An Interrupted Past: German-Speaking Refugee Historians in the United States after 1933

by Edited by Hartmut Lehmann , James J. Sheehan

• ISBN13: 9780521558334
• ISBN10: 0521558336
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-08
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The essays in An Interrupted Past describe the fate of those German-speaking historians who fled from Nazi Europe to the United States. Their story is set into several contexts: the traditional relationship between German and American historiography, the evolution of the German historical profession in the twentieth century, the onset of Nazi persecution after 1933, the special situation in Austria, and the difficulty of settling the refugees in their new homeland. In addition to articles on prominent scholars, there are accounts of the group as a whole, including information on more than ninety individuals, and of their family lives. An Interrupted Past is set in one of the darkest periods in human history, a time of political catastrophe and personal suffering. Yet the lives recorded here also illustrate people's capacity to survive, adjust, and create under difficult circumstances.

Table of Contents

Preface Hartmut Lehmann

Introduction James J. Sheehan

Part I: 1. German and American historiography in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Ernst Schulin

2. German historiography during the Weimar Republic and the Emigre historians Wolfgang J. Mommsen

3. The historical seminar of the University of Berlin in the 1920s Felix Gilbert

Part II: 4. Refugee historians in America: pre-emigration Germany to 1939 Michael H. Kater

5. The German refugee historians and American institutions of higher learning Karen J. Greenberg

6. Everyday life and emigration: the role of women Sibylle Quack

7. The special case of Austrian refugee historians M. Fellner

8. Refugee historians in the United States Catherine Epstein

9. German historians in the Office of Strategic Services Barry Katz

10. The refugee scholar as intellectual educator: a student's recollections Carl E. Schorske

Part III: 11. German emigre historians in America: the fifties, sixties, and seventies Kenneth Barkin

12. The Americanisation of Hajo Holborn Otto Pflanze

13. Explaining history: Hans Rosenberg Hanna Schissler

14. Ernst Kantorowicz and Theodor E. Mommsen Ralph E. Lerner

15. Refugee historians and the German historical profession between 1950 and 1970 Winfried Schulze.