This book will provide a thematic overview of one of European history’s most devastating famines, the Great Finnish Famine of the 1860s. In 1868, the nadir of several years of worsening economic conditions, 137,000 people (approximately 8% of the Finnish population) perished as the result of hunger and disease. The attitudes and policies enacted by Finland’s devolved administration tended to follow European norms, and therefore were often similar to the “colonial� practices seen in other famines at the time. What is distinctive about this catastrophe in a mid-nineteenth-century context, is that despite Finland being a part of the Russian Empire, it was largely responsible for its own governance, and indeed was developing its economic, political and cultural autonomy at the time of the famine. Finland’s Great Famine 1856-68 examines key themes such as the use of emergency foods, domestic and overseas charity, vagrancy and crime, emergency relief works, and emigration.

In neighborhoods, schools, community centers, and workplaces, people are using oral history to capture and collect the kinds of stories that the history books and the media tend to overlook: stories of personal struggle and hope, of war and peace, of family and friends, of beliefs, traditions, and values--the stories of our lives. "Catching Stories: A Practical Guide to Oral History" is a clear and comprehensive introduction for those with little or no experience in planning or implementing oral history projects. Opening with the key question, "Why do oral history?" the guide outlines the stages of a project from idea to final product--the interviewing process, basic technical principles, and audio and video recording techniques. The guide covers interview transcription, legal issues, archiving, funding sources, and sharing oral history with audiences. Intended for teachers, students, librarians, local historians, and volunteers as well as individuals, "Catching Stories" is the place to start for anyone who wants to document the memories and collect the stories of community or family.

This book examines successive stages in the development of the thought of Sir Herbert Butterfield in relation to fundamental issues in the science of history. In a carefully nuanced way it lays bare the unspoken motivations and hidden tensions in Butterfield's debate with himself and with a host of contemporary historians in the period between 1924-79.

This book examines the archival aesthetic of mourning and memory developed by Latin American artists and photographers between 1997-2016. Particular attention is paid to how photographs of the assassinated or disappeared political dissident of the 1970s and 1980s, as found in family albums and in official archives, were not only re-imagined as conduits for private mourning, but also became allegories of social trauma and the struggle against socio-political amnesia. Memorials, art installations, photo-essays, street projections, and documentary films are all considered as media for the reframing of these archival images from the era of the Cold War dictatorships in Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, and Uruguay. While the turn of the millennium was supposedly marked by "the end of history" and, with the advent of digital technologies, by "the end of photography," these works served to interrupt and hence, belie the dominant narrative on both counts. Indeed, the book's overarching contention is that the viewer's affective identification with distant suffering when engaging these artworks is equally interrupted: instead, the viewer is invited to apprehend memorial images as emblems of national and international histories of ideological struggle.

When is a crime a crime--or an act condoned by a significant portion of society? When is a criminal a criminal--or a revolutionary or a national hero? As the chapters in this collection make clear, what constitutes criminal activity varies, to a degree, among different societies and at different moments in a society's history. In this wide-ranging work, major historians of criminology and penology examine aspects of crime and criminal justice from medieval Western Europe to modern day Canada.

In addition to examining crime, the judicial system, and punishment in various societies, the chapters look at the evolution of police systems as societies urbanize and undergo population changes. Together these chapters look at many key questions concerning the modern study of criminal behavior. As such, the volume will be of great interest to researchers and scholars of the history of crime.

This is the only scholarly study of Arab historiography. It covers the period from 1820 and is a major contribution both to the study of Arab historiography and to our understanding of modern Arab thought.

