Where does theory go in military history?

2022 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-79
Author(s):  
Jeremy Black
Keyword(s):  
Military History ◽  
Global Approach ◽  
The West ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
War And Society ◽  
Military Revolutions ◽  
Multiple Regions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Do So ◽  
Key Questions

This article presents a critique of Whiggish approaches to military history. It begins with this quotation from Dennis Showalter – ‘military history is arguably the last stronghold of what historiographers call the “Whig interpretation”’ – and notes that Showalter’s assessment was a reflection on both the general absence of theory and the linked poverty of the fallback theoretical basket of the subject, with such staples as War and Society, Face of Battle, and Military Revolutions. Recognizing the shortcomings of numerous approaches to military history, the author identifies the challenge – writing military history that incorporates multiple regions and takes a global approach. As the author concludes, the problem for the historian remains how best to address the complex interactions of, in particular, change and continuity, structure and conjuncture, the West and the wider world, and to do so to produce an account that is able to identify and probe crucial issues and key questions.

scholarly journals Decolonising war

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarak Barkawi
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The West ◽  
War And Society ◽  
Small War ◽  
Nation State Formation ◽  
Do So

AbstractWhat would it mean to decolonise the concept of war? ‘Decolonising’ means critiquing the ways in which Eurocentric ideas and historiographies have informed the basic categories of social and political thought. Dominant understandings of the concept of war derive from histories and sociologies of nation-state formation in the West. Accordingly, I critique this Eurocentric concept of war from the perspective of Small War in the colonies, that is, from the perspective of different histories and geographies of war and society than were assumed to exist in the West. I do so in order to outline a postcolonial concept of war and to identify some of the principles of inquiry that would inform a postcolonial war studies. These include conceiving force as an ordinary dimension of politics; situating force and war in transnational context, amid international hierarchies; and attending to the co-constitutive character of war and society relations in world politics.

Bede's Ecclesiastical History and the Material Conditions of Anglo-Saxon Life

1979 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Joel T. Rosenthal
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
The West ◽  
Ecclesiastical History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Do So

The author of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People was the greatest historian writing in the West between the later Roman Empire and the twelfth century, when we come to William of Malmesbury, Otto of Freising, and William of Tyre. Bede's qualities as a historian are well known and widely appreciated, and they need no further exposition here. Instead, we propose to be perverse and to attempt to read Bede's text as though he had been a sociologist or an economic anthropologist: What can we learn from him about the “material conditions” of life in post-Roman and early Anglo-Saxon England, especially about life in the sixth and seventh centuries. This is surely a strange purpose for which to use the Ecclesiastical History. We do so both to show that Bede is so rich and so multifaceted that he is immensely valuable for many purposes besides those of greatest obvious interest to him, and because the sources for social and economic life in those years are so poor that everything available is legitimate grist for the mills of our analysis.Actually there are two reasons why Bede might have furnished us with the kind of information we are seeking. One is that among classical and early medieval historians there was a considerable tradition of describing the barbarian world, of paying particular attention to the institutions, mores, and customs of the Germanic people or whoever might be the subject of the tale.

Pakistan’s Development: Successes, Failures, and Future Tasks (Presidential Remarks)

1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (4I) ◽  
pp. 321-331
Author(s):  
Sarfraz Khan Qureshi
Keyword(s):  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
General Meeting ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Golden Jubilee ◽  
Freedom Movement ◽  
Past Half ◽  
Do So

It is an honour for me as President of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists to welcome you to the 13th Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Society. I consider it a great privilege to do so as this Meeting coincides with the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the state of Pakistan, a state which emerged on the map of the postwar world as a result of the Muslim freedom movement in the Indian Subcontinent. Fifty years to the date, we have been jubilant about it, and both as citizens of Pakistan and professionals in the social sciences we have also been thoughtful about it. We are trying to see what development has meant in Pakistan in the past half century. As there are so many dimensions that the subject has now come to have since its rather simplistic beginnings, we thought the Golden Jubilee of Pakistan to be an appropriate occasion for such stock-taking.

