending the narrow boundaries of national history. Comparative history is analytically ambitious and empirically demanding. Th e last decades have witnessed the rise of comparative history, but its practitioners have remained a minority, and its critics have not been com- pletely convinced. Entangled history deals with transfer, interconnection, and mutual in- fl uences across boundaries. It can be another way of moving beyond the limits of national history. Its rise is more recent. It has been fuelled by post- colonial perspectives, by a renewed interest in transnationalism, and by the intellectual consequences of globalization. It has been practiced in diff er- ent contexts, e.g., in the overlap between French and German history, in the study of transnational migration, with respect to cultural transfer, or in the expanding areas of global history. Th ere is much tension, but there is also productive and innovative co- operation between comparative history and entangled history. German- speaking historians have dealt with these issues, over the last years, pro- grammatically, empirically, and with new results. Th ey were infl uenced by the international discussions, but also could build on their own traditions. Most of their research and debate has been conducted in German. Th eir approaches and results deserve to be brought to the attention of readers who do not have access to this language. It is the aim of this book to introduce readers to this type of research and debate. It presents a selection of unpublished and published articles and essays dealing with comparative and entangled history. Th e introduc- tion surveys the fi eld and discusses issues of theory and method. It pro- poses diff erent ways of cooperation between comparative and entangled history. Five contributions follow whose authors play an important role in the German debate about comparative and entangled history. Finally, six case studies are presented, which apply and frequently combine compara- tive and entanglement approaches. Th e focus is on European history in the twentieth century, but there is also attention to global contexts and their impact on European and German history. In one way or another, the con- viii Preface tributions deal with the changing role of national history under the present conditions of Europeanization and globalization. Th e editors express their indebtedness to a large number of discussants and commentators, particularly at the Berlin School for the Comparative History of Europe, the European University Institute Florence, and the University of Bielefeld. Th ey want to thank Britta Schilling, Oxford, for carefully translating most of the texts from German into English, as well as Nancy Wegner, Berlin for working on the index and the proofs. Florence and Berlin, July 2009 Heinz-Gerhard Haupt and Jürgen Kocka (cid:1)(cid:2) Comparison and Beyond Traditions, Scope, and Perspectives of Comparative History JÜRGEN KOCKA and HEINZGERHARD HAUPT Th e discussion on comparative history (vergleichende Geschichte, histoire comparée) is ongoing. Its value is praised; its benefi ts are acknowledged. But most historians are not interested in systematic comparison. Indeed, there is no lack of old and new objections to comparative history, or at least to certain types of comparative history. Th e topic remains controversial.1 Th e current boom in transnational and transregional approaches—in the form of ‘entangled histories’ (Verfl echtungsgeschichte or histoire croisée)— gives the issue of comparison a new timeliness. We can observe a certain upsurge in comparative history over the past decades; progress, however, has been limited, and comparison has remained a matter for a minority of historians.2 Th is introductory essay starts out with a discussion of what ‘compara- tive history’ means. We follow this up with a discussion of the diff erent purposes and types of historical comparison in existence today, and we survey the role comparison plays in various narratives. We then discuss the tension between some classical historical methods and the principles of historical comparison, which help to explain why comparison has had such a diffi cult time internationally in historical studies. From this, we develop the traits that are or should be specifi c to comparison in historical studies. Finally, we discuss recent changes in the fi eld of comparative history: the impact of cultural history, the changing units and spaces of comparison, and the opportunities and problems of transnational approaches that re- cently have moved into the foreground. Particular attention is given to the relation between histoire comparée and histoire croisée, i.e., comparative history and entangled histories (including connected and transfer history). 2 Jürgen Kocka and Heinz-Gerhard Haupt Th e chapter closes with an overview of the contributions to this volume. We pay most attention to the German literature and debate. Defi nition and Goals of Comparison Similarities and diff erences In comparative history, two or more historical phenomena are systemati- cally studied for similarities and diff erences in order to contribute to their better description, explanation, and interpretation. By emphasizing the study of the similarities and diff erences of at least two comparative cases as centrally characteristic, comparative history is distinguished from studies devoting themselves to the analysis and inter- pretation of one constellation, as diff erentiated and comprehensive as it may be. Th ere are excellent examples of transnational and transcultural works that are nevertheless not comparative.3 When defi ned in this way, compar- ative history is also distinguished from entangled histories (Verfl echtungs- geschichte, histoire croisée), which does not seek similarities and diff erences between two (or more) units of research—e.g., between France and Ger- many, between Christianity and Islam, or between three village communi- ties or several discourses—but, rather, insists on relationships, transfers, and interactions, i.e., the entanglements between them. However, it will be shown that histoire comparée and histoire croisée are compatible and have many points of contact.4 Studies that are comparative in the full sense of the term should also be distinguished from those in which comparisons show up only en passant, by the wayside or implicitly. Such implicit comparisons frequently appear. In the following, we will look at studies in which comparison plays a central methodological role and is a key element of research and narration. Finally, the above defi nition indicates that comparison in history is seldom an end in itself, but usually serves other goals. On the most general level, one can distinguish between two basic types of historical comparisons, namely, between those which are aimed mainly at weighing contrasts, i.e., which are targeted at insights into the diff erences between individual comparative cases, and those which focus on insights into agreements, i.e., generalisation and, thus, the understanding of general patterns. Th is distinction has been discussed repeatedly in the literature. John Stuart Mill already contrasted the ‘method of diff erence’ with the ‘method of agreement’. A.A. van den Braembussche refers to Mill, as do authors such as Th eda Skocpol and Charles Tilly, in order to distinguish between the ‘contrasting type’ and the ‘universalising type’ of historical compari-
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