Tag: 18th/19th Century History

Simulated Shelves: Browse September’s New Books

We are delighted to present a selection of our newly published, and soon to be published, September titles from our core subjects of Conflict Studies, Film Studies, Gender Studies, Genocide Studies, History and Religious Studies along with a selection of our New in Paperback titles.

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FOOD IN ZONES OF CONFLICT
Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives
Edited by Paul Collinson and Helen Macbeth
Foreword by Hugo Slim

Volume 8, Anthropology of Food & Nutrition Continue reading “Simulated Shelves: Browse September’s New Books” →

Back to School

“Accomplishment will prove to be a journey, not a destination.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

 

As the summer ends and the weather turns, the new school year begins. Although the first day varies in different parts of the world, however normal pattern is for school to begin in late August or early September in the northern hemisphere. Berghahn is happy to welcome everyone back with some relevant Education Studies titles.

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ANTHROPOLOGIES OF EDUCATION
A Global Guide to Ethnographic Studies of Learning and Schooling
Edited by Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt

Continue reading “Back to School” →

Today In History

Born on July 30, 1863, Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. Although Ford did not invent the automobile or the assembly line, he developed and manufactured the models of automobiles that converted its use from an expensive curiosity into a practical transport that middle class Americans could afford. His global vision resulted in many technical and business innovations which greatly impacted the context of the twentieth century.

 

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” – Henry Ford

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Berghahn is happy to present some relevant titles in the area of transportation and industrial development:

 

forthcoming!

ATLANTIC AUTOMOBILISM
The Emergence and Persistence of the Car, 1895-1940
Gijs Mom

Volume 1, Explorations in Mobility Series

Continue reading “Today In History” →

Author Becomes Subject: Droysen as Topic of Historical Volume

Scholarship has come full circle for Johann Gustav Droysen — a historian lauded for his much-cited volume on Alexander the Great — as the author-historian is now the subject of study. Author Arthur Alfaix Assis delves into the historical theories of Droysen in What is History For? Johann Gustav Droysen and the Functions of Historiography, to be published later this month. Assis precedes the publication by sharing the root of his interest in the scholar, why he believes Droysen is important, and what Assis might have done if he did not follow the path of academia.

 

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Berghahn Books: What drew you to the study of Johann Gustav Droysen?

 

Arthur Alfaix Assis: I like to think that part of it has to do with the great impression left on me by the very first text I read as an undergraduate: Max Weber’s ‘Science as a Vocation’. I was a freshman at a provincial university in central Brazil, and was very eager to get in touch with serious historical and philosophical literature. But after a single week of lectures came a three-month-long strike, and the only reading assignment left was Weber’s text.

Continue reading “Author Becomes Subject: Droysen as Topic of Historical Volume” →

Blackface in Berlin Play: Racism or Tradition?

In January 2012, a white man was cast for the part of an African American man in “I’m Not Rappaport” for the German adaptation of the U.S. play. The plan to use blackface makeup—common in American theater up until the Civil Rights movement—to change the man’s appearance stirred controversy, and was called out as racist. Co-editor of Germany and the Black Diaspora: Points of Contact, 1250-1914, Martin Klimke addresses the sensitive subject of race in Germany in light of this event.

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Germany’s place in the Black Atlantic might have been peripheral in a geographical sense. Intellectually and discursively, however, it played an often underestimated but significant role in the formation of modern social, racial, and national identities.

 

Continue reading “Blackface in Berlin Play: Racism or Tradition?” →

The ‘Life-World’ of Translation

Some words escape translation—a fact Stephen Barlau discovered quickly when he set about translating Rudolph van Thadden’s novel, originally published as Trieglaff. Eine pommersche Lebenswelt zwischen Kirche und Politik 1807-1948. Barlau brought the work into English as Trieglaff: Balancing Church and Politics in a Pomeranian World, 1807-1945, which was published this month by Berghahn. Below, the translator shares the importance of care and nuance when translating five generations worth of stories to English.