This book explores the uses of the past in foreign policy-making. It outlines why and how political leaders refer to historical events in contemporary foreign policy discourses; the goals they hope to achieve; and the sometimes unintended foreign policy consequences of their (ab)use of historical memory. Furthermore, it looks at how political leaders shape domestic collective memories in pursuit of their international agendas, and highlight historical events leaders forget, reinterpret or obscure through selective narratives. The chapters explore a variety of theoretical concepts that shed light on how memory and foreign policy are linked in a complex and reciprocal way. The following mechanisms are discussed: the application of historical analogies; the construction of historical narratives; the creation of memory sites; the marginalisation and forgetting of the past; and the securitisation of historical memory. Through the use of a number of methodological approaches (such as discourse analysis, narrative analysis and content analysis of securitising moves) and a broad range of qualitative and quantitative data (newspaper articles, policy documents, commemorative speeches, interviews with policymakers and the observation of memory sites), the contributions highlight the interdependence of the international, national, regional and local dimensions of memory practices and history writing. Although they mostly focus on national case studies of foreign policy-making, they also reveal how representations of historical events evolve through interaction between political actors at the international level of analysis. The collection originated in the section entitled 'Exploring the Link between Historical Memory and Foreign Policy' at the annual Pan-European Conference of the European International Studies Association (EISA) 2018 held in Prague, the Czech Republic.

This book illuminates how the 'long eighteenth century' (1660-1800) persists in our present through screen and performance media, writing and visual art. Tracing the afterlives of the period from the 1980s to the present, it argues that these emerging and changing forms stage the period as a point of origin for the grounding of individual identity in personal memory, and as a site of foundational traumas that shape cultural memory.

From the headlines of local newspapers to the coverage of major media outlets, scenes of war, natural disaster, political revolution and ethnic repression greet readers and viewers at every turn. What we often fail to grasp, however, despite numerous treatments of events is the deep meaning and broader significance of crisis and disaster. The complexity and texture of these situations are most evident in the broader personal stories of those whom the events impact most intimately. Oral history, with its focus on listening and collaborative creation with participants, has emerged as a forceful approach to exploring the human experience of crisis. Despite the recent growth of crisis oral history fieldwork, there has been little formal discussion of the process and meaning of utilizing oral history in these environments. Oral history research takes on special dimensions when working in highly charged situations often in close proximity to traumatic events. The emergent inclination for oral historians to respond to document crisis calls for a shared conversation among scholars as to what we have learned from crisis work so far. This dialogue, at the heart of this collection of oral history excerpts and essays, reveals new layers of the work of the oral historian. From the perspective of crisis and disaster oral history, the book addresses both the ways in which we think about the craft of oral hsitory, and the manner in which we use it. The book presents excerpts from oral histories done after twelve world crises, followed by critical analyses by the interviewers. Additional analytical chapters set the interviews in the contexts of pyschoanalysis and oral history methodology.

This book discusses the relationship between law and memory and explores the ways in which memory can be thought of as contributing to legal socialization and legal meaning-making. Against a backdrop of critical legal pluralism which examines the distributedness of law(s), this book introduces the notion of mnemonic legality. It emphasises memory as a resource of law rather than an object of law, on the basis of how it substantiates senses of belonging and comes to frame inclusions and exclusions from a national community on the basis of linear-trajectory and growth narratives of nationhood. Overall, it explores the sensorial and affective foundations of law, implicating memory and perceptions of belonging within this process of creating legality and legitimacy. By identifying how memory comes to shape and inform notions of law, it contributes to legal consciousness research and to important questions informing much socio-legal research.

Intended for high school and undergraduate students, this work provides an engaging overview of the abolitionist movement that allows readers to consider history more directly through more than 20 primary source documents. The Abolitionist Movement: Documents Decoded collects primary sources pertaining to various aspects of the American anti-slavery movement in the 18th and 19th centuries and presents these firsthand sources alongside accessibly written, expert commentary in a visually stimulating format. Making use of primary source documents that include pamphlets, articles, speeches, slave narratives, and court decisions, the book models how scholars interpret primary sources and shows readers how to critically evaluate the key documents that chronicle this major American movement. The work begins with an essay that contextualizes the documents and guides readers toward perceiving the narrative that comes into focus when the seemingly disparate elements are read as a collection. Annotations throughout the book translate difficult passages into lay language, suggest comparisons of key passages, and encourage the reader to cross-reference documents within the volume. This book will illuminate American abolitionism and U.S. history prior to the Civil War while helping readers improve their ability to analyze and interpret primary source information-a key skill for both high school and undergraduate level students. Includes a concise introduction that summarizes the critical points in the history of slavery and abolition Provides carefully selected key documents that represent the full range of American thoughts on slavery Supplies useful annotations that guide the reader's analysis and shows how historians deconstruct documents Presents information and materials that help readers to understand the forces that supported and opposed slavery, thereby giving students a better grasp of American history in general

