Jörg Nagler
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d'études invité à l'EHESS, mars 2011 |
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Jörg Nagler est professeur d'histoire nord-américaine à l'université Friedrich Schiller à Iéna. Il a publié de nombreux travaux sur les États-Unis aux XIXe et XXe siècles, particulièrement sur la société face à la guerre. Il s'intéresse également à l'histoire comparée, et les relations entre Allemagne et États-Unis. Parmi ses publications, on peut noter, sous sa direction, On the Road to Total War: The American Civil War and the German Wars of Unification, 1861-1871 (1997), ainsiq que sa biographie récente de Lincoln (en allemand, 2009).
page personnelle sur le site de Iéna
Jörg Nagler intervient dans les quatre séminaires suivants en mars 2011 :
- "Religion, Violence, and Space in the American West, 1800-1890", dans le séminaire de Rita Hermon-Belot sur Histoire de la liberté des cultes, jeudi 03 mars 2011, 2011, 11h-13h, EHESS, 105, bd Raspail, 75006 PARIS, salle 5.
- The American West has never been merely a geographical space. Instead, it has long played a nearly sacred role in the American imagination and sense of national identity. The three central paradigms or overarching themes of American history: religion, violence and space and how they are interrelated in the history of the American West in the time span between 1800 and 1890 will be discussed. The questions will be addressed how religion shaped cultural encounters, in what dialectic ways religion spurred violence, how the space of the American West influenced religious orientations, how these orientations changed space and the environment.
The intermingling but often as well the confrontation of the diverse religious affiliations – indigenous native American, Asian immigrants - Chinese and later Japanese groups, Catholics and protestant groups including sectarian rival subgroups led to a unique gestalt of the American West as a religious negotiated space – often accompanied by violence. The religious identification often defined “the other” and also expressed a power struggle over the social and political directions and the possession of land.
Most works on the American West start with the American settlement phase and ignore the important transformative era from the Spanish/Mexican rule to American one accompanied by violence. I am, however, interested in these phases of transitions. A purely secular interpretation of the American West ignores religion as a central component of identity formation, socio-economic, cultural and political developments and visions in that region that has so much contributed to the overall American identity.
This is a work in progress project as I just started to conceptualize it. I have done some research in the Bancroft Library in Berkeley last spring looking for primary sources on this subject. These archival findings will be presented as well as methodological considerations, the “spatial turn” theory and its application for this subject, the possibilities of using interdisciplinary approaches, e.g. the findings of the field of cultural and religious geography, etc.
- The American West has never been merely a geographical space. Instead, it has long played a nearly sacred role in the American imagination and sense of national identity. The three central paradigms or overarching themes of American history: religion, violence and space and how they are interrelated in the history of the American West in the time span between 1800 and 1890 will be discussed. The questions will be addressed how religion shaped cultural encounters, in what dialectic ways religion spurred violence, how the space of the American West influenced religious orientations, how these orientations changed space and the environment.
- "German Immigrants and the Issues of Race and Slavery during the Civil War Era", dans le séminaire de Pap Ndiaye sur Histoire des minorités aux États-Unis : débats historiographiques et controverses politiques, mardi 08 mars 2011, 16h-18h, CENA, EHESS, 105, bd Raspail, 75006 PARIS, salle 12.
- Recent scholarship in Germany on the Civil War era has dealt with German immigrants’ efforts to come to terms with the issues of race and slavery. In contrast to former research that involved primarily the political context of party realignment, here an added focus is socio-historical, concentrating on individual and group efforts to come to terms with, i.e. to become accepted into the mainstream of, American society. These immigrants, especially the elites, were imbued with a Eurocentric (or Germanic) sense of cultural superiority that did not prevent them from astutely observing, identifying, and reporting the relationship between ethnic and racial groups, and particularly the attitudes and the behavior of African Americans whether free or enslaved. In this lecture I will shed light on this subject through a biographical approach. First I will concentrate on Francis Lieber, a German liberal intellectual who was exiled in the 1830s and who had become an American citizen and integrated into the mainstream of American society. He was a highly respected and renowned political scientist and philosopher but became a slaveholder himself during his long tenure as the chair for History and Political Economy at the South Carolina College in Columbia, from 1835 to 1856. Why, as an enlightened opponent of slavery, did he move to South Carolina, the leading slave state, which steadfastly defended the southern tradition of slavery and states rights, and to an intellectual and political environment where he was seen as an outsider and confronted with misgivings and mistrust? How did Lieber cope with this situation during his long sojourn of more than twenty years? Was he finally relieved of a personal and moral burden when he vacated his position and moved north again in the mid-1850s, where he became an outspoken critic of the slavocracy, mended the soured relationship with Charles Sumner, and became an adviser to Republican politicians as well as public speaker for emancipation and the Union?
