In recent years political history has been rediscovered by historians. In this volume the contributors approach the new political history in a constructivist way, conceiving the political as a communicative space whose boundaries are constantly reconfigured through acts of verbal, visual, and sometimes violent communication. Writing Political History Today is organized into four sections, focusing on politics and the political as contested concepts; boundary disputes between the political and other spheres; the question whether violence is a means, an object, or the end of political communication; and on a future agenda for writing political history.  

Willibald Steinmetz is professor of modern political history, and Ingrid Gilcher-Holtey is professor of contemporary history, both at Bielefeld University, where Heinz-Gerhard Haupt is professor emeritus.