Coalition building, Capitalism and War– Review article of John Riddell, To the Masses: Proceedings of the Third Congress of the Communist International, 1921

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 169
Author(s):  
Paul Kellogg
Keyword(s):  
New Left ◽  
First World War ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
World War ◽  
The Third ◽  
The First World War ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Masses ◽  
New Generation ◽  
First World

We are entering the centenary of the revolutionary upheavals which convulsed Europe and Asia in the wake of the First World War. Sustained by those upheavals, a new left emerged grappling with the daunting challenges of trying to create an alternative to capitalism and war. John Riddell's three decades of effort to make available the proceedings of the First Four Congresses of the Communist International (Comintern) are part of a new generation working to make available to an English speaking audience some of the key disucssions and deliberations of the left in that era. His latest volume – "To the Masses" – surveying the discussions of the Third Comintern Congress completes this work. Focussing on the united front – what a contemporary left would call "coalition building" – the book is an invaluable resource both to our understanding of this period, and to the challenges our new left faces in the still ongoing struggle against capitalism and war.

G.A. Landau on the Twilights of Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 309-314
Author(s):  
Kirill A. Solovyov
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Direct Predecessor ◽  
The Masses ◽  
First World ◽  
European Civilization ◽  
Legal Processes

In the center of the article author’s attention is the book “Twilight of Europe” by G. A. Landau, which is sometimes regarded as direct predecessor of O. Spengler’s works. The article is devoted to G. A. Landau’s views on the nature of political, social, and legal processes in Europe after the First World War. The special attention is paid to the circumstances that Landau believed to be the signs of European civilization ill-being: the collapse of empires, nationalism, and the inclusion of the masses in the political life. Accordingly, the emphasis is placed on Landau’s evaluation of such concepts as “militarism”, “empire”, “nation”, etc.

On the Terrible War of 5675

2012 ◽  
pp. 299-309
Author(s):  
George (Gedaliah) Silverstone
Keyword(s):  
Jewish People ◽  
First World War ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
Eastern Front ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Masses ◽  
First World

This chapter studies an early example of a sermon which focuses more on the toll taken by the First World War on the masses of Jewish civilians living on the contested territories of the Eastern Front rather than on the implications of the war for the general values of culture and civilization. Here the sermon of George (Gedaliah) Silverstone does not underline the patriotism of Jews towards all the countries where they lived, but rather emphasizes the underlying unity of the Jewish people, and the sometimes painful tension between that unity and such patriotism. The preacher introduces it by speaking of the reaction of his listeners to the story they have read ‘in the newspapers’, apparently within the past few days. In addition to narratives drawn from the contemporary newspapers, there are two other major components of the sermon's message, drawn from traditional Jewish literature. The source provides hope for a providential, redemptive dénouement to the bloodshed, in the traditional homiletical style.

2. IR as an Academic Subject

2018 ◽  
pp. 33-66
Author(s):  
Robert Jackson ◽  
Georg Sørensen ◽  
Jørgen Møller
Keyword(s):  
International Political Economy ◽  
First World War ◽  
Good Theory ◽  
World War ◽  
The Third ◽  
Academic Subject ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Alternative Approaches ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
First World

This chapter examines how thinking about international relations (IR) has evolved since IR became an academic subject around the time of the First World War. The focus is on four established IR traditions: realism, liberalism, International Society, and International Political Economy (IPE). The chapter first considers three major debates that have arisen since IR became an academic subject at the end of the First World War: the first was between utopian liberalism and realism; the second between traditional approaches and behaviouralism; the third between neorealism/neoliberalism and neo-Marxism. There is an emerging fourth debate, that between established traditions and post-positivist alternatives. The chapter concludes with an analysis of alternative approaches that challenge the established traditions of IR, and with a discussion about criteria for good theory in IR.

2. IR as an Academic Subject

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Jackson ◽  
Georg Sørensen
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Third ◽  
Academic Subject ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Alternative Approaches ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
First World

This chapter examines how thinking about international relations (IR) has evolved since IR became an academic subject around the time of the First World War. The focus is on four established IR traditions: realism, liberalism, International Society, and International Political Economy (IPE). The chapter first considers three major debates that have arisen since IR became an academic subject at the end of the First World War: the first was between utopian liberalism and realism; the second between traditional approaches and behaviouralism; the third between neorealism/neoliberalism and neo-Marxism. There is an emerging fourth debate, that between established traditions and post-positivist alternatives. The chapter concludes with an analysis of alternative approaches that challenge the established traditions of IR.

