List of Figures and Tables Introduction: Concepts and Practices of Comparison in Modern History Willibald Steinmetz Chapter 1. Outlines of a Historical Epistemology of Comparison: From Descartes to the Early Nineteenth Century Michael Eggers Chapter 2. Comparative Practices and their Implications: The Case of Comparative Viewing Johannes Grave Chapter 3. Above/Below, Better/Worse, or Simply Different? Metamorphoses of Social Comparison, 1600-1900 Willibald Steinmetz Chapter 4. Empowering Comparisons? The Making of Republics in the Early Modern Period Lars Behrisch Chapter 5. Comparing Europe and the Americas: The Dispute of the New World between the Sixteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Angelika Epple Chapter 6. European Colonial Empires and Victorian Imperial Exceptionalism Alex Middleton Chapter 7. Comparison and the Welfare State in Modern Europe, c.

1880-1945 Julia Moses Chapter 8. Comparison, Rivalry and Competition under Neo-Liberalism and State Socialism David Priestland Chapter 9. Comparing Economic Activities on a Global Level in the 1920s and 1930s: Motives and Consequences Martin Bemmann Chapter 10. In Search of A Global Centre of Calculation: The Washington Statistical Conferences of 1947 Daniel Speich Chassé Chapter 11. Formalized Comparisons: Rankings and Status in Higher Education Wendy Espeland Chapter 12. Good - Better - Best: The Power of Ranking Orders Bettina Heintz Index.