Political History Commons^™

Taking Dominion To End Dominion: The Mennonite Influence On The End Of Russian Serfdom, H. Michael Shultz Jr.

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Serfdom in Russia was abolished in 1861, only 76 years after the first Mennonites were invited into Russia by Catherine II. By examining the lifestyle of the Mennonites who settled in the agriculturally productive “New Russia” (modern-day Ukraine), as well as the impact that the Mennonites had on the Imperial family, peasantry, and government, it is evident that the Mennonites played a recognizable role in bringing about the abolition of serfdom across the empire.

Book Review: Kings, Conquerors, Psychopaths: From Alexander To Hitler To The Corporation, Tim Bakken

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The book Kings, Conquerors, Psychopaths is a survey of a vast amount of human wrongdoing. It lays bare the motivations of aggressors who wish to subjugate nations or groups of people and corporate executives and government bureaucrats who make discretionary decisions that harm people. Along with cataloging mass killings by despots and soldiers, the book includes stories about Ponzi-schemers and the deaths of automobile drivers and passengers who were killed by vehicle defects known to the manufacturer. The book posits that “[p]owerful, elite forces are trying to force us backward toward a non-democratic state, one where power, wealth, and prerogative …

White Politics, Black Lives, & The Cost Of Being Green: Environmental Racism In Emelle, Alabama, Laura M. Wilson

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

In the 1970s, Emelle, Alabama welcomed the establishment of a new corporation and the promise of new economic opportunities. The small settlement, almost exclusively African-American (94%) and in poverty (67%) was selected by Waste Management, Inc., after lobbying by Governor George Wallace to create the largest hazardous waste landfill in the US. When a state policy change significantly increasing costs, production slowed, jobs dissipated (from 430 to 250), and destitution returned. At the same time, other problems began to the surface, including water contamination and increasing rates of childhood cancers, attributable to the toxic seepage. The dump still operates, but …

A New World Order?: Considering Slaughter’S Notion Of The Disaggregated And Networked State, Darlene N. Moorman

The Downtown Review

This paper briefly explains Slaughter's (2004) argument for the emergence of a new world order defined by a disaggregated and networked state where the relevance of soft power has become all the more critical in conversations of politics and corresponding theory. This transformation (arising in the face of the so-called 'globalization paradox') is considered, exploring (a) what this means for the world system and (b) what concerns it may consequently bring.

Pillage As The Political Economy Of The Kurdish Anfal Genocide, Kaziwa Salih

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Scholars are critical of how economists overlook “the questions of genocide,” and of how legislatures have not paid adequate attention to the subject of looting, except in the case of the Armenian genocide. This article, informed by interdisciplinary perspectives, uses government documents, data, and semi-structured interviews to discuss the overlooked triangle of looting, economics, and the Anfal genocide of the Kurds in Iraq. The study refuses to limit itself only to the eight stages of the Anfal genocide that started in 1988, and instead offers data on its preliminary phases which occurred earlier in the 1980s. It then discusses the …

Review Of Revolutionary Nonviolence: Organizing For Freedom, Kelly R. Kraemer

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Wildland: The Making Of America’S Fury, William Droel

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Political Protest In Contemporary Kenya: Change And Continuities, Robert M. Press

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

The Rise Of Russian Peasant Witchcraft: A Response To Social Unrest In Imperial Russia, Katrina Sommer

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

Imperial Russia became home to a unique form of witchcraft from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Combining its religious history, patterns of imperial expansion and governance, and social hierarchies, witchcraft accusations arose during especially troublesome economic and political times. Differing from eighteenth-century America Witchcraft trials, these trials were not only femicide. Targeting anyone who might subvert established social or cultural norms, these accusations often led to violent expungement, ending with a ritual of communal bonding.

Unwilling Gamblers And Loaded Dice: Considering Recession And Crisis As A Natural Effect Of Financial Capitalism, Darlene N. Moorman

The Downtown Review

Under financial capitalism, ordinary people are increasingly becoming 'unwilling gamblers' of a risky and unstable system. This paper explores the social and institutional change behind the neoliberal movement and considers how the politics and policies of neoliberalism have contributed to a certain environment of financial instability. Looking at the changing nature of the economy, the rapid expansion of the financial sector, and the persisting issue of moral hazard underlying risky and speculative behaviors among other items, reveals a financial system in which recessions and crises can be considered a natural, although not inevitable, effect.

