Knowledge in Modern Transimperial History

This volume intervenes in the growing field of transimperial history, which explores interactions across empires—European and non-European—between the mid-1800s and mid-1900s, a period of heightened imperial entanglement. It focuses on how actors from one empire came to know, interpret, and position themselves in relation to actors from other empires, emphasizing the role of socio-professional profiles, informal networks, and formal institutions. The volume is structured around three themes. First, it examines actors, including both individuals (e.g. a Chinese diplomat in Europe) and professional groups (e.g. journalists, military officers). Second, it analyzes formations of transimperial knowledge through diverse textual objects such as bank chops and travelogues, highlighting processes of commensurabilization. Third, it explores causes, noting how specific inter-imperial junctures and enabling factors—like language skills and institutional access—facilitated knowledge creation. Altogether, the volume sheds light on the concrete, situated ways in which transimperial knowledge was produced, mediated, and made meaningful in a competitive imperial world.

Cyrus Schayegh is Professor of International History and Politics, the Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID), and the author of ‘The Middle East and the Making of the Modern World’ (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2017) and ‘Modern Transimperial History: an Introduction’ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming).

David Motzafi-Haller is a postdoctoral fellow at Université de Neuchâtel. He is the author of “Imperial Connectors and Local Mediators: Maritime and Airspace Infrastructures in the Making of British Mandatory Palestine,” (with Jordi Tejel, accepted for publication at the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History) and of “Familiar Experts: The Rise of an Israeli Expert Class in Africa,” Humanity 15(3) (2025). He is also the host and producer of the Transimperial History Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts.