Atmosphäre und Resonanz. Gefühle in der Globalgeschichte

Abstract

After an initial stage in global history that focused on movements and encounters, and a subsequent revisionist stage that studied those that did not occur, interest has shifted towards a detailed analysis of what did and did not move and why. Of special interest are the instances when actors claimed decisive influences of ideas that cannot be traced in the sources or, on the contrary, when they marked their ideas as a counter-programme despite common assumptions being traceable. This article argues that considering emotions and paying attention to the resonances and atmospheres that they caused and were caused by allows us to trace in more detail which knowledge became plausible across different spaces. Finally, this approach enables us to challenge linear notions of space and critique binary notions of scale (micro/macro) in a global history of emotions.