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De metamorfose van de wereld
'De metamorfose van de wereld' is een monumentale geschiedenis van de negentiende eeuw. Jürgen Osterhammel vertelt een waarlijk mondiale (geen eurocentrische) geschiedenis met een adembenemende reikwijdte en een enorme eruditie. Hij neemt de lezer mee van Londen naar New Delhi, van de Latijns-Amerikaanse revoluties naar de Taiping-opstand, van de opera van Parijs naar die van Manaus in Brazilië, van Europese emigranten naar de bedreigde nomadische stammen overal op onze planeet. Hij vertelt over een wereld die steeds meer vervlochten raakt door de telegraaf, het stoomschip en de spoorweg. Hij onderzoekt de veranderende relatie tussen mens en natuur, gaat uitvoerig in op de rol van de slavernij en de afschaffing ervan bij de opkomst van nieuwe naties, en vecht de wijdverbreide overtuiging aan dat in de negentiende eeuw de natiestaat triomfeerde.
'De metamorfose van de wereld' werpt een nieuw en opwindend licht op de eeuw die korte metten maakte met eeuwen stilstand en, ten goede én ten kwade, de fundamenten legde voor onze hedendaagse wereld - de eeuw die de loop van de geschiedenis een geheel nieuwe wending gaf.
'De metamorfose van de wereld' werpt een nieuw en opwindend licht op de eeuw die korte metten maakte met eeuwen stilstand en, ten goede én ten kwade, de fundamenten legde voor onze hedendaagse wereld - de eeuw die de loop van de geschiedenis een geheel nieuwe wending gaf.
1184 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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About the author
Jürgen Osterhammel
52 books75 followersJürgen Osterhammel is professor emeritus of modern and contemporary history at the University of Konstanz.
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April 11, 2020Apparently Angela Merkel invited Osterhammel to her 60th birthday party to give a guest lecture based on this book, well you can say what you like about the woman but as far as I am concerned she plainly knows how to celebrate.
One newspaper review described this book as a milestone, although obscurely the publishers seem to have neglected to make the book waterproof, in every other way this seems to be true, it is about the right size and shape (and weight ).
Osterhammel himself suggests that it need not be read completely from beginning to end, which for me raises the question of why he wrote the book this way rather than one that does need to read from beginning to end, it is maybe indicative of his philosophy - take what you will, the feast is still there when you have a wish to return to it later, I notice that the Polish translation breaks the book down into a set of separate volumes and perhaps that was the wisest solution to publishing the work.
This has been on my currently reading list for almost two years, which in the way of statistics and figures misrepresents the situation. I started and read slowly through about four or five hundred pages over a few months and then stopped until last December when I picked it up again and averaged about fifty pages a day until I finished. I had made the mistake of deciding that it would be my 'upstairs book' which I would read when I was upstairs, this allowed me effectively to abandon it and to read shorter books downstairs instead. I was intimated by the heft of the book and possibly distracted by the potential of using it for bicep curls, I found it was like going swimming, nice once I had got used to the temperature of the water, but it takes an effort to get that far, and like swimming it required special equipment, in my case reading glasses.
At times as I was reading I wondered what this book was all about and if it was going somewhere, the answer to which is no unless you count 1901 as a destination of sorts, and even that would be wrong...
Osterhammel explains all in his afterword to the book. His expertise is not in the nineteenth century but in the era of the Enlightenment. The book arose out of an academic year spent at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study and represents, I feel, an attempt at an analysis of the Nineteenth Century by the author to explain it to himself, there have been, he thinks, plenty of syntheses of nineteenth century history, as though distilled from the textbooks but no analysis.
Because of this I feel it is ideal as an introductory book about the nineteenth century particularly perhaps for those planning for beginning to study modern history at university, or indeed for the general reader who seriously desires to look at the nineteenth century in terms of big concepts and themes rather than flag waving and stories, although at times I felt the analysis was superficial as in his discussion of literacy.
This is a book about the long nineteenth century, so vaguely from circa 1789 to sometime after 1918, I don't think it mentions much before 1750, or after 1950, because of this I still feel this is the indispensable guide to living through the twentieth century, it is the opposite to the 24 hour rolling news phenomenon, a contrast to life as an perpetual, shallow, addictive present, in which events are forever without context or relation to each other. At one point reading I experienced a sonorous bell ringing as I read that one of the traditional functions of the King of Burma was to restrain and constrain the political activism of the country's Buddhist monks. Elsewhere Osterhammel compares the Taiping rebellion with the Mormon movement - two Christian inspired events that were brought under control by Government force, this is typical of Osterhammel's willingness to look for patterns and contrasts, some of these will be more significant than others for instance when slavery in the British empire was ended and compensation paid out to the slave owners - in the case of the West Indies the former slave owners were largely absentees living in Britain so the money flowed directly back into the UK, while in South Africa the opposite was true which lead to completely divergent patterns of economic development in the two regions, but this makes reading the whole 1,301 pages a refreshing experience (aided by the occasional droll observation). It is also a book that makes a consistent effort not to be Euro-centric and points out when events around the world were interrelated and when they were on their own trajectory, it is the kind of book that just as I was thinking 'what about Greece?' then up pops a paragraph about Greece under Otto of Bavaria. The regime of Muhammad Ali in Egypt with its slave army and attempts at globalisation and industrialisation was a regularly enjoyable counterpoint to the dominant and familiar narratives of the 'successful' regimes of the nineteenth century world, the problem with a book that weighs over three pounds is that there is an awful lot to forget about, and I notice that an interesting point about China and Needham having asked the wrong question has completely slipped out of my mind.
Don't try living through the twentieth century without this book.
One newspaper review described this book as a milestone, although obscurely the publishers seem to have neglected to make the book waterproof, in every other way this seems to be true, it is about the right size and shape (and weight ).
Osterhammel himself suggests that it need not be read completely from beginning to end, which for me raises the question of why he wrote the book this way rather than one that does need to read from beginning to end, it is maybe indicative of his philosophy - take what you will, the feast is still there when you have a wish to return to it later, I notice that the Polish translation breaks the book down into a set of separate volumes and perhaps that was the wisest solution to publishing the work.
This has been on my currently reading list for almost two years, which in the way of statistics and figures misrepresents the situation. I started and read slowly through about four or five hundred pages over a few months and then stopped until last December when I picked it up again and averaged about fifty pages a day until I finished. I had made the mistake of deciding that it would be my 'upstairs book' which I would read when I was upstairs, this allowed me effectively to abandon it and to read shorter books downstairs instead. I was intimated by the heft of the book and possibly distracted by the potential of using it for bicep curls, I found it was like going swimming, nice once I had got used to the temperature of the water, but it takes an effort to get that far, and like swimming it required special equipment, in my case reading glasses.
At times as I was reading I wondered what this book was all about and if it was going somewhere, the answer to which is no unless you count 1901 as a destination of sorts, and even that would be wrong...
Osterhammel explains all in his afterword to the book. His expertise is not in the nineteenth century but in the era of the Enlightenment. The book arose out of an academic year spent at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study and represents, I feel, an attempt at an analysis of the Nineteenth Century by the author to explain it to himself, there have been, he thinks, plenty of syntheses of nineteenth century history, as though distilled from the textbooks but no analysis.
Because of this I feel it is ideal as an introductory book about the nineteenth century particularly perhaps for those planning for beginning to study modern history at university, or indeed for the general reader who seriously desires to look at the nineteenth century in terms of big concepts and themes rather than flag waving and stories, although at times I felt the analysis was superficial as in his discussion of literacy.
This is a book about the long nineteenth century, so vaguely from circa 1789 to sometime after 1918, I don't think it mentions much before 1750, or after 1950, because of this I still feel this is the indispensable guide to living through the twentieth century, it is the opposite to the 24 hour rolling news phenomenon, a contrast to life as an perpetual, shallow, addictive present, in which events are forever without context or relation to each other. At one point reading I experienced a sonorous bell ringing as I read that one of the traditional functions of the King of Burma was to restrain and constrain the political activism of the country's Buddhist monks. Elsewhere Osterhammel compares the Taiping rebellion with the Mormon movement - two Christian inspired events that were brought under control by Government force, this is typical of Osterhammel's willingness to look for patterns and contrasts, some of these will be more significant than others for instance when slavery in the British empire was ended and compensation paid out to the slave owners - in the case of the West Indies the former slave owners were largely absentees living in Britain so the money flowed directly back into the UK, while in South Africa the opposite was true which lead to completely divergent patterns of economic development in the two regions, but this makes reading the whole 1,301 pages a refreshing experience (aided by the occasional droll observation). It is also a book that makes a consistent effort not to be Euro-centric and points out when events around the world were interrelated and when they were on their own trajectory, it is the kind of book that just as I was thinking 'what about Greece?' then up pops a paragraph about Greece under Otto of Bavaria. The regime of Muhammad Ali in Egypt with its slave army and attempts at globalisation and industrialisation was a regularly enjoyable counterpoint to the dominant and familiar narratives of the 'successful' regimes of the nineteenth century world, the problem with a book that weighs over three pounds is that there is an awful lot to forget about, and I notice that an interesting point about China and Needham having asked the wrong question has completely slipped out of my mind.
Don't try living through the twentieth century without this book.
May 30, 2016
Highly erudite and non-Europocentric analysis of the Nineteenth century as a period during which, in one why or another, the world changed. The author spends much time trying to understand what were the advantages which opened opportunities for Western imperialism, but did not create such opportunities elsewhere, with the exception of Japan. He also analyzes the self-mythologizing which was part of the nineteenth century in Europe, including its positive effect on freedom in the world and its eventual failure due to a combination of racism and self-interest.
The scope of the book is such that some inaccuracies were to be expected. I have to admit to wincing occasionally whenever the author discussed Russian history, which is my field of expertise. I am sure that specialists in other fields will have similar complaints. Still, the important thing about this book is that the author succeeded in analyzing the important global trends which created the world of the nineteenth century. Therefore, even when I felt his claims were arguable, I found stopping and thinking about the trend in question interesting. Therefore I learned a lot from this book.
The scope of the book is such that some inaccuracies were to be expected. I have to admit to wincing occasionally whenever the author discussed Russian history, which is my field of expertise. I am sure that specialists in other fields will have similar complaints. Still, the important thing about this book is that the author succeeded in analyzing the important global trends which created the world of the nineteenth century. Therefore, even when I felt his claims were arguable, I found stopping and thinking about the trend in question interesting. Therefore I learned a lot from this book.
