Nursing Body and Soul in the Parish: Lutheran Deaconess Motherhouses in Germany and the United States

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Kreutzer

In Lutheran Germany, parish nursing traditionally constituted the deaconesses’ principal work. As “Christian mothers of the parish” they were charged with a wide spectrum of tasks, including nursing, social service, and pastoral care. At the center of the Christian understanding of nursing was the idea of nursing body and soul as a unity. This article analyzes the conception and transformation of Protestant parish nursing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Germany and the United States, which developed very differently. In West Germany, parish nursing proved surprisingly resistant to modernization even in the face of upheavals of the 1960s, and in some places this traditional model survived as late as the 1980s and 1990s. In the United States, by contrast, an understanding of nursing rooted in the division of labor between care for body and care for soul had come to prevail by the 1920s and ‘30s, pushing out the German model of the parish deaconess altogether.

Author(s):  
Udi Greenberg

This chapter considers the new vision of democracy ushered in by the generation of the 1960s. Unlike the architects of the postwar order, left-wing students challenged, rather than celebrated, the legitimacy of elected institutions and party politics. Parliaments were merely stages for oligarchies, tools for self-perpetuating elites. In both West Germany and the United States, students claimed that state institutions inevitably reinforced rigid hierarchies and oppressive norms. A “true” democracy could not be built by state agencies. Rather, it would emerge from “autonomy,” from small organizations, student movements, NGOs, and, later, human rights organizations. When the frustration and anger of this new generation exploded in protest in the late 1960s, German émigrés were among its main targets. Student journals and pamphlets frequently attacked and ridiculed the leading thinkers of the older generation. Such criticism was especially ferocious in West Germany, where returning émigrés came to represent Cold War ties with an amoral and depraved United States.


2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 6-24
Author(s):  
Kevin Young

The Triangular Plan of the 1960s was a key moment in the rightward shift of the Bolivian Revolution (1952–1964). Billed by the United States, West Germany, and the Inter-American Development Bank as a generous loan program to “rehabilitate” the Bolivian tin mines, the plan also gave its architects a chance to discipline Bolivian workers, further privatize the Bolivian economy, and test the usefulness of conditional economic aid in containing revolutionary nationalism. From an analysis of the Triangular Plan it is possible to draw three major conclusions about postwar U.S. policy with regard to Latin America: (1) independent nationalism and popular militancy, rather than Soviet-style Communism, were the primary fears of policy makers; (2) the response to the Bolivian Revolution was not, as some have implied, indicative of benign intentions in the face of revolutionary nationalism; and (3) Bolivia often served as a “test case” or laboratory for policy measures.


2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 227-228
Author(s):  
Sheryl Lutjens

Max Azicri writes with acumen on the Cuban revolution in the very different decades of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and he offers an insightful assessment of the changes and challenges of the 1990s. His objective is to answer the puzzle of what he calls the “Cuban miracle”: the island's surprising survival in the face of the deep economic crisis associated with the collapse of the socialist bloc and the ongoing “punitive” policies of the United States. Azicri is not the only scholar to attempt an interpretation of Cuba in the 1990s. Susan Eckstein (Back from the Future: Cuba Under Castro, 1994), Ken Cole (Cuba: From Revoution to Development, 1998), Julia Jatar-Hausman (The Cuban Way: Capitalism, Communism, and Confrontation, 1999), and Robin Blackburn, (“Putting the Hammer Down on Cuba,” New Left Review, July-August 2000 (4): 5–36) are among those who have examined the nexus of Cuba's past and future in the post–Cold War context. An explosion of travel writing also demonstrates the intrigue of contemporary Cuba, as does the list of new detective thrillers—some of them bestsellers—with a Cuba setting. Azicri's book has a distinctive place in this literary landscape.


