Force of Comparison

Willibald Steinmetz is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Bielefeld University. He has published widely on the history of concepts and political communication and is co-editor of the book series European Conceptual History with Berghahn Books.

“The volume is well edited, wonderfully informative, and supplies a fairly helpful index… Scholars in many fields will discover valuable insights in every chapter.” • Journal of Modern History“The chapters in this volume are all outstanding examples of the power of comparative history and thus underline the claim made in the introduction that comparative history will enrich our understanding of the past in years to come…Overall the volume is a treasure trove for anyone interested in comparative history and a compelling call to pursue comparative investigations in historical writing.” • German History“By studying practices of comparison both in historical reality and in the study of history, this book offers fresh and surprising insights into a much-discussed subject. The contributions are empirically rich, well-documented, and of great interest for many areas in history and other fields.” • Jürgen Kocka, WZB Berlin Social Science Center“This is an excellent collection of essays. Its scholarship is of a high standard, it demonstrates a degree of conceptual unity that is unusual for edited volumes, and it does a splendid job of vindicating the argument for the ubiquitous importance of comparison in modern life and thought.” • Luke O’Sullivan, National University of Singapore

• List of Figures and TablesIntroduction: Concepts and Practices of Comparison in Modern HistoryWillibald SteinmetzChapter 1. Outlines of a Historical Epistemology of Comparison: From Descartes to the Early Nineteenth CenturyMichael EggersChapter 2. Comparative Practices and their Implications: The Case of Comparative ViewingJohannes GraveChapter 3. Above/Below, Better/Worse, or Simply Different? Metamorphoses of Social Comparison, 1600–1900Willibald SteinmetzChapter 4. Empowering Comparisons? The Making of Republics in the Early Modern PeriodLars BehrischChapter 5. Comparing Europe and the Americas: The Dispute of the New World between the Sixteenth and Nineteenth CenturiesAngelika EppleChapter 6. European Colonial Empires and Victorian Imperial ExceptionalismAlex MiddletonChapter 7. Comparison and the Welfare State in Modern Europe, c. 1880–1945Julia MosesChapter 8. Comparison, Rivalry and Competition under Neo-Liberalism and State SocialismDavid PriestlandChapter 9. Comparing Economic Activities on a Global Level in the 1920s and 1930s: Motives and ConsequencesMartin BemmannChapter 10. In Search of A Global Centre of Calculation: The Washington Statistical Conferences of 1947Daniel Speich ChasséChapter 11. Formalized Comparisons: Rankings and Status in Higher EducationWendy EspelandChapter 12. Good – Better – Best: The Power of Ranking OrdersBettina HeintzIndex