March 29, 2016
The Transformation of World: A Global History of the Nineteenth Century is an absolutely fabulous tome on various aspects of the world in the "long Nineteenth Century," beginning sometime in the late 18th century and finishing around World War One. The author looks at the conceptual frameworks of history during this period, analyzing everything from the various societies conceptual framework of time, to the various nuances of industrial development and economic advancement nations faced on different continents, to the spread of opera theatre throughout the world. Seriously, this is an epic historical non-fiction book, and Osterhammel covers each topic professionally, with no bias or overarching narrative to speak of.
His book is professionally written, and focuses on the historiography of the era, as opposed to shoehorning any theory or point. This may put some people off, but I found it refreshing. He presents the facts, as they are, with well sourced historical and statistical data to back it up. I won't go into detail about the contents of the book, suffice to say that almost every topic imaginable, from labour contrasted in Japan and the United States, to the process of trade compared in Latin America and the British Commonwealth, to the growth of democracy in Britain's settler colonies, and on and on. This book is fascinating, and lengthy (it took me a month to read). It is a perfect read, for what it is, and I highly recommend it.
His book is professionally written, and focuses on the historiography of the era, as opposed to shoehorning any theory or point. This may put some people off, but I found it refreshing. He presents the facts, as they are, with well sourced historical and statistical data to back it up. I won't go into detail about the contents of the book, suffice to say that almost every topic imaginable, from labour contrasted in Japan and the United States, to the process of trade compared in Latin America and the British Commonwealth, to the growth of democracy in Britain's settler colonies, and on and on. This book is fascinating, and lengthy (it took me a month to read). It is a perfect read, for what it is, and I highly recommend it.
March 24, 2015
It is a very serious book summarising the global tendencies in the 19th century world. IMHO it is less of the history per se, but more historical sociology as it focuses more on the facts and numbers and considers global population as its main subject. Any events or persons key to the history of the period are just mentioned to illustrate a particular point, but not considered as a phenomena. I think it would be very useful for students learning professionally about the period. Also people who can enjoy reading Karl Marx or Max Weber might find it pleasurable.
I must admit, I've been spoiled by the British/American approach to the popular history, but I found this translation from German a struggle. I've learned a few new facts, but I certainly did not enjoy reading this book for pleasure as I would wish to. Maybe It is useful to dig into, but it is a difficult read unless you do it on purpose.
I must admit, I've been spoiled by the British/American approach to the popular history, but I found this translation from German a struggle. I've learned a few new facts, but I certainly did not enjoy reading this book for pleasure as I would wish to. Maybe It is useful to dig into, but it is a difficult read unless you do it on purpose.
May 3, 2022
In de negentiende eeuw veranderde de wereld grondig. Jürgen Osterhammel probeert moedig die metamorfose in kaart te brengen. Dat is eigenlijk onbegonnen werk en dat merk je ook.
Om overzicht te bewaren kiest Osterhammel voor een thematische eerder dan voor een chronologische aanpak. Daarnaast poogt hij los te komen van onze westerse kijk op de geschiedenis. Lovenswaardig, maar het blijft problematisch: de passages die dieper ingaan op de niet-westerse beleving doen soms aan als excursies.
De metamorfose van de wereld is erudiet, maar Osterhammel is geen bevlogen verteller. Hij gaat voor geschiedkundige feiten. Het opzoekwerk en de opgestapelde kennis is impressionant, maar de manier van presenteren is wel erg droog.
De metamorfose van de wereld is daardoor een uitstekend boek om af en toe wat paar blaadjes in om te draaien voor het slapengaan, in aangename verwondering over de vele feitjes (waarvan je de meeste tegen de ochtend alweer vergeten bent). Spannend is het niet, maar het duurt wel lekker lang voor het uit is.
Om overzicht te bewaren kiest Osterhammel voor een thematische eerder dan voor een chronologische aanpak. Daarnaast poogt hij los te komen van onze westerse kijk op de geschiedenis. Lovenswaardig, maar het blijft problematisch: de passages die dieper ingaan op de niet-westerse beleving doen soms aan als excursies.
De metamorfose van de wereld is erudiet, maar Osterhammel is geen bevlogen verteller. Hij gaat voor geschiedkundige feiten. Het opzoekwerk en de opgestapelde kennis is impressionant, maar de manier van presenteren is wel erg droog.
De metamorfose van de wereld is daardoor een uitstekend boek om af en toe wat paar blaadjes in om te draaien voor het slapengaan, in aangename verwondering over de vele feitjes (waarvan je de meeste tegen de ochtend alweer vergeten bent). Spannend is het niet, maar het duurt wel lekker lang voor het uit is.
July 24, 2024
Man darf keine Angst vor dicken Büchern haben - das ganze 19. Jahrhundert zwischen zwei Buchdeckel zu pressen, ist ja auch kein einfaches Unterfangen. Die Übersicht über die großen Strömungen rechtfertigt jedenfalls vollkommen den Titel - wenn man es vorher ahnte, nachher weiß man genau, wie sich die Welt in dieser Zeit gewandelt hat.
Der Autor schlägt Brücken in die Vergangenheit und bis in die heutige Zeit - umso anschaulicher wird auch die Bedeutung der Zeitspanne für die moderne Welt. war.
Der Autor schafft es sein Historienfachbuch angenehm lesbar zu verpacken und die Querverbindungen anschaulich zu schildern. Also kein Fachbuch mit langen Listen an Daten - sondern eher eine Abfolge von Essays.
Im Laufe der Jahre habe ich immer wieder einzelne Abschnitte und Themen wieder nachgelesen.
Der Autor schlägt Brücken in die Vergangenheit und bis in die heutige Zeit - umso anschaulicher wird auch die Bedeutung der Zeitspanne für die moderne Welt. war.
Der Autor schafft es sein Historienfachbuch angenehm lesbar zu verpacken und die Querverbindungen anschaulich zu schildern. Also kein Fachbuch mit langen Listen an Daten - sondern eher eine Abfolge von Essays.
Im Laufe der Jahre habe ich immer wieder einzelne Abschnitte und Themen wieder nachgelesen.
July 3, 2018
Es ist sicher eigentümlich, daß eines der umfangreichsten Bücher, das ich in letzter Zeit gelesen habe, von mir mit einer verhältnismäßig kurzen Rezension bedacht wird, aber dies ist sicher nicht zuletzt dem Umstand geschuldet, daß mir der Genuß von Jürgen Osterhammels eindrucksvoller Universalgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts wieder einmal die Begrenztheit meines Gedächtnisses und meinen Mangel an der Fähigkeit, diszipliniert zu lesen, vor Augen geführt hat. Wie oft habe ich an verschiedenen Stellen innegehalten und mir gesagt, dies oder jenes sei doch ein Punkt, den ich auf jeden Fall beim Schreiben meiner Rezension berücksichtigen müsse, aber ich war schlichtweg zu faul, mir Notizen zu machen, und ich gehöre auch nicht zu den Menschen, die gern in ihre Bücher hineinschreiben, und dann war da auch immer der Drang weiterzulesen, weil ich schlichtweg von der Art und Weise, wie der Autor Zusammenhänge oder auch Koinzidenzen aufzeigte, fasziniert war. Auch sein luzider, leserfreundlicher Stil – historisches Fachwissen hilft aber sicher beim Verständnis der theoretischen Passagen dieses Buches – und seine Fähigkeit, auf der einen Seite Strukturen herauszuarbeiten, Idealtypen mit Leben zu füllen (z.B. Frontiergesellschaften; Reich vs. Nation), auf der anderen Seite aber auch konkrete Beispiele in aller Kürze zu entfalten, taten ihr übriges, mich trotz mehrerer Unterbrechungen bei der Stange zu halten und mich am fleißigen Exzerpieren zu hindern.
Will man, wie Osterhammel, das 19. Jahrhundert als Universalgeschichte fassen, kann dies wohl nur in Abkehr von einer primär narrativen Vorgehensweise geschehen, und schon bei der Frage, was denn der Anfang und der Ausklang dieses Jahrhunderts seien, zeigt sich, daß auch diese Antworten in der Regel unter eher eurozentrischem Blickwinkel gegeben werden. So schickt denn der Verfasser seinen Betrachtungen zunächst allgemeine Betrachtungen über Vorstellungen von Raum und Zeit wie auch über die Historikern zur Verfügung stehenden Speichermedien, in denen sich eine Zeit selbst beschreibt oder die sie hinterläßt – das 19. Jahrhundert was das erste, das beispielsweise über die Photographie verfügte –, voran, bevor dann, gegliedert in die zwei großen Bereiche „Panoramen“ und „Themen“ in die eigentliche Geschichte eingestiegen wird. Hier widmet sich Osterhammel jeweils bestimmten Aspekten – z.B. dem Phänomen der Stadt, der Frontier, dem Staatsbegriff, dem Phänomen der Revolution –, die er einer gewissenhaften Betrachtung unterzieht, wobei er sich nicht nur auf Europa, sondern auch die USA, Südamerika, China, Japan, das restliche Asien und andere Großregionen bezieht, denen er insgesamt gleich viel Raum in seiner Darstellung zugesteht.
Am Ende kommt er zu dem Schluß, daß das 19. Jahrhundert trotz seiner uns heute als fremd und oft überlebt anmutenden Charakteristika in vielem der Vorläufer moderner Globalisierung gewesen sei, und er arbeitet fünf Merkmale heraus, nämlich
a) Eine asymmetrische Effizienzsteigerung, vor allem in industrieller und landwirtschaftlicher Hinsicht (u.a. gestärkt durch die Entwicklung einer wissenschaftlichen Methode. Aber auch in militärischer Hinsicht war – auch wenn die Verwendung dieses Wortes zynisch anmutet – eine Effizienzsteigerung zu verzeichnen, insbesondere zugunsten des Westens, der über größeres industrielles Potential gebot. Eine letzte Steigerung der Effizienz zeichnete sich in der Kontrolle der Nationalstaaten über die in ihren Grenzen lebenden Menschen und die dort vorhandenen Ressourcen ab.
b) Eine Steigerung der Mobilität von Menschen und Waren, die vor allem den Industrienationen zugutekam.
c) Eine asymmetrische Referenzverdichtung, d.h. die Möglichkeit, Wissen über andere Kulturen anzuhäufen und zu erwerben. In diesem Zusammenhang dienten bestimmte Nationen des Westens, vor allem England und Frankreich, teilweise aber auch das unter Bismarck entstandene Deutsche Kaiserreich, anderen, oft außereuropäischen Staaten als Referenzgesellschaften.
d) Eine Spannung zwischen Gleichheit und Hierarchie, die vor allem dadurch zum Ausdruck kam, daß traditionelle Hierarchien, auch hier meist zunächst in Europa, aufgebrochen wurden und anderen, dynamischeren Stratifikationsmodellen weichen mußten. Wie die Sklaverei in den US-amerikanischen Südstaaten zeigte, mußte dieser Prozeß nicht immer in eine realiter genießbare Gleichheit der Menschen innerhalb einer Gesellschaft münden.
e) Das Ideal der Emanzipation, das sich nicht nur im „Westen“ (z.B. Emanzipation der Juden) verwirklicht sah, wobei die Emanzipationen jedoch auch immer Einschränkungen unterlagen bzw. fehlschlagen konnten, sondern das sich auf lange Sicht auch in den kolonisierten Gesellschaften entfaltete, mußten sich die sogenannten „Zivilisatoren“ doch auch an den Früchten ihrer Tätigkeit messen lassen.
