Comparative cases are needed to test the assumption of German and French national singularity

Evidence

Because historical comparisons flesh out commonalities and differences between individual cases that help to describe, interpret, and explain them in greater depth, they enable us to carve out peculiarities, to check generalizations, to defamiliarize the familiar, and to de-provincialize concepts by forcing us to reconsider assumptions about the singularity of the cases. Thus, a comparison focusing on the integration of both groups does not ‘essentialize’ the two nations as static units but sheds light on their spatial and cultural variability and exposes the changing and unstable nature of German and French ‘nationhood’. — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 44

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: National historical variations depend partly on international relations

Broader Connections

• National historical variations depend partly on international relations #corroborates (0.75)