People, Nations and Traditions in a Comparative Frame: Thinking about the Past with Jonathan Steinberg

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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. Cover Front Matter Half-title Title page Copyright information Table of Contents Foreword Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction Notes Parts One-Five Part One Methodological Pluralism and New Applications Chapter One All or Nothing: From Comparative to Transnational History The Challenges of Comparison The Case for Comparison Towards the Transnational? The 1960s in Transnational Perspective Notes Chapter Two Swiss History Only as National History? How to Break out of the Cage of National Historiography 1. What is meant by ‘Swiss history’? 2. Is it true that Swiss history is only pursued by Swiss, and if so, why is this the case? 3. Is Switzerland an exception in this regard, and if not, why not? 4. What is Swiss about Swiss historians? 5. What would have changed had more non-Swiss dealt with Switzerland? 6. Are national histories still needed, and if so, what should they look like? Notes Chapter Three ‘The Kaiser’s Navy and German Society’: The View from the Tattooist’s Studio I II III IV Notes Chapter Four The Warburgs and Yesterday’s Financial Deterrent I II III IV Notes Part Two Personal and National Character Chapter Five Clarendon’s Exile and the Role of Personality in Historical Explanation I II III IV Notes Chapter Six Leslie Stephen and the Americans Notes Chapter Seven From Bodyguard to General: The Strange Career of Joseph ‘Sepp’ Dietrich Notes Chapter Eight Johnny Eyetie and the Teds: British Soldiers’ Attitudes towards their Italian and German Enemies in the Second World War Notes Part Three Society, Families and the Sovereign Self Chapter Nine The Family of Sovereigns at Modern Times 1. Political Anarchism and the Family Warren and the problem of childhood 2. Free Love at Modern Times Andrews and the moral hierarchy of love 3. The Family and Perfectibility Edger and the positive family Newbery and ‘rational procreation’ 4. Man as a Subject for Science Science, sovereignty and the family Notes Chapter Ten French Family Policy and the Family of Nations in the Interwar Years Notes Chapter Eleven Death of a Dream: Liberal Values and the Crisis of the British Welfare State, 1945–2014 Notes Part Four History Out of Sync: Modernity and Tradition Chapter Twelve A Risorgimento Influence on the Modern European Image of St Francis of Assisi Notes Chapter Thirteen Hometown Hamburg: Constructing the Non- Liberal and Non-Modern Foundations of the Weimar Republic in the Long Nineteenth Century Hamburg: A City of Two Social Orders Hamburg: The Capital of German Handwerk Hamburg: A City of Disturbers Hamburg in the Weimar Republic: Betwixt and Between Notes Chapter Fourteen ‘Revolt Against the Modern World’: Religion and the Fascist Right in Contemporary Italy Introduction Religion and the Right in the 1930s Religion in Italy 2013 Religious Pluralism The Political Right in Italy The Church and the Respectable Right in Italy Today Religion and the Post-Fascist Right in Italy The Fascist Right and ‘Clerical Fascism’ Latter-Day Fascist Anti-Clericalism Odinism National Socialist Black Metal Conclusion Postscript (2020) Notes Part Five History, Narrative and the Human Condition Chapter Fifteen April 1945: Life and Death in the Last Days of World War II Sources Chapter Sixteen Being Human as a Method and Research Finding in Social Science The Importance of ‘Being a Person’ as a Research Finding Conclusion Notes Chapter Seventeen Bleak House Syndrome Notes End Matter Afterword Notes Bibliography Books by Jonathan Steinberg Translations Select Articles, Chapters and Lectures Index