scholarly journals Seven Late Twentieth-Century Lives: the Mass Observation Project and Life Writing

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. MO92-MO101
Author(s):  
James Hinton
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Generational Cohort ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Late Twentieth Century ◽  
Reflective Narrative

From its revival in 1981, the Mass Observation Project has collected life writing. In response to open ended questionnaires (‘directives’), MO correspondents send in what often amount to fragments of autobiography. While this material has been explored by researchers ‘horizontally’, to discuss attitudes and behaviour in relation to the themes raised by particular directives, my book Seven Lives from Mass Observation is the first attempt to use the material ‘vertically’, assembling the fragments of autobiography contributed by some individual writers who continued to respond over two or three decades. In an earlier book, Nine Wartime Lives, I used MO's original wartime diaries (and directive responses) to write biographical essays exploring a set of common themes, derived from the mature historiography of the period, from the contrasting perspectives of nine very different observers who had all participated as active citizens in public life. This article describes the very different challenges and insights posed by the use of the more recent MOP material. The longer time frame, and less developed historiography, demanded toleration of initial confusion in the research process before the key theme of a contrast between the 1960s and 1980s emerged. The reflective narrative of MOP's autobiographical fragments (different from the immediacy of the MO wartime diaries) shaped the sample chosen: a single older generational cohort, born between the two world wars, responding to the 1960s and the 1980s as adults formed by earlier experiences. Writing intimate biographies of living people, guaranteed anonymity when they first volunteered for MOP, required developing a set of ethical protocols in conjunction with the MO Trustees.

The folk’ish heritage in Nordic democracy: Examples from Denmark and Norway

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 432-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeppe Nevers ◽  
Jesper Lundsby Skov
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
The People ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

Drawing on examples from Danish and Norwegian history, this article traces the ideological origins of Nordic democracy. It takes as its starting point the observation that constitutional theories of democracy were rather weak in the Nordic countries until the mid-twentieth century; instead, a certain Nordic tradition of popular constitutionalism rooted in a romantic and organic idea of the people was central to the ideological foundations of Nordic democracy. This tradition developed alongside agrarian mobilization in the nineteenth century, and it remained a powerful ideological reference-point through most of the twentieth century, exercising, for instance, an influence on debates about European integration in the 1960s and 1970s. However, this tradition was gradually overlaid by more institutional understandings of democracy from the mid-twentieth century onwards, with the consequence that the direct importance of this folk’ish heritage declined towards the late twentieth century. Nevertheless, clear echoes of this heritage remain evident in some contemporary Nordic varieties of populism, as well as in references to the concept of folkestyre as the pan-Scandinavian synonym for democracy.

Postrevolutionary Affect and the Consolidation of Zionism: The Case of Mercedes Sosa

boundary 2 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 119-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Lea Spira
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Dirty War ◽  
Popular Imagination ◽  
Military Regimes ◽  
Structures Of Feeling ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

This essay traces the Zionist conversion of iconic revolutionary folk singer Mercedes Sosa to theorize the shifting forms of racial empire in the movement from the Dirty War to the War on Terror. I read Sosa’s story as emblematic of the thwarted revolutionary dreams of the late twentieth century and the subsequent forms of recolonization—and in this case Zionism as settler colonialism—that came to flourish in their stead. The arc of Sosa’s work spans the transitions of the epoch and their attendant affective economies: from the revolutionary hopes of the 1960s–1970s, to the deep sorrows of the early military regimes, to the infinite deferrals of justice that animated the neoliberal project. In closing, I examine solidarity responses to the 2014 attack on Gaza. Embodying the rejuvenation of joint decolonial struggle, they rupture the Zionist stronghold that has shaped dominant structures of feeling, overwhelmingly laying purchase on the popular imagination.

