scholarly journals The Horrors of War in the History of German Literature: From Heinrich Wittenwiler and Hans Jacob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen to Rainer Maria Remarque

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-144
Author(s):  
Albrecht Classen
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
German Literature ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Human History ◽  
Great Literature ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Epic Poems ◽  
The Military

As terrible as wars have always been, for the losers as well as for the winners, considering the massive killings, destruction, and general horror resulting from it all, poets throughout time have responded to this miserable situation by writing deeply moving novels, plays, poems, epic poems, and other works. The history of Germany, above all, has been filled with a long series of wars, but those have also been paralleled by major literary works describing those wars, criticizing them, and outlining the devastating consequences, here disregarding those narratives that deliberately idealized the military events. While wars take place on the ground and affect people, animals, objects, and nature at large, poets have always taken us to imaginary worlds where they could powerfully reflect on the causes and outcomes of the brutal operations. This paper takes into view some major German works from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century in order to identify a fundamental discourse that makes war so valuable for history and culture, after all. Curiously, as we will recognize through a comparative analysis, some of the worst conditions in human history have produced some of the most aesthetically pleasing and most meaningful artistic or literary texts. So, as this paper will illustrate, the experience of war, justified or not, has been a cornerstone of medieval, early modern, and modern literature. However, it is far from me to suggest that we would need wars for great literature to emerge. On the contrary, great literature serves as the public conscience fighting against wars and the massive violence resulting from it.

Allegra Iafrate, The Long Life of Magical Objects: A Study in the Solomonic Tradition. The Magic in History Series. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2019, xi, 235 pp., 19 b/w images, 2 tables.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 252-254
Author(s):  
Albrecht Classen
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Modern World ◽  
State University ◽  
Eastern Culture ◽  
Historical Objects ◽  
History Of ◽  
Religious Objects ◽  
The Middle Ages

Throughout times, magic and magicians have exerted a tremendous influence, and this even in our (post)modern world (see now the contributions to Magic and Magicians in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Time, ed. Albrecht Classen, 2017; here not mentioned). Allegra Iafrate here presents a fourth monograph dedicated to magical objects, primarily those associated with the biblical King Solomon, especially the ring, the bottle which holds a demon, knots, and the flying carpet. She is especially interested in the reception history of those symbolic objects, both in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, both in western and in eastern culture, that is, above all, in the Arabic world, and also pursues the afterlife of those objects in the early modern age. Iafrate pursues not only the actual history of King Solomon and those religious objects associated with him, but the metaphorical objects as they made their presence felt throughout time, and this especially in literary texts and in art-historical objects.

Towards an Analytical Model of Military Effectiveness for the Early Modern Period: the Military Dynamics of the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion

2013 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-316
Author(s):  
Daniel Szechi
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Analytical Model ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Military History ◽  
Military Effectiveness ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Anglophone World ◽  
British State ◽  
The Military

Abstract Early modern European rebellions have long been of interest to military historians, yet, with the exception of the 1745 rebellion led by Charles Edward Stuart, the military history of the Jacobite rebellions against the English/British state is little known outside the Anglophone world. Likewise, though there have been many analyses of particular rebellions no analytical model of rebel military capabilities has hitherto been proposed, and thus meaningful comparisons between early modern rebellions located in different regions and different eras has been difficult. This article accordingly offers an analysis of the military effectiveness of the Jacobite rebels in 1715-16 structured by a model adapted from the ›Military Effectiveness‹ framework first advanced by Allan Millett and Williamson Murray. This is with a view to stimulating military-historical interest in Jacobite rebellions other than the ’45, and promoting more systematic discussion of the military effectiveness of early modern European rebel armies.

scholarly journals Public Histories of Australian and British Women's Suffrage: Some Comparative Issues

2007 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilda Kean
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Women's Suffrage ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
The Public ◽  
Suffrage Movement ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Women’S Suffrage

In this article I consider the ways in which activists in the British suffrage movement became the public historians of their own pasts. I analyse the different forms in which the history of suffrage feminism was created and the ways in which it both drew upon former traditions of the labour movement and conventions of public memorialisation. I consider the ways in which the Australian suffrage campaign has been memorialised and differences between this and the British position. I raise a number of questions about ways in which public historians might explore the creation of collective histories and the role of individuals within that process arising from this initial comparative analysis.