Cattle keeping, fertilization and water quality - a pilot study

1994 ◽  
Vol 30 (9) ◽  
pp. 249-253
Author(s):  
Pascal Maret
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Surface Water ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Global Approach ◽  
The West ◽  
Breeding Management ◽  
Significant Damage ◽  
Cultivation Methods ◽  
Cattle Husbandry

Significant damage to surface water is caused by cattle husbandry. Only one global approach of water management and farming techniques (breeding management and cultivation methods) will ensure significant results. A pilot study run in the west of France proved that water quality can easily be improved by renovating the cattle buildings. It also showed that manure used as a fertilizer covers cultivation needs, which allows substantial savings for the farmers.

scholarly journals Neuroimmune Response Mediated by Cytokines in Natural Scrapie after Chronic Dexamethasone Treatment

Biomolecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 204
Author(s):  
Isabel M. Guijarro ◽  
Moisés Garcés ◽  
Pol Andrés-Benito ◽  
Belén Marín ◽  
Alicia Otero ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prion Diseases ◽  
Global Approach ◽  
Profile Data ◽  
Dexamethasone Treatment ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Natural Scrapie ◽  
Anti Inflammatory

The actual role of prion protein-induced glial activation and subsequent cytokine secretion during prion diseases is still incompletely understood. The overall aim of this study is to assess the effect of an anti-inflammatory treatment with dexamethasone on different cytokines released by neuroglial cells that are potentially related to neuroinflammation in natural scrapie. This study emphasizes the complex interactions existent among several pleiotropic neuromodulator peptides and provides a global approach to clarify neuroinflammatory processes in prion diseases. Additionally, an impairment of communication between microglial and astroglial populations mediated by cytokines, mainly IL-1, is suggested. The main novelty of this study is that it is the first one assessing in situ neuroinflammatory activity in relation to chronic anti-inflammatory therapy, gaining relevance because it is based on a natural model. The cytokine profile data would suggest the activation of some neurotoxicity-associated route. Consequently, targeting such a pathway might be a new approach to modify the damaging effects of neuroinflammation.

scholarly journals “I Am Not Good at Any of This.” Playing with Homoeroticism in The Arabian Nights

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 480
Author(s):  
Frank G. Bosman
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Self ◽  
French Translation ◽  
The West ◽  
Arabian Nights ◽  
Safe Environment ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Cross Dressing ◽  
And Gender

The story collection known in the West as The Arabian Nights or One Thousand and One Nights, is famous, among other things, for its erotic playfulness. This eroticism was (and is) one of the key reasons for its continuous popularity after Antoine Galland’s French translation in 1704. The Arabian Nights includes, besides traditional, heterosexual acts, play, and desires, examples of homoerotic playfulness—even though we must tread lightly when using such Western concepts with an oriental text body such as this one. The homoerotic playfulness of The Arabian Nights is the subject of this article. By making use of a text-immanent analysis of two of the Nights’ stories—of Qamar and Budûr and of Alî Shâr and Zumurrud—the author of this article focuses on the reversal of common gender roles, acts of cross-dressing, and, of course, homoerotic play. He will argue that these stories provide a narrative safe environment in which the reader is encouraged to “experiment” with non-normative sexual and gender orientations, leaving the dominant status quo effectively and ultimately unchallenged, thus preventing the (self-proclaimed) defenders of that status quo from feeling threatened enough to actively counter-act the experiment.

scholarly journals The Young of the Gobiidæ from the Neighbourhood of Plymouth

1919 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie V. Lebour
Keyword(s):  
The West ◽  
Open Sea ◽  
The Subject

Several Gobius species and also Aphya and Crystallogobius are common near Plymouth, from up the estuaries in the neighbourhood of Saltash to the west and Chelson Meadow to the east, as far as the open sea, well beyond Rame Head and the Eddystone Lighthouse. It has, however, always been difficult to determine the young of the various species as they usually differ very little from one another and it is hoped that the following notes may be a help in the elucidation of the subject.

