Introduction

Author(s):  
Ada Rapoport-Albert

This chapter looks at the notion of how the hasidic movement brought about a feminist revolution in Judaism. It mentions the twentieth-century historian of Hasidism named S. A. Horodetsky, who first claimed that the Hasidic movement endowed women with complete equality in the religious life that are expressed in a variety of hasidic innovations. It also discusses women's direct, personal relationship with the rebbe or tsadik that established a new equality between the sexes within the family and the community. The chapter covers the breakdown of the educational barrier of Hebrew and the language of traditional scholarly discourse in the male world of Torah learning. It argues how hasidism has remained predominantly the preserve of men in the early twentieth century.

Author(s):  
Inna N. Mamkina ◽  

The article draws attention to the sociocultural aspect of the Siberian Railway Committee's activities in the early twentieth century. Historiographic analysis showed a research interest in the status of the Committee in the context of the organization of management of the Russian Empire's Eastern outskirts. Taking into account the broad powers of the Siberian Railway Committee, the author notes isolated studies of the social aspect in its activities. The aim of this publication is an attempt to create a holistic view of the activities of the Committee for the implementation of social tasks aimed at improving the life of railway employees at the TransBaikal section of the railway in the early twentieth century. The study was conducted on the basis of the documentation of the Siberian Railway Committee. A number of documents are introduced into scholarly discourse for the first time. Based on the structural and functional approach, using a set of historical research methods, it has been revealed that, after the commissioning of the Trans-Baikal section of the Siberian Railway, considerable attention was paid to solve sociocultural problems aimed at improving the life of railway employees. The preparatory commission chaired by A.N. Kulomzina and the Main School Committee implemented social programs. The author has defined the procedure for the formation of the committee, its structure, and principles of its activity. For the first time, personal data of the school committee's members elected on the Trans-Baikal Railway are introduced into scholarly discourse. The information of the committee's activities of the opening and maintenance of primary schools at railway stations has been summarized. The obtained statistics convincingly prove the effectiveness of the committee in the field of school education. The author notes that the Siberian Railway Committee achieved a very successful development of the school network by applying administrative and financial efforts. The author, for the first time, provides data on the organization of libraries and public convocations for the employees on the Trans-Baikal Railway. She draws attention to the organization of medical care for the employees; establishes the organization order and types of medical institutions; generalizes information about the staff of hospitals and obstetric centers, and the number of patients. The author concludes that the Siberian Railway Committee had an organized and balanced approach to solving sociocultural problems that occupied an important place in its activities. The Siberian Railway Committee's social programs in a number of areas were ahead of those of other government departments.


Author(s):  
Gordon Boyce

This book is an in-depth case study of the Furness Withy and Co Shipping Group, which operated both tramp and liner services and was one of the five major British shipping groups of the early twentieth century. It demonstrates how British shipowners of this period generated success by exploring Christopher Furness’ career in relation to the social, political, and cultural currents during a time of tremendous shipping growth in Britain and the establishment of some of the largest shipping firms in the world. It approaches the study from three angles. The first analyses how the Furness Group expanded its shipping activities and became involved with the industrial sector. The second illustrates the organisational and financial structure of the enterprise. Finally, the Group’s leadership and entrepreneurship is scrutinised and placed within the wider context of twentieth century British business. The case study begins in 1870, with an introduction explaining how Christopher Furness came to join the family company, Thomas Furness and Co. in order develop services, expand, and instigate the changes and mergers that brought the Furness Group into existence. There are thirteen chronologically presented chapters, a bibliography, and seven appendices of data including an ownership timeline, tonnage statistics, acquisitions, a list of maritime associates, and a timeline of Christopher Furness’ life. The book concludes in 1919 with the de-merging of the Furness Group’s shipping and industrial holdings, the resignation of the Furness family from the company’s board, the sale of their shares, and the move into managing the firm’s industrial interests.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Clark

