In Conclusion

Author(s):  
Tahir Abbas

This chapter focuses on a range of acute crises facing the world. Britain’s post-war approach to multiculturalism has differed from the other countries comprising ‘Old Europe’, such as France and Germany, for example. All three countries once had empires but later had to reach out to their once-colonized peoples to reduce employment gaps created by the loss of men and infrastructure during the Second World War. However, the idea of history as a dialectical process, propounded by Friedrich Hegel and later enhanced by Karl Marx, was challenged by Francis Fukuyama, who obtained notoriety during the early 1990s for his end of history thesis. Fukuyama suggested that Western capitalism had championed in the conflict between communism and free market economics. In the fourteenth century, Ibn Khaldun also wrote about the rise and fall of civilizations. But the crises of civilizations are man-made. They are not inevitable.

2021 ◽  
pp. 13-26
Author(s):  
Ian Cummins

Polanyi (1957) described the notion of a self-regulating global system a “stark Utopia.” This chapter uses this as a starting point to examine the broad themes in the development of welfare and penal policy in a period dominated by free market economics Fukuyama (1992) presents the triumph of free market economics as an inevitable conclusion of trends in human history. It is also presented as the final stage development has ceased or is complete. Polanyi’s analysis is presented a counterpoint to this analysis. Polanyi asserts the primacy of politics. Thus, it is impossible to separate economic and political development. Prosperity of the post war period can thus be viewed as a direct result of the advances in politics and civil society that occurred in the period.


Author(s):  
José Carlos Bermejo Barrera

El presente artículo revisa la famosa tesis del “fin de la historia” lanzada por el politólogo norteamericano Francis Fukuyama a finales de los años ochenta del siglo XX. A través de dicho análisis, que se inspira en los recientes estudios sobre teoría de la narración histórica, así como en un conocimiento genuino de la filosofía hegeliana, su autor llega a la siguiente conclusión: la idea del “fin de la historia” del escritor norteamericano no puede ser considerada ni como un “descubrimiento científico”, como aseguraron en su momento las campañas mediáticas, ni tampoco como un enunciado verdadero como podría suponer una epistemología ingenua y “apolítica”; debe ser vista más bien como un relato “adecuado”, o incluso como una “mentira adecuada” en defensa de unos intereses políticos. De hecho, la afirmación de que la unión de libre mercado, democracia parlamentaria y tecno-ciencia habría traído el “fin de la historia”, e inaugurado una nueva etapa de la historia universal, ha sido completamente desmentida en las últimas décadas por las vicisitudes y el papel de países como China, los Estados Unidos, o por la propia evolución del capitalismo.Palabras claveHistoria universal, enunciados performativos, temporalidad, relato histórico, filosofía. AbstractThis article reviews the famous thesis of the “end of history” launched by the NorthAmerican political scientist, Francis Fukuyama, at the end of the nineties eighties. Through this analysis, inspired in the recent studies on the theory of historical narrative, as well as in a thorough knowledge of Hegelian philosophy, the author of the article comes to this conclusion: the idea of the “end of history” of the North-American writer by no means can be considered as a “scientific discovery”, as media campaigns then assured, nor can it be seen  as  a  true  assessment  or  true  account, as an ingenuous apolitical epistemology would suppose: it must be regarded as a “fit” story, or even as an “appropriate lie” in defence of some political interests. In fact, the idea that the combination of free market, parliamentary democracy and techno-science would have brought about the “end of history”, giving pass to a new period in the universal history, has been utterly refuted by the events and the role that countries such as China and the United States has been performing, or by the current evolution of capitalism.Key wordsUniversal history, performative utterances, temporality, historical account, philosophy


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-50
Author(s):  
John Marsland

