Böcker av Jessica C. E. Gienow-Hecht

This book offers a critical reflection of the historical genesis, transformation, and problématique of "humanity" in the transatlantic world, with a particular eye on cultural representations. "Humanity," the essays show, was consistently embedded in networks of actors and cultural practices, and its meanings have evolved in step with historical processes such as globalization, cultural imperialism, the transnationalization of activism, and the spread of racism and nationalism. Visions of Humanity applies a historical lens on objects, sounds, and actors to provide a more nuanced understanding of the historical tensions and struggles involved in constructing, invoking, and instrumentalizing the "we" of humanity.

Historians from Germany, Britain, the US, and Canada demonstrate the merger between international history and cultural studies in terms of both theory and methodology. They sample topics and sources from the early modern period to the present, and trace research trends and debates within Europe and

Introduces academics, students and political analysts to some of the trends in the study and state of culture and international history: NGOs, internationalism, cultural violence, the "Romance of Resistance," and the culture of diplomacy.

Delving into the archives that document cross-cultural interactions between America and Germany, the author retraces these efforts to export culture as an instrument of nongovernmental diplomacy, paying particular attention to the role of conductors and uncovers the history of the musician as a cultural symbol of German cosmopolitanism.