Women against Abortion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karissa Haugeberg
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
Lethal Violence ◽  
Grassroots Groups ◽  
Catholic Women ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

Women from remarkably diverse religious, social, and political backgrounds made up the rank-and-file of the American antiabortion movement. Empowered by--yet in many cases scared of--the changes wrought by feminism, women prolife activists founded grassroots groups, developed now-familiar strategies and tactics, and gave voice to the movement's moral and political dimensions. Drawing on clinic records, oral histories, organizational records, and interviews with prominent figures, Women against Abortion examines American women's fight against abortion. It also elucidates the complicated relationship between gender politics, religion, and politics as notions of equality, secularism, and partisanship were recast in the late twentieth century. Beginning in the 1960s, it looks at Marjory Mecklenburg's attempt to shift the attention of anti-abortion leaders from the rights of fetuses to the needs of pregnant women. Moving forward, it traces the grassroots work of Catholic women, including Juli Loesch and Joan Andrews, and their encounters with the influx of evangelicals into the movement. The book also looks at the activism of Shelley Shannon, a prominent evangelical Protestant pro-life extremist of the 1990s. Women against Abortion explores important questions, including the ways people fused religious conviction with partisan politics, activists' rationalizations for lethal violence, and how women claimed space within an unshakably patriarchal movement.

The Edmund Burke Society and Right-Wing Extremism in Late Twentieth-Century Canada

2021 ◽  
pp. e20200028
Author(s):  
Asa McKercher
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Edmund Burke ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Late Twentieth Century ◽  
Right Wing Extremism

Emerging in Toronto in the late 1960s, the Edmund Burke Society (ebs) became a leading far-right outlet. From picketing Model United Nations meetings and gatherings of left-wing groups to staging pro-Vietnam War protests and engaging in racially motivated vandalism, the ebs became a bellwether of what journalists and social scientists identified as a “virtual explosion” of Canadian right-wing extremism. The far right has a long history in Canada, and, in this regard, ebs members’ views reflected long-standing strains of extreme nationalism, racism, anti-statism, and anti-communism. However, the ebs and its successor organizations were very much concerned with issues that were current in late twentieth-century Canada: the expanding welfare state; changes in Canadian immigration policy; multiculturalism and a more civic-based nationalism; and the entrenchment of the rights revolution. Furthermore, the group’s activities were also a response to 1960s counterculture, a counter-counterculture in that it offered a radical challenge from the right, not only to the status quo but also to the New Left. While much of the history of Canada in the 1960s is focused on the left, the emergence of the ebs highlights the growth of activism at the other end of the political spectrum. Providing an important look at Canadian far-right extremism, this examination of the ebs serves as a reminder that the 1960s were not all Trudeaumania and flower power and that societal changes in the later decades of the century did not go uncontested.

The LGBTQ Press in Twentieth-Century Britain and Ireland

2020 ◽  
pp. 483-501
Author(s):  
Alison Oram ◽  
Justin Bengry
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Gay Liberation ◽  
Lesbian And Gay ◽  
Local Alternative ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Gay Liberation Movement ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

This chapter examines the development of the ‘gay’ press in Britain and Ireland from the late nineteenth century. Early periodicals that directly addressed gender fluidity and same-sex love were privately circulated; caution and secrecy lasted well into the 1960s. Yet at the same time considerable queer content appeared in some mainstream publications, such as fashion, film and physique magazines in the pre-decriminalisation period. More recognisably lesbian and gay publications from the 1960s sought to achieve political and cultural change and to foster social contacts for lesbians and gay men. The Gay Liberation Movement marked a wealth of short- and longer-lived magazines, newspapers and periodicals, while feminism invigorated lesbian activism and publications. Differentiation in content characterises the gay press in the late twentieth century, from glossy arts magazines to political campaign news to specialist pornography. From the 1980s there was a discernible shift towards lifestyle magazines. Regional gay and lesbian magazines also appear in this period, often overlapping with the local alternative press, although censorship and persecution continued alongside the success of the LGBT press. The chapter further identifies the specific development of LGBTQ publications in Scotland and Ireland.

Free Enterprise: Virtual Capital and Counterfeit Music at the End of the Century

1999 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 19-22
Author(s):  
Mark Trayle
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Credit Card ◽  
Computer Network ◽  
Free Enterprise ◽  
Virtual Economy ◽  
Network Music ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Organizational Science ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

How does a piece of computer network music reflect the virtual economy of the late twentieth century? Was the “open-form” music of the 1960s a bedfellow of organizational science? The author conjectures about the nature of distributed composition and the socioeconomic implications of its application in a composition for networked credit card readers.

