European History Commons^™

Obituary For Leo Schelbert, Fred Steiner

Swiss American Historical Society Review

A major scholar of Swiss history and Swiss Americans, his connection with the Swiss-American Historical Society was inseparable, as he helped shaped the Society’s direction.

He served the Society as co-editor of the Review with Heinz K. Meier (1970-1986), as president (1975-1980), as sole editor of the Newsletter/Review (1980-2002), co-editor with H. Dwight Page (2002-2006), as editor of the Society’s book series (1981-2013), and as a member of the editorial board for the book publications.

Napoleon’S Role In The Making Of Modern Switzerland, Jost Auf Der Maur

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The federated and neutral nation state we know today as Switzerland owes its modern origins to Napoleon Bonaparte. When Napoleon came into the world in 1769, the Swiss Confederation was a loose configuration of tiny quarrelsome states. As the contemporary, Johannes Bürkli from Zurich, wrote:

[Switzerland] is a virtually unnoticeable dot on the map of Europe, yet it combines all species of government: despotic, oligarchic, aristocratic, democratic. You can find all of them thrown together here in a nutshell.

Report Of The Editor-In-Chief Of The Sahs Review, Albert Winkler

Swiss American Historical Society Review

A Good Year for Articles

I wish to state that the quality and variety of publications in the SAHS Review for 2022 remain strong. The February 2022 issue included four good articles including the “Battle of Dornach in 1499,” the “History of the Swiss Consulate in New York,” “Swiss Heritage Preserved at New Glarus Museum,” and “Glarus and Scranton: Benefits and Costs of Industrialization.” The article on the Swiss Consulate was first published in 1926, so it is now in the public domain. The Swiss Consulate in New York asked us to publish it, so I had to type it …

Swiss Presidents Report For Usa, Barbara Müller

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Dear Members of the SAHS,

Membership is a key concern to us and unfortunately this year we have lost three members here in Switzerland. One due to death, Dr. Lucie Zehnder; one member, Anselm Zurfluh, has asked to be taken off the list, and The Institut des Suisse Dans le Monde is closed. Christine von Graffenried has cancelled membership as of 2023 so that will be reflected in 2023.

Outreach Activities For The Sahs, Rob Sherwood

Swiss American Historical Society Review

On July 5, 2022, I visited Jan Sparkman at the Laurel County Historical Society, London, Kentucky. Ms. Sparkman is no longer the President of the of the Society, but she was the contact point that I had made. They have been in their building, a former County Health Department since 2007. They do not pay any rent nor utilities. It is a good space with lots of local history items, cemetery records, family history, etc. They have a small museum with images and artifacts about local history and have saved many primary records (marriage, land deeds, etc., from a neighboring …

Characterization And The Aesthetic Representation Of Violence In The Graphic Novel "Esperaré Siempre Tu Regreso", By Jordi Peidro, Deirdre Kelly

Books/Book Chapters

The graphic novel, Esperaré siempre tu regreso (2016, Desfiladero Ediciones) by the author and illustrator, Jordi Peidro (Alcoy, 1965), is a biographical and historical text that centres on the life in exile of Francisco Aura Boronat (or Paco Aura, Alcoy, 1918-2018), a Spanish communist and Republican who survived the horrors of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Drawing on comics studies and memory studies, the analysis will discuss how Peidro navigates ethical and aesthetic issues when representing traumatic and violent memories related to the Spanish experience of Civil War, exile and deportation to a Nazi concentration camp. Firstly, it will …

Bloody Sunday: Death & Press, Joseph Gaffney

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project is a historical paper on Bloody Sunday, a day of violence in Dublin during the Irish War for Independence on November 21, 1920, analyzing primary and secondary sources centered on the subject to answer specific historiographical research questions. The primary objective of this research project is to understand the immediate social and political ramifications of Bloody Sunday in Ireland and England as reflected in the spread of information via the written press. The goal of the written analysis will be to answer a series of historical research questions. How were both the IRA’s killings and the subsequent reprisal …

Leo Schelbert Prize

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The Leo Schelbert Prize is awarded to the best submitted undergraduate or graduate research paper. The topic can be on anything that relates to the mission of the Swiss American Historical Society, which focuses on increasing an understanding of Swiss and/or Swiss-American history.

New President’S Report, Fred Gillespie

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Dear Members of the Swiss American Historical Society,

This is my second stint as president of the SAHS. During my first term, I was asked how I became president. I facetiously replied they couldn’t find anybody who wanted the job. I believe my performance while hardly perfect was acceptable since I am back. I hope not to repeat my mistakes.

From Schleswig To Anschluss: The Plebiscites And Referendums Of Interwar Germany, Matthew J. Rocha

Honors Theses

This paper aims to bridge the gap between the plebiscites following the First World War and the referendums of the Third Reich. To this point, the literatures on these sets of votes have remained completely separate. No scholars have considered the NSDAP’s votes in the context of the postwar votes. By comparing and contrasting these groups of plebiscites for the first time, this paper will shed light on the democratic backsliding of interwar Germany.

