Globalisation and the Nation in Imperial Germany
The process of globalisation in the late nineteenth century had a profound effect on the trajectories of German nationalism. While the existing literature on the subject has largely remained within the confines of national history, Sebastian Conrad uses the example of mobility and labour migration to show to what extent German nationalism was transformed under the auspices of global integration. Among the effects of cross border circulation were the emergence of diasporic nationalism, the racialisation of the nation, the implementation of new border regimes, and the hegemony of ideological templates that connected nationalist discourse to global geopolitics. Ranging from the African colonies, China and Brazil to the Polish speaking territories in Eastern Europe, this groundbreaking book demonstrates that the dynamics of German nationalism were not only negotiated in the Kaiserreich but also need to be situated in the broader context of globalisation before the First World War.
- Unique, award-winning examination of German nationalism in a global context
- Broad and encompassing study that draws on a wide range of issues, providing a complete overview of the topic
- Uses examples of mobility and labour migration to show to what extent German nationalism was transformed under auspices of global integration
Reviews & endorsements
'No one has done more than Sebastian Conrad to bring global perspectives into the very centerground of historical debate inside Germany. This book demonstrates with compelling concreteness the difference that doing history transnationally can make.' Geoff Eley, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
'What is impressive about this book is Conrad's range of knowledge about work and migration in the Americas, Asia, Africa as well as Europe and his capacity to use this knowledge to construct a broad but coherent 'global' account of the rise of strong and new kinds of national sentiment and politics and ideology in the German Second Empire.' John Breuilly, London School of Economics and Political Science
'Methodologically innovative, richly researched, and presented in a lively and engaging manner, Globalisation and the Nation in Imperial Germany brings together the history of Germany, its overseas empire in Africa and Asia, and its wider global engagements. By focusing on the complex intersection of practices of labor, racial and national ideologies, and the production of global inequalities, Conrad offers fresh insight not only into the history of Germany but also into the political, economic, and cultural processes that shaped the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and continue to shape the world today.' Andrew Zimmerman, George Washington University
Product details
September 2010Paperback
9780521177306
506 pages
229 × 152 × 26 mm
0.82kg
9 b/w illus. 6 maps
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1. German globalisation around 1900
- 2. 'Native policy' in the colony and the metropole: 'educating to work' in East Africa and east Westphalia
- 3. Between the poles: mobility and nation in Germany's 'real colony'
- 4. The politics of segregation: Chinese workers, global networks and the 'colourless peril'
- 5. 'Here, the German is not degenerating': Brazil, emigration and the nation's fountain of youth
- 6. 'German work'
- 7. Regimes of territorialisation and the globalisation of the national
- 8. Bibliography.