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COMPARATIVE and TRANSNATIONAL HISTORY Central European Approaches and New Perspectives COMPARATIVE AND TRANSNATIONAL HISTORY Central European Approaches and New Perspectives -=~~- - Edited by Heinz-Gerhard Haupt and Jiirgen Kocka ~ Berghahn Books New York . Oxford ,'11':11 IlIiI,111:llI'd III :.!( )( )II by CONTENTS = /I""gl"i/III /I""l' ,1 www .berghahnl .uoks.ron, (c:)2009 Heinz .. Gerh ard Haupt and Iurgcn Kocka All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book Preface vii may be repr oduced in any form or by any means , electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any informati on Comparison and Beyond: Traditions, Scope, and Perspectives of storage and retrie val system now known or to be invented, Comparative History 1 without writt en permi ssion of the publisher. Iurgen Kocka/Heinz-Gerhard Haupt PART I ,rary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Comparative and Entangled History in Global Perspectives nparative and transnational history: Central European appr oaches and new CH APT ER 1 spectives / edited by Heinz-Gerhard Haupt and Iurgen Kocka. Between Comparison a nd Transfers-and What Now? p. cm. A French-German Debate 33 Includes bibliographical references and index. Hartmut Kaelble ISBN 978-1-84545-615-3 (hbk.: alk. paper) . Germ any (West)- Historiography. 2. Germany-Historiography. 3. Europe, CHAPTER 2 Itral-Historiography. 4. Germany-Social conditions-Historiography. A 'Transnational' History of Society: Continuity or mop e, Central-Social conditions- Historiography. 6. Transnationali sm­ New Departure? 39 toriography. 7 . Acculturation-Historiography. 8. Social history­ liirgen Osterhammel hodology. 9. Histor y-Methodology. 10. History-Comparative method. aupt, Heinz-Gerhard. II. Kocka, Iurgen. CHAPTER 3 86.C652009 Double Marginalization: A Plea for a Transnational Perspective )7.2--d c22 on German Hist ory 52 Sebastian Conrad 2009025428 CHAPTER 4 Entangled Histories of Uneven Modernities: Civil Society, British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Caste Councils, and Legal Pluralism in Postcolonial India 77 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Shalini Randeria ~~~~~I~~G-;~::. ~ CHAPTER 5 ~~. \~ \\n l.!:- __ _ I~, ".. ~ - Print;a-m: :t~ e United States on acid-free paper. Lost in Translat ion? Transcending Boundaries in Comparative liMOJIliOT CKti '. History 105 Monica Iuneja / Margrit Fernau . a I· ? ~~: ; :'8-1-84545-615-3 Hardback ~ 1, ! b r . .%~. o --- .",. ~ ~/. :/.);:;--------__ \,\ '\.. ~JC \ \ ! ~~~ --====-_.~ 1'1\ I~'J' 1/ PREFACE == TrallsnationnliznUol\ and lssucx ill European Bislory CHAPTER 6 The Nation as a Developing Resource Community: A Generalizing Comparison 133 Dieter Langewiesche CHAPTER 7 Birds of a Feather: A Comparative History of German and Comparative history deals with similarities and differences between his torical units, e.g., regions, economies, cultures, and national states. It.is ,Ilt' US Labor in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 149 Thomas Welskopp classical way of transcending the narrow boundaries of national history, Comparative history is analytically ambitious and empirically demanding. CHAPTER 8 The last decades have witnessed the rise of comparative history, but it s Visions of the Future: GDR, CSSR, and the Federal Republic of practitioners have remained a minority, and its critics have not been CO l li Germany in the 1960s 178 pletely convinced. /OrgRequate Entangled history deals with transfer, interconnection, and mutual ill fluences across boundaries. It can be another way of moving beyond tI\(' CHAPTER 9 limits of national history. Its rise is more recent. It has been fuelled by post ­ Comparisons, Cultural Transfers, and the Study of Networks: colonial perspectives, by a renewed interest in transnationalism, and by [hl' Toward a Transnational History of Europe 204 intellectual consequences of globalization. It has been practiced in diffe r­ Philipp Ther ent contexts, e.g., in the overlap between French and German history, ill CHAPTER 10 the study of transnational migration, with respect to cultural transfer, or ill the expanding areas of global history. Germany and Africa in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth There is much tension, but there is also productive and innovative co Centuries: An Entangled History? 