History Commons^™

Review: Oliver Jens Schmitt, Biserica De Stat Sau Biserică În Stat? O Istorie A Bisericii Ortodoxe Române, Editura Humanitas, București, 2023, Csaba Szabó

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Oliver Jens Schmitt, Biserica de stat sau biserică în stat? O istorie a Bisericii Ortodoxe Române, Editura Humanitas, București, 2023. 457pp.

ISBN: 978-973-50-7919-2

A Herderian Perspective On Finland, Sibelius, And The Kalevala, Philip R. Cataldo

Musical Offerings

Situated amidst the revolutionary spirits of 19^th-century Europe, Finnish nationalists sought to bring an end to roughly half a millennium of foreign rule for their land and their people. According to the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, a community must have a common language and a common history in order to constitute a nation. At this time, Finland had neither. Although Herder’s political philosophy is considered crucial to understanding the nationalist movements that took place in Europe during this period, Finland’s peculiar success in attaining and sustaining independence has until this point remained unexplained relative to a Herderian …

Was Ist (Nicht) Deutsch? Historische Und Aktuelle Versuche "Deutsch" Ex Negativo Zu Definieren, Mark Mckinney Smith

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

In this thesis I explore the question of how a xenophobic ideology could find a receptive audience in 21st Century Germany. Given extensive postwar efforts in Germany to address the Nazi Period, this question is of particular interest. I analyze and compare racist and xenophobic ideologies in four time periods: the Napoleonic Period, the Wilhelmine Period, the National Socialist Period and the contemporary period. Historically, xenophobic ideology is deeply tied to particular social and economic conditions which leads to the following questions: What are the similarities and differences between contemporary xenophobic messaging and that of the three other time periods …

Wikipedia’S Intentional Distortion Of The History Of The Holocaust, Jan Grabowski, Shira Klein

History Faculty Articles and Research

This essay uncovers the systematic, intentional distortion of Holocaust history on the English-language Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia. In the last decade, a group of committed Wikipedia editors have been promoting a skewed version of history on Wikipedia, one touted by right-wing Polish nationalists, which whitewashes the role of Polish society in the Holocaust and bolsters stereotypes about Jews. Due to this group’s zealous handiwork, Wikipedia’s articles on the Holocaust in Poland minimize Polish antisemitism, exaggerate the Poles’ role in saving Jews, insinuate that most Jews supported Communism and conspired with Communists to betray Poles (Żydokomuna or Judeo–Bolshevism), blame …

Airplane Hangars And Triple Hills: Renovation, Demolition, And The Architectural Politics Of Local Belonging At The Our Lady Of Csíksomlyó Hungarian National Shrine, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

In 2019, Pope Francis, leader of the global Catholic Church, celebrated an outdoor Mass at the Our Lady of Csíksomlyó Hungarian national shrine in Romania. When the Franciscan Order that runs the shrine published renovation plans for the altar where the pope would appear, the Facebook post received over 800 outraged comments, including one man who asked, “How can such a beautiful Hungarian symbol, so perfectly integrated into the landscape, be humiliated like this?” By situating these expressions of outrage in the history of Eastern European material politics, I argue that the aesthetic value the commentators were defending – a …

Who Sent The Devil Down To Georgia? An Analysis Of The Causes Of The Russo-Georgian War Of 2008 And Its Effects On Georgian Democracy, Kris Bohnenstiehl

The Commons: Puget Sound Journal of Politics

No abstract provided.

The Commons: Volume 3, Issue 1, Kris Bohnenstiehl, Leona Derango, Ethan Stern-Ellis

The Commons: Puget Sound Journal of Politics

Table of Contents

• Letter From the Editors
  LILA BERNARDIN AND HANNAH WILLIAMS
• Who Sent the Devil Down to Georgia?
  KRIS BOHNENSTIEHL
• The Dehumanizing Gaze: Race in the Context of Academic Tourism
  LEONA DERANGO
• Balancing Populations of Electoral Districts
  ETHAN STERN-ELLIS

From “Victorian” To “Unmanageable”: Radical Irish Women In The Revolutionary Years, 1900-1923, Kayla M. Cook

