Interdisciplinary Approaches and Perspectives
This volume takes an interdisciplinary and historical look at the transformations of authority and trust in the U.S. The contributors examine government institutions, political parties, urban neighborhoods, scientific experts, international leadership, religious communities, and literary production.
The history of lynching in America is explored through the lens of extralegal communal punishment carried out by ordinary citizens, highlighting its deep-rooted presence from the colonial era to modern times. Manfred Berg examines the racial complexities and societal memories surrounding these acts, analyzing a range of victims including African American men, white women, and cattle rustlers. Through this analysis, the book delves into the notions of 'frontier justice' and 'popular justice,' offering a nuanced understanding of lynching's role in the nation's history.
Although it lasted only for a 'Thousand Days', the presidency of John F. Kennedy is considered a defining moment in recent American history. Despite countless attempts by historians, journalists and cultural critics, the Kennedy myth, carefully crafted during his lifetime and eagerly nurtured after his violent death, lives on. The enduring notion that America might have been spared many of the traumatic events of the 1960s and 1970s, if only John F. Kennedy had lived, poses a continuing challenge to historians to reassess his foreign and domestic policies. In this volume scholars from the United States, Germany and Great Britain, mostly representatives of a younger generation, take a fresh look at key topics such as Kennedy's policies toward Europe, the Third World, the civil rights struggle, and poverty. Contrary to his often grandiose rhetoric of vigorous leadership and „new frontiers“ and despite his considerable skills at managing foreign and domestic crises, the essays emphasize that President John F. Kennedy acted largely within the consensus of Cold War liberalism.
The book offers a comprehensive political history of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), detailing its efforts for black civil and political equality from its inception in 1909 to the years following the civil rights movement. It explores the organization's challenges, achievements, and evolution, providing insight into its pivotal role in advocating for racial justice and the ongoing fight for equality in America.
This book addresses key issues in the historical struggle for civil rights, political rights, and social rights in the United States and Germany from the late nineteenth century to the present. The essays address issues such as the struggle for the rights of women and minorities (including African Americans, Jews, and Asians), National Socialism and the dismantling of civil rights, and the emergence of the concept of social rights. What becomes clear are the unique features that distinguish German from American history and that these differences have been created by both social movements and dissimilar cultures of rights.
This collection addresses, in a comprehensive and critical fashion, fundamental issues in the history of medicine in modern Germany and considers the nature of modern German government and society in relation to Western social, political, and economic development. The central focus is on the professionalization of modern medicine and the medicalization of modern society. The problem of Nazi Germany is a recurring theme. Other topics include: hospitals in early nineteenth century society, Social Darwinism, state-run health insurance, eugenics, social control, Nazi experimentation, and the postwar medical leadership.