The light from the North—voyaging towards the west. Grundtvig and the Folk High School movement from Scandinavia to United States

Dialog ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigurd Ohrem
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
High School ◽  
The West ◽  
The North ◽  
Folk High School ◽  
School Movement

Mafias on the Move

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Varese
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Market Expansion ◽  
The North ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
At Will

Organized crime is spreading like a global virus as mobs take advantage of open borders to establish local franchises at will. That at least is the fear, inspired by stories of Russian mobsters in New York, Chinese triads in London, and Italian mafias throughout the West. As this book explains, the truth is more complicated. The author has spent years researching mafia groups in Italy, Russia, the United States, and China, and argues that mafiosi often find themselves abroad against their will, rather than through a strategic plan to colonize new territories. Once there, they do not always succeed in establishing themselves. The book spells out the conditions that lead to their long-term success, namely sudden market expansion that is neither exploited by local rivals nor blocked by authorities. Ultimately the inability of the state to govern economic transformations gives mafias their opportunity. In a series of matched comparisons, the book charts the attempts of the Calabrese 'Ndrangheta to move to the north of Italy, and shows how the Sicilian mafia expanded to early twentieth-century New York, but failed around the same time to find a niche in Argentina. The book explains why the Russian mafia failed to penetrate Rome but succeeded in Hungary. A pioneering chapter on China examines the challenges that triads from Taiwan and Hong Kong find in branching out to the mainland. This book is both a compelling read and a sober assessment of the risks posed by globalization and immigration for the spread of mafias.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

1956 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 656-657
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
North Atlantic Treaty Organization ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
German Government ◽  
The North ◽  
The Press

Council It was reported in the press on July 20, 1956 that the west German government was preparing to bring its anxieties about United Kingdom and United States suggestions for a reduction in armed forces before the meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Council, but contrary to expectation, at the July 25 meeting of the Council no reference was made to the reduction of forces. The press did note on July 25 that the United States Secretary of State Dulles gave reassurances to the German ambassador that the United States contemplated no change from the existing number of troops at that time and was still in favor of a German contribution of twelve divisions to NATO. Press reports also noted that the west German government transmitted notes to the members of the Western European Union calling for a review of allied strategy and military planning in view of moves by the United States and United Kingdom to cut their armed forces.

scholarly journals Det umuliges kunst

1985 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-89
Author(s):  
Andreas Haarder
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
The North ◽  
Folk High School ◽  
Norse Mythology

The Art of the ImpossibleA Grundtvig Anthology. Selections from the writings of N. F. S. Grundtvig.Translated by Edward Broadbridge and Niels Lyhne Jensen.General Editor: Niels Lyhne Jensen. James Clarke, Cambridge & Centrum, Viby 1984.Reviewed by Professor Andreas Haarder, Odense UniversityHow can Grundtvig ever be translated? Professor Haarder considers it well-nigh impossible, which does not mean, however, that the attempt is not worth making. But he has some criticism of various things which need correcting for a later edition. In particular the translation of the words folkeh.jskole and Norden and the use of different terms for the same concept. He would prefer “folk high school” and “the North”, “Nordic” or “Norse”, and he thinks that the word “Scandinavia” should be avoided. The reason is that it is difficult to understand what a folk high school actually is, and that the Nordic past for Grundtvig included the English. The term “folk high school” is used elsewhere, for example in the Danish Institute’s book on Grundtvig. Professor Haarder praises the idea and the planning of the book, but he also notes too many printing errors and deficiencies in the notes.In Haarder’s opinion the most successful translations are of the sermons and the simplest songs. The selection from Norse Mythology reads well in English, which surprises him somewhat because of Grundtvig’s very intricate style. Some of that inspiration is missing from The School for Life, in both the original and the translation, but the text is pioneer work and worth including. As “a particular type of prose” he finds the extracts from Elementary Christian Teachings also readable in English. With regard to the poetry, he agrees with the editor that “It has not been Grundtvig’s good fortune to find a translator who combines a grasp of his vision with a gift of imagery matching his.” Andreas Haarder ends with a word of thanks for the step that has been taken with this anthology of Grundtvig in English.

scholarly journals Om Guds datter i folkehøjskolen

1992 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-129
Author(s):  
William Michelsen
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
100Th Anniversary ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Christian Mysticism ◽  
Cooperative Movement ◽  
The North ◽  
Christian View ◽  
Folk High School ◽  
Byzantine Church ◽  
The Many

