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Books > History > European history > General
At the end of the 19th century, German historical scholarship had
grown to great prominence. Academics around the world imitated
their German colleagues. Intellectuals described historical
scholarship as a foundation of the modern worldview. To many, the
modern age was an 'age of history'. This book investigates how
German historical scholarship acquired this status. Modern
Historiography in the Making begins with the early Enlightenment,
when scholars embraced the study of the past as a modernizing
project, undermining dogmatic systems of belief and promoting
progressive ideals, such a tolerance, open mindedness and
reform-readiness. Kasper Risbjerg Eskildsen looks at how this
modernizing project remained an important motivation and
justification for historical scholarship until the 20th century.
Eskildsen successfully argues that German historical scholarship
was not, as we have been told since the early 20th century, a
product of historicism, but rather of Enlightenment ideals. The
book offers this radical revision of the history of scholarship by
focusing on practices of research and education. It examines how
scholars worked and why they cared. It shows how their efforts
forever changed our relationship not only to the past, but also to
the world we live in.
The year is 1932. In Rome, the Fascist leader Benito Mussolini
unveils a giant obelisk of white marble, bearing the Latin
inscription MVSSOLINI DVX. Invisible to the cheering crowds, a
metal box lies immured in the obelisk's base. It contains a few
gold coins and, written on a piece of parchment, a Latin text: the
Codex fori Mussolini. What does this text say? Why was it buried
there? And why was it written in Latin? The Codex, composed by the
classical scholar Aurelio Giuseppe Amatucci (1867-1960), presents a
carefully constructed account of the rise of Italian Fascism and
its leader, Benito Mussolini. Though written in the language of
Roman antiquity, the Codex was supposed to reach audiences in the
distant future. Placed under the obelisk with future excavation and
rediscovery in mind, the Latin text was an attempt at directing the
future reception of Italian Fascism. This book renders the Codex
accessible to scholars and students of different disciplines,
offering a thorough and wide-ranging introduction, a clear
translation, and a commentary elucidating the text's rhetorical
strategies, historical background, and specifics of phrasing and
reference. As the first detailed study of a Fascist Latin text, it
also throws new light on the important role of the Latin language
in Italian Fascist culture.
This book provides a holistic overview of the history of
sustainable development in Denmark over the last fifty years,
covering a host of issues central to the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs): ending poverty; ensuring inclusive and equitable
education; reducing inequality; making cities and settlements
inclusive, safe and resilient; and fostering responsible production
and consumption patterns, to name a few. It argues for a new
framework of sustainability history, one that is truly global in
outlook. As such, it explores what truly global sustainable
development would look like. It considers how economic growth has
been the driver for prosperity in the global north, and considers
whether sustainable development and continued economic growth are
irreconcilable, and what the future of sustainable development
initiatives in Denmark might look like.
Robert Knight's book examines how the 60,000 strong Slovene
community in the Austrian borderland province of Carinthia
continued to suffer in the wake of Nazism's fall. It explores how
and why Nazi values continued to be influential in a post-Nazi era
in postwar Central Europe and provides valuable insights into the
Cold War as a point of interaction of local, national and
international politics. Though Austria was re-established in 1945
as Hitler's 'first victim', many Austrians continued to share
principles which had underpinned the Third Reich. Long treated as
both inferior and threatening prior to the rise of Hitler and then
persecuted during his time in power, the Slovenes of Carinthia were
prevented from equality of schooling by local Nazis in the years
that followed World War Two, behavior that was tolerated in Vienna
and largely ignored by the rest of the world. Slavs in Post-Nazi
Austria uses this vital case study to discuss wider issues relating
to the stubborn legacy of Nazism in postwar Europe and to instill a
deeper understanding of the interplay between collective and
individual (liberal) rights in Central Europe. This is a
fascinating study for anyone interested in knowing more about the
disturbing imprint that Nazism left in some parts of Europe in the
postwar years.
This fascinating history book details the Moorish arrival, conquest
and rule over Spain and the Iberian peninsula in Europe. We hear of
how the Moors arrived and conquered the Iberian peninsula,
remaining for some 800 years. Tariq ibn-Ziyad, arriving in 711 AD,
began an upheaval never before seen in the European continent. The
Moorish brought industriousness and commerce, a sophisticated code
of laws, beautiful architecture, and outstanding scholarly
achievements in astronomy and mathematics - together, these would
forever shape the culture of Spain and Portugal. Stanley Lane-Poole
was a historian and archaeologist who worked in partnership with
the British Museum for eighteen years. Specializing in Middle
Eastern and North African culture and architecture, it was through
years of painstaking study and compilation of existing documents
that the author was able to compose this, and other histories.
Rosemary Wakeman's original survey text comprehensively explores
modern European urban history from 1815 to the present day. It
provides a journey to cities and towns across the continent, in
search of the patterns of development that have shaped the urban
landscape as indelibly European. The focus is on the built
environment, the social and cultural transformations that mark the
patterns of continuity and change, and the transition to modern
urban society. Including over 60 images that serve to illuminate
the analysis, the book examines whether there is a European city,
and if so, what are its characteristics? Wakeman offers an
interdisciplinary approach that incorporates concepts from cultural
and postcolonial studies, as well as urban geography, and provides
full coverage of urban society not only in western Europe, but also
in eastern and southern Europe, using various cities and city types
to inform the discussion. The book provides detailed coverage of
the often-neglected urbanization post-1945 which allows us to more
clearly understand the modernizing arc Europe has followed over the
last two centuries.
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