Unveiling the subject behind diversity: Exploring the micro-politics of representation in ethnic minority creatives’ identity work

Organization ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 330-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrizia Zanoni ◽  
Annelies Thoelen ◽  
Sierk Ybema
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Creative Industries ◽  
The Other ◽  
Politics Of Representation ◽  
Cultural Industries ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
The West ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Creative Subject

Much literature on the cultural industries celebrates ethnicity as a source of creativity. Despite its positive connotation, this discourse reduces ethnic minority creatives to manifestations of a collective ethnic identity automatically leading to creativity, creating a paradox of creativity without a creative subject. Approaching creatives with an ethnic minority background as agents, this article investigates how they self-reflectively and purposely discursively construct ethnicity as a source of creativity in their identity work. Empirically, we analyze interviews with well-established creatives with an ethnic minority background active in Belgium. Most respondents construct their ethnic background as ‘hybrid’, ‘exotic’, or ‘liminal’ to craft an identity as creatives and claim creativity for their work. Only few refuse to discursively deploy ethnicity as a source of creativity, crafting more individualized identities as creatives. Our study contributes to the literature on power and ethnicity in the creative industries by documenting ethnic minority creatives’ discursive micro-struggle over what is creative work and who qualifies as a creative. Specifically, we show their counterpolitics of representation of ethnicity in the creative industries through the re-signification of the relation between the ‘west’ and the ‘other’ in less disadvantageous terms. Despite such re-signification, the continued relevance of the discourse of ethnicity as a key marker of difference suggests that ethnicity remains a principle of unequal organization of the creative industries.

SPATIAL FORMATION IN ARCADES: ANKARA-YENİŞEHİR ARCADES

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (21) ◽  
pp. 0-0
Author(s):  
Merve KURT KIRAL ◽  
Emel AKIN
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Research Area ◽  
The Other ◽  
The West ◽  
Planning Decisions ◽  
Urban Buildings ◽  
Spatial Features ◽  
Trading Activities ◽  
The Subject ◽  
New Buildings

Spaces are conditioned by social conditions; on the other hand, social structure is affected by spaces. Arcades, the subject of this article, first appeared in Europe in the 18th century as a result of an increase in trading activities. The arcades in Ankara, which were started to be built in the 1950s together with increasing trading activities, contributed to the urban economy with intense activities of shopping, re-determined social and urban relations as essential places of everyday life and became distinctive urban buildings with their original building typologies and the function of maintaining public continuity in the area of private ownership. Aim: This study aims to study the process in which passages emerged and to analyze their spatial features and, in particular, to examine the spatial formation of the distinctive passages in Ankara on the basis of their causation. Method: In the article, spatial features of the passages in the West were mentioned, and the conditions of the period in which the passages in Ankara were built were briefly explained. Spatial analysis of the passages found in the research area were conducted, and the formation of these passages were analyzed together with their reasons. Results: Of the 31 arcades in Ankara, 27 were built between 1950 and 1980 on and around the Atatürk Boulevard in Yenişehir/Kizilay. As of the mid-1950s, new planning decisions which were made one after the other in the built-up area re-shaped the Boulevard and its surrounding as the existing buildings were demolished, allowing to construct new buildings with arcades or stores in their entrances. Their interior designs and connections to the streets are different from the arcades in the West. Conclusion: The present subdivision system and new planning decisions applied in property order shaped the passages which were peculiar to Ankara.

"Itzt kommen die Soldaten"

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tilman Venzl
Keyword(s):  
Literary History ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Military History ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Social Structural ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Military ◽  
First Time

In the 18th century, as many as 300 German-language plays were produced with the military and its contact and friction with civil society serving as focus of the dramatic events. The immense public interest these plays attracted feeds not least on the fundamental social structural change that was brought about by the establishment of standing armies. In his historico-cultural literary study, Tilman Venzl shows how these military dramas literarily depict complex social processes and discuss the new problems in an affirmative or critical manner. For the first time, the findings of the New Military History are comprehensively included in the literary history of the 18th century. Thus, the example of selected military dramas – including Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm and Lenz's Die Soldaten – reveals the entire range of variety characterizing the history of both form and function of the subject.

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