Insgesamt ist Die Verwandlung der Welt ein beeindruckendes Werk, sicher nicht immer fehlerfrei oder auch nur erschöpfend im Detail, das einige der großen Entwicklungslinien des 19. Jahrhunderts, zum Teil mit Blick auf die Gegenwart, dabei jedoch nie teleologisch argumentierend, darstellt. Man braucht allerdings einen langen Atem – zum Lesen wie zum Staunen.
Will man, wie Osterhammel, das 19. Jahrhundert als Universalgeschichte fassen, kann dies wohl nur in Abkehr von einer primär narrativen Vorgehensweise geschehen, und schon bei der Frage, was denn der Anfang und der Ausklang dieses Jahrhunderts seien, zeigt sich, daß auch diese Antworten in der Regel unter eher eurozentrischem Blickwinkel gegeben werden. So schickt denn der Verfasser seinen Betrachtungen zunächst allgemeine Betrachtungen über Vorstellungen von Raum und Zeit wie auch über die Historikern zur Verfügung stehenden Speichermedien, in denen sich eine Zeit selbst beschreibt oder die sie hinterläßt – das 19. Jahrhundert was das erste, das beispielsweise über die Photographie verfügte –, voran, bevor dann, gegliedert in die zwei großen Bereiche „Panoramen“ und „Themen“ in die eigentliche Geschichte eingestiegen wird. Hier widmet sich Osterhammel jeweils bestimmten Aspekten – z.B. dem Phänomen der Stadt, der Frontier, dem Staatsbegriff, dem Phänomen der Revolution –, die er einer gewissenhaften Betrachtung unterzieht, wobei er sich nicht nur auf Europa, sondern auch die USA, Südamerika, China, Japan, das restliche Asien und andere Großregionen bezieht, denen er insgesamt gleich viel Raum in seiner Darstellung zugesteht.
Am Ende kommt er zu dem Schluß, daß das 19. Jahrhundert trotz seiner uns heute als fremd und oft überlebt anmutenden Charakteristika in vielem der Vorläufer moderner Globalisierung gewesen sei, und er arbeitet fünf Merkmale heraus, nämlich
a) Eine asymmetrische Effizienzsteigerung, vor allem in industrieller und landwirtschaftlicher Hinsicht (u.a. gestärkt durch die Entwicklung einer wissenschaftlichen Methode. Aber auch in militärischer Hinsicht war – auch wenn die Verwendung dieses Wortes zynisch anmutet – eine Effizienzsteigerung zu verzeichnen, insbesondere zugunsten des Westens, der über größeres industrielles Potential gebot. Eine letzte Steigerung der Effizienz zeichnete sich in der Kontrolle der Nationalstaaten über die in ihren Grenzen lebenden Menschen und die dort vorhandenen Ressourcen ab.
b) Eine Steigerung der Mobilität von Menschen und Waren, die vor allem den Industrienationen zugutekam.
c) Eine asymmetrische Referenzverdichtung, d.h. die Möglichkeit, Wissen über andere Kulturen anzuhäufen und zu erwerben. In diesem Zusammenhang dienten bestimmte Nationen des Westens, vor allem England und Frankreich, teilweise aber auch das unter Bismarck entstandene Deutsche Kaiserreich, anderen, oft außereuropäischen Staaten als Referenzgesellschaften.
d) Eine Spannung zwischen Gleichheit und Hierarchie, die vor allem dadurch zum Ausdruck kam, daß traditionelle Hierarchien, auch hier meist zunächst in Europa, aufgebrochen wurden und anderen, dynamischeren Stratifikationsmodellen weichen mußten. Wie die Sklaverei in den US-amerikanischen Südstaaten zeigte, mußte dieser Prozeß nicht immer in eine realiter genießbare Gleichheit der Menschen innerhalb einer Gesellschaft münden.
e) Das Ideal der Emanzipation, das sich nicht nur im „Westen“ (z.B. Emanzipation der Juden) verwirklicht sah, wobei die Emanzipationen jedoch auch immer Einschränkungen unterlagen bzw. fehlschlagen konnten, sondern das sich auf lange Sicht auch in den kolonisierten Gesellschaften entfaltete, mußten sich die sogenannten „Zivilisatoren“ doch auch an den Früchten ihrer Tätigkeit messen lassen.
Insgesamt ist Die Verwandlung der Welt ein beeindruckendes Werk, sicher nicht immer fehlerfrei oder auch nur erschöpfend im Detail, das einige der großen Entwicklungslinien des 19. Jahrhunderts, zum Teil mit Blick auf die Gegenwart, dabei jedoch nie teleologisch argumentierend, darstellt. Man braucht allerdings einen langen Atem – zum Lesen wie zum Staunen.
December 28, 2011
Tolles Buch. Die Geschichte des 19. Jahrhundert aus globaler Perspektive. Wird allerdings nicht als Chronologie der Ereignisse erzählt, sondern in seinen strukturellen Entwicklungen beschrieben: Politik, Wirtschaft, Soziales, Kultur, Sprache, Macht, Grenzen.
Absolut anregend und zuweilen genial geschrieben. Es setzt aber zumindest grobe Kenntnisse der Geschichte und der wissenschaftlichen Diskussionen über diese Zeit der Revolutionen, der Umbrüche und auch der Gewalt voraus. Pluspunkt ist auf jeden Fall, dass die gesamte Erdkugel einbezogen wird, chinesische und japanische Geschichten also ebenbürtig neben den europäischen und amerikanischen stehen, wenngleich es sich natürlich zugleich um das Jahrhundert des Kolonialismus und der Großen Imperien handelt - oder was man gemeinhin also solche bezeichnet.
Osterhammel räumt mit vielen Begriffsverwirrungen und -irrungen auf, nennt erstaunliche Fakten und scheut selbst anekdotische Details nicht, um die großen Linien plastisch zu machen.
Ich jedenfalls habe dieses Buch jetzt zu etwa zwei Dritteln durch und bin rundweg begeistert. Mein Blick auf das 19. Jahrhundert ist schon jetzt ein anderer geworden.
Absolut anregend und zuweilen genial geschrieben. Es setzt aber zumindest grobe Kenntnisse der Geschichte und der wissenschaftlichen Diskussionen über diese Zeit der Revolutionen, der Umbrüche und auch der Gewalt voraus. Pluspunkt ist auf jeden Fall, dass die gesamte Erdkugel einbezogen wird, chinesische und japanische Geschichten also ebenbürtig neben den europäischen und amerikanischen stehen, wenngleich es sich natürlich zugleich um das Jahrhundert des Kolonialismus und der Großen Imperien handelt - oder was man gemeinhin also solche bezeichnet.
Osterhammel räumt mit vielen Begriffsverwirrungen und -irrungen auf, nennt erstaunliche Fakten und scheut selbst anekdotische Details nicht, um die großen Linien plastisch zu machen.
Ich jedenfalls habe dieses Buch jetzt zu etwa zwei Dritteln durch und bin rundweg begeistert. Mein Blick auf das 19. Jahrhundert ist schon jetzt ein anderer geworden.
December 8, 2014
Where to start... Amazing? Great? Fascinating?
This is not an Eurocentric book - which is awesome. Enjoyed every page of it.
Author is extremely competent on the subject - he naturally moves between facts, descriptions and processes, paining colorful, vivid picture of nineteenth century.
It is a slow read, though. Book is huge, packed up with information, written in easy, but professional language. Definitely something to improve knowledge and understanding of the world.
This is not an Eurocentric book - which is awesome. Enjoyed every page of it.
Author is extremely competent on the subject - he naturally moves between facts, descriptions and processes, paining colorful, vivid picture of nineteenth century.
It is a slow read, though. Book is huge, packed up with information, written in easy, but professional language. Definitely something to improve knowledge and understanding of the world.
July 26, 2025
Kort:
De metamorfose van de wereld is een geschiedenisboek voor geschiedkundigen dat door zijn ambitie volledig te zijn geen bevattelijk overzicht kan bieden en de lezer overrompeld achterlaat.
Lang:
Wat ben ik blij dat ik dit boek online heb gekocht. Ik ben er zeker van dat mocht ik het in een boekhandel hebben zien liggen, de indrukwekkende omvang van dit werk mij zou hebben afgeschrikt. Deze kolos is niet alleen 965 bladzijden dik (bronnen, noten en register niet meegerekend), elke bladzijde is ook nog eens dichtbedrukt in een klein lettertype. Maar daar lag die baksteen dan, en ik heb hem helemaal uitgelezen.
Bij het lezen bekroop mij de vraag voor wie dit boek nu eigenlijk geschreven is. Osterhammel, moest ik jammer genoeg vaststellen, is het soort geschiedschrijver dat misschien wel een populariserend werk over zijn vakgebied wil schrijven, maar dat klaarblijkelijk doet met de hete adem van zijn vakgenoten in de nek. Uit een voor de rest eerbare bezorgdheid bepaalde dingen te vergeten of andere te veel te veralgemenen (en door collega’s niet serieus genomen te worden), verliest de auteur de leek uit het oog. Dat begint hier bijvoorbeeld al bij de meer dan twintig bladzijden lange beschouwing voor geschiedkundigen-onder-elkaar over de afbakening van het onderwerp. Wat is de negentiende eeuw? Wanneer is de negentiende eeuw? Waar is de negentiende eeuw? In dezelfde zin heeft Norman Davies in zijn magistrale Europe: A History (1136 blz., noten, bronnen en register niet meegerekend) zesenveertig bladzijden vijl om uit te leggen wat Europa precies is. Erg interessant, maar het is blijkbaar het voorteken van een werk dat verderop zal bezwijken onder zijn eigen gewicht.
Ik raak in zo’n boek simpelweg het overzicht kwijt. Toen ik The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 van Christopher Clark over de aanloop naar en de aanleiding van de Eerste Wereldoorlog uit had, moest ik tot mijn eigen verbijstering vaststellen dat ik aan niemand zou kunnen uitleggen waarom de oorlog nu begonnen was. Ik had alles gelezen en wist nu bijna niks. Clarks grondigheid had alle overzicht vermorzeld. Osterhammel kampt met hetzelfde grondigheidssyndroom. Ik zou willen zeggen dat geschiedschrijvers in de eerste plaats een verhaal moeten vertellen en dat de uitspraak van die suggestie bovendien tautologisch is.
