Die Verwandlung der Welt

In this grand historical account of the 19th century, Jürgen Osterhammel expertly, dynamically, and multifacetedly narrates the story of a world in transition. From a wealth of material and a multitude of different perspectives, a profound portrait of a fascinating era emerges.

Osterhammel inquires into structures and patterns, marking breaks and continuities, similarities and differences. His cross-cultural, thematically diverse representations and analyses combine to create a bold historical panorama that not only leaves traditional Eurocentric approaches far behind but also offers significantly more than the conventional historiographical paradigms such as industrialization or colonialism. The emergence of different knowledge societies, the relationship between humans and nature, and the handling of illness and otherness are discussed, as well as the peculiarities of urbanization, various forms of bourgeois society, and the contrasts of migration and settlement, adaptation and revolt, secularization and religiosity. At the same time, Osterhammel repeatedly draws connections to the present.