“[A] groundbreaking and engaging monograph . . . . Wildenthal’s text is provocative and absorbing. It will be central reading for students and scholars in the fields of German history, gender history, and European imperial history—and this reader can already testify not just to its intellectual value, but to its great effectiveness in the classroom, too.” — Lara Kriegel , Journal of Colonialism & Colonial History
“This book is a valuable addition to the already enormous corpus of literature about that well-studied topic, the German colonial empire. It is certainly a well-researched volume. . . . By incorporating feminist concerns within German colonial history, and by utilizing the terminology associated with such concerns (gendering of space, for instance), the author follows a new direction in German colonial literature.” — Arthur J. Knoll , Jahrbuch für Europäische Überseegeschichte
"German Women for Empire is an excellently documented and intricately argued study of women's role in German overseas expansion." — Kathleen M. Blee , Journal of Women's History
"German Women for Empire both stands as a seminal, ground-breaking study of women and German colonialism, and leaves room for further research in this field." — Maureen Healy , German Quarterly
"[A]n important addition to histories of imperial feminism and gender histories of modern Western colonialism. . . . This is a rich and nuanced presentation of gendered colonial culture and politics in Germany." — Kirk Arden Hoppe , Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"[R]efreshingly balanced and sophisticated. . . . A narrative that focuses on the institutional and political history of organizations can easily become dry, but Wildenthal avoids that danger by including anecdotes, taken both from history and from imaginative literature, that show the impact of official policies on individual lives. This is both a scholarly and a readable book." — Ann Taylor Allen , Central European History
"Lora Wildenthal has produced a superb study of German women’s relationship to empire, race, and national identity during a crucial period in German history. Her work nicely combines the methods and techniques of social history with the nuanced perspectives of women’s studies scholarship. . . . The book should be considered mandatory for students of German colonialism and vital reading for those attempting to come to terms with the relationship of Western feminism to colonial ideology generally."
— T. J. Boisseau , International Journal of African Historical Studies
"Lora Wildenthal’s German Women for Empire is a most welcome addition to the burgeoning historical scholarship on the relatively understudied German colonial period. Yet the real success of her book lies in her skillful, subtle, and innovative negotiation of the terrain between several important themes in modern German history—colonialism, racism, and gender. . . . Her book fills an important gap in the literature on German colonialism and in the historiography of Germany more generally." — Michelle Moyd , African Studies Review
"Lora Wildenthal’s book on German colonialist women fits well into the new literature on European colonial empire. . . . I liked Wildenthal’s forthright effort to negotiate two distinct projects in German history. . . . For scholars confronting the problematics of agency and analytical categories in themes of race, gender, and empire, this book is of considerable value." — Jean H. Quataert , American Historical Review
"The publication of Lora Wildenthal’s book has been eagerly awaited. It does not disappoint. It is an important, fascinating work and a significant contribution to German colonial and women’s history. It also suggests, mainly by example and implication, interesting new directions in international history." — Woodruff D. Smith , International History Review
"Wildenthal's book is exhaustively researched and documented, with a quarter of its bulk devoted to documentation. The richness of the book's historical particularity makes it valuable contribution to the study of colonialist history and the material functioning of colonialist ideology." — David Robinson, Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies
“This stunningly original and important book will define scholarly standards and inspire other studies for a long time to come. Wildenthal probes the nexus of German women’s history and colonial politics more deeply, more extensively, and more systematically than any other piece of scholarship I know.” — Leslie A. Adelson, author of Making Bodies, Making History: Feminism and German Identity
“Wildenthal tells an important set of stories about the implication of white women in the modern imperial enterprise. This book will become a must-read for German historians, students of feminism, modern women, and empire and reform movements; as well as a model for how to do colonial women’s history.” — Antoinette Burton, author of At the Heart of Empire: Indians and the Colonial Encounter in Late-Victorian Britain