Colloquium: Writing a Moral History of ‘The Germans’, 1942-present: Sources, Problems and Perspectives

The Center for the History of Emotions at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, led by Prof. Ute Frevert, cordially invites all interested to attend its summer semester 2021 colloquium:

Frank Trentmann, Birkbeck, University of London & Helsinki University

Writing a Moral History of ‘The Germans’, 1942-present: Sources, Problems and Perspectives

This talk reports on the book project Frank Trentmann is completing on the moral evolution of Germany, 1942 to the present. To illustrate insights and challenges of writing a history of morality, he will focus on three cases: self-help and charitable practices with regard to German expellees (Vertriebene) after the Second World War – and the transmutation of self-help in subsequent campaigns for distant others in the “Third World”; the changing nature of individual conscience and its invasion of the political ethics of responsibility in debates over nuclear armament and conscientious objectors; and the tension between ideals and realities of thrift in personal biographies and public discourse. Morality, of course, always serves some interests, but it is far more than that. In addition to functional approaches of top-down social order, normative discipline and governmentality, he suggests, we need histories that follow how different groups put morality in action. The history of morality offers a chance to understand how societies respond to dilemmas over time.

Frank Trentmann is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London, and also a Professor of the History of Morality at Helsinki University. He has written widely about consumption, moral economy, and political culture.

His last book was Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First (Penguin); German edition: Herrschaft der Dinge: Die Geschichte des Konsums vom 15. Jahrhundert bis heute (DVA), which won the 2017 Austrian Wissenschaftsbuchpreis. He is currently completing a new book, The Germans; a Moral History, 1942 to the Present.

Join the meeting here

Meeting number: 163 265 1705

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