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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Golf-French, Morgan.

Series:

Studies in German History Series

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (0 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2026.

Summary:

Morgan Golf-French offers a new interpretation of German late Enlightenment historiography in relation to ideas about race, culture, and politics, which informed the major controversies such as abolitionism. Readers will discover both the contemporary significance of Enlightenment ideas about race and culture and their long-term impact.

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

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

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:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-898978-4

OCLC:

1579013262