The Great War and Social Change, 1900–1919

2021 ◽  
pp. 13-31
Author(s):  
R. Keith Schoppa

In 1914, nationalism was the political “ism” that seemed the motive choice, but ironically that is when “globalization” defined as “extending to other or all parts of the world” became clearly evident. The Great War tied the globe together: colonies participated in the fighting, and thousands of the colonized were sent to Europe to serve in labor or military units. This was not the first sign of a world coming together. The late nineteenth century witnessed globalization’s advance: 52 million Europeans migrated to the Americas, adopting a new culture. Similarly, industrialization globalized, bringing increased commerce on the world scene. At war’s end, the Spanish flu brought the globe together against the pandemic. The war did not change the world’s views on nationalism as the national intrigue and deal making at the Versailles Conference underscores.

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. v-vii
Author(s):  
Diederik F. Janssen

I am pleased to introduce Boyhood Studies, Volume 11, Issue 1. This issue’s authors unanimously invite an appreciation of the many regional, temporal and contextual inflections of manliness-in-the-making. After all: “Among boys, as among men, there are ‘all sorts and conditions;’ environment moulds them” (Anon. 1890: 147). This merits a bit of intercontinental timetravel. Ecce puer: from Lord Baden-Powell’s and American contemporaries’ middle ages to late nineteenth-century Mexico’s French Third Republic, back to Baden-Powell and into the Great War, and back again to presentday Mexico. In Mexico, on both visits, we are travelling back and forth as well, between the rural and urban experience.


Urban History ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Hartnell

This paper looks at Joseph Chamberlain's Birmingham and claims that George Dawson's famous ‘civic gospel’ which laid the ground for the municipal reforms was permeated by a consensus view of the moral and civic role of art. It suggests that it was this combination of philosophy in action through art which created the special Birmingham context for a vibrant civic culture which led to the political and artistic achievements of the 1870s and 1880s. For a few brief years, this combination enabled Birmingham to stand above other British cities and lay claim to the titles of ‘the best-governed city in the world’ and ‘perhaps the most artistic town in England’.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-66
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Seifert

This paper discusses the thought of Fukuzawa Yukichi, probably the most influential Japanese intellectual of the late nineteenth century, with particular reference to his attempt to develop a theory of civilization. For him, the civilizational approach was a framework for reflection on Japan’s situation in the world after the great changes of the 1850s and 1860s. He saw the preservation of national independence and the reform of Japanese society as primary goals, but they necessitated extensive learning from the experience and achievements of more advanced societies, especially those of Western Europe and the United States. However, he did not advocate a purely imitative Westernization. Japan’s distinctive identity and autonomous international stance were to be maintained. To clarify the reasons for transforming Japan in light of Western models without capitulating to them, he outlined an evolutionary conception of social change, understood in terms of an advance towards civilization. That kind of progress was not only a matter of technical and organizational development; it also involved the mobilization of whole peoples. On this basis, Fukuzawa articulated a more democratic vision of Japan’s future than the road subsequently taken by the Meiji government.


2000 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-167
Author(s):  
Ralitza Dimitrova

Bulgarian radio drama first appeared in 1945, broadcasting live from the national studios. The immediate postwar years were difficult throughout the country, both in economic and political terms. The socialist revolution and takeover, on 9 September 1944, soon imposed strict criteria on dramatic creation and artistic achievement, presumably on world standards. Radio drama, as one of the key instruments in the new national, revolutionary symphony, could not but play in general harmony. It naturally developed according to patterns governed by the political authorities. It contributed to programmes devoted to promote conflict, action, heroes, virtues abounding in the young socialist doctrine. Russian plays and novels were selected and broadcast as master keys in the opening of popular minds to the new philosophy. Broadcasting slots allowed some room for the production of the emerging Bulgarian literature of the late nineteenth century. Plays and playwrights from other parts of the world remained ignored by those in power and, as a consequence, by the production teams and the general audience.


Author(s):  
Nurit Yaari

This chapter examines the lack of continuous tradition of the art of the theatre in the history of Jewish culture. Theatre as art and institution was forbidden for Jews during most of their history, and although there were plays written in different times and places during the past centuries, no tradition of theatre evolved in Jewish culture until the middle of the nineteenth century. In view of this absence, the author discusses the genesis of Jewish theatre in Eastern Europe and in Eretz-Yisrael (The Land of Israel) since the late nineteenth century, encouraged by the Jewish Enlightenment movement, the emergence of Jewish nationalism, and the rebirth of Hebrew as a language of everyday life. Finally, the chapter traces the development of parallel strands of theatre that preceded the Israeli theatre and shadowed the emergence of the political infrastructure of the future State of Israel.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 119-140
Author(s):  
Jay Winter

AbstractThis paper analyses the phenomenon of historical reenactment of Great War battles as an effort to create what is termed ‘living history’. Thousands of people all over the world have participated in such reenactments, and their number increased significantly during the period surrounding the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War. Through a comparison with representations of war in historical writing, in museums and in the performing arts, I examine the claim of reenactors that they can enter into historical experience. I criticise this claim, and show how distant it is from those who do not claim to relive history but (more modestly) to represent it. In their search for ‘living history’, reenactors make two major errors. They strip war of its political content, and they sanitise and trivialise combat.


Itinerario ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-274
Author(s):  
John W. Troutman

In the late nineteenth century, Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) physically modified guitars and created a new technique for playing them. In the years that followed, hundreds of Hawaiian troupes, engaging new entertainment circuits that crisscrossed the globe, introduced the world to their “Hawaiian steel guitar,” from Shanghai to London, Kolkata to New Orleans. While performing Hawaiianmele, or songs, with their instrument, they demonstrated new virtues for the guitar’s potential in vernacular and commercial music making in these international markets. Based upon archival research, this essay considers the careers of several Hawaiian guitarists who travelled the world in the early twentieth century, connecting local soundscapes through the proliferation of an indigenous technology.


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