The Social and Political Context of Conversion in Germany and England 1870–1914

Author(s):  
Todd M. Endelman

This chapter focuses on Jews who left Judaism in the decades before the First World War and who were not attracted by the spiritual truths or ethical values of Christianity. It discusses disaffiliation as a hallmark of modern Jewish history in the West in which the flow out of Judaism was not equally strong in all countries and among all strata of Jewish society. It also analyses the characteristic patterns of drift and defection that emerged in every country or region bearing the impress of larger social and political conditions. The chapter talks about the temptation to abandon Judaism, which increased from 1870 to 1914, when rising antisemitism called into question Jewish integration into state and society with unprecedented intensity. It refers to England and Germany as states with dissimilar political cultures and social systems, which illuminates the history of the Jewish communities there.

1979 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Cronin

Strikes are like certain bitter-sweet varities of sin. However frequently and violently they are denounced and however painful the consequences to those who indulge, they continue to flourish. V. L. Allen noted this curious role of strikes in industrial society some time ago. “Strikes,” he wrote,take place within a hostile environment even though they are a common every-day phenomenon. They are conventionally described as industrially subversive, irresponsible, unfair, against the interests of the community, contrary to the workers' best interests, wasteful of resources, crudely aggressive, inconsistent with democracy and, in any event, unnecessary.Strikes have become so common in modern society that they seem to be a normal part of the social landscape. This is perhaps one reason why historians have tended to ignore them and their history. Upon reflection, it is indeed surprising how little attention the history of industrial conflict has received from historians. Of course, certain dramatic events, like the General Strike of 1926 or the London dock strike of 1889, are relatively well chronicled, but even these are sorely under-analyzed. There are not even competent narratives of other episodes, like the explosion of militancy just after the First World War; and we know still less about the persistent dynamics of strikes throughout British industry. In this respect, historians lag well behind other social scientists who have been studying industrial strife for many years, but whose work is unfortunately limited by their frankly ahistorical or even anti-historical approach. It is time for historians to remedy this deficiency, and this essay is intended as a first, very small effort in that direction.


Author(s):  
Анастасия Юрьевна Королева

Статья посвящена изучению картины Эрнста Людвига Кирхнера Потсдамская площадь . Автор ставит своей задачей исследование историко-культурного контекста произведения, занимающего столь важное положение в истории немецкого искусства. Это полотно, написанное в год начала Первой мировой войны, обобщает впечатления недавно приехавшего в Берлин художника от сверхинтенсивной жизни германской столицы последних предвоенных лет. В статье подробно рассматривается история возникновения и роль площади в культурном и мифологическом ландшафте города, анализируется социальный статус героев картины, отмечаются автобиографические коннотации и характерные для нее формально-стилевые приемы. В результате автор приходит к выводу об особом значении образа города в лице Потсдамской площади как символа эпохи. In researching of painting of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Potsdamer Platz the author sets a task to find out all of historical and cultural aspects of this so important picture in German art. It was painted in the year of the beginning of the First World War, after a few year of the artists arriving in Berlin and become the kind of generalization of Kirchners impressions of the extremely intense life of German capital in the latest prewar years. The article gives the attention to the history of the square and its role in the cultural and mythological landscape of the city. Also it analyzes the social status of the main personas, notes the autobiographical aspects and specific formal and stylistic receptions. The results shows, that the image of town in the face of Potsdamer Platz becomes a symbol of the epoch.


Author(s):  
Jiří Voráč

CZECH FILM AFTER 1989: THE WAVE OF THE YOUNG NEWCOMERS THE history of Czech cinema has been frequently marked and stigmatized, more than the non- industrial and more individual art disciplines, by large historical social upheavals which the Czech lands experienced in this century. During its hundred-year-long history, the Czech film survived five different social systems. Its origins (the first films on the Czech soil were presented by Jan Kříženecký in 1898) are rooted in the era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the First World War, it continued its development in a free and democratic Czechoslovak Republic which was after two decades destroyed by the Nazi Germany. A fundamental systemic change occurred in 1945 when the Czechoslovak film was nationalized i.e., that the state (and after 1948 the Communist establishment) completely controlled all film activities in the entire country.(1) After the demise of the Communist dictatorship in...


Author(s):  
S. M. Sivkov

Hundred years separates us from the outbreak of Civil war in Russia. This is sufficient time for a rethinking of those past events that shocked the world. The reader is provided a review of the new scientific publication of the Krasnodar researcher A.N. Eremeeva, devoted to problems of development of science and the existence of scholars in this difficult period. Covers a considerable part of the territory of the former Russian Empire, associated with the confrontation of two social systems. Identified problems encountered with the mass relocation of universities and scientific personnel of the country and their daily lives. Given the social structure of the scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel of higher schools of the prerevolutionary period. “Scientific" survival strategy allows to overcome depressive States, to implement the period of time in extraordinary circumstances, to increase professional competence, to develop optimistic model of the future life. One of the General conclusions indicates that the years of the civil war, a bloody fratricidal slaughter, as paradoxical as it sounds, was an important step in the “intellectualization" of the Russian regions. It is associated not only with civilians, but with the First world war. Materials peer-reviewed monographs can be used by students, graduate students, scientists, all interested in the history of Russian science and the Russian intelligentsia during the Civil war.


Hasidism has been a seminal force and source of controversy in the Jewish world since its inception in the second half of the eighteenth century. Indeed, almost every ideological trend that has made itself felt among Jews since that time has claimed to have derived some inspiration from this vibrant movement. While this is sure testimony to its vitality and originality, it has also given rise to many misconceptions as to what hasidism is about. This book offers a wide-ranging treatment of the subject in all its aspects. The book encompasses a complete field of modern scholarship in a discipline that is central to the understanding of modern Jewish history and the contemporary Jewish world. The book is dedicated to the memory of Joseph Weiss, and its opening section assesses his contribution to the study of hasidism in the context of his relationship with Gershom Scholem and Scholem's long-standing influence on the field. The remaining chapters are arranged thematically under seven headings: the social history of hasidism; the social functions of mystical ideals in the hasidic movement; distinctive outlooks and schools of thought within hasidism; the hasidic tale; the history of hasidic historiography; contemporary hasidism; and the present state of research on hasidism. The book also incorporates an extensive introduction that places the various articles in their intellectual context, as well as a bibliography of hasidic sources and contemporary scholarly literature. It shows an intellectual world at an important juncture in its development and points to the direction in which scholarly study of hasidism is likely to develop in the years to come.


Author(s):  
Christopher Houston

Abstract: Despite the ceaseless efforts of what its supporters name the “Atatürk Cumhuriyeti” (Atatürk Republic), Kemalism is seen by many as a discredited ideology and an oppressive political practice. This chapter explores the social history of Kemalism since 1923 and the background to its now decades-long crisis of legitimacy. It compares the orthodox narrative concerning the Kemalist project with its various deconstructive accounts, many of which zero in on the years after the First World War and the 1920s and 1930s as foundational in present-day conflicts. These orthodox and heterodox histories, allied to the interests of different groups, do politics by another means. The chapter then traces how the power struggle over Kemalism’s futures is developing. Rather than pontificate about what the state or civil society should do, it concludes by drawing attention to emerging lineaments of change in existing civil society and social conditions.


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