The Forgotten Democratic Tradition of Revolutionary France

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Stephen W. Sawyer
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Effective Practices ◽  
Modern Democracy ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Public ◽  
Democratic Tradition ◽  
Nineteenth Century France ◽  
Political Traditions ◽  
History Of

This article offers an interpretation of a key moment in the long history of democracy. Its hypothesis may be simply stated in the following terms: key political theorists and administrators in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century France defined democracy as a means for solving public problems by the public itself. This conception of democracy focused on inventing effective practices of government, administrative intervention and regulatory police and differed fundamentally from our contemporary understandings that privilege the vote, popular sovereignty and parliamentary representation. Moreover, this conception of modern democracy overlapped and in some cases complemented, but—more importantly for this article—remained in significant ways distinct from, other early modern political traditions, in particular liberalism and classical republicanism. What follows therefore uncovers a largely forgotten, but widespread, conception of democracy in the crucial revolutionary age from the mid-eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth by asking the question, was there a modern democratic tradition?

Torture, Truth, and the Witnessing Body: Reading Christian Martyrdom with Page duBois

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-18
Author(s):  
Virginia Burrus
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Imperial Power ◽  
Potential Sources ◽  
History Of

Taking its departure from Page duBois’ monograph Torture and Truth, this essay points toward a gap in the history conveyed by duBois, yet hinted at by the painting reproduced on the book’s cover – Nicolas Poussin’s “Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus” (1629). DuBois relates classical Greek juridical practices, in which the tortured slave body is the site of the production of truth, to the subsequent history of Western philosophy, of which Heidegger is a privileged exemplum. This essay in turn inserts a history of Christian martyrdom (both early modern and ancient) into that narrative. The tight linking of truth with torture persists in martyrdom texts (including the Gospels), and the juridical context highlighted by duBois remains decisive for their interpretation. So too does the context of Roman imperial rule, together with the public spectacles of violence through which imperial power was performed. However, whereas classical Greek practice frames the slave as the passive container of a truth that another can claim, the ideology of Christian martyrdom assigns truth to the tortured subject herself. The legacy of martyrdom may explain the ease with which some today all too easily disavow complicity with torture to the point of denying that it continues, while also all too easily laying claim to the authority of suffering truth. It may illumine, as well, the limits of torture’s power and the potential sources of its subversion and critique.


scholarly journals Феномен самоубийства в России XVIII в.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Александр Каменский
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Emotional Perception ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Military

The history of suicide in Russia, especially prior to the nineteenth century, remains understudied. While in most European countries the process of decriminalization and secularization of suicide was underway, in Russia, with the introduction of the Military Article of 1715, it was formally criminalized. On the basis of the study of more than 350 newly examined archival cases, this article examines how the transfer of suicide investigations to secular authorities also entailed secularization, while the peculiarities of the Russian judicial and investigative system, as well as lacunae in the legislation, actually led to the gradual decriminalization of suicide. At the same time, although among Russians, as well as among other peoples, a number of superstitions were associated with suicide, there is no evidence in the archival documents studied in this article of a particularly emotional perception of suicide. The phenomenon of suicide in eighteenth-century Russia, when compared to early modern Europe, did not have any significant, fundamental differences. However, the features of the Russian judicial-investigative system made this phenomenon less public, less visible and less significant for public consciousness.  

scholarly journals MANSIONS AND RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS OF NOVOCHERKASSK 1900–1910

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. 56-64
Author(s):  
A. Ivanova-Ilyicheva ◽  
N. Orekhov
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Space Planning ◽  
Residential Architecture ◽  
Dwelling House ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Military ◽  
Folk Tradition ◽  
The City

Mansions and individual residential houses of the early XX century form the basis of the historical center of Novocherkassk. The building of the city harmoniously combines features of traditional Cossack housing and adherence to the capital's architectural fashion, imitation of St. Petersburg. The history of the formation of the city, the social structure of the population, economy and culture determined the features of its architecture. In preparing the article, the methods of field and historical archival research, comparative analysis of works and their details, the method of analogies are used. A comprehensive analysis of typical objects – the mansion of G.M. Salnikov, the Shamarins' mansion, the house of the ataman A.V. Samsonov, residential buildings of the military master V.A. Ratchenkov and the сossack I.A. Suslova. The space-planning, compositional, architectural and artistic features of Novocherkassk mansions and residential buildings in the 1900–1910 s are identified. The authors present the patterns of location of two types of housing in the structure of the city. The tendencies of the Art Nouveau style in the mansions are revealed. A comparative analysis of the functional planning organization and artistic-figurative solution of the Cossack kuren and the city dwelling house is carried out. The study shows the influence of two trends on the residential architecture of Novocherkassk in 1900–1910 – the capital's professional design practice and the local folk tradition.