 

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The breadth and depth of meaning of German Lebenswelt, used in the original subtitle of Trieglaff, escapes capture in English.

 

It refers to the world of daily life in all its elements. Setting is immanent, environment is conjured; life extends beyond daily to happenings for an extended period with its characterizing features; both dynamic living and graphic life are encompassed. All these elements are denoted, not connoted; meaning fails if any are absent—or perhaps the word is all connotation, all shadow implication of meanings.

 

Continue reading “The ‘Life-World’ of Translation” →

Hot Off the Presses – New Book Releases

FelliniJourney

Newly released titles from Berghahn’s Anthropology and Applied Anthropology, Film Studies, and History lists:

Toward Engaged Anthropology, Sam Beck and Carl A. Maida

Pastoralism in Africa: Past, Present, and Future, Michael Bollig, Michael Schnegg, and Hans-Peter Wotzka

The Journey of G. Mastorna: The Film Fellini Didn’t Make, Federico Fellini, with the collaboration of Dino Buzzati, Brunello Rondi, and Bernardino Zapponi, translated with a commentary by Marcus Perryman

Soldiering Under Occupation: Processes of Numbing among Israeli Soldiers in the Al-Aqsa Intifada, Erella Grassiani

Germany and the Black Diaspora: Points of Contact, 1250-1914, Mischa Honeck, Martin Klimke, and Anne Kuhlmann

Elusive Promises: Planning in the Contemporary World, Simone Abram and Gisa Weszkalnys

Judging “Privileged” Jews: Holocaust Ethics, Representation, and the “Grey Zone”, Adam Brown

Pregnancy in Practice: Expectation and Experience in the Contemporary, Sallie Han

United Germany: Debating Processes and Prospects, Konrad Jarausch

Ethics in the Field: Contemporary Challenges, Jeremy MacClancy and Agustín Fuentes

The Rise and Fall of Völkerpsychologie

Before there was cultural psychology, there was Völkerpsychologie. This social science was used as a way of looking at cultures and trying to make sense of them—an attempt often seen as stereotyping. But, in The Mind of the Nation: Völkerpsychologie in Germany, 1851-1955, to be released this month, author Egbert Klautke gives the often-overlooked social science due credit. He shares his thoughts about the volume and this particular form of psychology below.

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Berghahn Books: How would you define “Folk Psychology” and what drew you to the study of it?

 

Egbert Klautke: “Folk Psychology” is an awkward translation of the German term Völkerpsychologie. Originally, it referred to attempts to study the psychological make-up of nations, and as such is a forerunner of today’s social psychology. However, in today’s common understanding, Völkerpsychologie equals national prejudice: it is seen as a pseudo-science not worth considering seriously. Continue reading “The Rise and Fall of Völkerpsychologie” →

Remembering African-German Points of Contact

Eight centuries of German and African interactions up until World War I are often glossed over in historical literature.  The contributors to Germany and the Black Diaspora: Points of Contact, 1250-1914, published last month, seek to illuminate these intersections and share popular sentiments of the time. Below, co-editor Martin Klimke describes a significant—and still remarkable—relic of this pre-WWI period.

 

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For more than ten years now, visitors to the German Historical Museum in Berlin have paused in amazement before a painting unlike any other in the museum’s collection.

Continue reading “Remembering African-German Points of Contact” →

Bittersweet Europe: A Study of Albania and Georgia

Adrian Brisku connects two seemingly disconnected European experiences—those of Georgia and Albania—in Bittersweet Europe: Albanian and Georgian Discourses on Europe, 1878-2008, to be published this month. Brisku shares the triumphs and difficulties of the writing process, and what interested him in the area to begin with, below.

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Berghahn Books: What drew you to the study of Albania and Georgia, especially as they exist within the larger European framework?

 

Adrian Brisku: I had written about Albanian debates on ‘Europe’ while living in Georgia—from the year 2001 to 2005.

Continue reading “Bittersweet Europe: A Study of Albania and Georgia” →