The Unruly Emotions of the Execution Crowd and its Critics in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century France

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Shaya

From the 1860s to the 1910s, a host of commentators sounded off on the degraded spectacle of the public execution in France. They had little to say about the violence of capital punishment as such. The problem that haunted them was the crowd that gathered around the guillotine. In these years the execution crowd was a mystery and an obsession, the object of literary surveillance, parliamentary inquiry, scientific study, and journalistic examination. These commentators saw a crowd without dignity, a crowd full of unhealthy emotions, a crowd of morbid curiosity and misplaced revelry. Who was this crowd? What emotions did its participants feel at the spectacle of punishment? And what can this story tell us about the public execution – or, more generally, the public – in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century France? The outcry over the execution crowd reveals more about the commentators than about the crowd. The guiding emotions of these commentators had little to do with empathy, civilization or distaste for violent punishment; they had everything to do with disgust for the crowd on the streets and fears of the public in a new age of mass culture.

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 434-454
Author(s):  
Dan D. Cruickshank

This article uses the history of the Ornaments Rubric in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to explore the emergence of claims to self-governance within the Church of England in this period and the attempts by parliament to examine how independent the legal system of the church was from the secular state. First, it gives an overview of the history of the Ornaments Rubric in the various editions of the Book of Common Prayer and the Acts of Uniformity, presenting the legal uncertainty left by centuries of Prayer Book revision. It then explores how the Royal Commission into Ritualism (1867–70) and the Public Worship Regulation Act (1874) attempted to control Ritualist interpretations of the Ornaments Rubric through secular courts. Examining the failure of these attempts, it looks towards the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline (1904–6). Through the evidence given to the commission, it shows how the previous royal commission and the work of parliament and the courts had failed to stop the continuation of Ritualist belief in the church's independence from secular courts. Using the report of the royal commission, it shows how the commissioners attempted to build a via media between strict spiritual independence and complete parliamentary oversight.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 18-44
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Otto

This essay examines early twentieth-century German representations of men and women in uniform to consider how mass culture allowed individuals to participate in aspects of gender construction. It also reveals how masculinity was increasingly linked to military ideals. The pictures under scrutiny here were made in two significant but as yet under-researched types of pictures: pre-avant-garde photomontaged soldier portraits and popular postcards. Both of these visual forms originated in the 1870s, the decade that Germany was itself founded, and they both were in wide circulation by the early twentieth century. Individualized soldier portraits and postcards offered a glorious vision of a man’s military service, and they performed what Theodor Lessing has called Vergemütlichung, the rendering harmless of history. These idealized images of soldierly life were available to a broad swath of the public, but their democratization only extended so far. Representations of women in uniform served to reinforce—through stereotyping and humor—the unquestionably male nature of military institutions and, by extension, of public space. At the same time, by making apparent their own constructed nature, these portraits and postcards offered viewers a glimpse behind the masquerade of masculinity. This essay thus also identifies these images’ links to the subsequent work of avant-garde artists and to the National Socialists’ return to the ideal of uniformed masculinity.


2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 915-938
Author(s):  
ROSS WILSON

This article examines the construction, the development and the denouement of the Museum of Safety in New York during the early twentieth century. Through a detailed assessment of the institution's own bulletin, newspapers and accompanying literature, the manner in which the museum served its visitors, promoted its cause and failed to secure its own future will be examined. The significance of this institution has been overlooked despite the way its role and responsibilities in exhibiting safety devices and procedures to industry, workers and the public reflect important trends within late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century society. The Museum of Safety also emerged as the effects of capitalism, immigration and industrialization began to be addressed. Examining the history of this “lost museum” will, therefore, reveal how responsibility, awareness and modernity were encountered in New York.


Author(s):  
Igor Likhuta

The purpose of the article is to consider and identify the features of enterprise and engagement as forms of production in the context of the formation of the profession of producer in the late nineteenth – early twentieth century. The methodology involves the use of cultural and historical methods to understanding the cultural and historical features of the profession of producer, understanding the essence of enterprise and engagement as forms of production. Scientific novelty. From the standpoint of cultural and historical approach, the author's definition of enterprise and commitment as concepts of humanitarian knowledge and business reality is presented, the essence and specificity of these phenomena are reflected as forms of production. Conclusions. It is argued that entrepreneurship and engagement in the context of the formation of mass culture are effective forms of the formation of production in the field of mass culture. It is shown that both entrepreneurs and artists – actors, directors, playwrights – played the role of producer in institutions of an enterprise type. The indicated trend continues to persist, nevertheless, the activities of the producer are constantly being transformed and improved.


2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 290-303
Author(s):  
Richard Howard

Irish science fiction is a relatively unexplored area for Irish Studies, a situation partially rectified by the publication of Jack Fennell's Irish Science Fiction in 2014. This article aims to continue the conversation begun by Fennell's intervention by analysing the work of Belfast science fiction author Ian McDonald, in particular King of Morning, Queen of Day (1991), the first novel in what McDonald calls his Irish trilogy. The article explores how McDonald's text interrogates the intersection between science, politics, and religion, as well as the cultural movement that was informing a growing sense of a continuous Irish national identity. It draws from the discipline of Science Studies, in particular the work of Nicholas Whyte, who writes of the ways in which science and colonialism interacted in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Ireland.


Author(s):  
Jonathan D. Teubner

The ‘Historiographical Interlude’ presents a brief overview of the cultural, social, and political changes that occur between Augustine’s death in 430 CE and Boethius’ earliest theological writings (c.501 CE). When Augustine, Boethius, and Benedict are treated together in one unified analysis, several historiographical challenges emerge. This Interlude addresses several of these challenges and argues that trends within late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century scholarship established some unfounded interpretive biases. In particular, this section will discuss the contributions of Adolf von Harnack and Henri Irénée Marrou, focusing on how they contributed, in diverse ways, to the neglect of sixth-century Italy as a significant geographical site in the development of the Augustinian tradition.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-42
Author(s):  
MEDET TECHMURATOVICH JORAEV ◽  

The article is devoted to the aspects of scientific activity of the Russian Maritime Union. This public organization in the early twentieth century set itself the task of reviving the Russian imperial navy after the defeat in the russo - japanese war of 1904-1905. Meetings of a public organization where scientific problems were discussed are considered. Special attention is paid to the existing rules for publishing a collection of scientific papers by the leaders of the Russian Maritime Union. Information is given on issues related to the colonization of remote areas of Siberia and the Far East. The reasons for the lag of Russian commercial shipping from Western European countries are investigated. The prerequisites for the successful development of German commercial shipbuilding and shipping in the early twentieth century are analyzed. The relationship between the problems of development of Siberian rivers and the unsatisfactory economic condition of remote Russian territories is traced. The history of domestic public organizations and naval affairs in the early twentieth century is studied. In addition, the organization of the Russian maritime union for the promotion of naval knowledge is being considered. The public organization subscribed specialized foreign and domestic literature and created libraries on these issues, open to the public. Then the Russian maritime union attracted such technical innovations as cinematog- raphy and filmstrips to promote naval knowledge among the Russian population.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document