During the twenty years after the Second World War, housing began to be seen as a basic right among many in the west, and the British welfare state included many policies and provisions to provide decent shelter for its citizens. This article focuses on the period circa 1968–85, because this was a time in England when the lack of affordable, secure-tenured housing reached a crisis level at the same time that central and local governmental housing policies received wider scrutiny for their ineffectiveness. My argument is that despite post-war laws and rhetoric, many Britons lived through a housing disaster and for many the most rational way they could solve their housing needs was to exploit loopholes in the law (as well as to break them out right). While the main focus of the article is on young British squatters, there is scope for transnational comparison. Squatters in other parts of the world looked to their example to address the housing needs in their own countries, especially as privatization of public services spread globally in the 1980s and 1990s. Dutch, Spanish, German and American squatters were involved in a symbiotic exchange of ideas and sometimes people with the British squatters and each other, and practices and rhetoric from one place were quickly adopted or rejected based on the success or failure in each place.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 142-156
Author(s):  
A. Yu. Timofeev

The article considers the perception of World War II in modern Serbian society. Despite the stability of Serbian-Russian shared historical memory, the attitudes of both countries towards World wars differ. There is a huge contrast in the perception of the First and Second World War in Russian and Serbian societies. For the Serbs the events of World War II are obscured by the memories of the Civil War, which broke out in the country immediately after the occupation in 1941 and continued several years after 1945. Over 70% of Yugoslavs killed during the Second World War were slaughtered by the citizens of former Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The terror unleashed by Tito in the first postwar decade in 1944-1954 was proportionally bloodier than Stalin repressions in the postwar USSR. The number of emigrants from Yugoslavia after the establishment of the Tito's dictatorship was proportionally equal to the number of refugees from Russia after the Civil War (1,5-2% of prewar population). In the post-war years, open manipulations with the obvious facts of World War II took place in Tito's Yugoslavia. In the 1990s the memories repressed during the communist years were set free and publicly debated. After the fall of the one-party system the memory of World War II was devalued. The memory of the Russian-Serbian military fraternity forged during the World War II began to revive in Serbia due to the foreign policy changes in 2008. In October 2008 the President of Russia paid a visit to Serbia which began the process of (re) construction of World War II in Serbian historical memory. According to the public opinion surveys, a positive attitude towards Russia and Russians in Serbia strengthens the memories on general resistance to Nazism with memories of fratricide during the civil conflict events of 1941-1945 still dominating in Serbian society.


Author(s):  
Igor Lyubchyk

The research issue peculiarities of wide Russian propaganda among the most Western ethnographic group – Lemkies is revealed in the article. The character and orientation of Russian and Soviet agitation through the social, religious and social movements aimed at supporting Russian identity in the region are traced. Tragic pages during the First World War were Thalrogian prisons for Lemkas, which actually swept Lemkivshchyna through Muscovophilian influences. Agitation for Russian Orthodoxy has provoked frequent cases of sharp conflicts between Lemkas. In general, attempts by moskvophile agitators to impose russian identity on the Orthodox rite were failed. Taking advantage of the complex socio-economic situation of Lemkos, Russian campaigners began to promote moving to the USSR. Another stage of Russian propaganda among Lemkos began with the onset of the Second World War. Throughout the territory of the Galician Lemkivshchyna, Soviet propaganda for resettlement to the USSR began rather quickly. During the dramatic events of the Second World War and the post-war period, despite the outbreaks of the liberation movement, among the Lemkoswere manifestations of political sympathies oriented toward the USSR. Keywords: borderlands, Lemkivshchyna, Lemky, Lemkivsky schism, Moskvophile, Orthodoxy, agitation, ethnopolitics


Author(s):  
Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska

The article focuses on advertisements as visual and historical sources. The material comes from the German press that appeared immediately after the end of the Second World War. During this time, all kinds of products were scarce. In comparison to this, colorful advertisements of luxury products are more than noteworthy. What do these images tell us about the early post-war years in Germany? The author argues that advertisements are a medium that shapes social norms. Rather than reflecting the historical realities, advertisements construct them. From an aesthetical and cultural point of view, advertisements gave thus a sense of continuity between the pre- and post-war years. The author suggests, therefore, that the advertisements should not be treated as a source for economic history. They are, however, important for studying social developments that occurred in the past.


