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James Gregory Chappel

Gilhuly Family Assoc Professor
History
Dept of History, Box 90719, Durham, NC 27708
226 Classroom Building, Durham, NC 27708
Office hours For an appointment, on Zoom or in real life, email me at jgc23@duke.edu  

Selected Publications


“Explaining the Catholic Turn to Rights in the 1930s”

Chapter · September 24, 2020 This volume showcases the work of a new generation of scholars interested in the historical connection between religion and human rights in the twentieth century, offering a truly global perspective on the internal diversity, theological ... ... Cite

“On the Border of Old Age”: An Entangled History of Eldercare in East Germany

Journal Article Central European History · June 2020 ABSTRACTHistorical research has turned in the last years more intensively toward entangled and transnational histories of biopolitics, the family, and the welfare state, but without renewed interest in aging and pension pol ... Full text Open Access Cite

The God That Won: Eugen Kogon and the Origins of Cold War Liberalism

Journal Article Journal of Contemporary History · April 2020 Eugen Kogon (1903–87) was one of the most important German intellectuals of the late 1940s. His writings on the concentration camps and on the nature of fascism were crucial to West Germany’s fledgling transition from dictatorship to democracy. Pr ... Full text Open Access Cite

The Logic of Sanctuary: Towards a New Spatial Metaphor for the Study of Global Religion

Journal Article Journal of the American Academy of Religion · March 9, 2020 Full text Open Access Cite

OldVolk:Aging in 1950s Germany, East and West

Journal Article The Journal of Modern History · December 2018 Full text Open Access Cite

“Can a Rich Man Enter the Kingdom of God? The Catholic Debate over Private Property During the Great Depression”

Chapter · July 9, 2018 This volume reconstructs how Neo-Thomism sought to resolve disparities, annul contradictions and reconcile incongruent, new developments. ... Cite

Catholic Modern The Challenge of Totalitarianism and the Remaking of the Church

Book · February 19, 2018 Yet by the 1960s its position was reversed. How did the world’s largest religious organization become modern? James Chappel finds answers in the shattering experiences of the 1930s. ... Cite

Nuclear Families in a Nuclear Age: Theorising the Family in 1950s West Germany

Journal Article Contemporary European History · February 2017 This essay explores the imagination of the family in 1950s West Germany, where the family emerged at the heart of political, economic and moral reconstruction. To uncover the intellectual origins of familialism, the essay presents trans-war intelle ... Full text Open Access Cite

Modern Family

Journal Article Dissent · 2017 Full text Open Access Cite

Nihilism and the Cold War: The Catholic Reception of Nihilism between Nietzsche and Adenauer

Journal Article Rethinking History: the journal of theory and practice · 2014 Open Access Cite

“Beyond Tocquville: A Plea to Stop ‘Taking Religion Seriously’.”

Journal Article Modern Intellectual History · October 2013 We have all heard the admonition to “take religion seriously.” It is a perplexing command, since AHA statistics indicate that graduate students have been flocking to religious topics for years. Library shelves groan under the weight of recent works that ta ... Cite

The Fox Is Still Running: Isaiah Berlin's Continuing Relevance

Chapter · September 1, 2013 This collection of pen-portraits of the renowned public intellectual Isaiah Berlin, published to mark the centenary of his birth, brings him vividly to life from many vantage-points. ... Cite

A Mechanical Style in Our Joys: Time, Space, and Discipline in British Sports

Journal Article Crossings: A Counter-Disciplinary Journal · September 3, 2012 Cite

THE CATHOLIC ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM THEORY IN INTERWAR EUROPE

Journal Article Modern Intellectual History · November 2011 Totalitarianism theory was one of the ratifying principles of the Cold War, and remains an important component of contemporary political discourse. Its origins, however, are little understood. Although widely seen as a secular product of anticommun ... Full text Open Access Cite

The Black International [Report on Research in Progress]

Journal Article European Studies Forum · 2009 Cite

Ronald Knox: A Bibliographic Essay

Journal Article Theological Librarianship · 2008 Cite