Humanities & Social Sciences
Statelessness after Arendt
European refugees in China and the Pacific during the Second World War
by Kolleen Guy, Jay Winter
Description
This book is a study of statelessness in the period of the Second World War. It breaks new ground by focusing not on Europe, but on the Asian and Pacific theatres of the conflict. This perspective enables us to go beyond Hannah Arendt's classic account of statelessness in her Origins of Totalitarianism.
To her, statelessness was the product of a failed European nation-state system. We find a very different story when we examine the history of stateless people, many of them Jews, fleeing to Asia from Europe. In Asia, we see that being stateless was not a uniform experience, but a variety of possibilities reflecting the political structure of the states and cities in which refugees found shelter. We find too that stateless people managed to enter the political realm long before they reached the threshold of citizenship.
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Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Congo [DRC], Congo, Republic of the, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Hongkong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, China, Macedonia [FYROM], Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Reunion, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tokelau, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Sudan, Cyprus, Palestine, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Liechtenstein, Azerbaijan, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Dominican Republic, Myanmar, Monaco
Endorsements
This book is a study of statelessness in the period of the Second World War. It breaks new ground by focusing not on Europe, but on the Asian and Pacific theatres of the conflict. This perspective enables us to go beyond Hannah Arendt's classic account of statelessness in her Origins of Totalitarianism. To her, statelessness was the product of a failed system of European nation-states. We find a very different story when we examine the history of stateless people, many of them Jews, coming to Asia from Europe to escape persecution. In the turbulent world of the 1930s and 1940s, being stateless in Harbin or Shanghai was not the same as being stateless in Hamburg or Vienna. In China and elsewhere in Asia, statelessness was not a uniform experience, but a variety of possibilities reflecting the political structure of the states and cities in which refugees found shelter. We also break new ground in showing how the stateless managed to enter the political realm long before they reached the threshold of citizenship. They developed a discourse of displacement through which they expressed their political identity as members of collectives, as people living together, joined in a common cause, at a time of terrible uncertainty. They spoke to each other in their own language, in newspapers, cafes, soup kitchens, theatres, sports clubs, schools, and synagogues, and thereby took over the authorship of their own narratives. By doing so, we conclude, they helped forge their pathway back to freedom.
Reviews
This book is a study of statelessness in the period of the Second World War. It breaks new ground by focusing not on Europe, but on the Asian and Pacific theatres of the conflict. This perspective enables us to go beyond Hannah Arendt's classic account of statelessness in her Origins of Totalitarianism. To her, statelessness was the product of a failed system of European nation-states. We find a very different story when we examine the history of stateless people, many of them Jews, coming to Asia from Europe to escape persecution. In the turbulent world of the 1930s and 1940s, being stateless in Harbin or Shanghai was not the same as being stateless in Hamburg or Vienna. In China and elsewhere in Asia, statelessness was not a uniform experience, but a variety of possibilities reflecting the political structure of the states and cities in which refugees found shelter. We also break new ground in showing how the stateless managed to enter the political realm long before they reached the threshold of citizenship. They developed a discourse of displacement through which they expressed their political identity as members of collectives, as people living together, joined in a common cause, at a time of terrible uncertainty. They spoke to each other in their own language, in newspapers, cafes, soup kitchens, theatres, sports clubs, schools, and synagogues, and thereby took over the authorship of their own narratives. By doing so, we conclude, they helped forge their pathway back to freedom.
Author Biography
Jay Winter is Charles J. Stille Professor of History at Yale University
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Manchester University Press
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View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Manchester University Press
- Publication Date May 2025
- Orginal LanguageEnglish
- ISBN/Identifier 9781526183026 / 1526183021
- Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
- FormatPrint PDF
- Pages368
- ReadershipGeneral/trade; College/higher education; Professional and scholarly
- Publish StatusPublished
- Dimensions234 X 156 mm
- Biblio NotesDerived from Proprietary 6250
- SeriesCultural History of Modern War
- Reference Code16925
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