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The article analyzes new approaches that the history of concepts has taken to the history of science. These include the interconnection of the history of concepts, metaphorology, and object history, as well as the increasing interweaving of the history of science with social, political, and communication history. These shifts in the boundaries between different fields give new relevance to Reinhart Koselleck's approach to the history of concepts. The final part of the paper addresses a number of views, questions and perspectives of a history of concepts after Koselleck. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of recent discussions, this article asks how the broad process of digitization – and in particular the possibility of digital granular searching across vast corpora of primary sources and secondary literature – has transformed our research habits, the questions we are likely to ask, and the answers we are inclined to give. Specifically, it raises the question of whether digitization has been the unacknowledged driving force behind the rise of transnational and global history. It argues that technological changes and new digital tools have not disproportionately benefited global history. If anything, the relationship between digitization and global history has to be understood through the prism of their interplay with language and our discipline's growing Anglicization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In World War II American intelligence proved to be a place where German-Jewish émigré intellectuals not only warred against Germany but also connected successfully to their American-born comrades. This paper is dealing with a post-war intellectual network contributing to the intellectual foundations of the New Left in the United States. The origins of this circle of intellectuals can be traced back to the wartime Office of Strategic Services. In the early Cold War period intellectual analysts of Nazi Germany continued their cooperation in academic settings, and with support from philanthropic institutions such as the Rockefeller Foundation. In this context their leftist political discourse and activism took shape. Their Cold War politics, however, was associated with their concept of intellectual history as well as with a "decontaminated" version of Weimar thought. A close reading of archival sources with regard to Herbert Marcuse will exemplify the main argument of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of a "third world" rose to prominence in international political discourse around 1960 and vanished around 1990. It designated a group of countries aligned with neither of the two other worlds. I argue in this article that the term needs to be situated in a larger history of the perception of global difference at least as old as the Enlightenment. The peculiar career of the concept of the "third world" is connected both to changes in the order of knowledge and, more specifically, to the history of economic thought, of which it is an effect. The paper thus focuses on the emergence of the term around 1960 and investigates the irrelevance of economics in late colonialism as opposed to the prominence of economic experts in the post-1945 world order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay studies the historical and conceptual meaning of nation branding as it has developed in Germany and other countries since the nineteenth century. It discusses the concept and mechanisms of nation branding and its relevance for historical research and analyzes its international dimension. It also shines light on themultitude of actors involved in nation branding, the visions that informed it, and the intentions behind it. "Brand Germany" had a history long before the Cold War that cannot and should not be analyzed in isolation. The domestic and international debates over how Germany as a brand should represent itself and what imagery it should use provide a representative example of the merger between cultural, political, and diplomatic history, as national identity became an issue of international relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how a collection of stone tools excavated and classified as prehistorical in 1926 in today's KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) were made into scientific objects through their relationswith various knowledge systems in South Africa, Germany, Austria and the Vatican. In these places, they became involved in the production of knowledge about themselves and the temporality in which they were located. Thus, through their encounter with a South African archaeologist, they moved into an archaeological narrative that was contemporary with the project to racially hierarchize South African populations, while in the realm of the Catholic influenced Kulturkreislehre, they were supposed to help support a theory about the origin of monotheistic beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1917 to 1924, groups of German children were sent on Erholungsreisen (vacation journeys) to German-speaking villages in Transylvania. These trips were organized jointly by nationalist associations in Germany and their partners in Transylvania, who hoped to reinforce bonds between Germans abroad and the Mutterland. The success of the 1917 trip contrasts with the failure of later campaigns. Empathy between Reichsdeutsche and Ausländsdeutsche was immediately intelligible in the context of a common war effort, but later trips foundered a divergence of opinion about where charity was needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article attempts to explain the rise of international human rights politics in the 1970s and to assess what difference they made in the international relations of that era. The author argues that in order to understand the reasons for the surge of human rights a polycentric approach is needed, focusing on the changed moral and political attitudes of civil activists, the distinct foreign policy needs of Western governments and the new experiences of oppression among victims of state terror. He further demonstrates how initiatives in the name of human rights notably transformed international politics. They narrowed the space of action of repressive regimes, albeit slightly and indirectly, and gave individual suffering an unprecedented salience in the international realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting with a brief survey of the historiography on Fascist Italy's policy in the Middle East, the article argues that the approach of Mussolini's regime is best understood through an examination of the interrelationship between ideology, foreign relations and colonial considerations. Hence, it focuses on the impact of three central and at times conflicting forces which shaped Italian policy : the ambitions and goals commonly linked to Fascist ideology (expansionism, vitality, the desire for colonial outlets and a self-sufficient, autarkic empire); traditional foreign policy considerations vis-à-vis the other European Great Powers with special emphasis on Britain and France; and the aspiration to prevent dissent in and to encourage the development of Italy's colonies in Africa which bordered the Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Middle Eastern policy adopted by Fascist Italy, in light of diverging historical interpretations of its extent and its ideological background. It is the author's view that Italian interests were influenced by Fascist expansionism, traditional considerations of foreign politics in Europe, and Colonialist interests. The article describes the pro-Italian propaganda efforts in the Middle East and North Africa, the deterioration of Italian relations with Great Britain and France, and the pro-Islamic measures implemented by Italian authorities. Italian involvement in Libya is mentioned.

The article discusses the effects of higher mobility and globalization on the expansion of imperialist societies at the beginning of the 20th century. It describes technological innovations and their effect on political and social policies in western countries towards developing countries. It then discusses discursive practices that led to developments in communication, knowledge transfers, and the acceleration of social evolution. Other subjects under discussion include the theories of historian Karl Schlögel, the historiography of globalization, and the effect of globalization on colonialism.