Chapter 1 offers a survey of Melania’s life. Coerced into marriage by her parents, who wished for descendants to inherit the family fortune, she and her young husband, Valerius Pinianus (Pinian), produced two children. When both children died, she persuaded Pinian to join her in a life of ascetic renunciation. They, along with her widowed mother, Albina, abandoned Rome shortly before the Gothic invasion and traversed the Mediterranean area, founding monasteries in North Africa and Jerusalem. Toward the end of her life, she traveled from Jerusalem to Constantinople in the hope of converting her still-pagan uncle, who was on a mission to the eastern court. Returning to Jerusalem, she died in 439 CE. This chapter details the discovery and publication of two versions of her Life in the early twentieth century, along with conclusions regarding its authorship. It also notes other ancient textual sources concerning Melania; the genre of hagiography; women’s roles in early Christianity as martyrs, patrons, pilgrims, and ascetics; and education and literacy in late antiquity.


2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-100
Author(s):  
Thomas F. Rzeznik

AbstractThe United States has never had an established religion, but, by the early twentieth century, many Episcopalians had come to think of themselves as the nation's religious establishment. No other denomination, they believed, was as well-suited to provide moral leadership for the nation and unite its people in faith. This article argues that their commitment to a national civic mission provided Episcopalians with a sense of collective purpose that diverted attention from internal divisions and helped propel the church to a position of prominence within American religious life. It also reveals how many of the prime proponents and beneficiaries of the church's ascendancy were members of the social and financial elite. Committed to a patrician creed of social responsibility, these “representatives of all that is noble” gained status and moral authority through their public support of the church and its mission. To trace the contours of the Episcopal ascendancy, this article focuses on developments within the Diocese of Pennsylvania, one of the largest, wealthiest, and most influential within the church. Over the course of the early twentieth century, its members overcame their prevailing parochialism, strengthened their denominational identity, and brought their influence to bear on the nation's religious life. Their exercise of religious and cultural authority can be seen in their support of three ecclesiastical projects—the proposed diocesan cathedral, historic Christ Church, and the Washington Memorial Chapel at Valley Forge— that helped fashion the public image of the Episcopal Church as the nation's religious establishment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 01-14
Author(s):  
Shadab Bano

As the Muslim women’s question was articulated by men in the ‘reform’ movement (as in other communities), the participation of women was also by their (male) design; many times, women’s reform activities were seen as evidence of their own (male) progress. This paper examines the role of women initiated in the reform movement and the ‘role model’ they were expected to play, especially if educated and wedded to one active in ‘reform.’ The paper takes up the study of Wahid Jahan in reform, wife of Sheikh Abdullah, a pioneer in Muslim women’s education at Aligarh in the early twentieth century. Initiated in reform by her husband, and expected to follow his guidelines in all-important matters like being a ‘good wife’, her life would still be worthwhile to explore if the wife’s commitment and initiatives moved beyond the expectations or dictates of her husband. The paper thus, through biographical writings on Wahid Jahan, seeks to examine the larger question of reform normative and wife’s agency; whether it was possible for a wife as subordinate partner in reform and agent at home, to extend spaces for women both in the family and the school, or to separate herself from her roles.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Walsh

Combined photographic imagery is a broad and varied category of photography even when narrowed down to nineteenth-century iterations such as the composite technique. While a general understanding of composite photography exists, there is a lack of scholarship regarding a specific variant, the Victorian family composite. Using a study group of five Victorian family composites and photocollages, this thesis explores the importance of the family and of photography in Victorian society in order to arrive at an understanding of the particular motivations behind choosing the composite technique to represent the family. The determining factors include the need to overcome the technical and logistical limitations of nineteenth-century photography, as well as the aesthetics inherent to the composite process. Although the full trajectory of composite photography is not traced, definitions of major nineteenth and early twentieth-century combined imagery techniques are offered in order to contextualize the images discussed.


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