About God’s Daughter in the Folk High SchoolMidt i Højskolen (In the Middle of the Folk High School). An anthology published on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Association of Folk High Schools. Edited by Else Marie Boyhus. Gyldendal\ 1991. 269 pp.By William MichelsenThis beautiful book, introduced by the chairman of the Association, Ove Korsgaard, with a description of the development undergone by the folk high school movement since 1961, when the book »The Folk High School under Debate« was published, ends with an article by Ejvind Larsen, »The mysticism of popular democracy«, which has occasioned the present review of the book. Grundtvig’s ideas saturate the book, and it is illustrated with drawings from this century that all represent Grundtvig himself, combining to give a strong impression of the highly different ways in which this man has been perceived since his lifetime.The same is true of the many articles contained in the book, for example one by Henrik Yde about Martin Andersen Nexø and the Germany of the Weimar Republic. - There is hardly any doubt that among Grundtvig’s ideas the concept of the folk high school has been the most important in this century.However, Ejvind Larsen’s article does not deal so much with the cooperative movement or the folk high school as with those poems from Grundtvig’s late years where he speaks about .God’s daughter., and, in the final poems, about the wedding between God’s daughter and God’s Son. In a speech that he gave on his birthday in 1868 (and which is only known in the summary version that was published after that .Meeting of Friends.), he spoke about the »the Heavenly Father’s Daughter« who was to be raised in the North, »in another small holy land« - »as He raised His Son in the regions of Galilee«. Ejvind Larsen poses the question whether what Grundtvig had in mind may have been a »Wisdom«, corresponding to the »Sophia« that plays such an important role in the mysticism of the Byzantine Church, and after whom the main church in Constantinople was called. He confines himself to posing the question, and that is as it should be. For Grundtvig does not use the word or the name »Sophia« in any of the passages that he quotes from Grundtvig’s texts.According to Ejvind Larsen, Grundtvig, in his late work, comes closest to this Christian mysticism in the poem Dansk Ravnegalder (1860), which Grundtvig never had printed himself. It has been published by Holger Begtrup in Selected Works by Grundtvig, vol. X, pp. 363-484, without a commentary. Ejvind Larsen quotes some lines from it which say that metaphorically »Danish popular enlightenment« is a sister of »He who is the Light Himself«, and that it must have been created by God.The point of departure in Ejvind Larsen’s article is an emendation made by Grundtvig in 1861 in the second edition of »Scenes from Heroic Life in the North« in which the Christian Odinkar attempts unsuccessfully to convert the heathen Vagn Aagesen to Christianity. Vagn Aagesen refuses to believe that Jesus really did crush the head of the Evil One. Odinkar answers that by virtue of His victory the Christians are now able to vanquish the Subtil One »with Wisdom«. Ejvind Larsen theorizes that this »Wisdom« may be the Sophia of the Byzantine Church. The word »wisdom« does not occur in the original version from 1811. There is no doubt that Grundtvig emended the text so that it would agree with the stage in his view of Christianity that he had reached in 1861. But this does not necessarily mean that the word .wisdom. is identical with the Sophia of the Byzantine Church.It is a peculiar characteristic of Ejvind Larsen’s article that he does not emphasize the ecclesiastical side of Grundtvig’s Christian view of man, but rather the importance it has acquired for the concept of the folk high school and thus for popular democracy, in particular through Grundtvig’s idea of man as a »divine experiment« (Norse Mythology, 1832).

The Anti-Nuclear Weapons Movements

1984 ◽  
Vol 17 (01) ◽  
pp. 24-32
Author(s):  
Michael Mandelbaum
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Mass Movement ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
The North ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
First Time

Of all modern machines, indeed of all the artifacts of modern culture, the bomb is the most frightening. It is the most dangerous of all human inventions. The American, European, and Soviet people have always known how dangerous it is. They have, nevertheless, left nuclear weapons in the hands of the nuclear priesthood. (In the Soviet Union this has not been a matter of choice.) In the 1980s some in the West resolved to take control of the bomb. They began to demand that disarmament replace deterrence as the principal nuclear business of the Atlantic alliance.Probably from 1945 onward the average American or European would, if asked, have said that he wanted to do away with all nuclear arsenals rather than refine or increase them. But the average Westerner was not asked, and did not say so, at least not in any way that influenced public policy. In the 1980s citizens of the West did begin to say so, publicly, loudly, and in growing numbers. For the first time, a mass movement dedicated to shaping the nuclear future appeared on both sides of the Atlantic.In this, as in other things, the North American and the European wings of NATO differ. Opposition to the alliance's nuclear weapons policies made itself known earlier in Europe than in the United States. Both European and American anti-nuclear weapons activists aimed ultimately to lift the nuclear siege that the world must endure as long as these weapons exist. But each rallied around a more immediate issue, and the issues were different. The Europeans opposed the stationing of 572 intermediate-range missiles on the continent, which the NATO governments deemed necessary to offset comparable Soviet weapons. In the United States a proposal to freeze the deployment, testing, and manufacture of all weapons by both superpowers attracted wide support.

scholarly journals Folkehøjskolerne og folket. Roar Skovmand: Folkehøjskolen i Danmark 1841-1892

1948 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-97
Author(s):  
Fridlev Skrubbeltrang
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High Schools ◽  
High School Teachers ◽  
Political Life ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Folk High School ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
School Movement ◽  
Practical Sense

