Thomas Adam

PhD, University of Leipzig (1998)  

Teaching Interests:

 For undergraduate students I am offering classes on the course of German history from 1740 to the present day. All of my classes are taught in the form of seminars – a student-centered form of university teaching, in which students, based on their readings for each class, have an opportunity to engage in class discussions. In spring 2008 I will be teaching my HIST 4356: Imperial Germany course. This course introduces students to the history of Germany from 1740 to 1914.

 Many of my courses are cross-listed with the Modern Language Department and can be taken for credit with this department. One of these courses is my reading-intensive class on “Hitler: History and Image,” in which we study the creation of the image of Hitler through literature, theatre, and cinema both before and after his death. This class is not a traditional history course but draws upon the concepts of cultural history and memory studies. Students are expected to read various fictional texts such as Stephen Fry, Making History, Robert Harris, Fatherland, and Philip Roth, The Plot against America.

 On the graduate level, I am frequently teaching courses on German-American Encounters, the Wilhelmine Empire, the Weimar Republic , and the Divided Germany (1945-1989). In spring and fall of 2007, I am teaching the colloquium and the research seminar on German-American Encounters which is focused on the perceptions, exchanges and interrelations between German and American society throughout the nineteenth century. In the course of this class, all participants engage in the study and transcribing of George an Anna Ticknor’s diaries and, thus, receive first-hand experience in the actual editing of a historical text (see my research interests).

Research Interests:

I am currently working on a Monograph (to be published in Germany with the tentative title: Stipendienstiftungen an deutschen Universitäten, 1800 bis 1950) about financing higher education in Germany from 1800 to 1950. This book focuses on the many private foundations that existed at every German university and provided fellowships for undergraduate students from various social backgrounds. This new project builds upon my earlier work on philanthropy that resulted in the production of a monograph tentatively entitled Buying Respectability: class and philanthropy in American, Canadian and German cities from the 1840s to the 1930s, which is currently under review with Indiana University Press. In addition, I am also currently working, together with Gisela Mettele, on a selected and annotated edition of the German diaries of George and Anna Ticknor which will be published in collaboration with the German Historical Institute in Washington D.C. and I am also involved in the production of an edited volume Stifter, Spender und Mäzene: USA und Deutschland im historischen Vergleich, which will be co-edited by Gabriele Lingelbach and Simone Lässig.

Selected Books (authored, co-authored, and edited)  

 Traveling between Worlds: German-American Encounters. Co-edited with Ruth Gross ( College Station : Texas A&M, 2006) pp. 190.

 Germany and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History 3 vols. ( Santa Barbara , California / Denver , Colorado / Oxford , England : ABC Clio, 2005), pp. 1306.

 Philanthropy, Patronage, and Civil Society: Experiences from Germany , Great Britain , the United States and Canada . Edited by Thomas Adam ( Bloomington and Indianapolis : Indiana University Press, 2004), pp. 228.

 Zwischen Markt und Staat: Stifter und Stiftungen im transatlantischen Vergleich, (=Comparativ. Leipziger Beiträge zur Universalgeschichte und vergleichenden Gesellschaftsforschung Heft5/6 2001). Co-edited with James Retallack (Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag), pp. 269.

 Arbeitermilieu und Arbeiterbewegung in Leipzig 1871-1933, (Demokratische Bewegungen in Mitteldeutschland Band 8), (Cologne/Weimar/Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 1999), pp. 383.

125 Jahre Wohnreform in Sachsen. Zur Geschichte der sächsischen Baugenossenschaften 1873-1998. (Leipzig: Antonym, 1999), pp. 201.

 Die Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse Leipzig 1887-1997. (Leipzig: Pro Leipzig, 1998), pp. 92.

 Die Anfänge industriellen Bauens in Sachsen. (Leipzig: Quadrat Verlag, 1998), pp. 72.

 Selected Scholarly Essays and Chapters in Books

 “Stiftungswohnungsbau oder kommunaler Wohnungsbau. Leitvorstellungen über die Wohnungsfürsorge in Leipzig 1880-1930”, in Moderne als Konstruktion II: Debatten, Diskurse, Positionen um 1900, edited by Werner Suppanz and Heidemarie Uhl (Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2006), pp. 107-126.

 “Cultural Baggage: The Building of the Urban Community in a Transatlantic World”, in: Traveling between Worlds: German-American Encounters. Edited by Thomas Adam and Ruth Gross ( College Station : Texas A&M, 2006) pp. 79-99.

 “Germany Seen through American Eyes: George and Anna Eliot Ticknor’s German Travel Logs”, in Transatlantic Cultural Contexts: Essays in Honor of Eberhard Brüning. Edited by Hartmut Keil (Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag, 2005), pp. 151-163.

