Becoming an Englishwoman

Author(s):  
Elaine Chalus

By focusing on the adolescent diaries of Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne between her arrival in Switzerland in 1791, aged thirteen, and her departure from Ratisbon (Regensburg) in 1796, aged eighteen, this chapter explores the development of a precocious, cosmopolitan European girl into an ardent Englishwoman. It argues for both the continued social utility of politeness into the end of the eighteenth century. and beyond, and illuminates the crucial role that politeness played at three levels: in individual self-fashioning; in the provision of a model for, and through which, gendered identities could be expressed and interpreted; and, by extension, in the development of a set of character traits which could be used to define national identity. In this it draws upon Paul Langford’s work, not only in A Polite and Commercial People, but also in his later work, Englishness Identified. Finally, Betsey’s story reminds us that the French Revolution was a lived experience, one that irrevocably shaped the lives and characters of the generation that went on to shape nineteenth-century Europe. If for no other reason, the place of politeness in shaping those identities deserves wider attention.

2019 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-119
Author(s):  
Doron Avraham

In the early nineteenth century, a neo-Pietist circle of awakened Protestants emerged in Prussia and other German lands. Disturbed by the consequences of the French Revolution, the ensuing reforms and the rising national movement, these neo-Pietists—among them noble estate owners, theologians, and other scholars—tried to introduce an alternative meaning for the alliance between state and religion. Drawing on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century pietist traditions, neo-Pietists fused their keen religious devotion with newly constructed conservative ideals, thus rehabilitating the legitimacy of political authority while investing the people's confession with additional meaning. At the same time, and through the same pietistic source of inspiration, conservative neo-Pietists forged their own understanding of national identity: its origins, values, and implications. In this regard, and against the prevailing view of the antagonist stance taken by Christian conservatives toward nationalism in the first half on the nineteenth century, this article argues for the consolidation of certain concepts of German national identity within Christian conservatism.


With its five thematic sections covering genres from cantorial to classical to klezmer, this pioneering multi-disciplinary volume presents rich coverage of the work of musicians of Jewish origin in the Polish lands. It opens with the musical consequences of developments in Jewish religious practice: the spread of hasidism in the eighteenth century meant that popular melodies replaced traditional cantorial music, while the greater acculturation of Jews in the nineteenth century brought with it synagogue choirs. Jewish involvement in popular culture included performances for the wider public, Yiddish songs and the Yiddish theatre, and contributions of many different sorts in the interwar years. Chapters on the classical music scene cover Jewish musical institutions, organizations, and education; individual composers and musicians; and a consideration of music and Jewish national identity. One section is devoted to the Holocaust as reflected in Jewish music, and the final section deals with the afterlife of Jewish musical creativity in Poland, particularly the resurgence of interest in klezmer music. The chapters do not attempt to define what may well be undefinable—what “Jewish music” is. Rather, they provide an original and much-needed exploration of the activities and creativity of “musicians of the Jewish faith.“


Author(s):  
Nele Bemong

Between 1830 and 1850, practically out of nowhere there came into beinga truly 'Belgian' literature, written boch in Flemish and in French, but aimedat a single goal: the creation of a Belgian past and the conscruction of aBelgian national identity. The historical novel played a crucial role in thisconscruction and representation of a collective memory for the Belgian statejust out of the cradle. The prefaces to these historical novels are characterizedboth by the central role granted to the representacion of Flanders as the cradleof nineteenth-century Belgium, and by the organically and religiously inspiredimagery. Attempts were made to create an intimate genealogical relationshipwith the forefathers, in order to make the Belgian citizens feel closer to theirrich heritage. Through the activation of specific recollections from theimmense archive of the collective cultural memory, Belgian independencefound its legitimization both towards the international community andtowards the Belgian people.


2020 ◽  
pp. 189-200
Author(s):  
Alan Montgomery

The Conclusion of Classical Caledonia looks at nineteenth century attitudes towards Roman Scotland, also comparing these to Victorian attitudes towards England’s Roman heritage. It reveals striking differences, with the Roman period being viewed as a pivotal moment in the formation of modern England, but the exploits of the Romans in Scotland largely dismissed as an inconsequential footnote. During the Victorian era, the Scottish fascination with the Romans and the Caledonians would be replaced by more romanticised visions of the nation’s early history. This final section categorises the eighteenth-century obsession with Scotland’s Roman past as a historical and patriotic ‘dead end’ and discusses why it failed to become a lasting element of Scotland’s popular history and national identity.


