This textbook provides a history of modern Germany, locating the country’s social, cultural, and political developments within their proper global and transnational context. The author argues that most developments in German culture, society, and politics throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were caused by wider global and transnational trends. A history of the German people rather than the German state, the book focusses on non-state and non-government actors, intercultural transfers, and applies the approach of ‘thick description’ to analysing the creation of German culture, society, and identity from the era of the Napoleonic wars right up to the present post-unification Germany. This includes an examination of German migrants’ journeys to their new homes in the Americas and, thus, the creation of a global German diaspora with cultural and social networks beyond its home country’s borders. The book further focusses on the transfers that connected German society and culture with those of other countries; for instance, chapters cover the transfer of football from England to Germany, the transfer of the Christmas holiday tradition from Germany to other countries, and the development of eugenics in Germany within its global context.

This book offers an in-depth study of German neoliberalism between 1924 and 1963, arguing that a neoliberal network was established in the interwar period, decades before elite networks in Great Britain and the United States fostered the ‘neoliberal revolution’ of the Thatcher and Reagan administrations. The author shows how this network strongly influenced societal developments in the 1950s and set a precedent for neoliberal projects in other countries. This success was largely due to the deliberate and strategic reorganisation of the semantic field: abandoning or reacquiring ‘abused’ concepts, challenging existing meanings, or introducing new concepts to the political scene. The book examines the Aktionsgemeinschaft Soziale Marktwirtschaft (ASM), an early neoliberal Think Tank founded in 1953 and led by Alexander Rüstow, which became an influential political actor in post-war West Germany. The author adopts a decidedly transnational approach linking and contrasting inner-German debates with those taking place transnationally among neoliberal proponents in the Mont Pèlerin Society. More than just a political study of ideologies, this book provides a historical account of the conceptual struggles over neoliberalism, the actors who engaged in them, the spheres in which they took place, and the semantic means and conceptual strategies employed, providing useful insights for scholars of German and political history, as well as political science more generally.

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This book explores the transformation of India’s relations with Central and Eastern Europe from being a subset of Indo-Soviet relations during the Cold War to the rediscovery and rebuilding of relations with the region almost from scratch in the post-Cold War era. It examines how the combination of Brexit, the rise of China and India’s expanding geo-economic interests in Europe has led the Narendra Modi government to contemplate relations with Central Europe through a more strategic lens and treat the region as an autonomous element within India’s foreign policy rather than a footnote of its relations with other great powers.

This book examines corporate governance through a holistic lens that integrates financial, social and environmental goals, e.g. increasing transparency and disclosure. In addition, it investigates the theoretical assumptions guiding the current corporate governance practices adopted by companies in Central Europe and Russia. The book presents a dynamic study on the evolution of corporate governance systems, which were practically non-existent just 30 years ago. In turn, it addresses criticism leveled at corporate governance, its impact on the outbreak of the financial crisis, and recommendations for changes after the crisis. The book employs a regional focus, exploring a group of countries that have often been neglected in corporate governance research. Carefully selected data and a variety of case studies prepared by leading authors from the region provide evidence to support the analysis.