Bernhard Rieger
Professor of European History
- Name
- Prof.dr. B. Rieger
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 1290
- b.rieger@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-4045-2568
Bernhard Rieger is a Professor of European History at the institute for History.
Research
After studying in Erlangen, Oxford and at Humboldt University Berlin for my undergraduate degree, I received my PhD from University College London in 1999. Before my appointment in Leiden, I worked at Iowa State University, Jacobs University in Bremen and University College London, where I remain an honorary professor.
My research places European history since the late nineteenth century in global contexts, paying particular attention to connections with the USA as well as Latin America. My work has examined how humankind has dramatically reshaped the natural, social and political worlds over the last century. Since these issues cannot be explored within the confines of the nation state, comparative and transnational approaches are central to my research.
I have published on Germany, Britain, the USA, and Mexico. My first book "Technology and the Culture of Modernity in Britain and Germany, 1890-1945" examined the fascination for technology that swept Europe between the late nineteenth century and World War II, focusing on the wide-ranging and passionate debates about modernity through which British and German societies construed a cultural climate conduce to technological change. My second book "The People's Car: A Global History of the Volkswagen Beetle" (2013) traces the VW Beetle's journey from failed National Socialist prestige project to lasting prominence in Western Europe, the United States and Latin America. Funding for these projects has, among others, come from the National Science Foundation (USA), the British Academy and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK).
Fields of interest
In recent years, my interests have extended to the proliferation and effects of the market-fundamentalist policies that are often subsumed under the label “neoliberalism.” Tentatively entitled “Making Society Work Again,” my current long-term project addresses the history of unemployment since the 1960s, exploring changes in welfare policies and their repercussions for individuals in the US, Great Britain and Germany.
Teaching activities
My teaching focuses on the twentieth century with a particular emphasis on contemporary history.
Grants and awards
My work has received several awards including the Hagley Prize in Business History, the Binkley-Stephenson Prize from the Organization of American Historians, and a Bessel Prize from the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation. I have featured on BBC television and radio programmes and regularly work with museums including the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum.
Professor of European History
- Faculty of Humanities
- Institute for History
- Algemene Geschiedenis
- Rieger B (2019), Workfare and the reinvention of the social in America and Britain, c. 1965-1985. In: Hoppit J., Needham D. & Leonard A. (Eds.), Money and markets. Essays in honour of Martin J. Daunton. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer. 217-234.
- Rieger B. (2019), Volkswagen als bundesdeutscher Sympathieträger und Konfliktherd: Internationale Perspektiven auf den deutschen Exporterfolg, Geschichte und Gesellschaft 45(4): 551-579.
- Rieger B. (2018), Making Britain work again: unemployment and the remaking of British social policy in the Eighties, The English Historical Review 133(562): 634-666.
- Rieger B. (2018), Floating Palaces: Victorian and Edwardian Ships. In: Finamore D. & Wood G. (Eds.), Ocean Liners: Speed and Style. London: V&A Publishing. 88-117.
- Rieger B. (2017), Un amour de Coccinelle. In: Francois E. & Serrrier T. (Eds.), Europa. Notre Histoire. Paris: Les Arenes. 1329-1332.
- Rieger B. (2016), Ein Wolfsburger Wagen für die Welt. Der Volkswagen als globale Ikone. In: Beil R. (Ed.), Wolfsburg Unlimited. Berlin: Hatje Cantz. 250-260.
- Rieger B. (2015), The Automobile. In: McNeil J.R. & Pomeranz K. (Eds.), The Cambridge World History: Volume VII, Part 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 467-489.
- Rieger B. (2014), Matter Out of Place? Global Commodities and the Nation in the Twentieth Century. In: Löhr I. & Rehling A. (Eds.), Global Commons im 20. Jahrhundert: Entwürfe für eine globale Welt. Munchen: De Gruyter. 201-223.
- Rieger B. (2013), The People's Car: A Global History of the Volkswagen Beetle. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
- Rieger B. & Kiessling F. (2011), Mit dem Wandel leben: Neuorientierung und Tradition in der Bundesrepublik der 1950er und 60er Jahre. Cologne: Böhlau.
- Rieger B. (2010), From People's Car to New Beetle: The Transatlantic Journeys of the Volkswagen Beetle, Journal of American History 97(1): 91-115.
- Rieger B. (2008) Memory and Normality. Review of: Confino A. (2006), Germany as a Culture of memory: Promises and limits of WritinG History. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. History and Theory 47(4): 560-572.
- Rieger B. (2008), Hanna Reitsch: The Global Career of a Nazi Celebrity, German History 26(3): 383-405.
- Rieger B. (2007), Was Roland a Nazi? Victims, Perpetrators and Silences During the Restoration of Civic Identity in Postwar Bremen, History & Memory 17(2): 75-112.
- Rieger B. (2005), Technology and the Culture of Modernity in Britain and Germany, 1890-1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Rieger B. & Daunton M. (2001), Meanings of Modernity: Britain from the Late-Victorian Era to World War II. Oxford: Berg.