作者简介

George Steinmetz is professor of sociology and German studies at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Regulating the Social: The Welfare State and Local Politics in Imperial Germany, the editor of State/Culture: State Formation after the Colonial Turn and The Politics of Method in the Human Sciences: Positivism and its Epistemological Others, and codirector, with Michael Chanan, of the documentary film Detroit: Ruin of a City.

内容简介

Germany’s overseas colonial empire was relatively short lived, lasting from 1884 to 1918. During this period, dramatically different policies were enacted in the colonies: in Southwest Africa, German troops carried out a brutal slaughter of the Herero people; in Samoa, authorities pursued a paternalistic defense of native culture; in Qingdao, China, policy veered between harsh racism and cultural exchange.

Why did the same colonizing power act in such differing ways? In The Devil’s Handwriting, George Steinmetz tackles this question through a brilliant cross-cultural analysis of German colonialism, leading to a new conceptualization of the colonial state and postcolonial theory. Steinmetz uncovers the roots of colonial behavior in precolonial European ethnographies, where the Hereros were portrayed as cruel and inhuman, the Samoans were idealized as “noble savages,” and depictions of Chinese culture were mixed. The effects of status competition among colonial officials, colonizers’ identification with their subjects, and the different strategies of cooperation and resistance offered by the colonized are also scrutinized in this deeply nuanced and ambitious comparative history.


George Steinmetz is professor of sociology and German studies at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Regulating the Social: The Welfare State and Local Politics in Imperial Germany, the editor of State/Culture: State Formation after the Colonial Turn and The Politics of Method in the Human Sciences: Positivism and its Epistemological Others, and codirector, with Mic...

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豆瓣评论

  • 周沐君
    兑了布迪厄和拉康的萨义德,升级版东方学~07-08
  • 水草狗
    阅读体验高开低走。解释为什么西南非的原民政策最终是种族灭绝;萨摩亚则是“拯救式殖民”,保护当地文化、阻止其进入资本主义、对反抗行动也非常宽容;对青岛则是从种族隔离到宽容的殖民政策。作者与其说是解释了这种差别,不如说在梳理史实的过程中验证了三个机制:(1)萨义德东方学的机制,即殖民政策会以民族志论述为依据,以固化某种刻板印象为追求;(2)符号竞争的机制,中产阶级出身的精英刻意使用不同的民族志论述来挑战贵族精英;(3)想象认同的机制,上述新精英通过认同原住民精英,而一方面实现阶级上升,一方面避免与旧精英同流合污,缓解心理张力。但这三个机制多大程度上造成了案例间的差别,至少写得不是很清楚。10-22
  • 宇凡
    Steinmetz代表作,虽然被critical realism列为经验研究代表作,但其实只是点到为止。尽管Steinmetz自己也写过《令人作呕的比较》的方法论文章,但展开也不算多。但Steinmetz一向的历史厚度(档案到发指)、思想穿梭(从精神分析到布迪厄)、拿捏轻重(青岛与萨摩亚等地比较)和批判力度(对敏感议题可能的偏见自觉),在美国社会学里绝对算作是不得不令人尊重的异类。。期待他的批判社会科学方面专著出版。04-20
  • 孙二一
    没有看出来批判实在论在哪里,倒是将殖民理解成一种知识的生产过程是很有意思的想法。但这种想法当然也可以延伸出一些悖论,比如我们实际上也可以对我们自己的人民进行殖民统治。所以最关键的是,这种知识到底有什么样的特征,我想并没有说的很清楚。比较搞笑的是,我读完之后经常和同事讨论非洲人吃不吃下水。10-20

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