Het wordt wel helemaal gek wanneer Osterhammel dan weer bijzonder kort is over gebeurtenissen die hij schijnbaar cliché of te vanzelfsprekend acht. Zoals een muziekhistoricus die het liever niet over Vivaldi en zijn Jaargetijden wil hebben, krijgt de Franse Revolutie en haar doorwerking in de negentiende eeuw geen duiding. De eeuw door de bril van de Industriële Revolutie bekijken – na de landbouw misschien wel de belangrijkste revolutie uit de geschiedenis van de mens – is te vanzelfsprekend (of hem te min). Wat ik niet eens vanzelfsprekend vind of min of meer algemeen bekend zijn de Taiping-revolutie in China en de Meji-restoratie in Japan, maar Osterhammel wel, en dus moet ik verwijzingen ernaar verschillende keren tegenkomen vooraleer honderden bladzijden verder daar dan toch enige toelichting bij wordt gegeven. Ondanks de omvang van dit boek, moet ik er alsnog Wikipedia bijhalen; het is een prestatie op zich.
Daar komt dan nog eens een gortdroge schrijfstijl bovenop.
Natuurlijk staat er in deze meer dan negenhonderd bladzijden bijzonder veel interessants te lezen: over stadsontwikkeling, over de opschuivende frontier in Noord-Amerika, over mobiliteit, over onderwijs... Maar dan bekruipt mij het gevoel dat elk van die thema’s een eigen boek verdienen. En zo valt De metamorfose van de wereld tussen twee stoelen: te uitgebreid voor een algemeen overzicht van de negentiende eeuw, te beknopt om alles goed uit te leggen.
De metamorfose van de wereld is een geschiedenisboek voor geschiedkundigen dat door zijn ambitie volledig te zijn geen bevattelijk overzicht kan bieden en de lezer overrompeld achterlaat.
Lang:
Wat ben ik blij dat ik dit boek online heb gekocht. Ik ben er zeker van dat mocht ik het in een boekhandel hebben zien liggen, de indrukwekkende omvang van dit werk mij zou hebben afgeschrikt. Deze kolos is niet alleen 965 bladzijden dik (bronnen, noten en register niet meegerekend), elke bladzijde is ook nog eens dichtbedrukt in een klein lettertype. Maar daar lag die baksteen dan, en ik heb hem helemaal uitgelezen.
Bij het lezen bekroop mij de vraag voor wie dit boek nu eigenlijk geschreven is. Osterhammel, moest ik jammer genoeg vaststellen, is het soort geschiedschrijver dat misschien wel een populariserend werk over zijn vakgebied wil schrijven, maar dat klaarblijkelijk doet met de hete adem van zijn vakgenoten in de nek. Uit een voor de rest eerbare bezorgdheid bepaalde dingen te vergeten of andere te veel te veralgemenen (en door collega’s niet serieus genomen te worden), verliest de auteur de leek uit het oog. Dat begint hier bijvoorbeeld al bij de meer dan twintig bladzijden lange beschouwing voor geschiedkundigen-onder-elkaar over de afbakening van het onderwerp. Wat is de negentiende eeuw? Wanneer is de negentiende eeuw? Waar is de negentiende eeuw? In dezelfde zin heeft Norman Davies in zijn magistrale Europe: A History (1136 blz., noten, bronnen en register niet meegerekend) zesenveertig bladzijden vijl om uit te leggen wat Europa precies is. Erg interessant, maar het is blijkbaar het voorteken van een werk dat verderop zal bezwijken onder zijn eigen gewicht.
Ik raak in zo’n boek simpelweg het overzicht kwijt. Toen ik The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 van Christopher Clark over de aanloop naar en de aanleiding van de Eerste Wereldoorlog uit had, moest ik tot mijn eigen verbijstering vaststellen dat ik aan niemand zou kunnen uitleggen waarom de oorlog nu begonnen was. Ik had alles gelezen en wist nu bijna niks. Clarks grondigheid had alle overzicht vermorzeld. Osterhammel kampt met hetzelfde grondigheidssyndroom. Ik zou willen zeggen dat geschiedschrijvers in de eerste plaats een verhaal moeten vertellen en dat de uitspraak van die suggestie bovendien tautologisch is.
Het wordt wel helemaal gek wanneer Osterhammel dan weer bijzonder kort is over gebeurtenissen die hij schijnbaar cliché of te vanzelfsprekend acht. Zoals een muziekhistoricus die het liever niet over Vivaldi en zijn Jaargetijden wil hebben, krijgt de Franse Revolutie en haar doorwerking in de negentiende eeuw geen duiding. De eeuw door de bril van de Industriële Revolutie bekijken – na de landbouw misschien wel de belangrijkste revolutie uit de geschiedenis van de mens – is te vanzelfsprekend (of hem te min). Wat ik niet eens vanzelfsprekend vind of min of meer algemeen bekend zijn de Taiping-revolutie in China en de Meji-restoratie in Japan, maar Osterhammel wel, en dus moet ik verwijzingen ernaar verschillende keren tegenkomen vooraleer honderden bladzijden verder daar dan toch enige toelichting bij wordt gegeven. Ondanks de omvang van dit boek, moet ik er alsnog Wikipedia bijhalen; het is een prestatie op zich.
Daar komt dan nog eens een gortdroge schrijfstijl bovenop.
Natuurlijk staat er in deze meer dan negenhonderd bladzijden bijzonder veel interessants te lezen: over stadsontwikkeling, over de opschuivende frontier in Noord-Amerika, over mobiliteit, over onderwijs... Maar dan bekruipt mij het gevoel dat elk van die thema’s een eigen boek verdienen. En zo valt De metamorfose van de wereld tussen twee stoelen: te uitgebreid voor een algemeen overzicht van de negentiende eeuw, te beknopt om alles goed uit te leggen.
August 15, 2014
The lack of an overall theory or at least some kind of a thesis might confuse some readers, especially those that are used to the works of Anglo-American historians. And indeed, Osterhammel seems to personify a trend in recent German historiography - the avoidance of theory or big claims, and a retreat into sometimes ambiguous language. But for a book with a gigantic scope of "Die Verwandlung der Welt", this modest approach actually proves to be a huge benefit. Not having subscribed to any specific narrative, Osterhammel is free to treat every possible aspect of social life with equal interest, instead of cramming them all into the narrow framework of one specific theory, thus making the book valuable to scholars from different fields and schools of thought.
March 1, 2020
I'm honestly shocked of reading all the reviews saying that the book is not Eurocentric. It is very Eurocentric, and that's a failing the author himself recognizes in the Introduction.
In the first chapters, the author proves how our very own ideas of time and space are marked by Eurocentrism, and that the French Revolution, the traditional starting point for long 19th century narratives, didn't affect most of the world. Then he uses all these notions the same, and starts the book at the French Revolution.
130 books quoted are specifically about Africa, 99 about Latin America, 230 on the United States and Canada, 634 on Asia (of which 289 on Japan and China specifically) and a whopping 767 on Europe. 6 of the 99 books about Latin America were in Spanish, 5 in French and 7 in German, and 81 of them in English, and they were mostly published in the Global North, with 52 publications in the United States alone, 26 in England, 8 in Germany, 5 in France, 3 in Mexico, one each in Peru and Spain. Most of the books he uses from non-European writers are classics written decades ago, like Darcy Ribeiro, Domingos Sarmiento and Gilberto Freyre.
When dividing Osterhammel’s bibliography by place of publication, we discover that 1020 books were published in the United States; 1001 in England; 322 in Germany; 69 in France; 49 in the Netherlands; 17 in Canada; 11 in Austria; 10 in Italy; 8 in Japan; 6 each in Belgium and Scotland; 5 in Ireland; 4 each in China and Australia; 3 each in Mexico, Turkey and Malaysia; 2 each in Hungary, Sweden, Spain and Egypt; and only one each in Peru, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Senegal, Jamaica, Singapore, Saint Lucia, Thailand, Norway, Denmark and Poland. In addition, all the journals used are published in the so called Global North.
We should notice that only bringing writers from more countries to the fold is necessary, but not enough to make it global. Another blindspot that we could notice is that most Historians quoted are men. Also, in many former colonies white people are overrepresented in Academia in contrast to the general population, and academic production is often only recognized if written in European languages. In Peru, for instance, only now in 2019 the first academic thesis was published in Quechua, a group of languages with around 8 million speakers. Writing a history that is not based on the perspective of a white, European, male and English speaking minority may be the real challenge of Global History - and one that is worth tackling in the near future. Otherwise, the next generations of Historians will have to keep asking themselves “Why is my curriculum white?”.
After explaining the Eurocentric origin or terms such as Latin America and Southeast Asia, Osterhammel continues to use them throughout the book. He also repeatedly uses words to refer to ethnic groups that have been disavowed by members of these groups, such as “mulatto”, or “indian” referring to the natives of the Americas.
Another example would be the chapter on Knowledge, that, despite the broad name, is about the expansion of a German model of research university, and references to other forms of knowledge are done en passant. In the same chapter, he claims “Bans on the use of indigenous languages, for example, were among the most hated measures in the whole history of colonialism”, only a few pages after saying that “Some have argued that precisely because of this apolitical conception of itself, Oriental studies “objectively” played into the hands of Western world domination— a charge that would be serious indeed if the supremacy of Western knowledge had demonstrably incapacitated Asians and Africans or reduced them to silence. However, it is not easy to find evidence that colonialism suppressed the knowledge of indigenous peoples about their own civilization”. The problem is that quoting literacy rates or numbers of people who can speak English or French hide dynamics of power. The knowledge being spread was far from neutral, and that needs to be addressed. Almost a century after the period Osterhammel covers, writer Scholastique Mukasonga wrote a novel called Our Lady of the Nile about girls in an elite French-speaking boarding school in Rwanda in the beginning of the 90s, just before the Genocide. In that school, they learn that Europe has history, and Africa has only Geography. Mali writer Hampate Ba points out that the idea of knowledge imported from Europe to Africa was compartmentalized - the study of Biology, History and Religion as separate things for instance. However, in Africa the oral tradition doesn’t follow the same division, he says it was at the same time religion, art, history, science and amusement. Also it wasn’t written, leading it to be seen as non existent - Africans were called in the 19th century, like in the boarding school of Mukasonga, people without History. But they were also seen as people without science, art or even religion, or at the maximum with primitive forms of it. In other areas of knowledge, medicine still deals with the consequences of the fact that the body of white men was taken as universal. A recent report of the University of Virginia showed that 58% of white doctors in the US believe that black people have thicker skin, while 20% believed that they feel less pain. That comes from researches made in the 19th century that meant to justify slavery, and that were considered sound science for over a century after that. Similarly, a 2001 study by researchers at Maryland University found that women nowadays are less likely to receive aggressive treatment when diagnosed with pain and are more likely to have their pain dismissed. Women have also been found to be prescribed strong painkillers less often, and at lower doses than men. And equally we can trace that back to the institutionalization of medical knowledge in the 19th century, with, for instance, the new approach to the diagnosis of hysteria.
