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Books > Humanities > History > European history > General
Novelists, artists, and philosophers of the eighteenth century understood pleasure as a virtue--a gift to be shared with one's companion, with a reader, or with the public. In this daring new book, Thomas Kavanagh overturns the prevailing scholarly tradition that views eighteenth-century France primarily as the incubator of the Revolution. Instead, Kavanagh demonstrates how the art and literature of the era put the experience of pleasure at the center of the cultural agenda, leading to advances in both ethics and aesthetics. Kavanagh shows that pleasure is not necessarily hedonistic or opposed to Enlightenment ideals in general; rather, he argues that the pleasure of individuals is necessary for the welfare of their community.
In 1870, the Orthodox Bulgarian Exarchate was established by the Sultan's decree without the consent of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The inability to reach a compromise led to a schism within Orthodoxy and divided Ottoman Christian communities into traditionalists versus nationalists, Greeks versus Slavs and Arabs. Those conflicts were exacerbated by the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878, refugee movements, and the increasingly deadly rivalry of irredentist Balkan states. Containing Balkan Nationalism focuses on the implications of the Bulgarian national movement that developed in the context of Ottoman modernization and of European imperialism in the Near East. The movement aimed to achieve the status of an independent church, separating ethnic Bulgarians from the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Independent church status meant cultural and legal autonomy in the Islamic structure of the Ottoman Empire. Denis Vovchenko highlights the efforts put forth by ecclesiastics, publicists, and diplomats in Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Greece, and Bulgaria in developing and implementing various plans to reconcile ethnic differences within existing religious and dynastic frameworks. The arrangements were often inspired by modern visions of a political and cultural union of Orthodox Slavs and Greeks. Whether put into effect or simply discussed, they demonstrate the strength and flexibility of supranational identities and institutions on the eve of the First World War. The book should encourage contemporary analysts and policymakers to explore the potential of such traditional loyalties to defuse ethnic tensions today and to serve as organic alternatives to generic mechanical models of power-sharing and federation.
The 1970s marked the end of the years in which the United States was the guarantor of a free world trade order, while Western Europe made efforts to catch up with the economic superpower. In this book, Dr La Barca explains how the trade environment and trade policies in the United States and in the European Community during the 1970s were more complex than frequently acknowledged. In particular, he examines the promotion of greater governmental protection of national industries and the relationship between such tendencies and the negotiations aimed at reducing trade barriers. This analysis shows how the United States and the European Community agreed to pursue their protectionist practices, thereby creating a barrier to serious efforts to enable free trade.
Alternative Histories of the Self investigates how people re-imagined the idea of the unique self in the period from 1762 to 1917. Some used the notion of the unique self to justify their gender and sexual transgression, but others rejected the notion of the unique self and instead demanded the sacrifice of the self for the good of society. The substantial introductory chapter places these themes in the cultural context of the long nineteenth century, but the book as a whole represents an alternative method for studying the self. Instead of focusing on the thoughts of great thinkers, this book explores how five unusual individuals twisted conventional ideas of the self as they interpreted their own lives. These subjects include: * The Chevalier/e d'Eon, a renegade diplomat who was outed as a woman * Anne Lister, who wrote coded diaries about her attraction to women * Richard Johnson, who secretly criticized the empire that he served * James Hinton, a Victorian doctor who publicly advocated philanthropy and privately supported polygamy * Edith Ellis, a socialist lesbian who celebrated the 'abnormal' These five case studies are skilfully used to explore how the notion of the unique individual was used to make sense of sexual or gender non-conformity. Yet this queer reading will go beyond same-sex desire to analyse the issue of secrets and privacy; for instance, what stigma did men who practiced or advocated unconventional relationships with women incur? Finally, Clark ties these unusual lives to the wider questions of ethics and social justice: did those who questioned sexual conventions challenge political traditions as well? This is a highly innovative study that will be of interest to intellectual historians of modern Britain and Europe, as well as historians of gender and sexuality.
Jacques-Pierre Brissot was among the major architects of the French Revolution, yet history has vilified and then dismissed him. His early intellectual development was strongly influenced by Enlightenment ideas and aspirations. However, his own remarkable construct of a just, democratic society, universal suffrage, and a renewed humanity living in moral and political freedom foreshadowed many present-day ideologies. The prevailing view of Brissot has pigeonholed him as Brissot, the police spy, a label difficult to remove. Although this contention has been disputed at some length, Loft presents an alternative view of the forces that shaped Brissot's social and political activism. Tracing the gradual evolution of his ideology from its earliest stages reveals that he did not suddenly become a radical in the mid-1780s. An open, objective, and thorough evaluation of Brissot's work uncovers the roots of his lifelong commitment to reformist, egalitarian, and democratic ideals. To understand Brissot, the man and his work, one must assess the cultural, intellectual, and political influences that surrounded him. Loft offers the necessary fusion of text and context, providing a serious reconsideration of Brissot and his contributions to the history of human rights. Scholars and other researchers of the French Revolution and European political thought will find this study of particular value.
