Research Interests for James G. Chappel

I study the intellectual, political, and religious history of modern Europe. I am currently completing a manuscript entitled "The Struggle for Europe's Soul: Catholic Political Economy and the Salvation of Democracy, 1920-1960" (forthcoming from Harvard University Press). This work studies Catholic social-economic thought as a transnational whole, arguing that it had massive and overlooked impact on the shape of post-1945 Europe, where its influence was mediated through the new Christian Democratic parties that swept to power across the continent. I am also working, as a second project, on the institutional and social-scientific consolidation of the family in post-1945 Europe, and I am particularly interested in how the "problem of aging" is conceived and administered.

Keywords:

History, Muser Mentor, Philosophy

Recent Publications

1. Chappel, JG, Democracy, Capitalism, and the Welfare State: Debating Social Order in Postwar West Germany, 1949–1989. By Peter C. Caldwell. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. viii+226. $90.00., The Journal of Modern History, vol. 93 no. 4 (December, 2021), pp. 991-993, University of Chicago Press [doi]
2. Chappel, J, “Explaining the Catholic Turn to Rights in the 1930s”, in Christianity and Human Rights Reconsidered (September, 2020), pp. 63-80, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9781108424707 [abs]
3. Chappel, J, “On the Border of Old Age”: An Entangled History of Eldercare in East Germany, Central European History, vol. 53 no. 2 (June, 2020), pp. 353-371, Cambridge University Press (CUP) [doi] [abs]
4. Chappel, J, The God That Won: Eugen Kogon and the Origins of Cold War Liberalism, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 55 no. 2 (April, 2020), pp. 339-363, SAGE Publications [doi] [abs]
5. Chappel, J, The Logic of Sanctuary: Towards a New Spatial Metaphor for the Study of Global Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 88 no. 1 (March, 2020), pp. 15-34, Oxford University Press (OUP) [doi]