This is a collection of essays from three of the worlds pre-eminent historians of Germany, which consider German history in global and transnational contexts. It is well known that transnationalism has exploded in the last decade or so as a new academic subfield of international and global history.?What the transnationalism literature often ignores or downplays, however, is the role of the nation-state in making the transnational possible in the first place, as noted in its very etymological origins. ?This volume traces this dynamic from a different vantage-point, namely the relationship between German history and transnationalism. Each essay applies a transnational framework in fresh and original ways in order to illuminate different facets of the connections between Germany and the wider world in the modern period. Together they will encourage the rethinking of assumptions about key moments and developments in the history of modern Germany, and foster reflection on the evolving nature of German history as a subject studied in the twenty-first century. ??Chapter One: Introduction: The Return of the Nation; David Lederer.-?Chapter Two: Climate and History: Hunger, Anti-Semitism, and Reform during the Tambora Crisis of 1815-1820; Wolfgang Behringer.-?Chapter Three: 1914 in Transnational Perspective; Christopher Clark.-?Chapter Four: German History as Global History: The Case of Coffee; Dorothee Wierling.- Index
Wolfgang Behringer is Professor of early modern history at the University of the Saarland, Germany. The worlds leading historian of witchcraft beliefs, he has written and edited dozens of books on the subject.
Christopher Clark is the twenty-second Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge, UK. His works include Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 (2006; winner of the triennial German Historians Prize); Kaiser Wilhelm II