"Well-written and highly informative... no one took empires more seriously than the imperialists on the ground.... Wempe has given us a fine and dispassionate portrait of just what made them tick." 

• Leonard V. Smith, German History

"This timely and meticulously researched book based on a wide array of archival material masterfully embarks on the interaction of "colonial Germans" with their "fallen empire" after the Treaty of Versailles and how they came to terms with their new roles in practicing imperialism without an empire. By stressing imperially-based notions of "Europeanness" it is truly revisionist. Written with exemplary lucidity and thoroughness it shows that the German colonial past rightly claims more than just a niche chapter in the history of European expansionism. By contrast it provides fascinating theoretical and methodological tools for widening our understanding of individuals' lives in shaping the peculiarities of European colonial empires."

• Professor Benedikt Stuchtey, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany

"Inter-war, colonial historians and German studies experts have been waiting for a study that examines Weimar colonialism. This book is at the cutting edge of present day scholarship. It is part of a wider endeavor to re-examine the interwar years and networks of internationalism, and brings all of us that extra step further." 

• Christine Winter, Matthew Flinders Fellow in History, Flinders University, South Australia

"This book situates the understudied case of postcolonial Germany in the recent historiographical literature on the League of Nations - well-written, thoughtfully framed, and full of fresh information." 

• Lora Wildenthal, John Antony Weir Professor of History, Rice University

"Germany after empire is still largely uncharted terrain. But when Germany's colonial empire fell in 1918, this did not spell the end of German imperialism. As Sean Wempe shows in this fascinating and richly documented study, returning officials, missionaries, and settlers used the League of Nations to insert themselves into the new imperialism of the interwar period that flourished even in the absence of formal colonies" 

• Sebastian Conrad, author of German Colonialism: A Short History

"A fascinating work that deals expertly with an important period of change in German understandings of empire." 

• Matthew P. Fitzpatrick, Associate Professor in International History, Flinders University

"The end of World War I meant the dismantling of Germany's overseas empire, but it did not mean the end of colonialist politics. Revenants of the German Empire narrates a new history of German colonialists' disparate efforts to lay claim to Germany's colonial past and to articulate colonial futures. Wempe's distinctive research shows that Germany's early decolonizing experience under the purview of the League of Nations belongs front and center in understanding later European decolonization processes."

• Michelle Moyd, author of Violent Intermediaries: African Soldiers, Conquest, and Everyday Colonialism in German East Africa

“Revenants of the German Empire offers important insights on the multi-faceted legacy of liberal imperialism and internationalism after World War I. Wempe’s command of the archival sources and ability to give voice to a previously little-known network of former German colonists is a testament to the strength of his historiographical contribution. In addition to the merits of his transnational study, Wempe does well to appeal to his readership for more scholarship that looks beyond the demarcations of the nation-state."

• Adam A. Blackler, George L. Mosse Program in History, Review of New Books

"Sean Andrew Wempe’s investigation of the afterlife in the 1920s of the Germans who lived in Germany’s colonies challenges a narrative that sees them primarily as forerunners to Nazi brutality and imperial ambitions. Instead, he follows them down divergent paths that run the gamut from rejecting German citizenship en masse in favor of South African papers in the former German Southwest Africa to embracing the new postwar era’s ostensibly more liberal and humane version of imperialism supervised by the League of Nations to, of course, trying to make their way in or even support Nazi Germany. The resulting well-written, nuanced examination of a unique German national identity, that of colonial Germans, integrates the German colonial experience into Weimar and Nazi history in new and substantive ways…This excellent book puts the lives and actions of colonial Germans in the 1920s center stage.” 

• Mark Jantzen, H-Net Reviews

"With the loss of its overseas colonies through the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the Weimar Republic became the first “postcolonial” European state. As Sean Andrew Wempe demonstrates in his lucidly written debut book, this did not end German colonial politics or the country’s colonial entanglements. Rather, “colonial Germans”—a somewhat amorphous group of former colonial officials, repatriated settlers, and procolonial business groups—worked to keep the matter of the former colonies alive through active national lobbying and by using the League of Nations to make claims as a European participant in the civilizing mission of the new liberal imperial internationalism that emerged in the 1920s and early 1930s. [...] The book is thus an important contribution not only to the literatures on the Weimar Republic, colonial revisionism, and European postcoloniality but also to a revised perspective on the League of Nations and Permanent Mandates Commission. Rather than mere playthings of the great powers or failures on the road to Hitler, these were vibrant interwar institutions of both internationalism and liberal imperialism whose rules and oversight enjoyed legitimacy. By showing the essential compatibility of interwar German colonialism with the liberal imperial colonial regimes of France and Britain, Wempe also indirectly highlights the essential similarities between German and western-European imperialisms before 1933, grounded as these were in common liberal assumptions and values."

• Eric Grimmer-Solem, American Historical Review 

"Most textbooks talk down to students or use an overly formal tone. Chronic Disparities avoids both of those traps. Students will connect with the chapters because each of them carries out the goals of the book of connecting current public health crises with a deeply rooted global historical past."

• Jessica Pearson, Macalester College, 

"Some of us love history for its own sake, but for most students the contents of a college history course seem detached, unrelated to their lives, even meaningless. Yet we are surrounded by the legacy of history. Everything around us--policy, population, culture, economy, environment--is a product of the actions and activities of people in the past. How can we hope to address the challenges we face and resolve contentious issues--inequality, health, immigration, climate change--without understanding where they come from? The volumes in the Roots of Contemporary Issues series are the tested products of years of classroom teaching and research. They address controversial issues with impartiality but not detachment, combining historical context and human agency to create accounts that are meaningful and usable for any student confronting the complex world in which they will live."

• Trevor R. Getz, San Francisco State University

"This is a truly innovative series that promises to revolutionize how world history is taught, freeing students and faculty alike from the 'tyranny of coverage' often embedded within civilizational paradigms, and facilitating sustained reflection on the roots of the most pressing issues in our contemporary world. Students' understanding of the importance of history and their interest in our discipline is sure to be heightened by these volumes that deeply contextualize and historicize current global problems."

• Nicola Foote, Arizona State University

• 2023  Wempe, Sean Andrew. “Society & Pandemics: Racism/Racial Inequality & Pandemics.” Historiana (Open-Educational Resource Site developed by EuroClio), Spring 2023. https://historiana.eu/narratives/society-pandemics-1/start.