Margaret Lavinia Anderson

My project examines Germany's relationship to the Ottoman Empire in an era when controversy over Ottoman treatment of Armenians (from massacres in the 90s to genocide in 1915) threatened the Foreign Office's traditional monopoly on foreign policy and forced leaders to seek ways to influence their own public, short of entering the public square itself. By returning the "Eastern Question" to its central position in Europe's long 19th century, my study expands our understanding of Europe's own horizons; explores the relationship between Germany's authoritarian traditions and its increasingly open society during peace and "total war;" and reconsiders the factors enabling genocide and the (sometimes) hard choices of individuals torn between reason of state and wider circles of obligation.