scholarly journals Special Issue: After the Scientific Revolution: Thinking Globally about the Histories of the Modern Sciences

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 377-393
Author(s):  
J.B. Shank
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Origin Story ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Natural Fact

Abstract History of science today needs to fully escape from the categories and narrative frameworks created during the Cold War formation of the discipline. Most problematic is the portentous notion of science conceived as a uniquely European world-historical singular that founded modernity. The idea of a singular historical birth of science in the portentous singular, this article argues, is not a natural fact of world history, but a very recent conceptual invention that continues to do negative historiographical work. The idea of a history of modern science which takes as its starting point this imagined birth of singular science in the world-historical event called the “Scientific Revolution” is more problematic still. To move forward in a more globally conscious direction, our historiography needs to become comfortable rejecting this Cold War understanding of singular science, along with its origin story in the so-called Scientific Revolution of the early modern period. The result will be a new historiographical space where the global histories of the modern sciences in all of their diversity can be explored. In order to frame the contributions to this project offered in this volume, this introduction traces in outline the rise and fall of the classical early modern birth of singular science paradigm. It also suggests reasons why this framework has come apart in recent years and the new paths forward emerging out of its ruins.

scholarly journals Pre-Thinking GIS – Zur Visuellen Politik der frühen quantitativ-theoretischen Geographie

2017 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Michel
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Geographic Information Systems ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Visual Language ◽  
Geographical Knowledge ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Theoretical Thinking ◽  
The Cold War

Abstract. This paper examines questions of how issues of visual representation and vision have changed with the the quantitative and theoretical thinking in 1950s and early 1960s Anglophone geography. If the quantitative revolution in geography is understood as a scientific revolution, one should also expect a revolution of the ways in which geography made use of visualizations. At the center of this essay is William Bunge's “Theoretical Geography”, one of the founding text of this new geographical thought. This book forms the starting point for a discussion of the changed roles and changed forms of visualization in the production of geographical knowledge. Following Fred Schaefer's attack on Richard Harthorne, Bunge placed the search for morphological laws at the center of a geography that is strongly oriented towards geometry. In this paper, the text of Bunge serves as a starting point into the field of early analytical cartography and the first consideration of what later, become geographic information systems and their new visual language. In this paper this history of GIS is largely told without a history of technology a well as without its political context of the cold war and the Fordist state.

scholarly journals Thinking Without the Scientific Revolution: Global Interactions and the Construction of Knowledge

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 445-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kapil Raj
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Scientific Activity ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Knowledge Domains ◽  
History Of ◽  
Intercultural Interactions ◽  
The Many

Abstract Amongst the many narrative strategies in the recent “global turn” in the history of science, one commonly finds attempts to complement the single European story by multiplying histories of knowledge-making in as many different regional and cultural contexts as possible. Other strategies include attempts to generalize the “Needham Question” of why the Scientific Revolution occurred only in early-modern Europe to the exclusion of other parts of the world, or to challenge the diffusionist vision of the spread of modern science from Europe by attempting to show that non-European scientific traditions already had an understanding of recent European discoveries. These latter strategies seek simply to pluralize the Scientific Revolution without actually unpacking the latter concept itself. This article seeks firstly to show that the “Scientific Revolution” was in fact a Cold War invention intended to bring the freshly decolonized world into the ambit of the West by limiting the conception of modern science to Europe-specific activities thus delegitimizing other knowledge domains and using the term as a spatially circumscribed chronological marker. Using a broader understanding of scientific activity in the early modern period, and mobilizing relational methodologies, such as circulatory and connected historiographies, the paper then re-examines the well-known history of the Hortus Malabaricus, one of the most celebrated seventeenth-century botanical works, to show the short- and long-range knowledge circulations, intercultural interactions and connections involved in its making to bring out the global nature of scientific activity of the period and illustrate relational approaches to global history.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Raf Van Rooy
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
West Germanic ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western Scholarship ◽  
First Time

‘A language is a dialect with an army and navy.’ This witticism, associated with Max Weinreich, constitutes the starting point of both the entire book and this first chapter. The distinction between language and dialect implicit in the witticism, the chapter argues, is not a self-evident and timeless given, as is widely assumed, but has had a complex history. In this history, the early modern period played a pivotal role, as linguistic diversity was problematized for the first time during this era. Earlier and later developments cannot, however, be overlooked. The chapter also outlines the focus on Western scholarship, with a slight West-Germanic tilt, as well as the main approach and structure of the book. Presented as a history of ideas, it falls into five parts, which coincide with the main episodes in the history of the conceptual pair. Finally, this chapter briefly surveys the contents of all subsequent chapters.