The Nationalization of the Masses

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger D. Markwick ◽  
Nicholas Doumanis
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
World War ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Masses ◽  
First World

Europe was a continent of nation states by the mid-twentieth century. But it was not always thus. The patchwork quilt of nation states and the nationalism that coloured them in were forged by massive social and political shifts that had been gathering momentum since the late nineteenth century. Viewing nations and nationalism as constructs of modern, global capitalism, often legitimated by national mythologies old and new, this chapter surveys the forces at work: from above and below, from centre and periphery. The First World War raised nationalism to white heat, and as multi-ethnic empires faltered, myriad subaltern nationalisms erupted, demanding ‘self-determination’, the watchword of the post-war peace settlements. But the war also unleashed internationalist class challenges to belligerent nationalism, culminating in the 1917 Russian Revolution. Thereafter, European nationalism assumed its most truculent guise: fascism and military dictatorships warring against class in the name of ethnic, national, and biological purity.

scholarly journals "Give 'Em a Few Bars of the Hymn of Hate": The German and English-Language Reception of Ernst Lissauer's "Haßgesang gegen England"

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Roger Smith
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
English Language ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
The First World War ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
Almost All ◽  
First World

<p>Ernst Lissauer’s “Haßgesang gegen England” is an Anglophobic German poem, written in the early weeks of the First World War. This thesis examines the poem’s reception in the German and English-speaking worlds, the imitations it inspired, the opposition it provoked, and the enduring discourse it instigated. The study begins by outlining Lissauer’s biography, and places his “Haßgesang” within the context of contemporary German poetry of hate. It discusses the changing reception of the poem in the German-speaking world over time, and the many and varied German works it inspired. The “Haßgesang” is shown to have captured the Zeitgeist of Germany at the beginning of the First World War, but to have been later rejected by the German public and renounced by its author, while the war still raged. The poem also established a discourse on hatred and hatefulness as motivating factors in war, sparking debate on both sides. In the English-speaking world, the “Haßgesang” was viewed by some as a useful insight into the national psyche of the Germans, while for others it merely confirmed existing stereotypes of Germans as a hateful people. As an example of propaganda in reverse the poem can hardly be bettered, inspiring parodies, cartoons, soldiers’ slang and music hall numbers, almost all engineered to subvert the poem’s hateful message. The New Zealand reception provides a useful case study of the reception of the poem in the English-speaking world, linking reportage of overseas responses with new, locally produced ones. New Zealand emerges as a geographically distant but remarkably well-informed corner of the British Empire. Regardless of the poem’s literary quality, its role as a vehicle for propaganda, satire and irony singles it out as a powerful document of its time: one which cut across all strata of society from the ruling elite to the men in the trenches, and which became an easily recognised symbol around the globe.</p>

scholarly journals The Greek Middlebrow Magazine Μπουκέτο (1924‒46) and its Supplements

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Despoina Gkogkou
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Cultural Field ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Middlebrow Culture ◽  
New Type ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Periodical Publishing ◽  
First World ◽  
The Way

This article introduces one of the first popular literary miscellanies published in Greece after the First World War, Μπουκέτο [Bouquet] (1924‒46). The first of its kind in the country, it led the way to a new type of periodical with subject matter ranging from serialized novels to short jokes, along with a modern layout featuring fine and plentiful illustrations. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of the cultural field, the article starts by showing that the magazine was a manifestation of middlebrow culture, combining commercial values with legitimate cultural aspirations and an eagerness to educate the masses. After situating the magazine in the cultural field of Greek periodical publishing and specifying its audience, the article focuses on its supplements, which followed the magazine’s publishing success. These were spin-off publications associated with the magazine, such as Βιβλιοθήκη του Μπουκέτου [Bouquet’s Library] (1924‒36), a series of translated classic novels, the annual Ημερολόγιον του Μπουκέτου [Bouquet’s Calendar] (1926‒33), and pamphlets or pull-outs sewn into the central pages of the magazine. The analysis draws attention to the characteristics, as well as the threads connecting them to the parent publication. The article traces the reasons that triggered the magazine’s subsidiary products and, by extension, the purposes they fulfilled, as well as the way they were used by the magazine throughout its lifespan in an attempt to create a name for itself and engage its readership.

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