In the following chapter, on the Civilizing Mission, he has one of the most problematic quotes of the book, “In numerous cases this was used to justify aggression, violence, and plunder. Civilizational imperialism lurked within every kind of civilizing mission. On the other hand, the relative dynamism and ingenuity of Western European and neo-European societies should not be ignored. The asymmetry at the level of historical initiative was temporarily in favor of “the West,” so that others appeared to see no future for themselves except in imitating it and trying hard to catch it up”. In spite of all his attempts of not being Eurocentric, Osterhammel still puts Europe in the centre of his narrative, as a model and motor to the history being told.
One of the criticisms often levelled against Global History is that it is a History written using such broad patterns that people disappear. Using the gender perspective, Historian Judith P. Zinsser showed how analysis of cause and effect in World History seem neutral, but are actually male centered. That is a great risk with Global History, that by making it broad and disregarding people’s actual experiences, it may reinforce historical inequalities.
An example in Latin America would be his short recounting of the abolition of slavery in Brazil. He portrays it as a “the last spectacular official action of the monarchy under the princess regent, Isabel”. The economic explanation repeated by Osterhammel - that slavery had lost its finantial value - has long been seen as outdated. 5 million enslaved Africans had been taken to Brazil, abolitionist movements had been formed right away, and however only now Brazilian academia starts to see black protagonism in the abolition. The works of professors such as Angela Alonso, Ricardo Tadeu Caires Silva and Maria Helena Machado are some examples of current studies showing how little importance the princess really had in the process. In Osterhammel’s book, however, her name is the only one mentioned. Global History done without people’s experiences remains a history from above.
In the first chapters, the author proves how our very own ideas of time and space are marked by Eurocentrism, and that the French Revolution, the traditional starting point for long 19th century narratives, didn't affect most of the world. Then he uses all these notions the same, and starts the book at the French Revolution.
130 books quoted are specifically about Africa, 99 about Latin America, 230 on the United States and Canada, 634 on Asia (of which 289 on Japan and China specifically) and a whopping 767 on Europe. 6 of the 99 books about Latin America were in Spanish, 5 in French and 7 in German, and 81 of them in English, and they were mostly published in the Global North, with 52 publications in the United States alone, 26 in England, 8 in Germany, 5 in France, 3 in Mexico, one each in Peru and Spain. Most of the books he uses from non-European writers are classics written decades ago, like Darcy Ribeiro, Domingos Sarmiento and Gilberto Freyre.
When dividing Osterhammel’s bibliography by place of publication, we discover that 1020 books were published in the United States; 1001 in England; 322 in Germany; 69 in France; 49 in the Netherlands; 17 in Canada; 11 in Austria; 10 in Italy; 8 in Japan; 6 each in Belgium and Scotland; 5 in Ireland; 4 each in China and Australia; 3 each in Mexico, Turkey and Malaysia; 2 each in Hungary, Sweden, Spain and Egypt; and only one each in Peru, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Senegal, Jamaica, Singapore, Saint Lucia, Thailand, Norway, Denmark and Poland. In addition, all the journals used are published in the so called Global North.
We should notice that only bringing writers from more countries to the fold is necessary, but not enough to make it global. Another blindspot that we could notice is that most Historians quoted are men. Also, in many former colonies white people are overrepresented in Academia in contrast to the general population, and academic production is often only recognized if written in European languages. In Peru, for instance, only now in 2019 the first academic thesis was published in Quechua, a group of languages with around 8 million speakers. Writing a history that is not based on the perspective of a white, European, male and English speaking minority may be the real challenge of Global History - and one that is worth tackling in the near future. Otherwise, the next generations of Historians will have to keep asking themselves “Why is my curriculum white?”.
After explaining the Eurocentric origin or terms such as Latin America and Southeast Asia, Osterhammel continues to use them throughout the book. He also repeatedly uses words to refer to ethnic groups that have been disavowed by members of these groups, such as “mulatto”, or “indian” referring to the natives of the Americas.
Another example would be the chapter on Knowledge, that, despite the broad name, is about the expansion of a German model of research university, and references to other forms of knowledge are done en passant. In the same chapter, he claims “Bans on the use of indigenous languages, for example, were among the most hated measures in the whole history of colonialism”, only a few pages after saying that “Some have argued that precisely because of this apolitical conception of itself, Oriental studies “objectively” played into the hands of Western world domination— a charge that would be serious indeed if the supremacy of Western knowledge had demonstrably incapacitated Asians and Africans or reduced them to silence. However, it is not easy to find evidence that colonialism suppressed the knowledge of indigenous peoples about their own civilization”. The problem is that quoting literacy rates or numbers of people who can speak English or French hide dynamics of power. The knowledge being spread was far from neutral, and that needs to be addressed. Almost a century after the period Osterhammel covers, writer Scholastique Mukasonga wrote a novel called Our Lady of the Nile about girls in an elite French-speaking boarding school in Rwanda in the beginning of the 90s, just before the Genocide. In that school, they learn that Europe has history, and Africa has only Geography. Mali writer Hampate Ba points out that the idea of knowledge imported from Europe to Africa was compartmentalized - the study of Biology, History and Religion as separate things for instance. However, in Africa the oral tradition doesn’t follow the same division, he says it was at the same time religion, art, history, science and amusement. Also it wasn’t written, leading it to be seen as non existent - Africans were called in the 19th century, like in the boarding school of Mukasonga, people without History. But they were also seen as people without science, art or even religion, or at the maximum with primitive forms of it. In other areas of knowledge, medicine still deals with the consequences of the fact that the body of white men was taken as universal. A recent report of the University of Virginia showed that 58% of white doctors in the US believe that black people have thicker skin, while 20% believed that they feel less pain. That comes from researches made in the 19th century that meant to justify slavery, and that were considered sound science for over a century after that. Similarly, a 2001 study by researchers at Maryland University found that women nowadays are less likely to receive aggressive treatment when diagnosed with pain and are more likely to have their pain dismissed. Women have also been found to be prescribed strong painkillers less often, and at lower doses than men. And equally we can trace that back to the institutionalization of medical knowledge in the 19th century, with, for instance, the new approach to the diagnosis of hysteria.
In the following chapter, on the Civilizing Mission, he has one of the most problematic quotes of the book, “In numerous cases this was used to justify aggression, violence, and plunder. Civilizational imperialism lurked within every kind of civilizing mission. On the other hand, the relative dynamism and ingenuity of Western European and neo-European societies should not be ignored. The asymmetry at the level of historical initiative was temporarily in favor of “the West,” so that others appeared to see no future for themselves except in imitating it and trying hard to catch it up”. In spite of all his attempts of not being Eurocentric, Osterhammel still puts Europe in the centre of his narrative, as a model and motor to the history being told.
One of the criticisms often levelled against Global History is that it is a History written using such broad patterns that people disappear. Using the gender perspective, Historian Judith P. Zinsser showed how analysis of cause and effect in World History seem neutral, but are actually male centered. That is a great risk with Global History, that by making it broad and disregarding people’s actual experiences, it may reinforce historical inequalities.
An example in Latin America would be his short recounting of the abolition of slavery in Brazil. He portrays it as a “the last spectacular official action of the monarchy under the princess regent, Isabel”. The economic explanation repeated by Osterhammel - that slavery had lost its finantial value - has long been seen as outdated. 5 million enslaved Africans had been taken to Brazil, abolitionist movements had been formed right away, and however only now Brazilian academia starts to see black protagonism in the abolition. The works of professors such as Angela Alonso, Ricardo Tadeu Caires Silva and Maria Helena Machado are some examples of current studies showing how little importance the princess really had in the process. In Osterhammel’s book, however, her name is the only one mentioned. Global History done without people’s experiences remains a history from above.
September 25, 2017
Churchill once quipped that he "bestrode" beside Gibbon through the great historian's magisterial survey of Rome. I confess that--at best-- I hobbled beside Osterhammel through this fat, wrist-hurting tome; JO strides confidently through the mechanisms that the 19th century introduced, enriched and destroyed to give us this strange modernity we now live in. My one complaint (if it can be called that)-- the same complaint I had coincidentally, about Hobsbawm and Braudel, JO's great predecessors-- is that the stories of the people who lived in the 19th century is often glossed over as we survey the rise of cities or canals or railroads. I confess I'm still old fashioned enough to think that history ought to focus also on the people who lived it-- how they lived, danced, wrote poetry and made love. Osterhammel's erudition and analytic acuity deserves our applause, but for my desert island trip, I'm taking Herodotus instead.
October 29, 2017
I have some complicated feelings about this. On the one hand, I appreciate its comprehensiveness: when Osterhammel goes into a topic, it is all in, to the point of pummeling the reader with facts. Of course that's my biggest problem too - the pummeling part.
The book tends to be enumerative interspersed with commentary. This style works better for some topics than others. And it is exhaustive (in multiple senses of the word) in its enumerations. There is a fascination with taxonomy and classification that is initially off-putting but eventually becomes less so. After all the subject matter of the book is everything in the 19th Century (which the author does not define as 1800-1899 but rather somewhere around 1780 to somewhere around 1917).
To sum, my criticism of the book is what drew me to the book and what fascinates me about the book - so much stuff, it feel like a firehose of information. I am glad I read it even if long stretches felt like work.
The book tends to be enumerative interspersed with commentary. This style works better for some topics than others. And it is exhaustive (in multiple senses of the word) in its enumerations. There is a fascination with taxonomy and classification that is initially off-putting but eventually becomes less so. After all the subject matter of the book is everything in the 19th Century (which the author does not define as 1800-1899 but rather somewhere around 1780 to somewhere around 1917).
To sum, my criticism of the book is what drew me to the book and what fascinates me about the book - so much stuff, it feel like a firehose of information. I am glad I read it even if long stretches felt like work.
