Outside the Academy: Transatlantic Histories

Featured Books:

A comprehensive account of how German and American historians after World War II tackled the question of the roots of National Socialism, History after Hitler traces the development of a transatlantic scholarly community as a key part of the intellectual history of the Federal Republic and of Cold War German-American relations.History after Hitler makes the case that, together, German and American historians contributed to the development of postwar German culture, intellectual life, and national self-understanding. 

American Baroque charts Spain’s exploitation of Caribbean pearl fisheries to trace the genesis of its global maritime empire. Warsh blends environmental, social, and cultural history to construct microhistories of peoples’ wide-ranging engagement with this deceptively simple jewel. Pearls facilitated imperial fantasy and personal ambition, adorned the wardrobes of monarchs and financed their wars, and played a crucial part in the survival strategies of diverse people of humble means. These stories, taken together, uncover early modern conceptions of wealth, from the hardscrabble shores of Caribbean islands to the lavish rooms of Mediterranean palaces.