Prisoners of the Tree: Lee Blessing's American Eden

Prospects ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 619-634
Author(s):  
Steven Dedalus Burch
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
American Capitalism ◽  
Second World

American Culture has almost from its beginnings claimed what may be the Western world's primary Judeo-Christian metaphor — that of the Garden of Eden. The vastness of its wilderness, the newness of its culture, and the plasticity of its identity allowed both its citizens and many outsiders to embrace their vision of America as a manifestation of humanity's earliest boon from its deity. In the 20th and 21st centuries, this metaphor has continued to be called forth at moments when the country's soul was perceived as being tested by the failure of American capitalism in the Depression, the country's tentative stretches toward Empire in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and the Faustian unleashing of the atom at the end of the Second World War.

Nigerian Forces Comforts Fund, 1940–1947: “The Responsibility of the Nigerian Government to Provide Funds for the Welfare of Its Soldiers”

Itinerario ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 516-542
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Nwafor Mordi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Original Contribution ◽  
East And Southeast Asia ◽  
Nigerian Government ◽  
The Military ◽  
Second World

AbstractThis study seeks to make an original contribution to the historiography of Africa and the Second World War. It examines the efforts of the Nigerian government and the British Army towards the welfare and comforts of Nigerian soldiers during their overseas services from 1940 to 1947. Their deployments in East Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia had brought the issue of their morale maintenance, namely comforts and welfare, to the fore. Extant Nigerian studies of the Second World War have been concerned with Nigerian contributions to Allied victory in terms of diverse economic exertions and those guided by charity towards Europeans affected by the German blitzkrieg, particularly in Britain. Consequently, this paper explains the genesis, objectives, and policy directions of the Nigerian Forces Comforts Fund and its impact on Nigerian servicemen's comforts and welfare. The study posits the argument that constant disagreements and indeed struggles for supremacy between the military and the civil power adversely affected troops’ comforts and welfare. Delayed postwar repatriation of the idle and bored troops to West Africa, in breach of openly proclaimed wartime promises, bred anxiety and made them prone to mutiny. The end of demobilisation in 1947 left many disgruntled ex-servicemen applying for reenlistment.

From Buzuluk to London: The Combat Trail and Everyday Service of Women Auxiliaries in the Polish Army (1941–1945)

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Marcinkiewicz-Kaczmarczyk
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Second World

This article explores the establishment of the Polish Women’s Auxiliary Service (was) as part of the complex story of the formation of a Polish army in exile. In 1941, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Polish Army in the Soviet Union was established. The Women’s Auxiliary Service was formed at the same time as a means to enable Polish women to serve their country and also as a way for Polish women to escape the Soviet Union. The women of the was followed the Polish Army combat trail from Buzuluk to London, accompanying their male peers first to the Middle East and then Italy. The women of the was served as nurses, clerks, cooks and drivers. This article examines the recruitment, organization and daily life of the women who served their country as exiles on the battlefront of the Second World War.

scholarly journals “Certainly Getting About the World”: New Zealanders’ Experience of the Middle East as a Place During the Second World War

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josh King
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
World War ◽  
The One ◽  
Second World ◽  
New Zealanders

New Zealand’s longest and most important campaign of the Second World War was in the Middle East. When New Zealand’s Middle Eastern war is discussed, the focus is usually on combat and the lives of New Zealanders on the battlefield. The limited discussion of life behind the lines is dominated by a picture of racism, drunkenness and debauchery with its focal point in Cairo. This article uses primary sources, including diaries, letters and soldier publications, and focusses on how New Zealanders saw the Middle East as a place, through the lenses of the desert, the city, the Holy Land and the ancient world. An examination of these topics reveals a complex and rich picture of respect and loathing, delight and disgust, wonder and disillusionment. Such a picture shows that the one-dimensional understanding of racism and poor behaviour is an entirely inadequate representation of New Zealanders’ Middle Eastern war.

scholarly journals Qui, entre Orient et Occident, mange de la viande, quelle viande et pourquoi ?

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 18-33
Author(s):  
Jean-Pierre Digard
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Meat Consumption ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Afrique Du Nord ◽  
World War ◽  
Cultural Status ◽  
Second World ◽  
Seconde Guerre Mondiale

Abstract: The consumption of meat depends first of all on religious prescripts: unlike Christianity, Judaism and Islam prohibit certain meats. Then comes the cultural status (distinct from the legal status) of animals: in Europe, the consumption of rabbits has declined due to his assimilation to a “pet”. After an increase in the post Second World War period, meat consumption has been declining in Europe since the 2000s; similarly, in North Africa and the Middle East, its consumption tends to be closer to that of Europe. These fluctuations owe more to changes in living modes and standards than to animalist activism.Résumé : La consommation carnée dépend d’abord de prescriptions religieuses : à la différence du christianisme, le judaïsme et l’islam interdisent certaines viandes. Vient ensuite le statut culturel (distinct du statut légal) des animaux : en Europe, la consommation du lapin a reculé du fait de son assimilation à un « animal de compagnie ». En Europe toujours, après une hausse après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la consommation carnée diminue depuis les années 2000 ; à l’inverse, en Afrique du Nord et au Moyen-Orient, elle tend à se rapprocher de celle de l’Europe. Ces fluctuations doivent davantage à l’évolution des genres et des niveaux de vie qu’au militantisme animaliste.

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