May 22, 2017
The sheer breadth and depth of Osterhammel's coverage -- geographically and topically -- is staggering. This book is packed with all sorts of fascinating tidbits about interactions, connections, and comparisons that I had never thought about before. The first part of the book is clearly the strongest -- his chapters on frontiers, cities, empires, revolutions and state-building were terrific. Of the shorter thematic essays that made up the second half of the book, the only topic that I have really specialized knowledge on was his chapter on global economic history. I thought it was solid if pretty conventional -- but as he says, there's only so much you can ask of one historian in a monumental work like this one, and he's not an economic historian. His chapter in the second part of the book on the concept of civilization, which also covered ideologies of racial hierarchy and civilizing missions, was outstanding, building on previous work he had done on civilizing mission ideology. Another strength of this book is his engagement with social scientific work on the topics that he covers, especially with social theory and historical sociology. Overall, it took me forever to read this book, but I am glad that I stuck with it. As a historically-minded comparative social scientist, I enjoyed this book from cover to cover, and I will revisit this book many times in the future. A truly magisterial work of historical scholarship.
Some of the reviews criticize the book for its 'academic' writing style. I'm not sure what exactly these people were expecting. This isn't popular history. It's a careful treatment (as much as one can expect anyway, given its ambition) of complex, contradictory global processes. It's not for the faint of heart.
Some of the reviews criticize the book for its 'academic' writing style. I'm not sure what exactly these people were expecting. This isn't popular history. It's a careful treatment (as much as one can expect anyway, given its ambition) of complex, contradictory global processes. It's not for the faint of heart.
January 13, 2026
Dazzling scholarship. Can think of no equivalent for any other century. 'Longue durée' work à la française has yet to fully be nativised in English; Halevy has pride of place for bridging the gap first. These were a light thousand pages, easily read within a week - a credit to Osterhammel's German precision and lucidity - compare, for instance to the obscurantism that reigns with California school style historiography (doesn't deserve the name).
November 1, 2014
De wereld onder stoom
Aan de oever van de Rio Negro, een van de grootste zijrivieren van de Amazone, ligt Manaus. Uitgerekend in die uithoek van de Braziliaanse jungle opende in 1896 een van de indrukwekkendste operahuizen buiten Europa. Voor de bouw ervan lieten de rubberbaronnen staal invoeren uit Glasgow, kandelaars uit Murano, gietijzer uit Parijs en marmer uit Toscane. De eerste opera die in de neoclassicistische tempel werd opgevoerd was La Gioconda van de Italiaanse componist Amilcare Ponchielli. Het was een laat eerbetoon aan de oprichting van de Braziliaanse republiek in 1889.
Het onwaarschijnlijke verhaal van de Teatro Amazonas is een miniatuurtje waarin veel van de dramatische transformaties van de negentiende eeuw samenkomen, van globalisering over urbanisering tot industrialisatie en staatsvorming. Brazilië exporteerde rubber voor de Europese industrie en importeerde materialen, stijlen en muziek uit Europa, een culturele en economische uitwisseling op een schaal die enkele decennia daarvoor nog ondenkbaar was. Naast Manaus kwamen er ook operahuizen in Peking, Moskou, New Orleans en vielen Italiaanse aria’s te horen van Japan tot in het Ottomaanse rijk. Opera was de eerste culturele hype die echt globaal ging.
De verovering van de wereld door de opera is maar een van de vele fenomenen die de Duitse historicus Jürgen Osterhammel uit de doeken doet in The transformation of the world, een vuistdik boek dat in 2009 in het Duits verscheen en nu internationaal doorbreekt in Engelse vertaling. Osterhammel verkent erin de dramatische transformatie van de negentiende eeuw, een periode waarin de mensheid voor het eerst een globaal bewustzijn ontwikkelde en waarin veel van wat rond 1770 vanzelfsprekend was in 1900 achterhaald bleek.
Zo leefden dorpelingen en stedelingen in 1800 nog volgens de zonnewijzer, maar in 1900 marcheerde de wereldeconomie op het ritme van de Greenwich Mean Time. Eind achttiende eeuw zaten rijk en arm relatief dicht bij elkaar, een kleine honderd jaar later onderscheidde de bolhoedkapitalist zich duidelijk van de proletariër en de blanke koloniaal zich van de ‘inboorlingen’. Van de wereld van paard en kar ging het dankzij de stoomboot en de trein enkele versnellingen hoger. De rotatiepers en telegraaf verdiepten het publieke debat, steden schoten als paddenstoelen uit de grond en politieke grenzen stolden terwijl economische grenzen poreuzer werden. De wereld werd kleiner, maar ongelijker en ze werd meegesleurd in een maalstroom zonder weerga.
Met een bronnenlijst van bijna drieduizend titels en nog eens zoveel voetnoten, is het boek van Osterhammel een intellectuele tour de force en een ode aan het historisch metier. Zelden kende een overzichtswerk zo’n zin voor detail en nuance. Een huzarenstukje. De graad van specialisering en territoriumdrift in het historisch bedrijf is dermate groot dat ‘generalisten’ zoals Osterhammel vaak op hun kop krijgen van collega’s die het niet pikken dat een outsider zich op hun vierkante meter van het historische landschap durft te begeven. Maar Osterhammel heeft zich op indrukwekkende wijze ingelezen. Het is ronduit briljant hoe hij op een tiental bladzijden de historiografische stand van zaken weergeeft rond de vraag waarom precies West-Europa economisch vooruitstoomt in de negentiende eeuw en niet Zuid-China, nochtans een van de gevoeligste debatten onder economische historici.
Osterhammel heeft uiteraard niet alles kunnen doen, maar sommige keuzes verbazen. Het is onbegrijpelijk waarom hij amper inzoomt op genderverhoudingen of waarom de tijdgenoten geen stem krijgen. En ook wie een culturele trip wil langs de kunstenaars en de denkers die de negentiende eeuw vorm gaven, al was het maar Hegel of Marx, blijft onvoldaan.
De enige echte ontgoocheling van het boek is de conclusie. Na een trip van bijna duizend bladzijden vertikt Osterhammel het om de krachtlijnen van de negentiende-eeuwse transformaties op scherp te stellen. Hij blijft zich tot op de laatste moment verbazen over de duizelingwekkende snelheid waarmee de wereld veranderde, maar geeft te weinig aan waarom die verandering plaatsvond. Een gemiste kans. Het gebrek aan verklaring staat zo in schril contrast met de weelde, soms overdaad, aan historische reflectie en reconstructie waarmee Osterhammel de lezer overstelpt.
Lees mijn volledige recensie van dit boek op http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf201409...
Aan de oever van de Rio Negro, een van de grootste zijrivieren van de Amazone, ligt Manaus. Uitgerekend in die uithoek van de Braziliaanse jungle opende in 1896 een van de indrukwekkendste operahuizen buiten Europa. Voor de bouw ervan lieten de rubberbaronnen staal invoeren uit Glasgow, kandelaars uit Murano, gietijzer uit Parijs en marmer uit Toscane. De eerste opera die in de neoclassicistische tempel werd opgevoerd was La Gioconda van de Italiaanse componist Amilcare Ponchielli. Het was een laat eerbetoon aan de oprichting van de Braziliaanse republiek in 1889.
Het onwaarschijnlijke verhaal van de Teatro Amazonas is een miniatuurtje waarin veel van de dramatische transformaties van de negentiende eeuw samenkomen, van globalisering over urbanisering tot industrialisatie en staatsvorming. Brazilië exporteerde rubber voor de Europese industrie en importeerde materialen, stijlen en muziek uit Europa, een culturele en economische uitwisseling op een schaal die enkele decennia daarvoor nog ondenkbaar was. Naast Manaus kwamen er ook operahuizen in Peking, Moskou, New Orleans en vielen Italiaanse aria’s te horen van Japan tot in het Ottomaanse rijk. Opera was de eerste culturele hype die echt globaal ging.
De verovering van de wereld door de opera is maar een van de vele fenomenen die de Duitse historicus Jürgen Osterhammel uit de doeken doet in The transformation of the world, een vuistdik boek dat in 2009 in het Duits verscheen en nu internationaal doorbreekt in Engelse vertaling. Osterhammel verkent erin de dramatische transformatie van de negentiende eeuw, een periode waarin de mensheid voor het eerst een globaal bewustzijn ontwikkelde en waarin veel van wat rond 1770 vanzelfsprekend was in 1900 achterhaald bleek.
Zo leefden dorpelingen en stedelingen in 1800 nog volgens de zonnewijzer, maar in 1900 marcheerde de wereldeconomie op het ritme van de Greenwich Mean Time. Eind achttiende eeuw zaten rijk en arm relatief dicht bij elkaar, een kleine honderd jaar later onderscheidde de bolhoedkapitalist zich duidelijk van de proletariër en de blanke koloniaal zich van de ‘inboorlingen’. Van de wereld van paard en kar ging het dankzij de stoomboot en de trein enkele versnellingen hoger. De rotatiepers en telegraaf verdiepten het publieke debat, steden schoten als paddenstoelen uit de grond en politieke grenzen stolden terwijl economische grenzen poreuzer werden. De wereld werd kleiner, maar ongelijker en ze werd meegesleurd in een maalstroom zonder weerga.
Met een bronnenlijst van bijna drieduizend titels en nog eens zoveel voetnoten, is het boek van Osterhammel een intellectuele tour de force en een ode aan het historisch metier. Zelden kende een overzichtswerk zo’n zin voor detail en nuance. Een huzarenstukje. De graad van specialisering en territoriumdrift in het historisch bedrijf is dermate groot dat ‘generalisten’ zoals Osterhammel vaak op hun kop krijgen van collega’s die het niet pikken dat een outsider zich op hun vierkante meter van het historische landschap durft te begeven. Maar Osterhammel heeft zich op indrukwekkende wijze ingelezen. Het is ronduit briljant hoe hij op een tiental bladzijden de historiografische stand van zaken weergeeft rond de vraag waarom precies West-Europa economisch vooruitstoomt in de negentiende eeuw en niet Zuid-China, nochtans een van de gevoeligste debatten onder economische historici.
Osterhammel heeft uiteraard niet alles kunnen doen, maar sommige keuzes verbazen. Het is onbegrijpelijk waarom hij amper inzoomt op genderverhoudingen of waarom de tijdgenoten geen stem krijgen. En ook wie een culturele trip wil langs de kunstenaars en de denkers die de negentiende eeuw vorm gaven, al was het maar Hegel of Marx, blijft onvoldaan.
De enige echte ontgoocheling van het boek is de conclusie. Na een trip van bijna duizend bladzijden vertikt Osterhammel het om de krachtlijnen van de negentiende-eeuwse transformaties op scherp te stellen. Hij blijft zich tot op de laatste moment verbazen over de duizelingwekkende snelheid waarmee de wereld veranderde, maar geeft te weinig aan waarom die verandering plaatsvond. Een gemiste kans. Het gebrek aan verklaring staat zo in schril contrast met de weelde, soms overdaad, aan historische reflectie en reconstructie waarmee Osterhammel de lezer overstelpt.