2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-193
Author(s):  
Frank Seberechts

Uit de papieren van jeugdleider John Caremans, die aan de zorgen van het ADVN werden toevertrouwd, krijgen we een duidelijker beeld van de geschiedenis van de Vlaams-nationalistische jeugdbewegingen voor en tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Caremans voert in 1942 in opdracht van zijn oversten ‘verkenningsopdrachten’ uit bij vertegenwoordigers van de nationaal-socialistische jeugdbeweging in Duitsland. Uit het verslag dat Caremans over zijn reizen opstelt en uit de naoorlogse ondervragingen van Caremans en van zijn chef, jeugdleider Edgar Lehembre, blijkt dat deze reizen naar Berlijn slechts een episode vormen in de strijd die gedurende de hele bezetting woedt tussen de verschillende jeugdbewegingen in Vlaanderen en tussen, de verschillende partijen en ideologische strekkingen in de collaboratie. Alle ingrediënten zijn aanwezig: de scepsis van een deel van de Nationaal-Socialistische Jeugd Vlaanderen (NSJV) tegenover de brute nationaal-socialistische machtshonger, het onbegrip en de machtspolitiek van Duitse instanties als het Deutsche Arbeiterfront (DAF) en de Hitlerjugend (HJ) tegenover de buitenlanders – zelfs wanneer die zich in de collaboratie inschakelen, de inmenging van Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond (VNV) en van de Vlaamsch-Duitsche Arbeidsgemeenschap (DeVlag)/SS. Het wordt duidelijk dat Lehembre en het VNV in deze strijd het onderspit zullen delven.________“Something on behalf of our young people”. John Caremans, Edgar Lehembre, Remi Van Mieghem and the Flemish and German machinations concerning the Flemish nationalist youth movement in 1942.The documents of youth leader John Caremans, which had been entrusted to the care of the ADVN, give a clearer picture of the history of the Flemish Nationalist youth movements before and during the Second World War. In 1942, Caremans was instructed by his superiors to carry out ‘exploratory missions’ among representatives of the National Socialist youth movement in Germany.The report written by Caremans about his travels and post-war interrogations of Caremans and his chief, youth leader, Edgar Lehembre, demonstrate that these trips to Berlin constituted only one episode in the struggle that raged throughout the occupation between the various youth movements in Flanders and between the various parties and ideological trends in the collaboration. All ingredients are present: the scepticism of a part of the National Socialist Youth of Flanders (NSJV) towards the brute National Socialist craving for power, the incomprehension and the power politics of German agencies, like the Deutsche Arbeiterfront (DAF) and the Hitlerjugend (HJ) towards foreigners – even when they engage in collaboration, the interference of the Flemish National Union (VNV) and the Flemish German Labour Community (De Vlag)/SS. It becomes clear that Lehembre and the VNV would come off worst in this combat.


Author(s):  
Louçã Francisco ◽  
Ash Michael

Chapter 5 traces how free market ideology displaced the apparent consensus on economic regulation that emerged from the Depression, the New Deal, and the Second World War. Viewed as cranks within economics through the 1960s, Milton Friedman and his supporters built an apparatus of ideas, publications, students, think tanks, and rich supporters, establishing outposts in Latin America and the UK. When developed economies faltered in the 1970s, Friedman’s neoliberal doctrine was ready. With citizens, consumers, and workers feeling worked over by monopolies, inflation, unemployment, and taxes, these strange bedfellows elected Reagan in the US and Thatcher in the UK and rolled to power in academia and in public discourse with a doctrine of privatization, liberalization, and deregulation. Friedman, Eugene Fama, and James Buchanan whose radical free market views triumphed at the end of the 1970s are profiled. A technical appendix, “Skeptics and Critics vs. True Believers” explores the economic debates.


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