The 10,000 Persian Immortals, a Model for the Special Indoeuropean Troops

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-150
Author(s):  
Mădălina Strechie
Keyword(s):  
Effective Means ◽  
Psychological Impact ◽  
Postal Service ◽  
Human History ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
First Case ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Military ◽  
First Time

AbstractThe history of humanity got from the Persians the first imperial organization, the first process of integration of the conquered ones, the first postal service, the most effective means of communication at the dawn of Antiquity, and also the best organized militarized services.The most special of the Indo-European Antiquity troops was the Royal Guard, founded by Darius I, one of the great kings of humanity, a political titan, and equally an extraordinary general through his institutional creations of force. The Royal Guard of Darius I, known in history as the 10,000 immortals, is the subject of our study, as it is one of the most complex special militarized structures in human history of all time, inspiring the military structures of all the Indo-Europeans, whether the Hoplite revolution, the organization of the Macedonian phalanx or the Roman Praetorian Guard and more than that.The 10,000 immortals combined not only the heroic character (while multiplying it), which appeared for the first time with the Greeks of the Homeric period, but also strict discipline, in the Spartan sense, contemporary with this troop, the organization and the well-developed logistics, which would inspire the Roman army, the military brotherhoods characteristic of all the Indo-Europeans, but this totally special troop, in particular, imposed the model of the educated (even intellectual) military man, a soldier of the supreme god of the Good, faithful first of all to the Good and to his king, a military man who used all the weapons of the time.This special troop was a true institution that also provided information to the Persian king, information being one of the most effective weapons. Moreover, the Persians through this Royal Guard used for the first time psychological impact as a weapon, this being the first case of effective manipulation by the number that was kept constant, but also by name. Only the gods were immortal, and the very large number of soldiers who made up this special troop is impressive even today. The armament of this extraordinary troop comprised all the weapons of the time, the bow above all, which the Aryans considered the favourite weapon of Indra, the most warlike god of the Indo-European gods.

Honduras: All-Purpose Militarization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Mani
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The State ◽  
Civilian Control ◽  
Civic Action ◽  
Internal Security ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Military

The Honduran military has a long history of established roles oriented toward both external defense and internal security and civic action. Since the end of military rule in 1982, the military has remained a key political, economic, and social actor. Politically, the military retains a constitutional mandate as guarantor of the political system and enforcer of electoral rules. Economically, its officers direct state enterprises and manage a massive pension fund obscured from public audit. Socially, the military takes on numerous civic action tasks—building infrastructure, conserving forests, providing healthcare, and policing crime—that make the state appear to be useful to its people and bring the military into direct contact with the public almost daily. As a result, the military has ranked high in public trust in comparison with other institutions of the state. Most significantly, the military has retained the role of arbiter in the Honduran political system. This became brutally clear in the coup of 2009 that removed the elected president, Manuel Zelaya. Although new rules enhancing civilian control of the military had been instituted during the 1990s, the military’s authority in politics was restored through the coup that ousted Zelaya. As no civilian politician can succeed without support for and from the military, the missions of the armed forces have expanded substantially so that the military is an “all-purpose” institution within a remarkably weak and increasingly corrupt state.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kit Heyam
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Medieval History ◽  
Edward Ii ◽  
Sexual Transgression ◽  
History Of ◽  
Insight Into

This introduction discusses the reputation of King Edward II (1307–1327) in medieval and early modern England, and the implications of this reputation beyond its immediate relevance to scholars of Edward II’s reign and afterlife: as a case study for the history of sex and the changing vocabulary of sexual transgression; as a source of positive depictions of love between men; as a paradigmatic exemplum for discussions of favouritism and deposition, and thereby a case study providing insight into the early modern use of medieval history; as a means of developing our understanding of literary texts such as Marlowe’s Edward II; and as a process that illuminates the literary nature of medieval and early modern historical narratives.

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