Race, culture, and politics in German historical thought, 1785-1815 Morgan Golf-French

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Golf-French, Morgan, author.

Series:

Studies in German history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Enlightenment--Gemany.

Enlightenment.

Germany--Intellectual life--18th century.

Germany.

Germany--Intellectual life--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford Oxford University Press [2026]

Summary:

In this book, Morgan Golf-French offers an interpretation of late Enlightenment German historiography in relation to ideas about race, culture, and politics. By paying close attention to the institutions within which these ideas were articulated, Golf-French reveals their complex and idiosyncratic development in the work of the prominent, and controversial, historians August Ludwig Schl?ozer, Christoph Meiners, Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, and Charles de Villers. As the book shows, these ideas and their authors not only shaped the major controversies of the time, from the rise of abolitionism to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, but produced tropes and arguments of lasting significance in European thought. The book argues that the ideas about race and culture which emerged in the years preceding the French Revolution were crucial in shaping German responses to the crises years of 1789-1815

Contents:

Cover

Race, Culture, and Politics in German Historical Thought, 1785-1815

Copyright

Acknowledgements

Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction

The Heart of Enlightenment Historiography

Concepts, Conventions, and Clarifications

The Holy Roman Empire and the German nation

The Enlightenment

Culture

Race

Orthography

What This Book Is Not

Structure of the Book

1: The History of Humanity and the Politics of Teaching

The Politics of Human Difference c. 1785

Conceptualizing Human Difference, c. 1785

The History of Humanity as History of 'Race'

Meiners' Outline as Textbook

Conclusions

2: Debating Human Difference in German-speaking Europe, c. 1785-1795

Schlözer versus Meiners (1785)

Herder versus 'race' (1785)

Kant versus Herder (1785)

Forster versus Kant (1786)

Blumenbach versus Meiners (1787-1795)

Forster versus Meiners (1791)

Meiners versus His Critics (1787-1793)

3: The History of Inequality and the German Nobility

The Nobility in Natural Law

The Decline of the Nobility and the Rise of the Bürgerstand

'Having been warned, learn justice'

The History of Inequality in German Political Thought

4: The History of Politics and the Foundations of Society

Politics as a Wissenschaft

Politics and Metapolitics at the Georgia Augusta

The Fate of the Holy Roman Empire

Law and Culture in Transylvania

Conclusion

5: The History of Philosophy I: Enlightenment as Empiricism

The Polarization of German Metaphysics, 1781-1799

Reading Blockheads: Meiners versus Kant (and Fichte), 1800-1801

Meiners' History of (Empiricist) Morality

Conclusion

6: The History of Philosophy II: Enlightenment as Rationalism

Kant's Philosophy versus Empiricism

A Rationalist History of Europe

Kant's Philosophy in French Thought

Kant's Philosophy in German Thought

7: Reimagining World History I: Russia and European Civilization

Russia in Europe

Russia against Asia

Russian Annals in Historiographic Context

8: Reimagining World History II: Enlightenment against Catholicism

Debating Protestantism at the Institut de France

The Enlightened narrative, confessionalized

The Sources of Culture

Conclusions

9: Reimagining World History III: The Prerequisites of Progress

Modern Europe, Feudal France

The World Beyond Europe in Eichhorn's Histories

Epilogue

Politics and Historiography from Revolution to 'Restoration'

Race after the Enlightenment

Race in the Enlightenment

Institutions, Agency, and the Public Sphere

The End of Enlightenment and the Ends of History

Bibliography

Unpublished Primary Sources

Published Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on March 12, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9780198989806

0198989806

9780198989813

0198989814

0198989784

9780198989783

OCLC:

1579013262

Publisher Number:

CIPO000365465

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license