Author(s):  
Helena Cantone

Gebre Kristos Desta was one of the most influential artists to emerge from the Addis Ababa Fine Arts School in Ethiopia in the 1960s. Best known for his pioneering abstract impressionist style paintings, his socially and politically charged content, and Pan-African perspectives, Desta was attacked by critics who accused him of being too Westernized and removed from his Ethiopian heritage and culture. While he exhibited abroad in the United States, USSR, India, and Czechoslovakia, Desta was mainly known in Ethiopia and West Germany during his short life, and only received international recognition after his death. Desta studied art at the Werkschule für Bildende Künste und Gestaltung in Cologne from 1957 to 1961. Following his graduation, Desta held a solo exhibition at the Gallery Kuppers, an event that launched his career as an artist. In Ethiopia, Desta flourished under the patronage of Haile Selassie I, receiving the honorary National Prize for Fine Arts in 1965, and awards for his teaching services at Addis Ababa Fine Arts School between 1962 and 1975. Desta was responsible for introducing new artistic concepts to his students, including non-figurative abstract art and experimentation with social–political themes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-281
Author(s):  
Sylvia Dümmer Scheel

El artículo analiza la diplomacia pública del gobierno de Lázaro Cárdenas centrándose en su opción por publicitar la pobreza nacional en el extranjero, especialmente en Estados Unidos. Se plantea que se trató de una estrategia inédita, que accedió a poner en riesgo el “prestigio nacional” con el fin de justificar ante la opinión pública estadounidense la necesidad de implementar las reformas contenidas en el Plan Sexenal. Aprovechando la inusual empatía hacia los pobres en tiempos del New Deal, se construyó una imagen específica de pobreza que fuera higiénica y redimible. Ésta, sin embargo, no generó consenso entre los mexicanos. This article analyzes the public diplomacy of the government of Lázaro Cárdenas, focusing on the administration’s decision to publicize the nation’s poverty internationally, especially in the United States. This study suggests that this was an unprecedented strategy, putting “national prestige” at risk in order to explain the importance of implementing the reforms contained in the Six Year Plan, in the face of public opinion in the United States. Taking advantage of the increased empathy felt towards the poor during the New Deal, a specific image of hygienic and redeemable poverty was constructed. However, this strategy did not generate agreement among Mexicans.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-153
Author(s):  
Adolphus G. Belk ◽  
Robert C. Smith ◽  
Sherri L. Wallace

In general, the founders of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists were “movement people.” Powerful agents of socialization such as the uprisings of the 1960s molded them into scholars with tremendous resolve to tackle systemic inequalities in the political science discipline. In forming NCOBPS as an independent organization, many sought to develop a Black perspective in political science to push the boundaries of knowledge and to use that scholarship to ameliorate the adverse conditions confronting Black people in the United States and around the globe. This paper utilizes historical documents, speeches, interviews, and other scholarly works to detail the lasting contributions of the founders and Black political scientists to the discipline, paying particular attention to their scholarship, teaching, mentoring, and civic engagement. It finds that while political science is much improved as a result of their efforts, there is still work to do if their goals are to be achieved.


Author(s):  
William W. Franko ◽  
Christopher Witko

The authors conclude the book by recapping their arguments and empirical results, and discussing the possibilities for the “new economic populism” to promote egalitarian economic outcomes in the face of continuing gridlock and the dominance of Washington, DC’s policymaking institutions by business and the wealthy, and a conservative Republican Party. Many states are actually addressing inequality now, and these policies are working. Admittedly, many states also continue to embrace the policies that have contributed to growing inequality, such as tax cuts for the wealthy or attempting to weaken labor unions. But as the public grows more concerned about inequality, the authors argue, policies that help to address these income disparities will become more popular, and policies that exacerbate inequality will become less so. Over time, if history is a guide, more egalitarian policies will spread across the states, and ultimately to the federal government.


Author(s):  
Richard Gowan

During Ban Ki-moon’s tenure, the Security Council was shaken by P5 divisions over Kosovo, Georgia, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine. Yet it also continued to mandate and sustain large-scale peacekeeping operations in Africa, placing major burdens on the UN Secretariat. The chapter will argue that Ban initially took a cautious approach to controversies with the Council, and earned a reputation for excessive passivity in the face of crisis and deference to the United States. The second half of the chapter suggests that Ban shifted to a more activist pressure as his tenure went on, pressing the Council to act in cases including Côte d’Ivoire, Libya, and Syria. The chapter will argue that Ban had only a marginal impact on Council decision-making, even though he made a creditable effort to speak truth to power over cases such as the Central African Republic (CAR), challenging Council members to live up to their responsibilities.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document