Mary Ellen von der Heyden Lecture

Germany, My Elsewhere

Living in Berlin shaped Nell Irvin Painter’s best-known book, The History of White People (2010). Her time in Germany and interest in the country’s public monuments and memorials made European intellectual history more concrete. In recent years, Painter has come to sense ever more meaningful parallels between how Germany and the American South have confronted their pasts. In this talk, she reflects upon her experience of Germany and the ways it has shaped her thinking.