Our Friend “The Enemy”: Elite Education in Britain and Germany before World War I. By Thomas Weber. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 2008. Pp. xiii+338. Cloth $65.00. ISBN 987-0-8047-0014-6.

摘要

Comparative history was once considered the Ko ¨nigsweg in historical studies, andrnthe comparative historian was in the vanguard of innovative research. Yet today,rncomparative history is allegedly “out.” A relic of structural history, comparativernhistory—so the argument goes—has been superseded by cross- or transnationalrnapproaches that allow the historian to transcend rather than reinforce nationalrnboundaries. Thomas Weber’s engagingly written book Our Friend “ThernEnemy” is a robust defense of the comparative method. His study of universityrneducation and the reproduction of elites in Britain and Germany in thernperiod before World War I demonstrates that comparison and transfer arerncomplimentary rather than exclusive concepts.