 “Bürgerliches Engagement und Zivilgesellschaft in deutschen und amerikanischen Städten des 19. Jahrhunderts im Vergleich”, in Zivilgesellschaft als Geschichte. Studien zum 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Edited by Ralph Jessen, Sven Reichardt and Ansgar Klein ( Wiesbaden : VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2004), pp. 155-174.

 “Philanthropy and the Shaping of Social Distinctions in Nineteenth-Century U.S. , Canadian, and German Cities ,” in Philanthropy, Patronage, and Civil Society: Experiences from Germany , Great Britain , the United States and Canada . Edited by Thomas Adam ( Bloomington and Indianapolis : Indiana University Press, 2004), pp. 15-33.

 “Sport und Politik in einer deutschen Grossstadt. Sozialdemokratischer und konservativer Fußball in Leipzig vom Kaiserreich bis zur nationalsozialistischen Machtergreifung”, in Kulturpolitik und Stadtkultur in Leipzig und Lyon (18. -20. Jahrhundert). Edited by Thomas Höpel and Steffen Sammler (Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2004), pp. 275-292.

 “Soziale Sicherheit vor der Bismarckschen Sozialgesetzgebung in Leipziger und Dresdner Unternehmen“, in Wirtschaft und Staat in Sachsens Industrialisierung 1750-1930. Edited by Ulrich Heß, Petra Listewnik, and Michael Schäfer (Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2003), pp. 335-353.

 “Wohnarchitektur und Wohnen von sozialen Unterschichten im 19. Jahrhundert”, in Wohnformen und Lebenswelten im interkulturellen Vergleich. Edited by Magdalena Droste and Adolf Hoffmann (Frankfurt am Main/Berlin/Bern/Bruxelles/New York/Oxford/Vienna: Peter Lang, 2003), pp. 243-253.

 “Stadtbürgerliche Stiftungskultur und die Ausformung sozialer Distinktionen in amerikanischen, deutschen und kanadischen Städten des 19. Jahrhunderts”, in Zwischen Markt und Staat: Stifter und Stiftungen im transatlantischen Vergleich. Edited by Thomas Adam and James Retallack ( Leipzig : Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2001), pp. 52-80.

 “Philanthropy und politische Macht in deutschen Kommunen”, co-authored with James Retallack, in Zwischen Markt und Staat: Stifter und Stiftungen im transatlantischen Vergleich. Edited by Thomas Adam and James Retallack ( Leipzig : Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2001), pp. 106-138. (an English version under the title “Citadels against Democracy” appeared in James Retallack, The German Right, 1860-1920: Political Limits of the Authoritarian Imagination (Toronto/Buffalo/London: University of Toronto Press , 2006), pp. 192-222.

 “Bürgergesellschaft und moderner Staat. Ein deutsch-amerikanisch Vergleich”, in Eigeninteresse und Gemeinwohlbindung: Kulturspezifische Ausformungen in den USA und Deutschland.   Edited by Roland Becker, Andreas Franzmann, Axel Jansen and Sascha Liebermann (Konstanz: UVK Verlagsgesellschaft, 2001), pp. 191-211.

 “How ‘proletarian’ was Leipzig ’s social democratic milieu?” in Saxony in German History: Culture, Society, and Politics, 1830-1933. Edited by James Retallack ( Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2000), pp. 255-270.

 “Die Beziehungen zwischen Volkshochschule und Universität in den 20er Jahren”, in Leipzig und Sachsen. Beiträge zur Stadt- und Landesgeschichte vom 15.-20. Jahrhundert. Edited by Karl Czok and Volker Tittel (Beucha: Sax Verlag, 2000), pp. 100-109.

 “Heinrich Pudor - Lebensreformer und Verleger”, in Das bewegte Buch. Buchwesen und soziale, nationale und kulturelle Bewegungen um 1900. Edited by Mark Lehmstedt and Andreas Herzog (Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz, 1999), pp. 183-196.

 “Eugen Diederichs und die Leipziger Volkshochschulbewegung nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg”, in Romantik, Revolution & Reform. Der Eugen Diederichs Verlag im Epochenkontext 1900-1949. Edited by Meike Werner and Justus H. Ulbricht (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 1999), pp. 119-134.

 “Das soziale Engagement Leipziger Unternehmer - die Tradition der Wohnstiftungen”, in Unternehmer in Sachsen. Aufstieg-Krise-Untergang-Neubeginn. Edited by Ulrich Hess and Michael Schäfer (Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 1998), pp. 107-118.

 “Leipzig - Die Hochburg der Arbeiterkulturbewegung”, in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft in Sachsen im 20. Jahrhundert. Edited by Werner Bramke and Ulrich Heß (Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 1998), pp. 229-267.

