Enzo Traverso

About

Enzo Traverso is a historian specializing in modern and contemporary Europe, with a focus on the intellectual history and political ideas of the twentieth century. His research landmarks include war, fascism, genocide, revolution, and collective memory, which are central themes in his numerous books. Born in Italy, he studied history at the University of Genoa and earned his PhD from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris in 1989. Before joining Cornell University in 2013, he taught political science for twenty years in France and has been a visiting professor at several European and Latin American universities. Traverso's work has been widely translated into more than fifteen languages, and he has contributed to many collected works. His articles and reviews have been published in various academic journals and magazines, and he has received several awards for his historical essays, including the Premio Pozzale, Empoli, Florence (2014), the Premio Lo Straniero/Gli Asini, Lecce (2018), and the Premio Napoli (2022). His research interests encompass intellectual history, historiography, Jewish history, memory studies, critical theory, Marxism, and related fields.

Research topics

• Humanities
• Art
• Philosophy
• Political science
• History

Selected publications

• Marxism and the National Question

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2023-11-08 · 69 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Marx’s thought on nationhood emerged from the cosmopolitan legacy of the “radical Enlightenment.” It took shape in the crucible of European nationalisms, the persistence of dynastic multinational empires, and the appearance of socialism as a new political actor.1 In 1848, the national question was deeply intermingled with the question of class. As a minority current of socialism, at least until the end of the nineteenth century, Marxism promoted a new form of political internationalism of which…

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• Singular Pasts

  Columbia University Press eBooks · 2022-11-10 · 9 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  Singular Pasts offers a critical account of the emergence of authorial subjectivity in historical writing, scrutinizing both its achievements and its shortcomings. Enzo Traverso considers a group of contemporary historians who reveal their emotional ties to their subjects and give their writing a literary flavor.

  PublisherDOI

• Imágenes e Historia cultural: un debate

  Acta Poética · 2023-01-10 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Este texto a dos manos integra en un solo espacio el debate que sostuvieron dos figuras académicas indiscutibles, Georges Didi-Huberman, historiador del arte, y Enzo Traverso, historiador, en la revista digital francesa AOC, entre los meses de mayo y octubre de 2022. En un intercambio epistolar público, Didi-Huberman comienza la discusión sobre un breve comentario que Traverso incluye en su libro Revolution. An Intellectual History (2021), que hacía alusión a una imagen problemática del fotógraf…

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• Longing for the <i>Sonderweg</i>

  New German Critique · 2023-11-01 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The highly controversial idea of Sonderweg, a special path to modernity, is frequently invoked to depict the history of Germany in the twentieth century. Initially claimed by nationalists as an exceptionalism proudly opposed to the development of both France and the United Kingdom, the German Sonderweg became a stigma after 1945, the mark of the wrong turn that had led to National Socialism. Beyond these debates, the thought remains that, under the shadow of this supposedly unique destiny, Germa…

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• Auschwitz and Hiroshima: Günther Anders

  Historical Materialism · 2024-10-04 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Widely translated into several Western languages (with the exception of English), Günther Anders (1902–92) has, in the last two decades, attained the status of a classic figure within twentieth-century critical thought, close to Herbert Marcuse and the Frankfurt School without ever becoming one of its members. This article analyses his intellectual trajectory and his body of work, which includes many articles, essays, short stories, and even a novel. It focuses on his Jewish roots, whic…

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Frequent coauthors

• Bernard Gibbons

  12 shared

• Régis Meyran

  6 shared

• 頼三 宇京

  4 shared

• Santiago Cueto Rúa

  3 shared

• Simon Levis Sullam

  Ca' Foscari University of Venice

  3 shared

• Juan Luis Carnagui

  3 shared

• Daniel Weissbort

  3 shared

• Emmanuel Nicolás Kahan

  Universidad Nacional de La Plata

  3 shared

Education

• PhD

  Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales

Awards & honors

• Premio Pozzale, Empoli, Florence (2014)
• Premio Lo Straniero/Gli Asini, Lecce (2018)
• Premio Napoli (2022)

Similar researchers at Cornell University

• Irina Troconish-1