Faculty Postholders
Dr Oliver Zimmer
Liz.Phil., Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S.
Lecturer (CUF) in Modern History
Email: oliver.zimmer@univ.ox.ac.uk
Research Interests
I work on modern European history (1760-1939), particularly Germany and Switzerland, from an (increasingly) integrated perspective. Themes of special interest include nationalism, religion, and citizenship. My current project is a comparative urban history of religion and identity formation in Germany c. 1860-1900.
Supervision Interests
German-speaking Europe c. 1760-1945; nationalism; memory and commemoration; religion.
Selected Publications:
- 'Competing Memories of the Nation. Liberal Historians and the Reconstruction of the Swiss Past, 1870-1900', Past and Present. Vol 168 (2000) pp. 194-226
- A Contested Nation. History, Memory and Nationalism in Switzerland, 1761-1891. (Cambridge, 2003) 269pp.
- Nationalism in Europe 1890-1940 [translated into Japanese and Chinese]. (Basingstoke, 2003) 160pp.
- 'Boundary Mechanisms and Symbolic Resources: Towards a Process-Oriented Approach to National Identity', Nations and Nationalism. Vol 9 (2) (2003) pp. 173-193
- '"A Unique Fusion of the Natural and the Man-Made": The trajectory of Swiss nationalism, 1933-1939', Journal of Contemporary History. Vol 39 (1) (2004) pp. 5-24
- (ed.) Power and the Nation in European History . (Cambridge, 2005) 389pp.
- 'Circumscribing Community in Constructions of Swiss Nationhood' in What is a Nation? Europe 1789 - 1914. (Oxford, 2006) pp. 100 - 119
- 'Nation und Religion. Von der Imagination des Nationalen zur Verarbeitung von Nationalisierungsprozessen', Historische Zeitschrift. Vol 283 (3) (2006) pp. 617-656
- 'Beneath the “culture war”: Corpus Christi processions and mutual accommodation in the Second German Empire', The Journal of Modern History. Vol 82 (2010) pp. 288-334
Future Publications:
- 'Urban economies and the national imagination: the German South, 1860 - 1900' in Nationalism and the reshaping of urban communities in Europe, 1848 - 1914. (Basingstoke, 2011)
- 'Nationalism in Europe, 1918 - 1945' in Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism. (Oxford, 2011)
- The Nation in the Town: Reshaping German Communities, 1860 - 1900. (Oxford, 2012)
Research Interests and Activities