226 Andreas Eckert operation between comparative history and entangled history. German­ speaking historians have dealt with these issues, over the last years, pro ­ CHAPTER 11 grammatically, empirically, and with new results. They were influenced by Losing National Identity or Gaining Transcultural Competence: the international discussions, but also could build on their own traditions. Changing Approaches in Migration History 247 Most of their research and debate has been conducted in German. Theil' Dirk Hoerder approaches and results deserve to be brought to the attention of readers who do not have access to this language. Notes on Contributors 272 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 Select Bibliography 276 and essays dealing with comparative and entangled history. The introduc­ tion surveys the field and discusses issues of theory and method. It pro­ Index 291 poses different 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. The 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 .. I'lH l'rcta«, tributionx deal with the changing rolo ofnational hblory under tho present conditions of Europeanization and globalization. The editors express their indebtedness to a large number of discussants Comparison and Beyond and commentators, particularly at the Berlin School for the Comparative History of Europe, the European University Institute Florence, and the Traditions) Scope) and Perspectives University of Bielefeld. They want to thank Britta Schilling, Oxford, for carefully translating most of the texts from German into English, as well as ofComparative History Nancy Wegner, Berlin for working on the index and the proofs. Florence and Berlin, July 2009 JURGEN KOCKA and HEINZ-GERHARD HAUP'[ Heinz-Gerhard Haupt and Iurgen Kocka The discussion on comparative history (vergleichende Geschichte, histoir« comparee) is ongoing. Its value is praised; its benefits are acknowledged . But most historians are not interested in systematic comparison. Ind eed. there is no lack of old and new objections to comparative history, or at le,wl to certain types of comparative history. The topic remains controversial. I The current boom in transnational and transregional approaches-in 1Ill' form of 'entangled histories' (Verflechtungsgeschichte or histoire croisllc:) gives the issue of comparison a new timeliness. We can observe a certain upsurge in comparative history over the past decades; progress, how ever, has been limited, and comparison has remained a matter for a minority of historians." This introductory essay starts out with a discussion of what 'cornpurn tive history' means. We follow this up with a discussion of the different purposes and types of historical comparison in existence today, and we survey the role comparison plays in various narratives. We then discuss till: tension between some classical historical methods and the principles of historical comparison, which help to explain why comparison has had such a difficult time internationally in historical studies. From this, we develop the traits that are or should be specific to comparison in historical studies. Finally, we discuss recent changes in the field of comparative history: th u impact of cultural history, the changing units and spaces of cornpnrison, and the opportunities and problems of transnational approaches that rc ccntly have moved into the foreground. Particular attention is given to rhc relation between histoire comparee and histoire croisee, i.e., comparut ivi­ history and entangled histories (including connected and transfer history). ., WIl!t' 11 /\ 111 /,, 1 1/11" " "/11 ' i ;I' , I/rll " II."'liI t " 1I1/hll l\,'1/ ,1I,d /I" I'llIltI: 'I;" IIII /l tll ' ,\ , .'il ',II" ', """ / "'/ ,'/" '1III ''' .', ;1 'I I'/Iapl,'[' <'1(1,';" ,'; wlt h nu uvi -rvh-w o f Ihl ' (;'H III'II'lll loI H: 10 th is volum «. It" SO li , Oldy to sltllalt: varlou n 11l 1.\( 'd rO l'l ll S I>('IWI;(;II lht;sl ' mu ln Iy p l.: s ," ( lIlo We pay mos t. auenrio n to (/1(' (;1.: 1'1 11:\ 11 Iilt ~ r lllll r l.: und d('hal,'. l Iint zc mude a similar dlst luct lon already in 1 ~:2 Y : 'One <::111 co rn purc III nrdt'r to lind a gl'llCr'alily up on whi ch th at. which is com pared is based: 0111' ca n compare in ord er to more d earl y co mprehe nd o ne o f th e po ssibl e oh Definition and Goals of Comparison jcc ts in its individuality and to distinguish it from th e others:" Similarities and differences Comparative hi storians usually do both in differ ent co m bina tions. '1Ill' distinction made by O tto Hintze a nd othe rs, however, is fundamental, ;\ l1d In comparative hi story, two or more historical phenomena are syst emati­ co mpa rative studies ca n be differ entiated according to the wa y th ey CO ll i ca lly studied for similarities and di fferen ces in orde r to co ntribute to their bin c and weigh th ese two dimensions. better description, explana tion, and interpret ati on. By emphasizing the s tudy of the sim ilarities and differences of at least two comparati ve cases as centra lly cha racte ristic, co m para tive history is Methodological Fun ctions distinguish ed fro m stud ies devoting th emselves to th e ana lysis and inter­ O n a secon d level, whi ch allows a somewhat more pr ecise distincti on, W(' pretation of constellati on, as differentiated and co mprehe nsive as it may one can id entify differ ent m ethodological purposes th at are se rved by hi storical be.
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