This book discusses the issues underlying contemporary Holocaust fiction. Using Gillian Rose's theory of Holocaust piety, it argues that, rather than enhancing our understanding of the Holocaust, contemporary fiction has instead become overly focused on gratuitous representations of bodies in pain. The book begins by discussing the locations and imagery which have come to define our understanding of the Holocaust, before then highlighting how this gradual simplification has led to an increasing sense of emotional distance from the historical past. Holocaust fiction, the book argues, attempts to close this emotional and temporal distance by creating an emotional connection to bodies in pain. Using different concepts relating to embodied experience - from Sonia Kruks' notion of feeling-with to Alison Landsberg's prosthetic memory - the book analyses several key examples of Holocaust literature and film to establish whether fiction still possesses the capacity to approach the Holocaust impiously.

We are arguably living in a 'postideological' era. However, when we tune into the TV news we can hear political leaders talk about 'advanced' societies, geopolitical experts suggest 'humanitarian' interventions, and sober events presenters qualify a murder as 'barbaric'. What does this mean? In this comprehensive book, Rolf Petri reveals how our everyday political language is full of ideological representations of the world, and places them in an accessible historical narration. From the secularization of Europe and the Enlightenment project of 'civilization' to the contemporary preoccupation with ecological catastrophes or the end of history, A Short History of Western Ideology carves out the central elements of western ideology. It focuses on a wide variety of issues including religion, colonialism, race and gender, which are essential for how we conceive of the modern world. By creating an awareness of the ideological character of the western worldview, its limits and its flaws, this book warns us of the dangers that derive from a self-righteous mindset. It is stimulating and important reading for history and politics students seeking to understand the ideology of the western world.

This volume offers a stimulating new perspective on the history of historical studies. Through the prism of 'scholarly personae', it explores why historians care about attitudes or dispositions that they consider necessary for studying the past, yet often disagree about what virtues, skills, or competencies are most important. More specifically, the volume explains why models of virtue known as 'personae' have always been contested, yet also can prove remarkably stable, especially with regard to their race, class, and gender assumptions. Covering historical studies across Europe, North America, Africa, and East Asia, How to be a historian will appeal not only to historians of historiography, but to all historians who occasionally wonder: What kind of a historian do I want to be? -- .

This book shows how the study of the evolving discourse employed during a political process spanning more than a decade can provide insights for critical discourse analysis on the one hand, and understanding of a real world political process on the other, thereby demonstrating the potential role for critical discourse analysis in historiography.

How and why did Indians move within and across the West? What effects did this have on their identities? Despite the burgeoning scholarship on the postcolonial South Asian Diaspora, histories and geographies of colonial Indian mobility have received much less scrutiny. Focusing on a range of individuals who moved within and across Europe and North America, including a champion of London's female poor, a tourist and a war-time spy, this book addresses that gap by examining the production of Indian mobility within the West over the course of the first half of the twentieth century. By analyzing the lives of individual Indian men and, in particular, women it articulates new perspectives on transnational histories and geographies of mobility, gender, performance, and embodiment.

Series Information:
CultureWork: A Book Series from the Center for Literacy and Cultural Studies at Harvard

This collection of the best new and recent work on historical consciousness and practice in late Imperial Russia assembles the building blocks for a fundamental reconceptualization of Russian history and history writing.

