German Expansionism, Imperial Liberalism and the United States, 1776–1945 - Softcover

Guettel, Jens-Uwe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1107622611 ISBN 13: 9781107622616

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2015

Synopsis

This book traces the importance of the United States for German colonialism from the late eighteenth century to 1945, focusing on American westward expansion and racial politics. Jens-Uwe Guettel argues that from the late eighteenth century onward, ideas of colonial expansion played a very important role in liberal, enlightened, and progressive circles in Germany, which, in turn, looked across the Atlantic to the liberal-democratic United States for inspiration and concrete examples. In the early years of the twentieth century, this America-inspired and -influenced imperial liberalism dominated German colonial discourse and practice. Yet following this pre-1914 peak of liberal political influence on the administration and governance of Germany's colonies, the expansionist ideas embraced by Germany's far-right after the country's defeat in the First World War had little or no connection with the German Empire's liberal imperialist tradition. German Expansionism, Imperial Liberalism, and the United States, 1776-1945 therefore shows that, for example, Nazi plans for the settlement of conquered Eastern European territories were not directly linked to pre-1914 transatlantic exchanges concerning race and expansionism.

About this title

Book Description:

This book traces the presence of the United States in German colonial discourse and practice from the late eighteenth century to 1945, focusing on American westward expansion and racial politics. Jens-Uwe Guettel highlights the effects America's expanding borders had on both German liberalism and colonialism before the outbreak of the First World War. Yet because before the First World War American expansionist examples were almost exclusively admired by German liberals, post-1918 plans for the settlement of conquered Eastern European territories as conceived of and espoused by the Nazis had little to do with pre-1914 transatlantic exchanges concerning race and expansionism.

About the Author:

Jens-Uwe Guettel is Lecturer in the Department of History and Religious Studies at Pennsylvania State University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1107622611
• ISBN 13: 9781107622616
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 292