Overview

Historical Teleologies in the Modern World tracks the fragmentation and proliferation of teleological understandings of history – the notion that history had to be explained as a goal-directed process – in Europe and beyond throughout the 19th and into the 20th century. Historical teleologies have profoundly informed a variety of other disciplines, including modern philosophy, natural history, literature, humanitarian and religious philanthropism, the political thought and practice of revolution, emancipation, imperialism, colonialism and anti-colonialism, the conceptualization of universal humankind, and the understanding of modernity in general. By exploring the extension and plurality of historical teleology, the essays in this volume revise the history of historicity in the modern period. Historical Teleologies in the Modern World casts doubt on the idea that a single, if powerful, conception of time could function as the unifying principle of all modern historicity, instead pursuing an investigation of the plurality of modern historicities and its underlying structures. By bringing together Western and non-Western histories, this book provides the first extended treatment of the idea of historical teleology. It will be of great value to students and scholars of modern global and intellectual history.

Full Product Details

Author:   Henning Trüper (Leibniz Zentrum fur Kultur, Germany) ,  Dipesh Chakrabarty (University of Calcutta, India) ,  Sanjay Subrahmanyam (USA)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions:   Width: 15.40cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 23.20cm
Weight:   0.580kg
ISBN:  

9781474221078

ISBN 10:   1474221076
Pages:   384
Publication Date:   24 September 2015
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Preface I. Two Genealogies of Historical Teleology 1. Introduction: Teleology and History: Nineteenth-Century Fortunes of an Enlightenment Project Henning Trüper (EHESS-CRH, Paris) with Dipesh Chakrabarty (University of Chicago, USA) and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (University of California, Los Angeles, USA) 2. The Politics of Eschatology: A Short Reading of the Long View Sanjay Subrahmanyam (University of California, Los Angeles, USA) II. Botched Vanishing Acts: On the Difficulties of Making Teleology Disappear 3. The ‘Vocation of Man’ – ‘Die Bestimmung des Menschen’: A Teleological Concept of the German Enlightenment and its Aftermath in the Nineteenth Century Philip Ajouri (Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach am Neckar, Germany) 4. Earth History and the Order of Society: William Buckland, the French Connection, and the Conundrum of Teleology Marianne Sommer (University of Lucerne, Switzerland) 5. After Darwin: Teleology in German Philosophical Anthropology Angus Nicholls (Queen Mary University London, UK) III. Befriending Teleology: Writings Histories with Ends 6. Save Their Souls: Historical Teleology Goes to Sea in Nineteenth-Century Europe Henning Trüper (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Centre de Recherches Historiques, Paris, France) 7. Reading History in Colonial India: Three Nineteenth-Century Narratives and their Teleologies Siddharth Satpathy (University of Hyderabad, India) 8. A Gift of Providence: Destiny as National History in Colonial India Dipesh Chakrabarty (University of Chicago, USA) IV. Teleology in the Revolutionary Polis 9. The ‘Democracy of Blood’: The Colours of Racial Fusion in Nineteenth-Century Spanish America Francisco A. Ortega (Universidad Nacional de Colombia) 10. Between Context and Telos: Reviewing the Structures of International Law Martti Koskenniemi (University of Helsinki, Finland) 11. Marxism and the Idea of Revolution: The Messianic Moment in Marx Etienne Balibar (Université Paris 8, France/Columbia University, USA) V. Translating Futures: Eschatology, History and the Individual 12. Religious Teleologies and Violence in the United States: The Case of John Brown Carola Dietze (University of Giessen, Germany) 13. ‘But Was I Really Primed?’ Gershom Scholem’s Zionist Project Gabriel Piterberg (University of California, Los Angeles, USA) 14. Catching Up to Oneself: Islam and the Representation of Humanity Faisal Devji (Oxford University, UK) VI. Historical Futures without Direction? 15. Autonomy in History: Teleology in Nineteenth-Century European Social and Political Thought Peter Wagner (Universitat de Barcelona, Spain) 16. The Faces of Modernity: Crisis, Kairos, Chronos – Koselleck versus Hegel Bo Stråth (University of Helsinki, Finland) Index

Reviews

For almost two centuries, teleological conceptions of history defined a common condition for humanity with a limited selection of futures. The rich and wide-ranging essays comprising Historical Teleologies in the Modern World excavate teleology's multiple origins, contested pasts, and uncertain future. The book goes well beyond previous studies in its geographical breadth, methodological pluralism, and intellectual rigour and makes a striking contribution to world history, intellectual history, and the history of historical thinking. David Armitage, Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History, Harvard University, USA

Author Information

Henning Trüper is a member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, USA and the Centre de Recherches Historiques, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France. Dipesh Chakrabarty is Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor in History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, USA. Sanjay Subrahmanyam is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA.

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