1956 | ||
quarterly | ||
English, German | ||
literature, cultural studies, history, political science, linguistics, critical theory, teaching of American Studies |
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0340-2827 | ||
Winter | ||
Amerikastudien / American Studies
Amerikastudien / American Studies is the journal of the German Association for American Studies. It started as the annual Jahrbuch für Amerikastudien in 1956 and has since developed into a quarterly with some 1200 subscriptions in Europe and the United States. The journal is dedicated to interdisciplinary and transnational perspectives and embraces the diversity and dynamics of a dialogic and comparatist understanding of American Studies. It covers all areas of American Studies from literary and cultural criticism, history, political science, and linguistics to the teaching of American Studies. Special-topics issues alternate with regular ones. Reviews, forums, and annual bibliographies support the international circulation of German and European scholarship in American Studies. |
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2009: American History/ies in Germany: Assessments, Transformations, Perspectives, Vol. 54, No. 3
Introduction: American History/ies in Germany: Assessments, Transformations, Perspectives
Writing about the (American) Past, Thinking of the (German) Present: The History of U.S. Foreign Relations in Germany
This sixty year survey of the most prolific field in West German historiography of the United States argues that the developments in scholarship were closely related to 'real time' German-American relations. For German historians writing during the 1950s, studying U.S. diplomacy promised to yield practical insights into the political decision-making process in the capital of the country's military protector. Later, during the 1960s the history of transatlantic relations became entangled in the 'Americanization,' 'Westernization,' and 'democratization' of the Federal Republic's political culture. Because approaches to U.S. foreign relations mirrored the changing intellectual climate within Germany, scholarly trends did not closely follow those within the United States. German historians of U.S. diplomacy usually stressed ideology or political decision-making processes -- a trend which became even more prevalent with the recent cultural turns. Also, the field only reluctantly embraced methodological innovations. Methodologically, the biggest breakthrough came during the 1960s and 1970s, when German historians of the United States acquired the necessary financial means to travel abroad and to carry out multi-archival research projects. This, combined with the remarkable institutional expansion of U.S history in Germany, led to a quantum-leap in the quality of German works on U.S. foreign relations.
German Research on German Migration to the United States
After a slow beginning in the 1970s, the last two decades of the twentieth century saw a flowering of German migration research, mainly focussed on German emigration to the United States. After the turn of the century, however, it petered out rather rapidly. Still, it was far more than just a passing fashion without lasting results. A dozen major projects yielded unique results, like Günter Moltmann's meticulously researched publications and the mosaic of PhD dissertations he supervised, Dirk Hoerder's theoretical and methodological extension of the migration concept, Hartmut Keil's multidisciplinary study of Chicago's Germans, Christiane Harzig's comparative study of women in the same city, and Wolfgang Helbich's compilation of German emigrant letters resulting in the largest and best researched archive of the kind anywhere. Taken as a whole, German migration research of the period yielded results and set standards second to none, unsurpassed even by American scholars working during the same time span. The advantages of location and culture enjoyed by German historians in the field paid off, aided by ingenuity and innovation -- and definitely not least by generous VW Foundation financing.
German Scholarship on American Constitutional History
This essay offers an assessment of German historiography on American constitutional history. In addition to identifying key fields of research and to evaluating major books and other academic achievements, it discusses the dual challenge to German historians of translating American constitutional culture for German audiences, on the one hand, and getting the attention of their American colleagues on the other. Constitutional history played a major role in establishing American history as a subdiscipline at German universities and produced significant scholarship recognized on both sides of the Atlantic. Like their colleagues working on diplomacy and immigration, German constitutional historians have often focused on German-American themes, particularly on the influences of American ideas on German thought. Moreover, German historians have consistently sought to improve the understanding of American constitutional concepts among German audiences. However, the future of U.S. constitutional history in Germany is uncertain. In recent years, younger scholars have shown little interest in this sometimes dry and complicated area. Yet, even if constitutional history will most likely not regain its former prominence among German historians of the United States, the constitutional dimension remains indispensable for a better understanding of American politics, society, and culture.
The ‘Cultural Turn’ in German and American Historiography
This article analyzes the academic debates about the 'cultural turn' in U.S. and German historiography in terms of convergence and divergence. While the 'new cultural history' in the United States and Germany seem to be pretty much alike on the conceptual and theoretical level, the political, social, cultural and institutional contexts of historiography are significantly different in both countries. This explains the rather different dynamics of the cultural turn on both sides of the Atlantic. In Germany, the debate about the cultural turn stood in the long shadow of historicism, and it evolved as a largely academic discussion between post-historicist social historians revolving around the question of how to arrive at a deeper and more complex understanding of why people in the past acted the way they did. In the United States, the cultural turn, while it was moving on the academic plane, was still inseparably tied to the 'identity politics' and 'culture wars' of an American society that became increasingly self-aware of its diversity and multi-ethnicity. Against this backdrop the role of Germany-based experts on U.S. history in the debates about culture on both sides of the Atlantic is assessed critically.