Relaxation and Meditation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayesha Nathoo
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Relaxation Techniques ◽  
Health Seeking ◽  
Modern Yoga ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Neuromuscular Relaxation ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

This chapter elucidates the shared socio-cultural history of modern, therapeutic relaxation and meditation strategies. It demonstrates how the promulgation of relaxation therapies from the early twentieth century strongly influenced the later advancement of secularized, therapeutic meditation practices. It traces the development of scientifically grounded neuromuscular relaxation techniques, visualization methods and Autogenic Training in the first half of the twentieth century, through to the proliferation of modern yoga and Transcendental Meditation practices from the 1960s and mindfulness-based approaches from the late twentieth century. It shows how and why relaxation and meditation have been variously demarcated and amalgamated, in their common outreach to health-seeking Western populations. The chapter contributes a new historical vantage point for better understanding both the appeal and limitations of adapting and appropriating meditative techniques for therapeutic ends.

Engineers and Social Engineering: Professional/Trade Unions and Social Mobility

2021 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-195
Author(s):  
Hannah Forsyth ◽  
Michael P. R. Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Late Twentieth Century ◽  
Australian Universities

Professions like engineering were a vehicle for social mobility in Australia early in the twentieth century. By the late twentieth century, despite considerable expansions in higher education, it was much harder for young people to enter a trade and then to use their skills and experience to move into professional engineering. The shift in occupation structure in the early twentieth century, when professions - including engineering - grew rapidly, gave new opportunities to working-class tradespeople to move into professional employment. After the 1960s, when educational norms standardised and professional knowledge became more complex, these pathways narrowed. Motor mechanics, for example, were “trade” engineers who were able to move into professional engineering early in the twentieth century in ways that were extensively limited by the end of the century. This article uses engineering as a case study to consider institutional changes, including the growth of middle-class unions and the increased share of education carried by Australian universities, which made access to professional occupations more difficult for working-class tradespeople from the 1960s onwards. This helps us to identify the emergence of a new kind of class solidarity among professionals in the mid-twentieth century, with which they developed strategies to win rights for themselves, but sometimes at the expense of working-class interests.

Globalization and the Transformation of Work in Rural Brazil: Agribusiness, Rural Labor Unions, and Peasant Mobilization

2006 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cliff Welch
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Labor Unions ◽  
Agricultural History ◽  
Family Farming ◽  
Rural Labor ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Peasant Movement ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

This article examines recent Brazilian rural labor and agricultural history. It identifies three broad periods for analysis in the postwar era: the 1940s to 1960s, the 1960s to 1980s, and a third period that dates roughly from the promulgation of Brazil's new constitution in 1988 to the present. Using primary and secondary sources the article analyzes recent agrarian transformations associated with globalization, including the organized response of workers and farmers to the loss of millions farm livelihoods. It explains the rise of an autonomous peasant movement in the late twentieth century and describes the recent development of a polemic between a peasant vision of expanded family farming and the agricultural capitalist model promoted by powerful agribusiness interests.

Chicago’s Other Skyscrapers: Grain Elevators and the City, 1838-1957

2020 ◽  
pp. 009614422092544
Author(s):  
Thomas Leslie
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Economic Geography ◽  
Financial Capital ◽  
Grain Elevators ◽  
Water Transportation ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Grain Market ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The City ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

More than one hundred major structures for warehousing grain were built in Chicago between the city’s founding decade and the 1960s. These were vital to the city’s status as a transportation and financial capital as they provided the impetus for Chicago’s commodities market and enabled smooth transfer to points east by rail or ship. The city’s grain elevators also served as markers of changing economic geography, as precincts developed throughout the city that related to railroad development, river and lake access, and commercial pressures. Chicago’s decline as a grain market in the late twentieth century is reflected in their abandonment. While elevator structures in Buffalo and Montreal have attracted attention from architectural and urban historians, those in Chicago have been largely ignored, but they show how construction, infrastructure, politics, labor, and trade were uniquely enmeshed with one another due to that city’s position within in networks of rail and water transportation.

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