Predictors Of College Student Support Toward Colin Kaepernick’S National Anthem Protests, Brooke Coursen, Nicole Peiffer, Sakira Coleman, Philip Lucius

VA Engage Journal

Racial discrimination and inequality have perpetuated within the U.S. since its inception. In 2016, Colin Kaepernick initiated the national anthem protests to oppose the oppression of people of color in America. This study was developed in 2018 to identify social determinants of health underlying discriminatory beliefs and behaviors. The objective was to investigate the impacts of college students’ race, gender, political ideology, socio-economic status [SES], NFL interest, patriotism, and general protest support on support for the national anthem protests. We administered paper-and-pencil surveys across locations on the James Madison University campus using a convenience sample. There were 408 participants included, …

Sociological Analysis Of Falcon And The Winter Soldier, Asia Y. Mackey

Access*: Interdisciplinary Journal of Student Research and Scholarship

The following analysis takes a look at how Marvel Studios portrays the treatment of African American men in heroic positions and how it connects and compares to the treatment of them in the real world through a sociological lens in one of their latest television series Falcon and The Winter Soldier. To find the connection I looked at how Marvel Studios put the key African American characters, Sam Wilson and Isaiah Bradley, in the position of deviant and alienation roles compared to the key white characters, Steve Rogers, John Walker, and James ‘Bucky’ Barnes. When it comes to real world …

Interpreting Global Urban-Rural Political Divides: A Literature Review, Jobim Steyermark

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Is the familiar urban-rural political divide a universal phenomenon, or is it conditional on institutional, cultural, or historical factors? In places where such a divide does exist, does it always manifest as a contest between progressive urban centers and conservative rural areas, or is this polarity sometimes reversed? Drawing on the insights of political scientists, sociologists, and historians, a review of the literature suggests resilient patterns of political geography that have their roots in the cleavage formation processes of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In particular, the legacy of agrarian politics and patterns of land tenure during this critical …

Review Of Undoing The Knots: Five Generations Of American Catholic Anti-Blackness, Peter R. Gathje

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism, Charles Whitmer Wright

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Backsliding: Democratic Regress In The Contemporary World And Crises Of Democracy., Pedro A.G. Dos Santos

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

The 1676 Project: Black And White Together In The U.S.A., Danny Duncan Collum

The Journal of Social Encounters

America’s post-George Floyd racial reckoning has brought a new focus on the country’s history of enslavement, segregation and systemic racism. However, this reckoning has often failed to recognize that the roots of systemic racism lie in the need of the wealthy planters in colonial Virginia to divide the African and English indentured servants who constituted a majority threatening to elite power. Nor do contemporary versions of U.S. history always account for the persistent reoccurrence of class-based interracial movements, such as the late 19^th century Populists, or their promise as a long-term solution to the country’s racial divides.

The Logic Of "Social Enterprise": The Big Issue Organization And New Labour Policy At The Millennial Juncture, Suman Gupta

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This paper explores the emergence of and policies and practices underpinning ‘social enterprise’ in Britain: that is, the concept that businesses could provide social services and benefits while returning profits to those who have invested in them. This paper argues that, in Britain, the concept was massaged into existence and adopted as a business and policy model at a particular historical juncture, in the later 1990s and early 2000s. The process involved a careful interweaving of linguistic maneuvers with financial calculations both at the level of specific businesses and at that of political regimes. This process is traced here with …

Archiving Feminist Truth In Trump’S Wake Of Lies, Julie Shayne

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This article is about an assignment I do in one of my Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies social movement classes. I revised the assignment the first time teaching the class after Trump lost the 2020 election. For the assignment, students work in groups to research local feminist and gender justice organizations and deposit all of their original materials – recordings, photos, flyers, etc. – into a digital, open access archive I co-created several years ago with librarians and staff on my campus. In 2021 I had my students do the “post-Trump” edition where they researched local organizations about how their …

Economies Of Security: Foucault And The Genealogy Of Neoliberal Reason, Marshall Scheider

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

Michel Foucault is well-known for his theorizations of institutional power, normativity, and biopolitics. Less well-known is the fact that Foucault developed his analysis of biopolitics in and through his historical investigation of neoliberalism. Today, while critique of neoliberalism has become a commonplace of humanities discourse, and popular resistance to neoliberalization rocks the southern hemisphere, it remains unclear that the historical specificity of neoliberalism is well-understood. In particular, the relation between classical liberalism and neoliberal governance remains murky in popular debate. As Foucault powerfully illustrates, this relation is far from clear-cut, and neoliberalism is not reducible to a simple extension of …