Review of Roar Skovmand’s ”Folkehøjskolen i Danmark, 1841— 1892“. By Fridlev Skrubbeltrang. Skovmand claims that the development of the Danish people in the second half of the 19th century can only be understood in connection with the Folk High-School movement. This is true, but only if we are speaking of rural, peasant Denmark, for it is not until the 20th century that the Folk High-Schools gained any considerable ground in the towns and among the workers. Historically there is nothing surprising in this development. The idea of educating the country youth sprang from the fruitful soil of the great land reforms ; and Grundtvig as a young man dreamt of “ sacrificing everything for the enlightenment of the peasants” . But in the 1840’s it was chiefly R. Sørensen’s plans for agricultural schools for the peasants that were being discussed, and only after 1864 did it become clear that it was Grundtvig’s Folk High-School idea that would triumph. Most of those who have previously written the history of the High-Schools have done so on the basis of their own personal experiences in the High-School movement. Skovmand has done it from a more scientific standpoint. He is less interested in the Folk High-School idea than in the way in which ideas and plans were carried into effect, and modified in the light of practical realities. He gives full place to the influence of the leading High-School personalities, and much of his book is based on their private papers, to which he has had access, as well as on the records of government departments. We learn much about the work of the High-Schools and its guiding tendencies, but comparatively little about its effect upon the students. The High-School’s fruits cannot be weighed or measured; but it opened new horizons and new worlds of thought and feeling to the young people of the country districts. From the rationalist point of view it was criticised as too fantastically idealistic, and likely to pervert the sound practical sense of the peasants. But the history of the rise of the Danish co-operative movement proved that the former students of the High- Schools by no means lacked realism and practical sense, and the High-Schools reaped much of the credit for its material success. Jakob Knudsen, friend and most exacting critic of the Folk High-School, demanded that it should be truly “ folkelig” and should develop the best characteristics of the peasants themselves, at a time when they were taking an increasingly prominent part in public life. But most of the leading High-School teachers came from other social classes; and it was hard for them to develop a genuine “ peasant culture” . The High-Schools gave many of their students a new joy in life, and a new desire to achieve something of value in co-operation with their fellows; but in some cases the enthusiasm they aroused was only transitory. It is not easy to measure the influence of the Folk High-School apart from that of the revival in the Church, with which it was closely connected. Many clergymen and teachers in children’s schools throughout the country shared with the High-School teachers in the work of enlightenment. Skovmand obviously knows the High-School from within, but he is less familiar with the life of the peasants in general. Much of the material which Skovmand uses to illustrate the attitude of the Government and Parliament to the High-Schoools is new, and throws fresh light on the position of the High-Schools in the political life of the country and on government policy with regard to grants, inspection, etc. Skovmand describes the attitude of the High-School to contemporary tendencies of thought (religious, political and national) as being “ as open as it could be if it were not to be wholly carried away by them” . In another little book (“Højskolen gennem 100 Aar” ) Skovmand brings the history of the High-School up to date. Denmark might have had good “ higher schools for peasants” and a co-operative movement even if Grundtvig had never lived, but there is no doubt that from him came the central driving force of the Folk High-School movement, which has won world fame. Skovmand strongly opposes Vilhelm la Cour’s suggestion that in the period after 1870 the High-School movement abandoned many of its original ideas, and lost much of its power. “The power was not lost, but had found a broader channel”, is his verdict. His book is the product of conscientious research combined with a real love for his subject.

scholarly journals Effects of 0.5°C Less Global Warming On Climate Extremes in The Contiguous United States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang Chen ◽  
Trent Ford
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Climate Extremes ◽  
Heavy Precipitation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Precipitation Intensity ◽  
The West ◽  
The North ◽  
Heat Extremes

Abstract The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests limiting global warming to 1.5°C compared to 2°C would avoid dangerous impacts of anthropogenic climate change and ensure a more sustainable society. As the vulnerability to global warming is regionally dependent, this study assesses the effects of 0.5°C less global warming on climate extremes in the United States. Eight climate extreme indices are calculated based on Coupled Model Intercomparison Project - phase 5 (CMIP5), and North American - Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiments (NA-CORDEX) with and without bias correction. We evaluate the projected changes in temperature and precipitation extremes, and examine their differences between the 1.5°C and 2°C warming targets. Under a warming climate, both CMIP5 and NA-CORDEX show intensified heat extremes and reduced cold extremes across the country, intensified and more heavy precipitation in large areas of the North, prolonged dry spells in some regions of the West, South, and Midwest, and more frequent drought events in the West. Results suggest that the 0.5 °C less global warming would avoid the intensification of climate extremes by 32~46% (35~42%) for heat extremes intensity (frequency) across the country and, by 23~41% for heavy precipitation intensity in the North, South, and Southeast. The changes in annual heavy precipitation intensity are mainly contributed by winter and spring. However, impacts of the limited warming on the frequency of heavy precipitation, dry spell, and drought frequency are only evident in a few regions. Although uncertainties are found among the climate models and emission scenarios, our results highlight the benefits of limiting warming at 1.5°C in order to reduce the risks of climate extremes associated with global warming.

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