All Theses

During the turbulent decades of the early twentieth century, women participated increasingly in the fight for Irish independence, with this level of participation increasing significantly following the 1913 Dublin Lockout, a labor strike which lasted about five months from late summer of 1913 into the early weeks of 1914. Though this was not a nationalist demonstration, many of the participants, both men and women, were also members of various nationalist organizations and would later go on to participate in the various nationalist uprisings in the following years. Historian Fearghal McGarry in particular argues that the Lockout served as an inciting …

A Conscious Image Of Liberation: Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Eta) In The Late Franco Regime, Through The Lens Of The Press, Sebastian De Lasa

Honors Projects

The rise of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) in the early 1970s coincided with the rise of national liberation movements across Europe, which largely were inspired by notable examples of resistance throughout the Global South in the decades prior. ETA’s growth over this period, and in the years prior, was heavily dependent on the image created of the organziation in the local, domestic, and international press, including through documents distributed by the group itself. By comparing ETA’s external presence to the group’s internal strife, it becomes clear that ETA made efforts to align itself with the popular revolutionary language of the …

The Chosen One?: Reflections On Mid-Century Egyptian Nationalism, Gamal Abdel Nasser's Charismatic Leadership, And The Suez Crisis Of 1956, Owen P.S. Hobbs

Honors Theses

This thesis considers Gamal Abdel Nasser's 1956 nationalization of the Suez Canal and the subsequent Suez Crisis in the broader context of the histories of nationalism and charismatic leadership in a decolonial setting. Chapter one synthesizes the works of notable scholars into a cohesive historiography of nationalism's emergence in Egypt and Nasser's unique role within mid-century Egyptian society. Chapter two examines the direct causes of the Suez Crisis within the previously established context of nationalism and charismatic leadership, drawing new conclusions from memos, telegrams, and the Egyptian Government's 'White Paper on the Nationalization of the Suez Canal Maritime Company' -- …

Institutionalizing Identity: Examining The Louvre In Revolutionary And Napoleonic France, Emma Balda, Amy Woodson-Boulton

Honors Thesis

With the collapse of the French monarchy in 1789, France sought to solidify their sense of national identity in the wake of revolution. Since the late eighteenth century, museums have long been used to foster nationalism and belonging through the institutionalization of historical narratives-- the opening of the Louvre in 1793, and its transition from a royal palace to a palace of the people, served as a physical metaphor of the complete political transformation that occurred during the French Revolution. Existing literature examines the revolutionary nationalization of the Louvre as it relates to the concept of the modern museum and …

Opposing Strands: The Mediterranean As Site Of Cultural Conflict Around 1900, Neil F. Mcwilliam

Artl@s Bulletin

From antiquity to the Third Republic, this article follows visual and literary representations that measured space, time and ideological oppositions that spawned an image of the Mediterranean as an area of transmission and cultural tension. It focuses on three theorists: the head of Action Française, Charles Maurras; the novelist Louis Bertrand; and critic and cultural impresario Joachim Gasquet. Each contributed to the formation of an image of the Mediterranean basin as the birthplace of European heritage and a battlefield in a struggle against the forces of democracy and cultural hybridization.

Proto-Nationalism In Scandinavia: Swedish State Building In The Middle Ages, Alexander Jacobson

Honors Program Theses

Nationalism is usually considered a modern socio-political development and a product of the French and Industrial Revolutions. However most scholarship done on nationalism largely overlooks religion, and excludes both its presence in the Middle Ages and its development in Scandinavia--focusing heavily on German, British, French, and Central European variations of nationalism. For Scandinavians in the late Middle Ages and Early Modern era, nationalism did not emerge exactly like their European counterparts. It was the product of early religious, technological, and economic changes over the course of the 15th and 16th Centuries that restructured European politics, society, and identity. Using early …

Teaching The Empire: Education And State Loyalty In Late Habsburg Austria, Scott O. Moore

Central European Studies

Teaching the Empire explores how Habsburg Austria utilized education to cultivate the patriotism of its people. Public schools have been a tool for patriotic development in Europe and the United States since their creation in the nineteenth century. On a basic level, this civic education taught children about their state while also articulating the common myths, heroes, and ideas that could bind society together. For the most part historians have focused on the development of civic education in nation-states like Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. There has been an assumption that the multinational Habsburg Monarchy did not, or could …