 “Erich Schilling (1882-1962). ‘Es kommt nicht auf ... den Wortschwall von Einheit und Brüderlichkeit an ...’”, in “Solche Schädlinge gibt es auch in Leipzig.” Sozialdemokraten          und die SED. Edited by Michael Rudloff and Mike Schmeitzner (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1997), pp. 186-201.

 Selected Scholarly Articles in Journals

 “Stiften in deutschen Bürgerstädten vor dem ersten Weltkrieg: Das Beispiel Leipzig“, in Geschichte und Gesellschaft 33 (2007) no. 1. pp. 46-72.

“Nineteenth-century Housing Reform and Family Structure in a transatlantic Perspective”, in Wolkenkuckucksheim – Cloud-Cuckoo-Land – Возбушный замок 10 (2006), issue 2 (September 2006). (http://www.cloud-cuckoo.net/)

 “Buying Respectability. Philanthropy and Cultural Dominance in 19^th-Century Boston ”, in Traverse 2006/1, pp. 29-46.

 “Der Plagwitzer Konsumverein 1884-1933”, in Leipziger Kalender 2002, pp. 209-256.

 “Ein Schritt in die bürgerliche Öffentlichkeit? Frauen und philanthropische Wohnprojekte im transatlantischen Raum des 19. Jahrhunderts”, in Ariadne November 2002 No. 42, pp. 24-31.

 “A Rich Man’s Guide to Social Climbing: Philanthropy as a Bourgeois Behavioral Pattern in Nineteenth-Century New York”, in The Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society 32 (2002), pp. 15-24.

 “Transatlantic Trading: The Transfer of Philanthropic Models between European and North American Cities during the nineteenth and early twentieth Centuries”, in Journal of Urban History 28 (2002), pp. 328-351.

 “Philanthropic Landmarks: the Toronto Trail from a comparative perspective, 1870s to the 1930s”, in Urban History Review 30 (2001), pp. 3-21.

 “Die Leipziger Bau- und Konsumgenossenschaften: ein sozialdemokratisches Traditionsmilieu unter der NS-Zeit und in der frühen DDR”, co-authored with Stephan Jaunich, in Internationale Wissenschaftliche Korrespondenz zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung 2/2000, pp. 200-209.

 “Das sächsische Schulgesetz von 1874 und die Etablierung der Fortbildungsschule: Sachsens schulpolitischer Beitrag für die Moderne?”, in Blätter für deutsche Landesgeschichte 134 (1998), pp. 345-360.

 “Die Kommunalisierung von Kunst und Kultur als Grundkonsens der deutschen Gesellschaft ab dem ausgehenden 19. Jahrhundert. Das Beispiel Leipzig”, in Die Alte Stadt 26, no. 2 (1999), pp. 79-99.

 “‘Was las der Arbeiter im Kaiserreich?’ Die Leipziger Arbeiterbibliotheken zwischen 1861 und 1914”, in Mitteldeutsches Jahrbuch 5 (1998), pp. 119-132.

 “Der Arbeitersport in Leipzig zwischen 1861 und 1933. Vom Bierglas zum Fußball”, in Mitteldeutsches Jahrbuch 4 (1997), pp. 105-121.

 “Meyersche Stiftung - ‘Es hat keinerlei Unternehmergewinn zu erfolgen’”, in Leipziger Kalender 1997, pp. 135-154.

 Scholarly Papers and Lectures presented since 2000  

“Social Housing Reform in the Transatlantic World before World War I“, Paper presented at the workshop „Private Wealth, Public Welfare: Philanthropy and Social Knowledge in a Transatlantic World“ organized by the Rockefeller Archive Center in Sleepy Hollow, NY March 22/23, 2007.  

“Stipendienstiftungen an deutschen Universitäten, 1800 bis 1914.“ Paper presented at the conference “Diskontinuitäten im deutschen Stiftungswesen” organized by the Maecenata Institute in Berlin, Germany at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, January 26/27, 2007.

 “The Transatlantic Transfer of Models for Social Housing.“ Paper presented at the Conference “Philanthropy in History: German and American Perspectives” organized by the German Historical Institute in Washington , D.C. , March 30 – April 1, 2006.

 “The Transatlantic Trade of Cultural and Social Goods.” Paper presented at the Twenty-Ninth Annual Conference of the German Studies Association in Milwaukee/Wisconsin, September 29-October 2, 2005.

 “Social Welfare between Private and State Responsibility.” Paper presented at the 20^th International Congress of Historical Sciences in Sydney , Australia , July 3-9, 2005. 

 “Taxation and Political representation: New York and Leipzig in comparison.” Paper presented at the conference “Taxation, State and Civil Society in Germany and the United States, 1750-1950” organized by the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., March 18-20, 2004.

