Publications

“The period between the seventh and fourteenth centuries is hardly thought of as an era of globalization. Entire societies in the Americas, Australia, and Oceania developed in relative isolation from other parts of the world. Even on the interconnected landmass of Eurafrasia, many people had little to do with processes of transregional exchange.

Yet the period 600–1350 CE in fact witnessed an explosion of connectivity amid the consolidation of sophisticated approaches to human organization. Flows of people, goods, and ideas across regional boundaries intensified, changing lives at all social levels, from rulers to the enslaved. In the Americas, large cities and north-south trade networks took shape. The Arabic-Islamic conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries, along with the Mongol expansion of the thirteenth, tied together diverse polities from southeast Asia to sub-Saharan Africa. Regions also became more culturally and politically integrated: Latin-Christian models of social organization spread across Europe; the Sinitic written language drew eastern Eurasia into a common elite culture; and the accumulation of significant agricultural surpluses in the Indian subcontinent supported the emergence of a settled political order.

Entangled Worlds sees the completion of the magisterial six-volume set A History of the World, offering an authoritative introduction to a vibrant era of global history. The distinguished contributors make clear that there never was a stagnant “Middle Ages” wedged between Antiquity and Modernity but instead a period defined by decisive strides toward global connection, urbanization, and the cultural and political formations we live with today.” (Harvard University Press)

Jürgen Osterhammel is a Distinguished Fellow since 2019. He is the General Editor of the Series “A History of the World” along with Akira Iriye. This specific Publication is edity by Daniel G. König.

“In Ethics and Analogy (Qiyās) in 5th/11th-Century Islamic Legal Theory Felicitas Opwis presents how ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī, al-Dabbūsī, al-Shīrāzī, and al-Juwaynī relate the ethical status of acts to their legal norm, and whether they apply the ethical content of divine rulings in the procedure of analogy when extending laws to new circumstances. The study draws attention to theological worldview as an explanatory factor of norm construction and a jurist’s approach to identifying the ratio legis of divine rulings. The book traces the shift, fully articulated later by al-Ghazālī, toward understanding the purpose of the divine law as attaining people’s maṣlaḥa in this life, which enables extending the law outside of Scripture and supports Ashʿarī legal universalism.” (Brill)

Felicitas Opwis is FRESCO Fellow since 2021 at FRIAS.

“Despite three decades of rapid expansion and public success, global history’s theoretical and methodological foundations remain under-conceptualised, even to those using them. In this collection of essays, leading historians provide a reassessment of global history’s most common analytical instruments, metaphors and conceptual foundations. Rethinking Global History prompts historians to pause and think about the methodology and premises underpinning their work. The volume reflects on the structure and direction of history, its relation to our present and the ways in which historians should best explain, contextualise and represent events and circumstances in the past. In chapters on fundamental concepts such as scale, comparison, temporality and teleology, this collection will guide readers to assess the extant literature critically and write theoretically informed global histories. Taken together, these essays provide a unique and much-needed assessment of the implications of history going global. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.” (Cambridge University Press)

Jürgen Osterhammel is a Distinguished Fellow since 2019.

Unsere Welt steht an einem Wendepunkt. Die Plastikfluten verschmutzen unsere Ozeane, die Klimakrise bedroht unser Leben, und das Artensterben reißt tiefe Lücken in unsere Natur. In der Graphic Novel Welt im Wandel begleiten wir fünf Jugendliche aus verschiedenen Teilen der Welt, die sich den großen Herausforderungen unserer Zeit stellen.

In kraftvollen Bildern und bewegenden Geschichten werden die historischen Wurzeln der globalen Probleme beleuchtet. Die Jugendlichen zeigen mögliche Wege, wie wir gemeinsam eine bessere, nachhaltigere Welt schaffen können. (Verlagstext)

Die Graphic Novel ist ein kollaboratives Projekt von Mitgliedern der am FRIAS angesiedelten Young Academy for Sustainability Research

Gefährdet Identitätspolitik Freiheit und Demokratie? Diese in immer neuen Varianten wiederholte Kernbotschaft in politischen Debatten richtet sich gegen einen Politikstil, der sich gegen Diskriminierung wendet, aber angeblich in der Sackgasse des Stammesdenkens landet. Karsten Schubert die Identitätspolitik. Mit sachlicher Gelassenheit und ohne jede Polemik setzt er sich mit den wichtigsten Einwänden auseinander und entwickelt einen neuen Blick auf den politischen Kampf um Identitäten. (Verlagstext)

Karsten Schubert war 2022/23 FRIAS Junior Fellow: Aktuell ist Assoziierter Forscher für Politische Theorie und Philosophie an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Stand Oktober 2024).

To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause is a compelling account of the Soviet dissident movement that defied the Kremlin and hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union. Benjamin Nathans chronicles the dramatic stories of individuals—from renowned figures like Andrei Sakharov and Alexander Solzhenitsyn to lesser-known activists—who used Soviet law to challenge state power. Drawing on personal diaries, memoirs, letters, and KGB records, Nathans reveals how these dissidents, acting like free people in an unfree society, became symbols of resistance. This vivid narrative not only illuminates their impact on the 20th century but also resonates with ongoing struggles for freedom today.

Benjamin Nathans was FRIAS Marie S. Curie FCFP Fellow 2022/23. As for October 2024, he is Professor of History at the University of Pennsyvania