Kusch, Fritz

Academic Career

Scholarships

Journal Articles and Book Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)

• "Picturing Protectionism. The Tariff Question in Protectionist Cartoon Propaganda in the United States, 1894-1909," in: Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 24/4 (2025), 431-460. DOI: 10.1017/S1537781425100947.
• "Anti-Intellectualism in American Protectionism. The Protectionist Campaign against Academic Economics in the Late Nineteenth Century," in: History of Intellectual Culture 4, edited by Charlotte A. Lerg, Johan Östling, and Jana Weiß, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2025, 53-89. DOI: 10.1515/9783111636726-003.
• "Capital and Labor United? Workers, Wages, and the Tariff in Late Nineteenth-Century Protectionist Agitation," in: Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 24/2 (2025), 157-180. DOI: 10.1017/S1537781424000616.
• "A Hero of Two Worlds. The 1910/11 Steuben Statues in Washington and Potsdam and German American Memory Politics," in: Yearbook of German-American Studies 58/59 (2023/2024), 63-98. DOI: 10.17161/ygas.v58i.24732.

Other Journal Articles and Book Chapters

• "Ein Preußenkönig in Washington: Schmeichelpolitik, Statuendiplomatie und deutsche auswärtige Kulturpolitik in den USA im frühen 20. Jahrhundert," in: Forschungen zur Brandenburgischen und Preußischen Geschichte 34 (2024), 123-154. DOI: 10.3790/fbpg.2025.409896.
• (With Derek Hattemer, Selena McQuarrie, and Louise Thatcher:) "'Peculiar Peoples': The Hutterites’ Migration to Canada and the Selection of Desirable Citizens," in: Global Histories. A Student Journal 5 (2019), 31-47. DOI: 10.17169/GHSJ.2019.311.

Book Reviews

• Mark Zachary Taylor: Presidential Leadership in Feeble Times. Explaining Executive Power in the Gilded Age, in: Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 24/4 (2025), 500-502. DOI: 10.1017/S1537781425100947.
• Marc-William Palen: Pax Economica. Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World, in: International Review of Social History, 70/1 (2025), 157-160. DOI: 10.1017/S0020859025100394.
• James C. Benton: Fraying Fabric. How Trade Policy and Industrial Decline Transformed America, in: H-Soz-Kult, 02/28/2023.

Miscellaneous

• Organization of American Historians: “Future of the Past Webinar: Tariffs in Historical Perspective” (Panelist), 03/05/2026.

• Conference report: 'Der andere Sozialstaat': Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Historische Sozialpolitikforschung, in: H-Soz-Kult, 04/15/2024.

• Podcast: "Kleio - Historiker:innen der Universität Bremen im Gespräch", Episode 24, 03/15/2024.
• The Defenders. The Popular Struggle to Uphold Protectionism in the United States, ca. 1880-1930, poster at the  poster session of the 2023 Historikertag, in: L.I.S.A. Wissenschaftsportal der Gerda-Henkel-Stiftung, 09/09/2023.
• Conference report: Uneasy Neighbours: Conflict and Control in the Colonial City, c. 1870-1940, in: H-Soz-Kult, 11/14/2022 (with Fabienne Müller).

Talks / Presentations / Conference Papers

• PhD project presentation, 09/22/2026 in Philadelphia (Research colloquium of the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Historical Society of Philadelphia).
• "Picturing Protectionism: Approaching the Protectionist Imaginary through American Tariff Cartoons from the Turn of the Century", 05/16/2025 in Ankara (12th World Congress of the International American Studies Association: "Visual Americas: Image, Text, Performance").
• PhD project presentation, 05/11/2025 in Tutzing (Annual Conference of the Historians in the German Association for American Studies: Young Scholars' Forum).
• "Eine Frage des Vertrauens. Grover Cleveland, der Goldstandard und die Panic of 1893", 02/13/2025 in Freiburg (Workshop: "Politische Leiden: Zum Umgang mit Krankheit und Gebrechlichkeit von Politiker*innen und Staatsoberhäuptern vom 19. bis ins 21. Jahrhundert").
• PhD project presentation, 01/20/2025 in Essen (Colloquium: "Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte und Kulturgeschichte des Ökonomischen").
• PhD project presentation, 01/15/2025 in Göttingen (Colloquium: "Neuere Forschungen zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte").
• PhD project presentation, 12/10/2024 in Mainz (Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies).
• "Preparing the Great Tariff Debate. The Rise of Popularist Protectionism in the 1880s", 11/28/2024 in Middelburg (International PhD Seminar, Roosevelt Institute for American Studies).
• "'A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush.' Risk and Security Considerations in American Protectionist Thought and Propaganda, ca. 1890-1910", 11/08/2024 in Marburg (Workshop: “Security and Risk – Challenges for Economy and Business in the Global 20th Century”).
• "Picturing Protectionism. Karikaturen in der protektionistischen Agitation in den USA im späten 19. Jahrhundert", 06/14/2024 in Bremen (Nordlichter-Treffen).
• "The Wage Argument and the Harmony of Interests: Protectionist Labor Agitation in the United States in the Late 19th Century", 06/07/2024 in Bremen (CRC 1342 Retreat).
• “Protection and Prosperity. The American Tariff Debate in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era", 04/29/2024 in Bremen (Guest Lecture in “CO-663: History of Globalization", taught by David Noack, Constructor University Bremen).
• "German American Ethnicity and Ethnic Memory: The Case of the Steuben Statues 1910/11", 04/22/2024 (Guest Lecture in "GERM 3318-001: Texas German Experiences", taught by Barbara Berthold, University of Texas at Arlington).
• "Homemaking Abroad. The 1910/11 Steuben Monuments in Washington and Potsdam and German American Political Engagement", 04/06/2024 in Austin (Texas) (Society for German American Studies Symposium).
• “Der gute Preuße? Die Berliner Steubenausstellung 1980 als Teil der Preußenwelle und Ausläufer des deutsch-amerikanischen Steubenmythos“, 02/16/2024 in Berlin (Workshop: "Preußen wieder chic? Die Preußenausstellung 1981 zwischen Politik, Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit“).
• "Labor and Capital United? Popular Protectionist Agitation and the Attempt to Win Over Labor in the Late Nineteenth Century", 09/09/2023 (Journal of the History of Ideas Blog Graduate Student Symposium 2023: The Intellectual History of Labor).
• "'In a Cloud of Theory'. Die protektionistische Agitation gegen ökonomisches Wissen in den USA, ca. 1880-1920", 07/07/2023 in Aachen (Workshop "Wissensgeschichte").
• PhD project presentation, 06/20/2023 in Bremen (PhD Proposal Defense, Doctoral Colloquium of the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences).
• PhD project presentation, 03/20/2023 in Heidelberg (Spring Academy of the Heidelberg Center for American Studies).
• “A Hero of two Worlds? The 1910/11 Statues of Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben between Memory, Politics, and Diplomacy”, 08/19/2022 in Berlin (6th World Conference of the International Federation for Public History (IFPH)).