 “In Deutschland scheint die Zivilgesellschaft zwar eine Zukunft aber keine Vergangenheit zu haben”. Paper presented at the Twenty-Seventh Annual Conference of the German Studies Association in New Orleans/Louisiana, September 18-21, 2003.

 „Stadtbürgerliche Stiftungskultur im transatlantischen Vergleich”. Paper presented at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, July 17, 2003.

 “Buying Respectability: class and philanthropy in American, Canadian and German society between the 1840s and the 1930s”. Paper presented at the Maecenata Institute, Berlin , July 10, 2003.

 “Cultural Baggage: The Building of the Urban Community in a Transatlantic World”. Paper presented at the Thirty-eight Annual Walter Prescott Webb Memorial Lectures “Traveling between Worlds: German-American Encounters” at the University of Texas at Arlington , March 13, 2003.

 “Philanthropic Housing Projects in nineteenth-century Boston and Leipzig ”. Paper presented at the First Biennial Urban History Conference in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , September 26-28, 2002.

 “Social Housing and The Urban Elite: Attempts at solving the Social Housing Question in Leipzig and Boston ”. Paper presented at the Twenty-Sixth Annual Conference of the German Studies Association in San Diego/California, October 4-6, 2002.

 “Heavy luggage: The transfer of social and cultural models in a modern transatlantic community”. Paper presented at the Second Annual Transatlantic History Graduate Research Symposium in Arlington/Texas, October 4, 2001.

 “Philanthropy and the Shaping of Social Distinctions in nineteenth-century American, Canadian and German cities” Paper presented at the conference “Philanthropy, Patronage & Urban Politics: Transatlantic Transfers between Europe and North America in the 19^th and 20^th Century” in Toronto , 3-5 May 2001.

 “Wohnformen für die Unterschichten im 19. Jahrhundert” Paper presented at the conference “Wohnformen und Lebenswelten im interkulturellen Vergleich” in Cottbus, 25-28 April 2001.

 “How to become a Gentleman? The Philanthropic behavior of the Nouveau Riche in German and North American Cities During the Nineteenth Century” Paper presented at the 29^th Annual Conference of ARNOVA in New Orleans , 16-18 November 2000.

 “The Museum Makers: Philanthropy and Bourgeois Practice in the Cities of Nineteenth-Century North America and Germany ” Paper presented at the conference “Art, Culture and Policy: Prospects for the 21^st Century” organized by the Americans for the Arts and the Center for Arts and Culture in Washington , 12-15 October 2000.

 “Jews, Antisemites, & Lifestyle Reform Movements in pre-1914 Germany ” Paper presented at the International Symposium “From Emancipation to Restitution. Jews in German Society and Politics, 1800-2000” at the University of Toronto , 12 September 2000.  

“Bürgergesellschaft und moderner Staat – ein deutsch-amerikanischer Vergleich” Paper presented at the International Conference “Eigeninteresse und Gemeinwohlbildung. Kulturspezifische Ausformungen in den USA & Deutschland” at the University of Frankfurt, 23-25 June 2000.  

“ Toronto has come to be known as a philanthropic city” Toronto Philanthropists and Their Philanthropies After the Turn of the Century. Paper presented at the conference “Celebrating One Thousand Years Of Ontario’s History” A Symposium organized by the Ontario Historical Society in Toronto , April 14-16, 2000.

Conferences organized since 2000

 “Young Scholars Forum 2007: “American society beyond the level of national history” (co-organized with Uwe Luebken, German Historical Institute in Washington , DC ) at the University of Texas at Arlington , March 29-April 1, 2007.

 “Diskontinuitäten im deutschen Stiftungswesen” at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, January 26/27, 2007 (co-organized with Rupert Graf Strachwitz from the Maecenata Institute and Manuel Frey from the Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen).

 “Philanthropy in History: German and American Perspectives” at the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., March 30-April 1, 2006 (co-organized with Gabriele Lingelbach from the University of Trier and Simone Lässig from the German Historical Institute).

 Young Scholars Forum 2005: “Crossing the Atlantic: European Dimensions of American History” (co-organized with Christof Mauch, German Historical Institute in Washington , D.C. ) at the University of Texas at Arlington , March 31-April 2, 2005 (http://www.ghi-dc.org/ysf05/YoungScholarsForum2005_papers.html).

 Thirty-eight Annual Walter Prescott Webb Memorial Lectures “Traveling between Worlds: German-American Encounters” at the University of Texas at Arlington , March 13, 2003.

 “Philanthropy, Patronage & Urban Politics: Transatlantic Transfers between Europe and North America in the 19^th and 20^th Century” at the University of Toronto , 3-5 May 2001 (http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~retallac/philanthropy.htm).