This book investigates early modern women's interventions in politics and the public sphere during times of civil war in England and France. Taking this transcultural and comparative perspective, and the period designation "early modern" expansively, Antigone's Example identifies a canon of women's civil-war writings; it elucidates their historical specificity as well as the transhistorical context of civil war, a context which, it argues, enabled women's participation in political thought.
The Atlantic represented a world of opportunity in the eighteenth
century, but it represented division also, separating families
across its coasts. Whether due to economic shifts, changing
political landscapes, imperial ambitions, or even simply personal
tragedy, many families found themselves fractured and disoriented
by the growth and later fissure of a larger Atlantic world. Such
dislocation posed considerable challenges to all individuals who
viewed orderly family relations as both a general and a personal
ideal.
This is an unrivalled collection of source material on women in the ancient Greek world including literary, rhetorical, philosophical and legal sources, and papyri and inscriptions. The study of women in the ancient Mediterranean world is a topic of growing interest among classicists and ancient historians, and also students of history, sociology and women's studies. This volume is an essential resource supplying a compilation of source material in translation, with contextual commentaries, a glossary of key terms and an annotated bibliography. Texts come from literary, rhetorical, philosophical and legal sources, as well as papyri and inscriptions, and each text will be placed into the cultural mosaic to which it belongs. Ranging geographically from the ancient Near East through Egypt and Greece to Rome and its wider empire, the volume follows a clear chronological structure. Beginning in the eighth century BCE the coverage continues through archaic and Classical Athens, Etruscan Italy and the Roman Republic, concluding with the late Roman Empire and the advent of Christianity. "The Continuum Sources in Ancient History" series presents a definitive collection of source material in translation, combined with expert contextual commentary and annotation to provide a comprehensive survey of each volume's subject. Material is drawn from literary, as well as epigraphic, legal and religious, sources. Aimed primarily at undergraduate students, the series will also be invaluable for researchers, and faculty devising and teaching courses.
The collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918 left all Austrians in a state of political, social, and economic turmoil, but Jews in particular found their lives shaken to the core. Although Jews' former comfort zone suddenly disappeared, the dissolution of the Dual Monarchy also created plenty of room for innovation and change in the realm of culture. Jews eagerly took up the challenge to fill this void, becoming heavily invested in culture as a way to shape their new, but also vexed, self-understandings. By isolating the years between the World Wars and examining formative events in both Vienna and the provinces, Becoming Austrians: Jews and Culture between the World Wars demonstrates that an intensified marking of people, places, and events as "Jewish" accompanied the crises occurring in the wake of Austria-Hungary's collapse, leaving profound effects on Austria's cultural legacy. In some cases, the consequences of this marking resulted in grave injustices. Philipp Halsmann, for example, was wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of his father years before he became a world-famous photographer. And the men who shot and killed writer Hugo Bettauer and physicist and philosopher Moritz Schlick received inadequate punishment for their murderous deeds. But engagements with the terms of Jewish difference also characterized the creation of culture, as shown in Hugo Bettauer's satirical novel The City without Jews and its film adaptation, other novels by Veza Canetti, David Vogel, A.M. Fuchs, Vicki Baum, and Mela Hartwig, and performances at the Salzburg Festival and the Yiddish theater in Vienna. By examining the role Jewish difference played in the lives, works, and deeds of a broad range of Austrians, this study reveals how the social codings of politics, gender, and nation received a powerful boost with the application of the "Jewish" label.
From 1924 to 1946 the Republic of Turkey was in effect ruled as an authoritarian single-party regime. During these years the state embarked upon an extensive reform programme of modernisation and nation-building. Alexandros Lamprou here offers an alternative understanding of social change and state-society relations in Turkey, shifting the focus from the state as the prime instigator of change to the population's participation in the process of reform. Through the study of the 'People's Houses', the community centres opened and operated by the Republican People's Party in most cities and towns of Turkey, and using previously unpublished archival material, Lamprou analyses how ordinary people experienced, negotiated and resisted the reforms in the 1930s and 1940s and how this process contributed to the shaping of social identities. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars of nation-building, socio-cultural change and state-society relations in modern Turkey.
This book examines why and how nannies have appeared in Russian literature from 1700 to the late 20th century, and why they have engendered a set of myths. This book is principally about women - women who care for small children - and about ideas or myths surrounding both individual nannies and nannies in the abstract. Its two major themes are thus reality and constructed reality. It examines how a figure that fell all too easily into a near caricature still retained tremendous emotional power and specificity in the lives of so many Russians, especially creative writers and artists. Secondarily, the book concerns the limits of autobiography and biography, the conscious and unconscious manipulation of memory, and the autobiographical fallacy. An important subtext that recurs frequently is that of intellectuals seeking to (super)impose their own notions, values, and ideals upon others to satisfy their personal needs and desires. One part concerns real-life nannies, the role(s) they played in and the impact they had on their charges' lives - mostly in childhood. This story of real-life caretakers is documented in all kinds of ego-documents and illustrated in a great deal of fiction. Another part explores the ways in which the idea and myths of the nanny played out in Russia, in history and culture, particularly in literature but also in other spheres of art. This section demonstrates that not-so-real stories about many of these caretakers have grown in Russian culture to the point of taking on a life of their own. The final part is a discussion of how and why the nanny figure, in Russia as elsewhere, became a cultural phenomenon and symbol. "The author has an impressive grasp of the primary sources and he writes well. The subject is interesting and important and has been overlooked by historians and literature scholars." -Barbara Evans Newman, Professor of History Emeritus, The University of Akron.
