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2004-2005 Fellows

2004-2005 Fellow Anderson

Margaret Anderson

University of California at Berkeley
Department of History

Margaret Lavinia Anderson is Professor of History at the University of California-Berkeley. Educated at William and Mary, Swarthmore College, and Brown, she taught at Swarthmore before coming to Berkeley. She has written on various aspects of 19th and early 20th century German politics and as well as on the Catholic religious revival in 19th century Europe. Her most recent book is Practicing Democracy. Elections and Political Culture in Imperial Germany.

Project Summary

Anderson's project examines the relationship between Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and that empire's Armenians in an age of imperialism, total war, and genocide. The controversy within Germany between the rival claims of humanity and reason of state illuminates a key moment in the "democratization" of foreign policy, when the unprecedented efforts of groups competing to determine Germany's stance towards the Turks threatened the government's traditional monopoly over foreign policy and forced its leaders to seek ways to influence their own public, short of entering the public square itself. By returning the "Eastern Question" to its central position in Europe's long 19th century, she hopes to expand our understanding of Europe's own horizons; to explore the relationship between Germany's authoritarian institutions and its open society during the Great War and beyond; and to deepen our understanding of factors enabling genocide and the hard choices of people torn between patriotism and wider circles of obligation. Ultimately, she hopes that by bridging the gap between domestic politics and foreign-military policy, the book that emerges will allow a richer, more sophisticated understanding German political culture and pose questions about the possible relation between morality and policy choices that are still very much with us.