Lees mijn volledige recensie van dit boek op http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf201409...
May 31, 2015
Review title: Historiography of the long Nineteenth Century
Historians sometimes talk about the "long" 19th Century, marking its start with the bang of the Age of Revolution in America and France in the late 1700s and staggering to a bitter end in the trenches of the Great War in the last years of the 1910s. Osterhammel takes both the long and the broad view of the century as he attempts a global view of the period.
To do the massive scope justice, he starts his equally massive book with a section documenting his usage of the bounds of time, space, and methods of observation as they relate to his subject. The grounding is fascinating--as the first century to be photographed and (by century's end) audibly recorded, how do those forms of recorded memory affect both the time and our recounting of it? This section also serves notice that with his academic historian's grounding this is going to be a work as much of historiography (the "how" of writing the global history of the 19th Century) as of the history of the world during that century. This is no narrative history covering popular highlights of the time and world it captures.
It is a daunting undertaking. More than 900 pages of text are followed by 100 pages of end notes and another 100 pages of bibliography! After the first section describing his approaches, Osterhammel uses the largest center section of the book to describe broad-stroke "Panoramas" such as cities, frontiers, imperialism, and revolutions. Taking the global view, much of the text consists of comparisons and contrasts of Europe, England, India, China, Japan, Africa and the colonies of the major world powers as they relate to these broad topics. As befits the age, the paired topics of imperialism and colonialism are drivers that touch nearly every page of the book. And staying true to his historiographic approach, Osterhammel seldom makes sweeping generalizations or settles for describing the "average" without documenting the difference.
In the final section of the book the author focuses on narrower themes such as "Energy and Industry" (he makes much of the 19th Century's replacement of man, animal, and wind power for cultivation and transportation with coal, steam, and electricity), labor, knowledge, racism, and religion. Here is where I felt that Osterhammel missed his chance to really grab readers (including me) with powerful insights into the history of these topics. He remains focused on his balanced approach and as a result seems to hold the history and the reader at arm's length away from really engaging in the history and not the historiography. Part of the problem may be that Transformation was written in German and translated by Patrick Camiller. While capable, there are some places where the sentence structure and vocabulary of the translation seems stilted and contributes to the stand-offish aura of the text. I would not be surprised if the German readers of the original text have a more intimate resding experience, and I'll bet that hearing Osterhammel teach the topic in person would be not just enlightening but fun.
So there it is. Transformation, like the global view of the long century it describes, is a serious and weighty volume worthy of respect and consideration. The world we live in now truly was transformed by the 19th Century world in every way that Osterhammel documents (and he does a good job projecting those transformations forward beyond the bounds of even the long 19th Century). If you approach the book and its topic the way Oserhammel does, and take the "how" of his historiography as serious as the "what" of the history it informs, you will come away with a deeper understanding of the globe you stand on today.
Historians sometimes talk about the "long" 19th Century, marking its start with the bang of the Age of Revolution in America and France in the late 1700s and staggering to a bitter end in the trenches of the Great War in the last years of the 1910s. Osterhammel takes both the long and the broad view of the century as he attempts a global view of the period.
To do the massive scope justice, he starts his equally massive book with a section documenting his usage of the bounds of time, space, and methods of observation as they relate to his subject. The grounding is fascinating--as the first century to be photographed and (by century's end) audibly recorded, how do those forms of recorded memory affect both the time and our recounting of it? This section also serves notice that with his academic historian's grounding this is going to be a work as much of historiography (the "how" of writing the global history of the 19th Century) as of the history of the world during that century. This is no narrative history covering popular highlights of the time and world it captures.
It is a daunting undertaking. More than 900 pages of text are followed by 100 pages of end notes and another 100 pages of bibliography! After the first section describing his approaches, Osterhammel uses the largest center section of the book to describe broad-stroke "Panoramas" such as cities, frontiers, imperialism, and revolutions. Taking the global view, much of the text consists of comparisons and contrasts of Europe, England, India, China, Japan, Africa and the colonies of the major world powers as they relate to these broad topics. As befits the age, the paired topics of imperialism and colonialism are drivers that touch nearly every page of the book. And staying true to his historiographic approach, Osterhammel seldom makes sweeping generalizations or settles for describing the "average" without documenting the difference.
In the final section of the book the author focuses on narrower themes such as "Energy and Industry" (he makes much of the 19th Century's replacement of man, animal, and wind power for cultivation and transportation with coal, steam, and electricity), labor, knowledge, racism, and religion. Here is where I felt that Osterhammel missed his chance to really grab readers (including me) with powerful insights into the history of these topics. He remains focused on his balanced approach and as a result seems to hold the history and the reader at arm's length away from really engaging in the history and not the historiography. Part of the problem may be that Transformation was written in German and translated by Patrick Camiller. While capable, there are some places where the sentence structure and vocabulary of the translation seems stilted and contributes to the stand-offish aura of the text. I would not be surprised if the German readers of the original text have a more intimate resding experience, and I'll bet that hearing Osterhammel teach the topic in person would be not just enlightening but fun.
So there it is. Transformation, like the global view of the long century it describes, is a serious and weighty volume worthy of respect and consideration. The world we live in now truly was transformed by the 19th Century world in every way that Osterhammel documents (and he does a good job projecting those transformations forward beyond the bounds of even the long 19th Century). If you approach the book and its topic the way Oserhammel does, and take the "how" of his historiography as serious as the "what" of the history it informs, you will come away with a deeper understanding of the globe you stand on today.
March 12, 2025
Baslik baslik ve ulke ulke ayni donemde neler oldugunu anlatma sekliyle hem merak duygumu percinledi hem de okumayi daha keyifli hale getirdi. Yazarin objektif bakis acisi da beni en cok etkileyen seylerden biri oldu. Sindirerek okunmasi gereken bir kitap.
November 12, 2024
Es gibt einen Grund, warum Osterhammel zur Standardlektüre vieler Pro- und Hauptseminare gehört. Es gibt auch einen Grund, warum er meist in Auszügen gelesen wird...
Nicht alles ist gleich interessant und nicht alle Kapitel erreichen die selbe Tiefe der Analyse. Manchmal liest es sich wie eine Aneinanderreihung von Fällen. Es hilft auch, wenn man sich in der Literatur und den historischen Debatten schon ein bisschen auskennt - aber ich habe den Trümmer mit meiner Mutter, die keine Historikerin ist, innerhalb von 10 Monaten gelesen, und hatte den Eindruck, dass sie auch ihren Spaß daran hatte und einiges mitgenommen hat.
Insgesamt ist das Panorama beeindruckend - und das Fazit auf schlanken 20 Seiten hat mir dann endgültig den fünften Stern abgerungen. Wer sich dafür interessiert, wie Geschichte funktioniert und wie die Welt, in der wir heute leben, entstanden ist, kann von der Lektüre profitieren. (Und wenn man ein paar Seiten überblättert, tut das auch niemandem weh.)
Nicht alles ist gleich interessant und nicht alle Kapitel erreichen die selbe Tiefe der Analyse. Manchmal liest es sich wie eine Aneinanderreihung von Fällen. Es hilft auch, wenn man sich in der Literatur und den historischen Debatten schon ein bisschen auskennt - aber ich habe den Trümmer mit meiner Mutter, die keine Historikerin ist, innerhalb von 10 Monaten gelesen, und hatte den Eindruck, dass sie auch ihren Spaß daran hatte und einiges mitgenommen hat.
Insgesamt ist das Panorama beeindruckend - und das Fazit auf schlanken 20 Seiten hat mir dann endgültig den fünften Stern abgerungen. Wer sich dafür interessiert, wie Geschichte funktioniert und wie die Welt, in der wir heute leben, entstanden ist, kann von der Lektüre profitieren. (Und wenn man ein paar Seiten überblättert, tut das auch niemandem weh.)
Read
May 7, 2018I have so many mixed feelings about this book. Some of its blindspots and inaccuracies are fairly easy to forgive, especially given the astonishing ambitiousness of the project. What cannot be forgiven is that this "global history of the nineteenth century" shrugs complacently in its preface: "A pervasive disregard of gender issues remains a serious drawback." It isn't just a "disregard" of "gender issues" that is perplexing. This nearly 1000-page global history seems to forget that women even existed in the nineteenth century, let alone before or after. Ugh. That's not a drawback. That's a willful failure.
February 26, 2025
Impressive and extensive knowledge on a broad amount of topics but throughout the whole book there is no methodology or any real argument that brings everything together. Also, quite a stretch to call this a piece of historical work considering there is barely any primary source analysis within these 900+ pages. Seems more like an encyclopedic list of facts but no real historical engagement or interesting interventions. Quite the slog!
October 8, 2016
Not sure why this got such a great review in the NYRB. It is a truly amazing demonstration of scholarship, and perhaps that is why. It it so comprehensive in it's scope that it feels like a recitation of unrelated facts, at times. In addition, it is a slow thick read. I swear my kindle weighed more while I read it.
March 4, 2025
Jürgen Osterhammel’s The Transformation of the World: A Global History of the Nineteenth Century (originally published in German in 2009 and translated into English by Patrick Camiller in 2014) is a monumental work of historical synthesis that reinterprets the long nineteenth century (c. 1770–1914) through a global lens. Osterhammel, a leading German historian, challenges Eurocentric narratives and instead presents a broad, comparative analysis of the transformations that shaped the modern world. His approach integrates political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions, making this work an essential contribution to global history.
Rather than adopting a chronological narrative, Osterhammel structures the book thematically across fourteen chapters, each addressing a different aspect of nineteenth-century global transformations. These themes include migration, urbanization, empire, warfare, communication, and ideologies, among others. By doing so, he demonstrates how the nineteenth century was not merely the age of European imperial dominance but a period of interconnected global change.
One of the book’s central arguments is that globalization was not a singular, linear process but a complex, multidirectional phenomenon with varying regional effects. Osterhammel emphasizes the role of non-European actors in shaping the global order, countering traditional historiographies that depict the century as one of unidirectional European expansion. He also highlights how institutions such as empires and global markets both facilitated and constrained these transformations, producing uneven and sometimes contradictory developments.
One of the book’s most significant contributions is its conceptual breadth. Osterhammel moves beyond conventional political history to engage with cultural and social history, environmental history, and intellectual history. His discussion of migration, for example, underscores the fluidity of labor and population movements, illustrating how migration patterns in Asia, Africa, and the Americas were as important as those in Europe. Similarly, his analysis of urbanization demonstrates that while cities like London and Paris became global metropoles, urban centers in Asia, such as Shanghai and Bombay, were undergoing equally profound transformations.