The Silent Reich: Austria’S Failed Denazification, Henry F. Goodson

Student Publications

Between 1945 and 1956, the Second Austrian Republic failed to address the large number of former Austrian Nazis. Due to Cold War tensions, the United States, Britain, and France helped to downplay Austria’s cooperation with the Nazi Reich in order to secure the state against the Soviets. In an effort to stall the spread of socialism, former fascists were even recruited by Western intelligence services to help inform on the activities of socialists and communists within Austria. Furthermore, the Austrian people were a deeply conservative society, which often supported many of the far-right’s positions, as can be seen throughout contemporary …

A Historiography Of Nationalism: And The Case For Scandinavia, Alexander L. Jacobson

Summer Research

This project surveys the historiography of nationalism and its theoretical shortcomings. It builds upon the work of emerging theorists and revisionists across a wide variety of disciplines and this project then contextualizes nationalism and its related theories in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. After establishing a firm history, the project ends with a quick survey of Medieval Scandinavian History and suggest that this region developed a proto-nationalism during the period. Moreover, this project looks to insert the developments of the Middle Ages into the scholarly discourse surrounding nationalism. In opposition to modernist theories of nationalism—who point to the …

‘Playing Hapsburg:’ The Hapsburg Monarchy And The Post-Yugoslav Croatian Society, Fran Leskovar

Summer Research

One of the more interesting forms of memory of the Hapsburg past, one can find in Croatia. This small European state, to borrow Benedict Anderson’s words, started to “reimagine” itself in the 1990s and reclaim its “Western” European heritage lost following admissions, first, into the South Slav Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and then authoritarian socialist state in the aftermath of World War II. Not surprising, given that many of Eastern European nations, formerly part of the Soviet sphere of influence, started to fabricate their own past and utilize nationalism as a tool of not only awakening national consciousness necessary to delegitimize …

Love, Sex, And The Noose: The Emotions Of Sodomy In 18th-Century England, Frances H.I. Henry

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

At the end of the 19^th century, it was believed that men who desired other men were 'despicable, degraded, depraved, vicious, and incapable of humane and generous sentiments'. This dissertation examines how the emotional reactions of and towards sodomites in England between 1691 and 1828 shaped this perception. It considers six sets of paired emotions: lust and disgust, love and hatred, hope and fear, gratitude and anger, joy and sadness, and pride and shame. It examines how changes in law, gender norms, in religious and philosophical thought, the rise of sentimentalism, evangelism, nationalism and the middle-class shaped these emotional …

Nationalism And Education: A Case Study Of Germany And Japan, Sarah Vrtiska

Honors Theses

In this piece I ask the question: How has education contributed to the formation or prevention of nationalism in Germany and Japan? In examining this, after defining the standard conceptions of nationalism, I apply these definitions to pre-war and post-war Germany and Japan. Ultimately, I conclude that the goals of education, concepts of national identity that are taught, history curricula, and control of education all historically have the potential to contribute to the rise of nationalism within a country. Based on these fields, I find that although there are similar nationalist trends in both countries during the pre-war period, in …

Coming And Going: Identity, Institutions, And The United Kingdom's Resistance To The European Union, Lauren Bruning

Honors Theses

In 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, a decision widely known as ‘Brexit’. This analysis compares two competing theories – institution and identity – to explain why. Four historical events, chronologically ordered from 1945 to 2016, are examined with both identity and institution analysis to explain British integration and its subsequent withdrawal from the European Union. Through this analysis, one can conclude the United Kingdom’s decision to withdraw in 2016 stemmed from a variety of reasons, but each of these can be explained by identity (a sense of nationalism), or institution (EU relationships).

Nationalism around …

A History Of Yugoslavia, Marie-Janine Calic

Purdue University Press Books

Why did Yugoslavia fall apart? Was its violent demise inevitable? Did its population simply fall victim to the lure of nationalism? How did this multinational state survive for so long, and where do we situate the short life of Yugoslavia in the long history of Europe in the twentieth century? A History of Yugoslavia provides a concise, accessible, comprehensive synthesis of the political, cultural, social, and economic life of Yugoslavia—from its nineteenth-century South Slavic origins to the bloody demise of the multinational state of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Calic takes a fresh and innovative look at the colorful, multifaceted, and …

Egyptian Pieces Of The Empire's Puzzle: Peasants, Women, And Students In British Official Documents Issued After The 1919 Revolution In Egypt, Jane Linhares

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

"Honor Your German Masters": The Use And Abuse Of "Classical" Composers In Nazi Propaganda, David B. Dennis

David B. Dennis

No abstract provided.

