People, Nations and Traditions in a Comparative Frame

Thinking about the Past with Jonathan Steinberg

Edited by DMaris Coffman, Harold James, Nicholas Di Liberto

Publication date:

10 March 2021

Publisher

Anthem Press

Dimensions:

229x153mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781785277672

If the turn of the twenty-first century was characterised by the ‘history wars’ in which bitter internecine battles raged between different historical schools, Jonathan Steinberg was noteworthy for his methodological pluralism. His own historical worked spanned diplomatic history, military history, the social history of war, biography, social history, banking history, political culture and genocide studies. He often employed a comparative historical approach, which teased out deep historical explanations by examining personalities, nations and traditions simultaneously. This book offers a critical appreciation of his contribution to modern historical practice with contributions by former students and colleagues, whose own interests are as diverse as those of Steinberg himself.

Preface – Zara Steiner; Acknowledgements; Introduction; I. Methodological Pluralism and New Applications; 1. All or Nothing: From Comparative to Transnational History – Ben Mercer; 2. Swiss History Only as National History? How to Break out of the Cage of National Historiography – Georg Kreis; 3. ‘The Kaiser’s Navy and German Society’: The View from the Tattooist’s Studio – Jane Caplan; 4.The Warburgs and Yesterday’s Financial Deterrent – Harold James; II. Personal and National Character; 5.Clarendon’s Exile and the Role of Personality in Historical Explanation – D’Maris Coffman; 6.Leslie Stephen and the Americans – Michael O’Brien; 7. From Bodyguard to General: The Strange Career of Joseph ‘Sepp’ Dietrich – Christopher Clark; 8.Johnny Eyetie and the Teds: British Soldiers’ Attitudes towards their Italian and German Enemies in the Second World War – Alan Allport; III. Society, Families and the Sovereign Self; 9. The Family of Sovereigns at Modern Times – Tara J. Westover; 10. French Family Policy and the Family of Nations in the Interwar Years – Kristen Stromberg Childers; 11.Death of a Dream: Liberal Values and the Crisis of the British Welfare State, 1945–2014 – Harold Carter; IV. History Out of Sync: Modernity and Tradition; 12. A Risorgimento Influence on the Modern European Image of St Francis of Assisi – J. Casey Hammond; 13. Hometown Hamburg: Constructing the Non-Liberal and Non-Modern Foundations of the Weimar Republic in the Long Nineteenth Century – Frank Domurad; 14. ‘Revolt Against the Modern World’: Religion and the Fascist Right in Contemporary Italy – John Pollard; V. History, Narrative and the Human Condition; 15. April 1945: Life and Death in the Last Days of World War II – Thomas Childers; 16. Being Human as a Method and Research Finding in Social Science – Alison Liebling and João Costa; 17. Bleak House Syndrome – Joanna Wade; Afterward – David Bell; Bibliography of Jonathan Steinberg’s Works; Index.

‘A rich collection of essays, whose diversity testifies to the intellectual curiosity and deep humanity of a remarkable scholar and teacher.’ — David Reynolds, Professor Emeritus of International History, Cambridge University, UK