"Elye of Saint-Gilles" tells the story of Elye - the son of Count Julien of Saint-Gilles, a vassal of William of Orange - and of his exploits during his youth and early knighthood. It is part of the William of Orange cycle, whose historical kernel is linked to events of the First and Fourth Crusades and the Reconquest of Spain. As Elye is dubbed a knight, he endures an insult from his father, so he undertakes a self-imposed exile from the court. It is not long, however, before he encounters and battles Saracens. Despite his prowess, they capture and transport him across the sea and attempt to convert him to Islam. After escaping and killing many more Saracens, he himself is mortally wounded but rescued by his own vassal Galopin - the famous character who was the prototype of Shakespeare's Oberon and who makes his literary debut in this work. Galopin delivers Elye to the healing hands of an emir's daughter, Rosamonde, who saves his life. In return, he saves her from an unsuitable marriage with a Saracen elder. For this Elye is again attacked by Saracens, but he is finally rescued by his father Julien, William of Orange, and King Louis. In the end the Saracen lands are converted, Rosamonde and Galopin are married, all make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and Elye is married at Paris to Avisse, the sister of King Louis, and he becomes the king's seneschal. Elye of Saint-Gilles is the first English translation of the Old French chanson de geste and includes a new critical edition, facing the English text. This work encapsulates many of the standard elements of the French chanson de geste and provides an excellent example of the virtues of this literary form for entertainment and instruction. The sole manuscript containing "Elye," and its companion piece "Aiol," is found in the 1405 inventory of the library of Margaret of Flanders, duchess of Valois, whose family had been key figures in the First and Fourth Crusades and the Reconquest of Spain. In the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the court of Flanders was also a dynamic center of literary activity unrivalled in production by either Champagne or Paris. Dual-language edition. First English translation. Introduction, bibliography, notes, index.
Did you know that the Swiss mountain city Chur was a Roman Curia, namely, a magistrate run by the faraway might of Rome? Learn more insightful facts and fascinating anecdotes about thousands of European place-names, all with a touch of humor. Wonder as you wander in real or armchair travels - and open the way to many unsuspected avenues of thought!
In spite of all the stories about Germany during Hitler's heyday, virtually nothing has been written about the 105 Marian Apparitions that occurred from 1937 - 1940. The sightings happened in Heede, a village close to the Dutch border and less than twenty miles from the birthplace of author Hans Rolfes. Totally unexpected, not unlike what took place in Lourdes, the sightings were seen by four local girls. This raised the ire in Berlin to such an extent that the girls, then 11 to 13, were placed in a mental institution and a hospital for ten weeks. Hitler's obsessive interest was the industrial behemoth Krupp and its nearby firing range, where the "Big Bertha" rattled dishes in the author's home as it threw one-ton shells airborne. The events in Heede, so good, so pure, so hard-to-explain had no value for him. Today he and his ilk are gone, but tens of thousands of Christians flock annually to the area. The veil of silence surrounding Heede was lifted only recently, with its official recognition as a Marian Prayer Site. Many more events are described, including the author's unbelievable experience when he and other boys investigated an Allied bomb that suddenly, precipitously, exploded.... Hans G. Rolfes is a retired professional engineer who lives in Westchester, N.Y. He was a senior consultant for General Foods for a quarter century-the basis for his book, General Foods, America's Premier Food Company. He has visited and studied at the apparition site in Heede, Germany, many times.
HISTORY OF COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY -. PREFACE - This book has been produced in response to an insistent demand from color workers for exhaustive information on the many forms of research that have developed the various color processes of photography into the
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) was a French political thinker and historian, and wrote the famous work "Democracy in America" in two volumes. This work is renowned for characterising the American Institutions and adding to the understanding of the United States like no other. He analysed the social standards of people and the relationship between raising social standards and the free market. He thereby became one of the founding fathers of sociology and political science. This book is a seminal text in economic sociology. Tocqueville has the capacity to stand back from the object of his study and to reflect deeply and at times with wit, whilst offering the reader his incisive clarity. This collection includes both volumes of Democracy in America, in addition it includes the "Recollections of Alexis de Tocqueville" - his thoughts and observations on the French Revolution, another work demonstrating his shrewd objective perspective. He identified the hazards of the course that his country was taking and also the difficulties of ensuring that there was both equality and freedom. It is a first-hand account of the upheavals that the country suffered over the months of the revolution - consequently it is exhilarating, honest and thrilling to read. Tocqueville's analysis is relevant for any democracy and consequently this work is relevant far beyond the borders of France.
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