Culture War: How The Nazi Party Recast Nietzsche, David B. Dennis

David B. Dennis

High culture played an important political role in Hitler’s Germany. References to music, history, philosophy, and art formed a key part of the Nazi strategy to reverse the symptoms of decline perceived after World War I. Allusions to great creators and their works were used as propaganda to remind the Volk to love and worship their nation. In the words of the French scholar Eric Michaud, author of The Cult of Art in Nazi Germany, the Nazis used culture “to make the genius of the race visible to that race.” And to cap off these images of a great national …

La Exclusion Del Otro: Los Efectos Negativos Del Nacionalismo En Flores De Otro Mundo (1999) Y Forasters (2008), Brianna Prudencia Gutiérrez

Honors Theses

This thesis examines two films for their critique on the damaging effects of nationalism on both the native and foreign populations in rural Spain and urban Catalonia. The two films are Flores de otro mundo (Flowers from another world) (1999), directed by Spanish director Iciar Bollain, and Forasters (Outsiders) (2008), a film by Catalan director Ventura Pons, based on Sergi Belbel's play. The theoretical framework for this study is based on Michael Billig's terms: "hot" and "banal" nationalism. According to Billig, nationalism itself is the emotional and mental force that creates nation-states or threatens the stability …

British Appeasement 1936-1939: The Debate Between Parliament And The Public, Kylie D. Johnson

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

While it is now clear that appeasement of Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler did not prevent another war, there is a historical debate on whether British appeasement policies were shameful, a set of well-intentioned blunders, an attempt at keeping peace internationally, or a strategy to keep domestic resources focused on Britain. Within the debate between historians, lies a debate between the British public and Parliament, and even within Parliament itself. An important factor in the British decision to implement appeasement policy in the 1930s often underemphasized in the literature is the governmental prioritizing of domestic issues and national security over …

The Wwi Middle East: Western Intervention And Modern-Day Political Conflict, Pauline Park

Global Tides

This paper analyzes three conflicting agreements made by the Allied powers between 1915 and 1917: the Husayn-McMahon correspondence, the Sykes-Picot arrangements, and the Balfour Declaration. It reveals the agreements as demonstrative of deeper patterns of political power and strategy in the Middle East that persist today. This paper moreover compares the Middle East with the European colonization of Rwanda in the 1880s, and how the nation's internal division was caused by external global powers seeking political and economic gain. This analysis seeks to connect global events as part of a wider political agenda propagated by Western powers.

“What Sort Of Communists Are You?” The Struggle Between Nationalism And Ideology In Poland Between 1944 And 1956, Jan Ryszard Kozdra

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The period between 1944 and 1956, also known as the “Stalinist period”, is one of the most controversial and turbulent in Polish history. The Polish communist party launched the project of restructuring Polish society, whose historically wellestablished national identity seemed incompatible with the communist project. Firstly, the communists effected a demographic change that resulted in a near monoethnic state. Simultaneously, they introduced a centrally planned economy, transformed state symbolism, initiated a national education system, attempted to reshape popular attitudes to religion, and launched a massive propaganda campaign to reinforce and popularize their objectives.

This study seeks to investigate the communists’ …

Similarities Between Groups On Irish Home Rule And Independence, Cassie Young

History Class Publications

In this paper, I looked at two varieties of nationalism in nineteenth-twentieth century Ireland (parliamentary and revolutionary nationalism) and compared them to each other and to unionism. Specifically, I looked at how they were similar in their concern for religious equality, appeals to pride and love of country, desire for increased political rights, and the need to be unified.

Bethlehem Chapel: How A Place Can Be Reinterpreted By Government, Maya Lemaster

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

An important source of legitimacy for all types of government is the creation of or building up of a sense of nationhood for the citizens of the state. This can be achieved in many ways, including through the use of physical nationalist symbols. In my paper, I address this topic by exploring how the Communist government of Czechoslovakia reinterpreted and changed the traditional meaning of the historical Bethlehem Chapel in Prague in order to fit their own ideology. I found that the Communist government emphasized the communal aspects of the Hussite movement and ignored religious associations. My research is primarily …