The second biography I will concentrate reflects the possibility of interracial friendship and intimate relationship that crossed racial, class and national boundaries. Ottilie Assing, an intrepid German journalist, met and interviewed Frederick Douglass in 1856, and it was an encounter that transformed the lives of both. In their intimate twenty-eight-year relationship, they shared intellectual and cultural interests, and worked together on Douglass's abolitionist writings. Assing’s reports to an European intellectual readership on African American agency, however, demonstrate a tension between her notions of support and respect for black liberation on the one hand, but on the other hand they still reflect notions of superiority of white (mostly European) culture.
- Recent scholarship in Germany on the Civil War era has dealt with German immigrants’ efforts to come to terms with the issues of race and slavery. In contrast to former research that involved primarily the political context of party realignment, here an added focus is socio-historical, concentrating on individual and group efforts to come to terms with, i.e. to become accepted into the mainstream of, American society. These immigrants, especially the elites, were imbued with a Eurocentric (or Germanic) sense of cultural superiority that did not prevent them from astutely observing, identifying, and reporting the relationship between ethnic and racial groups, and particularly the attitudes and the behavior of African Americans whether free or enslaved. In this lecture I will shed light on this subject through a biographical approach. First I will concentrate on Francis Lieber, a German liberal intellectual who was exiled in the 1830s and who had become an American citizen and integrated into the mainstream of American society. He was a highly respected and renowned political scientist and philosopher but became a slaveholder himself during his long tenure as the chair for History and Political Economy at the South Carolina College in Columbia, from 1835 to 1856. Why, as an enlightened opponent of slavery, did he move to South Carolina, the leading slave state, which steadfastly defended the southern tradition of slavery and states rights, and to an intellectual and political environment where he was seen as an outsider and confronted with misgivings and mistrust? How did Lieber cope with this situation during his long sojourn of more than twenty years? Was he finally relieved of a personal and moral burden when he vacated his position and moved north again in the mid-1850s, where he became an outspoken critic of the slavocracy, mended the soured relationship with Charles Sumner, and became an adviser to Republican politicians as well as public speaker for emancipation and the Union?
- "The Global Lincoln", dans le séminaire du Centre d'études nord-américaines, lundi 14 mars 2011, 16h-18h, CENA, EHESS, 105, bd Raspail, 75006 PARIS, salle 12.
- Portraits, busts, and photographs of Lincoln have decorated the offices of many politicians worldwide, many of them democrats and liberators, such as Willy Brandt, José Marti, or Thomas Masaryk. Others, like Fulgencio Batista or Fidel Castro, were of dictatorial nature. In most cases, however, the invocation of Lincoln’s legacy has provided inspiration for freedom movements, reformers, and all those who seek to preserve human rights.The global image of Abraham Lincoln is inseparable from the political and historical culture that produced it. In other words, when analyzing international perceptions of Lincoln, we are simultaneously analyzing and interpreting U.S. history and culture. Besides methodological questions, I will address the following topics in this lecture: How, why, and in what historical contexts have Lincoln’s notions of political equality inspired reformist and revolutionary leaders in disparate societies worldwide? What significance should we attach to the fact that his international reputation began to grow sharply after 1945 — that is, just as former European colonies were asserting their independence? Did Lincoln’s legacy influence or even hasten the decolonization process? How have the image and iconography of Lincoln been used to advance human rights in Africa, South and Central America, and elsewhere? Dealing with transnational perceptions and images, the core question remains to what degree these observations reflect the reality of the object and to what degree on the other hand they shed light on the respective individuals and groups, their intentions, emotions, and stereotypes in expressing their perceptions. Images of other nations and their key historical figures – such as Lincoln – are always cultural productions involving cognitive processes that inherently use familiar contents out of the cultural reservoir of the nation that is on the perceiving side. Hence, when we deal with images, memory, legacy, reception and perception of Lincoln, we will indeed less concentrate on the historical figure but rather on the individuals and collective entities that generated these Lincoln receptions, evocations and images. However, we should consider that there were always certain core elements that had a reference point with the real Lincoln, though they might have been placed in a wrong context when the perceiving side wanted to utilize the Lincoln nimbus and legacy for their own purposes. Since these processes – which are never static – are deeply rooted in the history and culture of each respective community or nation, we will gain new knowledge about the specific historical circumstances under which Lincoln became a figure that was recognized as a “humanitarian as broad as the world” (Tolstoy) – or not. Who were the major producers and carriers of these images, projections and perceptions, and what were their intentions?
I will finish this lecture with concentrating on Germany as a case study for Lincoln’s global reception and significance.
