Stefan Ehrenpreis - Böcker

The question of whether Britain is "apart from or a part of Europe" (D. Abulafia) has gained significance in recent years. This book reassesses an underexplored field of early modern transnational history: the variety of ways in which connections between Britain and German-speaking Europe shaped developments.After a comprehensive introduction, this book is divided into three parts: cross-border transfers and appropriations of knowledge; coping with alterity in intergovernmental contacts; and ideologising the cultural nation. The topics range from the exchange of religious and political ideas over court life, diplomacy, and espionage to literary and philosophical debates. Particular attention is paid to the media processes involved and to the practical value of knowledge about the "other" in different historical contexts. The picture emerging from the case studies reveals an intriguing dynamic: Mutual interest and ambiguous entanglements deepened precisely at a time when the British and German worlds diverged evermore from each other in terms of social and political structures.This fascinating volume sheds new light on Anglo-German relations and will be essential reading for students of early modern European history.

The question of whether Britain is "apart from or a part of Europe" (D. Abulafia) has gained significance in recent years. This book reassesses an underexplored field of early modern transnational history: the variety of ways in which connections between Britain and German-speaking Europe shaped developments.After a comprehensive introduction, this book is divided into three parts: cross-border transfers and appropriations of knowledge; coping with alterity in intergovernmental contacts; and ideologising the cultural nation. The topics range from the exchange of religious and political ideas over court life, diplomacy, and espionage to literary and philosophical debates. Particular attention is paid to the media processes involved and to the practical value of knowledge about the "other" in different historical contexts. The picture emerging from the case studies reveals an intriguing dynamic: Mutual interest and ambiguous entanglements deepened precisely at a time when the British and German worlds diverged evermore from each other in terms of social and political structures.This fascinating volume sheds new light on Anglo-German relations and will be essential reading for students of early modern European history.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, objects, texts and people travelled around the world on board Dutch ships. The essays in this book explore how these circulations transformed knowledge in Asian and European societies. They concentrate on epistemic consequences in the fields of historiography, geography, natural history, religion and philosophy, as well as in everyday life. Emphasizing transformations, the volume reconstructs small semantic shifts of knowledge and tentative adjustments to new cultural contexts. It unfolds the often conflict-ridden, complex and largely global history of specific pieces of knowledge as well as of generally-shared contemporary understandings regarding what could or could not be considered true. The book contributes to current debates about how to conceptualize the unsettled epistemologies of the early modern world.