Conceptual History in the European Space

by Willibald Steinmetz (Editor), Michael Freeden (Editor), Javier Fern ndez-Sebasti n (Editor)

Overview

The result of extensive collaboration among leading scholars from across Europe, Conceptual History in the European Space represents a landmark intervention in the historiography of concepts. It brings together ambitious thematic studies that combine the pioneering methods of historian Reinhart Koselleck with contemporary insights and debates, each one illuminating a key feature of the European conceptual landscape. With clarifying overviews of such contested theoretical terrain as translatability, spatiality, and center-periphery dynamics, it also provides indispensable contextualization for an era of widespread disenchantment with and misunderstanding of the European project.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781785334825
Publisher:	Berghahn Books
Publication date:	06/01/2017
Series:	European Conceptual History , #1
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Willibald Steinmetz is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Bielefeld University. He has published widely on conceptual history and is co-editor of the book series Historische Semantik with Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Among his publications are the edited volumes “Politik”: Situationen eines Wortgebrauchs im Europa der Neuzeit (2007), Political Languages in the Age of Extremes (2011) and Historische Semantik des Politischen: Vom Mittelalter bis ins 20. Jahrhundert, with Ulrich Meier and Martin Papenheim (2012).

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Introduction: Conceptual History: Challenges, Conundrums, Complexities
Willibald Steinmetz and Michael Freeden

Chapter 1. Europe at Different Speeds: Asynchronicities and Multiple Times in European Conceptual History
Helge Jordheim

Chapter 2. Multiple Transformations: Temporal Frameworks for a European Conceptual History
Willibald Steinmetz

Chapter 3. Concepts and Debates: Rhetorical Perspectives on Conceptual Change
Kari Palonen

Chapter 4. Conceptual History, Ideology and Language
Michael Freeden

Chapter 5. Transnational Conceptual History, Methodological Nationalism and Europe
Jani Marjanen

Chapter 6. Conceptual History: The Comparative Dimension
Jörn Leonhard

Chapter 7. Concepts, Contests and Contexts: Conceptual History and the Problem of Translatability
László Kontler

Chapter 8. Conceptualizing Spaces within Europe: The Case of Meso-Regions
Diana Mishkova and Balázs Trencsényi

Chapter 9. Conceptualizing Modernity in Multi- and Intercultural Spaces: The Case of Central and Eastern Europe
Victor Neumann

Chapter 10. Concepts in a Nordic Periphery
Henrik Stenius

Conclusions: Setting the Agenda for a European Conceptual History
Javier Fernández-Sebastián

Index

Editorial Reviews

“It seems, judging by the arguments, strategies, and agenda presented in this book, that we will see a most welcome new wave of theoretical debate within and about conceptual history, which will continue to bring invaluable debates and previously unthematized phenomena into our attention.” • Contributions to the History of Concepts

“This volume should be celebrated as a precious space for innovation, at a time when new methodological perspectives tend to be placed under intense scrutiny by mainstream historical scholarship. It can therefore be recommended to all readers interested in current trends and developments within historical methodology.” • J@rgonia

“Taken together, these essays represent a landmark in conceptual history's theoretical and methodological development. They are a testament to its practitioners' creative and fruitful engagement with methods and approaches forged beyond the field of intellectual history. By adding layers of depth to our understanding of both concepts and the semantic fields in which they have operated, their authors go some way towards establishing a post-Koselleckian research agenda that can allow conceptual history to flourish as it expands its own horizons of possibility.” • Sehepunkte

From the Publisher