This paper argues that when planning their referendums, the leaders of the Third Reich had the immediate postwar plebiscites in mind and were, in some cases, …

Merchants Of Blood And Gunpowder: The English Arms Trade In West Africa, Jaime K. Schneider

Honors Theses

The period between 1500 and 1650 saw the development of a transoceanic trade network, multiple European colonial empires in the Americas, and rapid developments in firearms technology. Combined, these factors laid the groundwork for two interrelated phenomena, the transatlantic slave trade, and the emergence of a global trade in arms. Examining the documents of the Royal African Company and assembling a broad selection of secondary sources, this paper seeks to contribute to the ongoing debate over the role of slavery in the development of modern capitalism. This paper argues that the transatlantic slave trade was vital for the development of …

Jewish Presence In The Venetian Empire: A Challenge To Venetian Mythology, Avery Rosensweig

Honors Theses

This paper attempts to explain the significance of Jewish presence in the Venetian Empire in the context of the myth of Venice. Jews were officially permitted to settle in Venice in 1516, but their connection with the Venetian Empire goes further back. Jews were important for the success of the Venetian Empire, particularly from the sixteenth century onward. The permanent settlement of the Jews in Venice directly impacted the very ideology of the Venetian Empire.

Although the phrase "myth of Venice" was developed by twentieth-century historians, Venetians perpetuated the myth and wove its ideals into the foundation of the Venetian …

Fostering Communist Elites: Cold War Czechoslovakia's Foreign Student Program, Emily Hackett

Slavic Studies Honors Papers

During the Cold War, educational policy became a strategic and consequential avenue of soft power. Countries on both sides of the East-West divide developed travel and study exchanges to cultivate relationships with other countries, and to prepare future generations for work in an increasingly internationalized world. Despite supporting a fear of foreigners and isolating people from travel outside of the Communist bloc, the Soviet Union sponsored select students from other countries to study in its institutions of higher education.

This thesis aims to provide insight into the structure and events of the Czechoslovak foreign student program with the Soviet Union …

Preliminary Report Of The Hasp 2022 Field Season: Geophysics, Coring, And Excavations At Neðri-Ás, Kálfsstaðir, Hlíð, Hrafnhóll, Hvammur, Reykir, And Víðines, In Hjaltadalur With An Appendix By Magnús Á. Sigurgeirsson, Guðný Zoëga, John M. Steinberg

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

This report outlines the 2022 work at Neðri Ás, Kálfsstaðir, Hlíð (formally called both Hrappsstaðir and Hrafnsstaðir), Hrafnhóll, Hvammur, Reykir, and Víðines (including Grófarstekkur) in Hjaltadal as part of the Hjaltadalur Archaeological Survey Project (HASP). This is the second year of a scheduled three-year project. The purpose of the project is to outline the settlement sequence and regional development in Hólar and around Hjaltadal and compare them with similar studies that have been carried out in Skagafjörður. The eight farms investigated in 2022 all seem to have been established well before the Hekla 1104 (H1104) tephra fell. Neðri Ás, Kálfsstaðir, …

“Laugh, When I Gives You A Joke”: The Forms And Functions Of Humor In The Great War, Samuel Sakoulas Griffin

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

In today’s popular memory, the First World War experience is not well-known for its humor. Yet during and after the war, soldiers produced a small but significant wave of wartime joke books and humorous war-story collections, in part to cope with their experiences in terrible, industrialized war, and also as a way to interpret, commemorate, and remember the war. These humorous interpretations and memories of the war clashed with the dominant literary reaction to the war, that of the mutilation of bodies and pointless deaths. But humor appeared in the midst of the slaughter, and today serves as an opening …

Public Health And The Politics Of Haussmannization In Nineteenth-Century Paris, 1830-1870, Mikaela Malsy

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Throughout the Second Empire, Napoléon III and his Prefect of the Seine, Georges Haussmann, engaged in a series of urban reform projects that transformed Paris. These projects, often collectively referred to as Haussmannization, entailed the construction of boulevards, expansion of the sewer system, and clearance of what the state considered insalubrious housing. This term was largely prescribed to worker-class housing and used as a medical justification to target and destroy working-class communities. However, as this paper discusses, the understanding of insalubrity was shaped by hygienists' pathologization of poverty, crime, and working-class militancy in response to the arrival of cholera and …

[Review Of The Book Sugarland: The Transformation Of The Countryside In Communist Albania, By A. R. Hoxha], Austin Jersild

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Art And Power: How The D'Este Family Ruled Renaissance Ferrara, Luke Ziegler

Tenor of Our Times

During the Renaissance, the d'Este family ruled the Northern Italian city of Ferrara. To make up for their modest land holdings, the d'Este chose to exert influence and control over Italian politics through artistic patronage. The court of Ferrara became known for its beauty, intelligence, and sophistication. All the dukes of Ferrara contributed to the city's cultural significance, and elevated Ferrara as one of the dominant cities on the Italian peninsula.

From Displaced To Displacers: Scottish Crofters, First Nation Peoples And Commons Enclosure From The 1700s To The 1800s, Anna Herrington

Theses and Dissertations--History

In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, the enclosure of common systems shaped the displacement of people on a global scale whilst bringing the people---Scottish Highland crofters and Mi’kmaq First Nation Canadians from the margins where they have dwelled for centuries in historical scholarship to of the centre of not just their history, but our collective history. Both populations experienced attacks on their ties to their lands, resources, and culture through enclosure. The enclosure process lasted over two centuries and was interspersed with violent protest, proactive resistance, interspersed with periods of acceptance and determination against their forced removals. Investigating …

Translating "La Parola Ebreo": Rosetta Loy And A Child's-Eye View Of Italian Fascism, Amelia Muniz

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis is a translation of an excerpt from the 1997 memoir of Italian author Rosetta Loy, La Parola Ebreo, and an accompanying paper which explains my translation process, gives historical context and provides an argument for the continued relevance of the text. La Parola Ebreo recounts Loy’s memories of growing up in Rome, Italy, under Benito Mussolini’s Fascist rule. This translation is not meant to be an official English version of the memoir, as it is only a short excerpt, and was not done in collaboration with Loy’s estate or publishers. Instead, it is intended to bring attention to …