German Colonial/Immigration history

[Heimat Historian]

I'm in the process of broadening my historiographical knowledge of my field and am looking for German history books, with an emphasis on colonial or immigration (German diaspora) history?  Those of you in this field, or interested in it, what would be your top five recommendations?  What about more broadly in the field of Modern Germany? I'm making buying decisions and want some of your favorites. 

[maelia8]

I also specialize in German colonial history (as I believe we've discussed ), but more with an emphasis on empire than diaspora immigration, although that has come up in my work is well. Here are some books that I really think are important (more than 5, I hope that's alright): 

 

On Colonialism/Empire, with a few more general works on 19th Century Germany:

 

1.     Blackbourn, David, The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany, 1780-1918 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).

2.     Clark, Christopher, Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2006).

3.     Conrad, Sebastian, Globalization and the Nation in Imperial Germany (Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

4.     Conrad, Sebastian and Jürgen Osterhammel, eds., Das Kaiserreich Transnational: Deutschland in der Welt 1874-1914 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2004).

5.     Friedrichsmeyer, Sara, ed., The Imperialist Imagination: German Colonialism and its Legacy (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998).

6.     Hull, Isabel V., Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005).

7.     Osterhammel, Jürgen, Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997).

8.     Smith, Woodruff D., The German Colonial Empire (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978).

9.     Wehler, Hans-Ulrich, “Bismarck's Imperialism 1862-1890” in Past & Present, No. 48 (Aug. 1970), 119-155.

10.   Wehler, Hans-Ulrich, Das Deutsche Kaiserreich, 1961-1918, 7. Auflage (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994).

11.   Zantrop, Susanne, Colonial Fantasies: Conquest, Family, and Nation in Precolonial Germany, 1770-1870 (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1997).

12.   Bechhaus-Gerst, Marianne, and Mechthild Leutner. Frauen in den deutschen Kolonien. Berlin: C.H. Links Verlag, 2009.

13.   Boxer, Marilyn J., Jean H. Quataert et al, eds. Connecting Spheres: European Women in a Globalizing World, 1500 to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

14.   Naranch, Bradley, and Geoff Eley, eds. German Colonialism in a Global Age. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014.

15.   Perraudin, Michael and Jürgen Zimmerer, eds. German Colonialism and National Identity.New York: Routledge, 2011.

16.   Wildenthal, Lora. German Women for Empire, 1884-1945. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001.

17.   Reagin, Nancy. The Heimat Abroad: The Boundaries of Germanness (with Renate Bridenthal and Krista O'Donnell. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005.

 

 

I hope this list is helpful! If you know of anything on the subject not listed here, please share with me, I'm always looking for new material

[Heimat Historian]

I do actually.  I have several newer books I can recommend to add to this list:

 

1. Ciarlo, David. Advertising Empire: Race and Visual Culture in Imperial Germany. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.

2. Penny, H. Glenn. Kindred by Choice: Germans and American Indians since 1800. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013.

3. Short, John Phillip. Magic Lantern Empire: Colonialism and Society in Germany. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012.

4. Zimmerman, Andrew. Alabama in Africa: Booker T. Washington, the German Empire, and the Globalization of the New South. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010.

 

Hope these help!

[maelia8]

I've heard of the Zimmerman and the Ciarlo, but not the other two, thanks! I hope some of my titles were useful to you

[Heimat Historian]

Absolutely!  Do you know if there is much research on Germans in Latin/Central America or Oceania?  Those seem like understudied regions that could yield a dissertation topic. 

[maelia8]

There has definitely been some research on Germans in Brazil, but research on New Guinea is very limited (this is something I'm considering incorporating in my dissertation. I do colonial border comparisons as well, at the moment mostly British/German, but as my language skills improve I'd love to do German/Spanish-Portuguese comparisons in East Asia/Oceania or South America, or German/French stuff in Africa. I just took my Spanish translation exam today, wish me luck!

[Heimat Historian]

Exciting stuff!  Thanks again for the books.  I imagine we will be colleagues with very close interests. 

[TMP]

Also, look into Annemarie Sammartino's Impossible Border... fantastic take on migration and ideas of borderlands.

 

You'll also want to look into books on idea of citizenship in 19th century Germany (though Rogers Brubaker's (reductionist) Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany might be a place to start...).

Edited March 20, 2015 by TMP

[elinen]

I do know there is a German community in Nicaragua, might be interesting to look into