Author(s):  
Klaus Ries

This chapter challenges the widespread assumption that terrorist ideology was invented in the mid-nineteenth century by such figures as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Mikhail Bakunin. Instead, the chapter argues, the foundations of terrorism were laid at the end of the eighteenth century by the Enlightenment philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte and his disciples, who in turn exerted a strong influence on later radical thinkers. In showing how the intellectual reverberations of the French Revolution gave rise to anarchist ideology as well as acts of terrorism in Germany, the chapter traces a link between the state terror of the French Revolution and the emergence of insurgent terrorism.


Ensemblance ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 112-139
Author(s):  
Luis de Miranda

After 1800, esprit de corps was often nationally manufactured, and Napoleon was its first engineer. French society became a reflection of the military. This chapter shows how the Bonapartists succeeded in building a national system of rewards and interdependent privileged corps in which ‘esprit de corps’ was encouraged according to a military model of general agonism. The transformation of the organisation of labour, of the army, and of education after the French Revolution is narrated. This chapter is essential to understand not only today’s France, but also most nation-states, functioning more or less under a similar model. The author also analyses the decline of labour communities and their form of belonging since the eighteenth century. The Revolutiondiscredited the esprit de corporation, and capitalist merchants were often thankful for the republican defence of more competitive and less-regulated entrepreneurship.


1968 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-49
Author(s):  
J. Lynn Osen

The French Reformed Church merged from the period of the French Revolution and Napoleon stengthened by government recognition and support but weakened by the ideological offensive of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Although it enjoyed a secure official and financial position, it had yet to reconcile itself intellectually with the contrasting currents of eighteenth-century rationalism and nineteenth-century romanticism. This process of assimilation and reconciliation took place after 1815 and culminated, during the July Monarchy and the Second Republic, in a theological awakening and renewal.


1980 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin F. A. Fabel

Few American wars have been as closely tied to international law as the Anglo-American conflict of 1812. The legality or otherwise of impressment and cargo confiscation, definitions of contraband, blockade and the permissible limits of neutrality have all been endlessly argued. Such questions concern the causes of the war. What has attracted little attention, despite the keen contemporary awareness of the existence of laws on the conduct of nations, is the extent to which legal restrictions were observed in the actual waging of the War of 1812.The notion that there were any limits at all is against the trend noted by those historians and specialists in military affairs who have observed that “restricted war was one of the loftiest achievements of the eighteenth century,” but that “the doctrines of the French Revolution brought a new intensity to warfare,” that unlimited war was reborn in August 1793, so that “by the beginning of tlie nineteenth century…the limitations on the violence of war that had been imposed by the small-scale eighteenth-century armies had already disappeared.”However true these generalizations may be for Europe, the idea of limited war still thrived in North America in 1812 and throughout the subsequent war there.


2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 120
Author(s):  
Pauls Daija

In the article, political and historical interpretations of the first play in Latvian, an adapted translation of Ludvig Holberg’s Jeppe of the Hill (1723, Latvian version 1790) are explored. Although the play has been often interpreted as a work of anti-alcohol propaganda, the article argues that the political motives of the play are no less important. Translated into Latvian during the time of the French revolution, the play mirrors the tense atmosphere of the revolutionary years and reflects changes in Latvian peasant identity. While translating, Baltic German pastor Alexander Johann Stender changed the play’s setting to the late eighteenth century Courland and added new details, emphasizing the social conflict of the play as an ethnic one. It has been argued in the article that since ‘class’ in the Baltics was divided along national lines, the difference between peasants and masters was also the difference between Latvians and Germans, so class and ethnicity merged. When the peasant and the nobleman switch places in the play, this symbolizes a change in the Latvian-German colonial relationship. The colonial interpretation allows for a characterisation of the protagonist as a desperate imitator – a colonial subject who loses his identity as a serf and is not able to form a new identity in any way other than by copying the colonialist op- pressor. But this mimicry turns into ridicule, hence the play acquires a political meaning as it implicitly shows the disastrous consequences of revolutionary pro- test. Therefore, the play can be read as a part of the discussions about the Baltic Enlightenment emancipation project and as a hidden debate on serfdom and the colonial framework of the Courland society


Author(s):  
Piero Ignazi

Chapter 2 expands the analysis of the acceptance of parties by signalling the distinction between theoretical speculation and party politics ‘on the ground’. After the ideological and practical acceptance of parties in late eighteenth-century Britain, parties found their first operation on the ground in revolutionary France and the United States. Particular attention is devoted to the events of the French revolution where the Jacobin clubs set up, albeit for a very short period, the first ever nationwide, organized political party. In the nineteenth century the appearance of political parties was still regarded with suspicion and caution, and they were not yet fully endorsed even by liberal thinkers. The idea of partition and division was still held back by the advocacy of unity and uniformity. By the end of the nineteenth century parties had been ideologically tamed by the rise of the holist dominant value of the nation (France) and state (Germany, and to a lesser extent Italy).


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