- Portraits, busts, and photographs of Lincoln have decorated the offices of many politicians worldwide, many of them democrats and liberators, such as Willy Brandt, José Marti, or Thomas Masaryk. Others, like Fulgencio Batista or Fidel Castro, were of dictatorial nature. In most cases, however, the invocation of Lincoln’s legacy has provided inspiration for freedom movements, reformers, and all those who seek to preserve human rights.The global image of Abraham Lincoln is inseparable from the political and historical culture that produced it. In other words, when analyzing international perceptions of Lincoln, we are simultaneously analyzing and interpreting U.S. history and culture. Besides methodological questions, I will address the following topics in this lecture: How, why, and in what historical contexts have Lincoln’s notions of political equality inspired reformist and revolutionary leaders in disparate societies worldwide? What significance should we attach to the fact that his international reputation began to grow sharply after 1945 — that is, just as former European colonies were asserting their independence? Did Lincoln’s legacy influence or even hasten the decolonization process? How have the image and iconography of Lincoln been used to advance human rights in Africa, South and Central America, and elsewhere? Dealing with transnational perceptions and images, the core question remains to what degree these observations reflect the reality of the object and to what degree on the other hand they shed light on the respective individuals and groups, their intentions, emotions, and stereotypes in expressing their perceptions. Images of other nations and their key historical figures – such as Lincoln – are always cultural productions involving cognitive processes that inherently use familiar contents out of the cultural reservoir of the nation that is on the perceiving side. Hence, when we deal with images, memory, legacy, reception and perception of Lincoln, we will indeed less concentrate on the historical figure but rather on the individuals and collective entities that generated these Lincoln receptions, evocations and images. However, we should consider that there were always certain core elements that had a reference point with the real Lincoln, though they might have been placed in a wrong context when the perceiving side wanted to utilize the Lincoln nimbus and legacy for their own purposes. Since these processes – which are never static – are deeply rooted in the history and culture of each respective community or nation, we will gain new knowledge about the specific historical circumstances under which Lincoln became a figure that was recognized as a “humanitarian as broad as the world” (Tolstoy) – or not. Who were the major producers and carriers of these images, projections and perceptions, and what were their intentions?
- "The Transnational Significance of the American Civil War", séminaire exceptionnel, jeudi 24 mars 2011, 16h-18h, CENA, EHESS, 105, bd Raspail, 75006 PARIS, salle 12.
- The American Civil War not only was the culmination point of a hitherto “unfinished nation and the central crisis in American history but also had significant international or even global ramifications that encompassed political, social, economic and military dimensions. In the age of nationalism and nation building, rising liberal democracies, the world simultaneously also experienced increasing globalized capitalist economies that became interdependent from each other. The American Civil War and its outcome was pivotal to these transformations. With the liberations of over four millions slaves who had produced most of the world supply of raw cotton prior to 1861, manufactures had to find new supply areas and channels for the pivotal raw material for one of the world’s largest industries. The globalization of the cotton empire was one of the results of the American Civil War. Besides these pertinent economic dimensions of the transnational significance of the American Civil War, however, we need to address the political implications. People in other nations could see that the massive struggle in the United States embodied conflicts that had been appearing in different forms throughout the world. Defining nationhood, deciding the future of unfree labor, inventing warfare for an industrial age, the possibilities and means of a democratic society to endure such a horrendous conflict, majorities versus minorities in a democratic process, the power of the central state, to name just a few pertinent issues, all these played out in the American Civil War, a conflict the world watched with high interest. In historiography we very often are tempted to follow the emphasis on teleological models of modernization, nationalism and democratization that have dominated our understanding of the American Civil War. In this lecture, however, I will also address the complex and often contradictory interactions between economic developments and ideological considerations when looking at the transnational significance of the American Civil War. This again is work in progress for a monograph on these thematic lines.
- The American Civil War not only was the culmination point of a hitherto “unfinished nation and the central crisis in American history but also had significant international or even global ramifications that encompassed political, social, economic and military dimensions. In the age of nationalism and nation building, rising liberal democracies, the world simultaneously also experienced increasing globalized capitalist economies that became interdependent from each other. The American Civil War and its outcome was pivotal to these transformations. With the liberations of over four millions slaves who had produced most of the world supply of raw cotton prior to 1861, manufactures had to find new supply areas and channels for the pivotal raw material for one of the world’s largest industries. The globalization of the cotton empire was one of the results of the American Civil War. Besides these pertinent economic dimensions of the transnational significance of the American Civil War, however, we need to address the political implications. People in other nations could see that the massive struggle in the United States embodied conflicts that had been appearing in different forms throughout the world. Defining nationhood, deciding the future of unfree labor, inventing warfare for an industrial age, the possibilities and means of a democratic society to endure such a horrendous conflict, majorities versus minorities in a democratic process, the power of the central state, to name just a few pertinent issues, all these played out in the American Civil War, a conflict the world watched with high interest. In historiography we very often are tempted to follow the emphasis on teleological models of modernization, nationalism and democratization that have dominated our understanding of the American Civil War. In this lecture, however, I will also address the complex and often contradictory interactions between economic developments and ideological considerations when looking at the transnational significance of the American Civil War. This again is work in progress for a monograph on these thematic lines.
Mise à jour / Update: 18.02.2012