Research Projects
Professor Berg's Current Book Project
In the two decades after the Second World War, the United States were widely seen as a model democracy based on economic prosperity and a civic-minded political culture. During the Nineteen-Sixties, however, this so-called liberal consensus unraveled as the Vietnam War, racial tensions, and the challenges to traditional gender and sexual norms divided Americans. In the late 20th century, globalization, mass immigration, changing values, and the communication revolution transformed American society but also spurred acrimonious culture wars and political polarization. Today, Republicans and Democrats, "red" and "blue" states, conservatives and liberals see each other as implacable foes. America´s democracy is in crisis and its future uncertain. Readers seeking to understand the historical roots of the American quandary will greatly profit from this book.
Ongoing Dissertations
Working title: “Yet it’s my picture!” Image conflicts, Recht am eigenen Bild, and right to privacy in Germany and the USA, 1880-1930 (abstract)
"Obviously Bad for Business" - The Role of the U.S. Private Sector in the Conceptualization of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, 1975-2017" (abstract) (CV)
"US Policy towards China on Maritime Territorial Disputes in East and Southeast Asia."
Completed Dissertations
Cîmpean, Raluca
Camelot Revisited: Facets of the Kennedy Myth
Franz, Manuel
"Fight for Americanism". Preparedness-Bewegung und zivile Mobilisierung in den USA 1914-1920
Friedrich, Michael
Das amerikanische Verhältnis zu japanischen Kriegsverbrechen 1931-1948: Reaktion, Bewertung, Verfolgung
Hofmann, Jens
Subventionierte Hegemonie? Das Problem der Offset-Abkommen in den deutsch-amerikanischen Beziehungen (1960-1976)
Honeck, Mischa
We are the revolutionists: Forty-eighters, abolitionists, and the struggle to overthrow slavery
Lorenz, Sophie
'Weil ihre Haut schwarz und ihr Herz rot ist‘: Die DDR und Angela Davis, 1965-1975
Milde, Anja
"Pansies", "Dikes", and Panthers: Coalitions in the Civil and Gay Rights Movements
Riffel, Andreas
Greasers, Gringos, and Atrocities in the U.S.-Mexican War, 1846-1848
Santoro, Anthony
Exile or Embrace: The Religious Discourse on the Death Penalty in the Contemporary Era
Track, Lara
Frieden und Frauenrechte im Kalten Krieg. »Women Strike for Peace« und die amerikanische Frauenrechtsbewegung im Spiegel transnationaler Kooperationen, 1961-1990.
Wolff, Georg
Conservative Mujahideen. Young Americans for Freedom´s Crusade for Conservatism
Completed Second Books
Honeck, Mischa: Our Frontier Is the World. The Boy Scouts in the Age of American Ascendancy, Ithaca/London 2018.
Von Lingen, Kerstin: "Crimes against Humanity." Eine Ideengeschichte der Zivilisierung von Kriegsgewalt 1864-1945 (Krieg in der Geschichte 102), Paderborn 2018.