The Cold War in Southeast Asia

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ang Cheng Guan
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
Interstate Relations ◽  
Southeast Asians ◽  
Nation States ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter examines the history of the Cold War in Southeast Asia. It explains that the onset of the Cold War coincided with nationalist struggles and decolonization, and explains why Southeast Asians should appreciate that the Cold War is a historical event which has significantly affected the development of their countries, particularly in terms of the role of the Cold War in shaping the political development of the nation-states and interstate relations in the region, and the growing interest in rewriting the history of the Cold War.

scholarly journals Cultural worker as an agent of influence

2017 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Misa Djurkovic
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Educational Policy ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Cultural Patterns ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Psychological Warfare ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Cultural Worker

The author starts with the question of how in today?s supposedly post-sovereign world, cultural patterns are being established and changed. It is observed that the culture today has become a real battlefield and that the process of inculcating cultural and value patterns takes the form of psychological warfare. Therefore, the author specifically focuses on the figure of the so-called agent of influence, exploring how this agent influences the fields of culture and cultural policy. Particularly interesting for investigation from the history of the twentieth century is the cultural propaganda of the Comintern between the two world wars, and the intelligence and propaganda activities of the CIA during the Cold War. After these examples from an international arena, the author analyzes the activities of foreign agents of influence in the cultural and educational policy of Serbia. The author concludes that for effective defense and counter-intelligence protection of a state from such attacks, it has to have a clear awareness of the national interest as a starting point.

History of Ardalānids (1590-1810) by Sharaf al-Dīn bin Shams al-Dīn

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-79
Author(s):  
Sara Zandi Karimi
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Critical Translation

This article is a critical translation of the “History of the Ardalānids.” In doing so, it hopes to make available to a wider academic audience this invaluable source on the study of Iranian Kurdistan during the early modern period. While a number of important texts pertaining to the Kurds during this era, most notably the writings of the Ottoman traveler Evliya Chalabi, focus primarily on Ottoman Kurdistan, this piece in contrast puts Iranian Kurdistan in general and the Ardalān dynasty in particular at the center of its historical narrative. Thus it will be of interest not only to scholars of Kurdish history but also to those seeking more generally to research life on the frontiers of empires.Keywords: Ẕayl; Ardalān; Kurdistan; Iran.ABSTRACT IN KURMANJIDîroka Erdelaniyan (1590-1810)Ev gotar wergereke rexneyî ya “Dîroka Erdelaniyan” e. Bi vê yekê, merema xebatê ew e ku vê çavkaniya pir biqîmet a li ser Kurdistana Îranê ya di serdema pêş-modern de ji bo cemawerê akademîk berdest bike. Hejmareke metnên girîng li ser Kurdên wê serdemê, bi taybetî nivîsînên Evliya Çelebî yê seyyahê osmanî, zêdetir berê xwe didine Kurdistana di bin hukmê Osmaniyan de. Lê belê, di navenda vê xebatê de, bi giştî Kurdistana Îranê û bi taybetî jî xanedana Erdelaniyan heye. Wisa jî ew dê ne tenê ji bo lêkolerên dîroka kurdî belku ji bo ewên ku dixwazin bi rengekî berfirehtir derheq jiyana li ser tixûbên împeretoriyan lêkolînan bikin jî dê balkêş be.ABSTRACT IN SORANIMêjûy Erdellan (1590-1810)Em wutare wergêrranêkî rexneyî “Mêjûy Erdellan”e, bew mebestey em serçawe girînge le ser Kurdistanî Êran le seretakanî serdemî nwê bixate berdest cemawerî ekademî. Jimareyek serçawey girîng le ser kurdekan lew serdeme da hen, diyartirînyan nûsînekanî gerîdey ‘Usmanî Ewliya Çelebîye, ke zortir serincyan le ser ‘Kurdistanî ‘Usmanî bûwe. Em berheme be pêçewanewe Kurdistanî Êran be giştî, we emaretî Erdelan be taybetî dexate senterî xwêndinewekewe. Boye nek tenya bo twêjeranî biwarî mêjûy kurdî, belku bo ewaney le ser jiyan le sinûre împiratoriyekan twêjînewe deken, cêgay serinc debêt.

Global Development

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Lorenzini
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Development Aid ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
History Of Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

In the Cold War, “development” was a catchphrase that came to signify progress, modernity, and economic growth. Development aid was closely aligned with the security concerns of the great powers, for whom infrastructure and development projects were ideological tools for conquering hearts and minds around the globe, from Europe and Africa to Asia and Latin America. This book provides a global history of development, drawing on a wealth of archival evidence to offer a panoramic and multifaceted portrait of a Cold War phenomenon that transformed the modern world. Taking readers from the aftermath of the Second World War to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, the book shows how development projects altered local realities, transnational interactions, and even ideas about development itself. The book shines new light on the international organizations behind these projects—examining their strategies and priorities and assessing the actual results on the ground—and it also gives voice to the recipients of development aid. It shows how the Cold War shaped the global ambitions of development on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and how international organizations promoted an unrealistically harmonious vision of development that did not reflect local and international differences. The book presents a global perspective on Cold War development, demonstrating how its impacts are still being felt today.

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