Few of the major campaigns of World War II aroused as much controversy as the War in North Africa, 1940-1943. Figures such as Rommel, Montgomery, and Eisenhower would become world famous because of the fighting in North Africa. This book opens with seven historiographical essays that evaluate and critically assess the major contributions to the literature on the War in North Africa. It then includes an alphabetically arranged bibliography of the 504 entries cited in the essays. The material is easily accessible, with cross-references between the text and the bibliography and a full index.

The volume includes chapters on the Desert War, 1940-42; the Axis Powers in North Africa; Montgomery, Alam Halfa and El Alamein; TORCH: the Landings in French North Africa, and the Tunisian Campaign. Full attention is given to questions and issues historians have raised on such controversies as the Auchinleck-Montgomery dispute, the debate over Operation TORCH, and the Darlan affair. Emphasis is on English-language works, but the most significant Italian, German, and French works are cited and assessed. The book has been written for use in public, college, university, and institutional libraries, and to serve general readers and military historians.

More than 90 percent of all scientific history has been made during the last half century. So far, however, only a fraction of historical scholarship has dealt with this period. Merely a decade ago, most scientific historians considered recent science - the scientific culture created, lived and remembered by contemporary scientists - an area of study best left to the historical actors themselves. Today, an increasing number of historians are turning to the study of contemporary science. When doing so, they are confronted with new and unfamiliar methodological and theoretical problems. How to handle the huge amounts of published and unpublished source materials? What level of scientific training is necessary to understand contemporary science? Does the lack of historical perspective prevent good scholarship? Can (and will) historians of recent science share the turf with other professional groups, such as active scientists, scholars of science and technology studies, and science journalists? This volume aims to provide answers to these questions. The thirteen contributors are active researchers in what has been called "the last frontier" in the history of science. The book itself is

The core of the book is Oliver's account of his research travels throughout tropical Africa from the 1940s to the 1980s; his efforts to train and foster African graduate students to teach in African universities; his role in establishing conferences and journals to bring together the work of historians and archaeologists from Europe and Africa; his encounters with political and religious leaders, scholars, soldiers, and storytellers; and the political and economic upheavals of the continent that he witnessed.

In the English-speaking world the Great War maintains a tenacious grip on the public imagination, and also continues to draw historians to an event which has been interpreted variously as a symbol of modernity, the midwife to the twentieth century and an agent of social change. Although much 'common knowledge' about the war and its aftermath has included myth, simplification and generalisation, this has often been accepted uncritically by popular and academic writers alike. While Britain may have suffered a surfeit of war books, many telling much the same story, there is far less written about the impact of the Great War in other combatant nations. Its history was long suppressed in both fascist Italy and the communist Soviet Union: only recently have historians of Russia begun to examine a conflict which killed, maimed and displaced so many millions. Even in France and Germany the experience of 1914-18 has often been overshadowed by the Second World War. The war's social history is now ripe for reassessment and revision. The essays in this volume incorporate a European perspective, engage with the historiography of the war, and consider how the primary textural, oral and pictorial evidence has been used - or abused. Subjects include the politics of shellshock, the impact of war on women, the plight of refugees, food distribution in Berlin and portrait photography, all of which illuminate key debates in war history.

This book explores cases of decapitation found in sources on the reign of Alexander the Great. Despite the enormous literature on the career of Alexander the Great, this is the first study on the characterisation of violent deaths during his hectic reign. This historiographical omission has involved the tacit and blind acceptance of the details found in the ancient sources. Therefore, this book seeks to illustrate how cultural expectations, literary models, and ideological taboos shaped these accounts and argues for a close and critical reading of the sources. Given the different cultural considerations surrounding decapitation in Greek and Roman cultures, this book illustrates how those biases could have differently shaped certain episodes depending on the ultimate writer. This book, therefore, can be especially interesting for scholars focused on the career of Alexander the Great, but also valuable for other Classicists, philologists, and even for anthropologists because it represents a good case of study of cultural symbolism of violent death, semantics of power, imperial domination and the confrontation between opposite cultural appreciations of a practice.