The book also excels in its treatment of communication and media. Osterhammel details how technologies such as the telegraph, steamships, and railroads accelerated the transmission of ideas, facilitating the diffusion of ideologies like nationalism and socialism. Yet, he also acknowledges that these processes were met with resistance and adaptation, leading to localized responses rather than uniform acceptance.
Osterhammel’s ability to synthesize vast amounts of scholarship into a coherent global narrative is remarkable. His command of multiple historiographical traditions, combined with an impressive array of sources, makes The Transformation of the World a model of global history writing. The book’s thematic organization is particularly effective in illustrating the interconnectedness of nineteenth-century developments without reducing them to a single explanatory framework.
However, this very breadth can also be a limitation. The sheer scale of the work—over 1,000 pages—makes it daunting for readers unfamiliar with global history. Additionally, while Osterhammel is meticulous in avoiding Eurocentrism, some critics have argued that his engagement with non-Western perspectives, particularly indigenous voices, could have been more extensive. Moreover, the book’s thematic structure, while intellectually rigorous, occasionally leads to fragmentation, making it challenging to discern overarching causal relationships.
Despite these minor criticisms, The Transformation of the World is a landmark in global history. It offers a sophisticated, nuanced, and empirically rich account of the nineteenth century, moving beyond traditional narratives of European dominance to highlight the complexity of global transformations. Osterhammel’s work is essential reading for scholars of world history, as well as for anyone seeking to understand the foundations of modern globalization. Its interdisciplinary approach and methodological rigor make it a touchstone for future research in global and comparative history.
GPT
Rather than adopting a chronological narrative, Osterhammel structures the book thematically across fourteen chapters, each addressing a different aspect of nineteenth-century global transformations. These themes include migration, urbanization, empire, warfare, communication, and ideologies, among others. By doing so, he demonstrates how the nineteenth century was not merely the age of European imperial dominance but a period of interconnected global change.
One of the book’s central arguments is that globalization was not a singular, linear process but a complex, multidirectional phenomenon with varying regional effects. Osterhammel emphasizes the role of non-European actors in shaping the global order, countering traditional historiographies that depict the century as one of unidirectional European expansion. He also highlights how institutions such as empires and global markets both facilitated and constrained these transformations, producing uneven and sometimes contradictory developments.
One of the book’s most significant contributions is its conceptual breadth. Osterhammel moves beyond conventional political history to engage with cultural and social history, environmental history, and intellectual history. His discussion of migration, for example, underscores the fluidity of labor and population movements, illustrating how migration patterns in Asia, Africa, and the Americas were as important as those in Europe. Similarly, his analysis of urbanization demonstrates that while cities like London and Paris became global metropoles, urban centers in Asia, such as Shanghai and Bombay, were undergoing equally profound transformations.
The book also excels in its treatment of communication and media. Osterhammel details how technologies such as the telegraph, steamships, and railroads accelerated the transmission of ideas, facilitating the diffusion of ideologies like nationalism and socialism. Yet, he also acknowledges that these processes were met with resistance and adaptation, leading to localized responses rather than uniform acceptance.
Osterhammel’s ability to synthesize vast amounts of scholarship into a coherent global narrative is remarkable. His command of multiple historiographical traditions, combined with an impressive array of sources, makes The Transformation of the World a model of global history writing. The book’s thematic organization is particularly effective in illustrating the interconnectedness of nineteenth-century developments without reducing them to a single explanatory framework.
However, this very breadth can also be a limitation. The sheer scale of the work—over 1,000 pages—makes it daunting for readers unfamiliar with global history. Additionally, while Osterhammel is meticulous in avoiding Eurocentrism, some critics have argued that his engagement with non-Western perspectives, particularly indigenous voices, could have been more extensive. Moreover, the book’s thematic structure, while intellectually rigorous, occasionally leads to fragmentation, making it challenging to discern overarching causal relationships.
Despite these minor criticisms, The Transformation of the World is a landmark in global history. It offers a sophisticated, nuanced, and empirically rich account of the nineteenth century, moving beyond traditional narratives of European dominance to highlight the complexity of global transformations. Osterhammel’s work is essential reading for scholars of world history, as well as for anyone seeking to understand the foundations of modern globalization. Its interdisciplinary approach and methodological rigor make it a touchstone for future research in global and comparative history.
GPT
September 18, 2017
I had been reading for some years books aimed at the interwar period, 1919 to 1944 (my mother's birth year and mine), to understand my roots and our time. Then I picked up this book to get some insight into the origins of the 20th century world, and that was right. It delivers. The 19th century, here 1789-1914, really was transformative, a pivot from ancient to modern. If you look at it from altitude you can see that tremendous change happened very fast. "The Transformation of the World" spreads all the cards on the table.
At 919 pages, it took me over a year to read this, though I read other works in between, but I returned to it again and again with great pleasure. It is a treat - refreshing - to read a global history that is not Eurocentric. Organized by theme, any page will cite examples across the planet - Britain, Burma, and Brazil in the same sentence. Every section is rich with insight and detail. A very satisfying read. Recommended highly.
One should have an atlas at hand, as the book is almost mapless. On paper, it is not a book to travel with. Too heavy. Putting it on your tablet could solve that. As a hypertext with links to all the people and places mentioned, it would be fabulous, but it might take the rest of your life to get through it all.
At 919 pages, it took me over a year to read this, though I read other works in between, but I returned to it again and again with great pleasure. It is a treat - refreshing - to read a global history that is not Eurocentric. Organized by theme, any page will cite examples across the planet - Britain, Burma, and Brazil in the same sentence. Every section is rich with insight and detail. A very satisfying read. Recommended highly.
One should have an atlas at hand, as the book is almost mapless. On paper, it is not a book to travel with. Too heavy. Putting it on your tablet could solve that. As a hypertext with links to all the people and places mentioned, it would be fabulous, but it might take the rest of your life to get through it all.
June 23, 2022
Jürgen Osterhammel's "Die Verwandlung Der Welt" (eng. "Transformation of the World") is a vast (1300+ pages) and profound overview of XIX century history.
It is not a usual history book, which goes over the events in chronological order. Here we have divisions to (bigger) panoramas (e.g. Standards of Living, Cities, Frontiers, Empires and Nation States) and (smaller) subjects (e.g. Energy and Industry, Labor, Wisdom, Religion). Book does not focus on particular events like for example French Revolution or American Civil War, and does not go into details of these events. However they are mentioned when for specific topic their impact is substantial.
The book is also not europe-centric. Every chapter gives insight into related events and situation on other continents.
I find the structure of the book better then in the recently read "Global Crisis". There is no feeling of information being repeated and chapters are very consistent and could be read stand-alone.
The only drawbacks I see is that its good to know the major events of XIX century before reading this book and I think it would be beneficial to include at least some maps.
It is not a usual history book, which goes over the events in chronological order. Here we have divisions to (bigger) panoramas (e.g. Standards of Living, Cities, Frontiers, Empires and Nation States) and (smaller) subjects (e.g. Energy and Industry, Labor, Wisdom, Religion). Book does not focus on particular events like for example French Revolution or American Civil War, and does not go into details of these events. However they are mentioned when for specific topic their impact is substantial.
The book is also not europe-centric. Every chapter gives insight into related events and situation on other continents.
I find the structure of the book better then in the recently read "Global Crisis". There is no feeling of information being repeated and chapters are very consistent and could be read stand-alone.
The only drawbacks I see is that its good to know the major events of XIX century before reading this book and I think it would be beneficial to include at least some maps.
January 13, 2025
Ein Kampf, jedoch einer den zu Kämpfen es sich lohnt. Osterhammel schafft es ein Überblickswerk zu schreiben, das selbst für Geschichtsstudenten zusätzliche Literatur über das 19. Jahrhundert redundant werden lässt. Am Stück konnte ich das Buch nicht lesen, das ist allerdings durch die Gliederung des Werks nicht notwendig. Anhand von Überbegriffen wie "Religion" oder "Frontiers" bietet das Buch thematisch geschlossene Kapitel, die für sich gelesen werden können. Sehr lobenswert ist der ehrliche und meiner Meinung nach gelungene Versuch eine globalhistorische Perspektive einzunehmen. Ein unheimlich dichtes Werk und ein herausragendes Beispiel globaler und deutschsprachiger Geschichtsschreibung.
April 10, 2025
厚厚的三卷本，总共1800多页，涵盖全球范围的一整个世纪。实在难以想象，要写这么一本书所需要下的决心和费的工夫。至于我，从把书买来丢书架上到最终决定要开始读它，都花费了将近7年的时间。
这么一本书，单从体量上来讲，它也是不好读的，更何况它的作者还是一个德国人。而这么个写法，也确实非常德国。比起通常的英美历史学家对于叙事的重视，作为德国人的于尔根·奥斯特哈默，他显然非常看重定义、概念和分类。所以，就我而言，某些段落读着读着就渐渐读得神志恍惚的情况确实偶有发生。这么一种语言风格和它背后的思维方式，用书中谈及“文化市民”这一深具德国特色的文化现象时用到的句子来为它们下定义恐怕是最合适不过了：“语言形式考究或用在别处难以理解的独特的美学及哲学用语表述的文化内容”。
可同样是这么一本书，它的视野之广、脉络之多、对细节和分析之重视，也是不多见的。它的阅读门槛不算低，又的确需要很多的耐心，但它仍然是值得读的。或者讲，至少是值得尝试去读一读的。
这么一本书，单从体量上来讲，它也是不好读的，更何况它的作者还是一个德国人。而这么个写法，也确实非常德国。比起通常的英美历史学家对于叙事的重视，作为德国人的于尔根·奥斯特哈默，他显然非常看重定义、概念和分类。所以，就我而言，某些段落读着读着就渐渐读得神志恍惚的情况确实偶有发生。这么一种语言风格和它背后的思维方式，用书中谈及“文化市民”这一深具德国特色的文化现象时用到的句子来为它们下定义恐怕是最合适不过了：“语言形式考究或用在别处难以理解的独特的美学及哲学用语表述的文化内容”。
可同样是这么一本书，它的视野之广、脉络之多、对细节和分析之重视，也是不多见的。它的阅读门槛不算低，又的确需要很多的耐心，但它仍然是值得读的。或者讲，至少是值得尝试去读一读的。
April 12, 2022
Potężny, kompleksowy portret epoki. Nie chronologiczny - jak się spodziewałem, kupując książkę - lecz przede wszystkim tematyczny, co początkowo utrudniało mi nieco odbiór.
Doceniam przede wszystkim próbę opowiedzenia historii XIX wieku z innej, niż europocentryczna, perspektywy.
Doceniam przede wszystkim próbę opowiedzenia historii XIX wieku z innej, niż europocentryczna, perspektywy.
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