'Transnations' Among 'Transnations'? The Debate on Transnational History in the United States and Germany
Comparing the rise of transnational history in the United States and Germany is difficult, mainly because of the many connections between these historiographies. Still, the article argues that the paths into a transnational historiography were quite different on both sides of the Atlantic. Apart from similarities and connections, the text therefore highlights the intellectual as well as institutional differences between the debates in the USA and Germany.
Transnational Perspectives on the History of Racism in North America
This article explores the possibilities of transnationalizing the history of race and racism in North America and considers the role that German historians of the United States can play in this scholarly endeavor. Such a project first requires overcoming certain methodological problems, including the tension between the national and the transnational as well as the tendency of many scholars to rely primarily on English-language sources. The history of racism in the United States and Canada suggests that analyzing its transnational dimensions could begin on the North American continent since it offers numerous examples for studying comparative perspectives and transnational entanglements. Ultimately, however, a transnational history of race and racism will have to examine the global nature of this phenomenon. A number of German historians of the United States have laid important foundations in this field of research and are likely to make innovative historiographical contributions in the future.
Forum: Cultural Studies and Americanization
Other Issues
Boasian Aesthetics: American Poetry, Visual Culture, and Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 63, No. 4
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2018, Vol. 63, No. 3
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2018: Digital Scholarship in American Studies, Vol. 63, No. 2
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2018, Vol. 63, No. 1
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2017: Marx and the United States, Vol. 62, No. 4
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2017, Vol. 62, No. 3
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2017: Poetry and Law, Vol. 62, No. 2
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2017, Vol. 62, No. 1
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2016: Environmental Imaginaries on the Move: Nature and Mobility in American Literature and Culture, Vol. 61, No.4
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2016, Vol. 61, No.3
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2016: Turkish-American Literature, Vol. 61, No.2
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2016, Vol. 61, No.1
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2015: Risk, Security: Approaches to Uncertainty in American Literature, Vol. 60, No. 4
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2015, Double Issue, Vol. 60, No. 2/3
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2015: Network Theory and American Studies, Vol. 60, No.1
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2014: South Africa and the United States in Transnational American Studies, Vol. 59, No. 4
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2014, Vol. 59, No. 3,
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2014, Vol. 59, No. 2
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2014, Vol. 59, No. 1
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2013: Iconographies of the Calamitous in American Visual Culture, Vol. 58, No. 4
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2013, Vol. 58, No. 3
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2013: Pragmatism's Promise, Vol. 58, No. 2
Amerika Studien / American Studies 2013, Vol. 58, No. 1
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2012: Tocqueville's Legacy: Towards a Cultural History of Recognition in American Studies , Vol. 57, No.4
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2012, 57.3
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2012 - Conceptions of Collectivity in Contemporary American Literature, Vol. 57, No. 2
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2012, Vol. 57, Vol. 1
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2011: American Comic Books and Graphic Novels, Vol. 56, No. 4
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2011, Vol. 56, No. 3
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2011, Vol. 56, No. 2
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2011, Vol. 56, No. 1
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2010: African American Literary Studies: New Texts, New Approaches, New Challenges
, Vol. 55, No. 4
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2010: Trauma's Continuum -- September 11th Reconsidered, Vol. 55, No. 3
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2010, Vol. 55, No. 2
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2010: Poverty and the Culturalization of Class , Vol. 55, No. 1
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2009, Vol. 54, No. 4
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2009, Vol. 54, No. 2
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2009: Appropriating Vision(s): Visual Practices in American Women's Writing, Vol. 54, No. 1
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2008, Vol. 53, No. 4
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2008: Die Bush-Administration: Eine erste Bilanz, Vol. 53, No. 3
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2008, Vol. 53, No. 2
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2008: Inter-American Studies and Nineteenth-Century Literature, Vol. 53, No. 1
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2007, Vol. 52, No. 4
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2007 - Teaching American Studies in the Twenty-First Century, Vol. 52, No. 3
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2007, Vol. 52, No. 2
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2007 - Transatlantic Perspectives on American Visual Culture, Vol. 52, No. 1
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2006, Vol. 51, No. 4
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2006 - Asian American Studies in Europe, Vol. 51, No. 3
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2006, Vol. 51, No. 2
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2006 - Multilingualism and American Studies
, Vol. 51, No. 1
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2005, Vol. 50, No. 4
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2005 - Early American Visual Culture, Vol. 50, No. 3
Amerikastudien / American Studies 2005 - American Studies at 50, Vol. 50, Nos. 1/2