The Anticolonial Moment and the Global Influence of the Leipzig School: A Sociology of Cold War Intellectual History

During the Cold War, the Leipzig School developed one of the leading approaches to historical colonialism, having an intellectual influence not only in East Germany but in also academic circles in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Its success was not solely due to the intellectual novelty of its model but also to the School's cohesive and coordinated efforts to expand its influence. Taking a sociological perspective inspired by Pierre Bourdieu and Randall Collins, this article examines how Leipzig historians navigated the intellectual field, transcended Cold War ideological divides, and shaped local academic communities across diverse contexts – from Italy and Spain to Argentina and Namibia – within a global academic framework. However, Cold War intellectual production, including that of the Leipzig historians, often addressed issues of the Global South while largely neglecting the contributions of scholars from these regions.