Disease Prevalence And Politics- A Study Of Chagas Disease In Bolivia, Rebecca Dickson

Access*: Interdisciplinary Journal of Student Research and Scholarship

Reducing disease prevalence within South America is critical for reaching global health goals and increasing life expectancy of vulnerable populations. Chagas disease, often referred to the “the New HIV/AIDS of the Americas,” is a prevalent cause of disability and death within Bolivia (Hotez et al. 1). The Plurinational State of Bolivia, a large South American nation-state, is a crucial player in promoting global health outcomes. However, intra-state political turmoil and historical tensions often affect its healthcare systems, which in turn affect individual health outcomes. This paper traces these connections within the Bolivian healthcare system- first by identifying political and cultural …

Nineteen Minutes Of Horror: Insights From The Scorpions Execution Video, Iva Vukušić

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

After the fall of Srebrenica in summer of 1995, the Scorpions unit, dispatched to support the Bosnian Serb Army as it took over the enclave, shot six men in Trnovo. The men, three of whom were underage, were some of thousands of Bosnian Muslims that fell into the hands of Bosnian Serb troops, and that were executed in the days and weeks following July 11th. A member of the unit filmed the execution. Fragments of the video were first shown during the Slobodan Milosevic trial, and multiple times in the years after, in the courtrooms in The Hague and Belgrade. …

Bonding Images: Photography And Film As Acts Of Perpetration, Christophe Busch

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Historical and contemporary cases of collective violence show an incremental use of photography and film to capture and disseminate violent acts. Recording cruelty during conflict seems to be a highly ritualised practice that urges the question what communicative and psychological functions these acts have? Why and how does perpetrator photography shape a binding moral world that divides 'us' versus 'them'? These visualising acts are commonly seen as proof of power that desensitises the perpetrators and dehumanises the victims. This contribution focuses on the imagery of the Holocaust, looks into the functions that capturing and sharing cruelty has on the evolution …

Welcome To Dignity, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Remembering Genocide, Tony Barta

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

The Liberal As An Enemy Of Queer Justice, Craig Schamel

Catalyst: A Social Justice Forum

Abstract

Liberalism as a historical mode of the political is the context in which the movement and ensuing struggle for queer justice emerged in most Western countries. The terminology, practices, tendencies, beliefs, ethics, laws, and patterns of political and social life which have been determined by this mode of the political, it is argued, are inimical to queer justice and render its achievement impossible. Liberalism as a mode of the political is approached from below, from knowledge gained in practical experience in queer groups which considered themselves revolutionary at least to some degree, and from the effects on such groups …

Muzzles And Mixed Messages: Issues Between Science And The Federal Government In Canada’S Past And Present, Katherine Richter

The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History

This paper will examine the historical relationship between the federal government of Canada and the scientists it has employed over the past few decades. It will compare science policy and practices from leaders such as Diefenbaker and Trudeau to the policies currently followed by Stephen Harper's government. It will then ask what might be achieved by following those policies, despite the criticism received by the science community. The paper will ultimately argue that the federal government and scientists have often had a contentious relationship, and the policies the Conservative government is currently implementing are not new. It will also argue …

Atatürk's Balancing Act: The Role Of Secularism In Turkey, Patrick G. Rear

Global Tides

The intersection of religion and politics in the form of a civil religion has been present since time immemorial. This paper looks specifically to the relationship between Turkey’s development of a secular civil religion after gaining independence and the advancing of women’s rights and democratic values. In examining the intersections of state and religion in a secular Islamic society, it draws parallels to the French civil religion as it came to be following the French Revolution. Though Atatürk and other secularists were strong forces in developing the civil religion, the paper also examines liberal democratic and conservative Islamic groups in …

The Use Of Rhetoric In Anti-Suffrage And Anti-Feminist Publications, Artour Aslanian

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

After decades of struggling to gain the right to vote, women were finally granted that right with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment on August 18, 1920. While it would seem that most, if not all, women would be in favor of gaining the right to vote, the women’s suffrage movement did not represent the wishes of all women within the United States. Scholarship in this area largely focuses on the historical developments of the suffrage movements, with the presence of female opponents of suffrage and anti-suffragist organizations receiving less attention.1 These anti-suffragists were vocal in their opposition to the …

An Interview With Dr. Theda Skocpol, Sarah Russell

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

No abstract provided.