History Commons^™

Book Review: Maurice-Ernest Gillioz (1877-1962): Great Builder In America, Yves Bordet

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Maurice-Ernest Gillioz is a good example of the American dream. The son of a Swiss emigrant from the Canton of Valais who arrived in New York in the middle of the American Civil War, Gillioz started from nothing and built one of the largest public works companies in the Midwest in the first half of the twentieth century. Philippe Pierroz’ book is 164 pages, written in French, of richly illustrated and strongly documented material. The numerous illustrations and appendices can be easily understood by English-speaking readers.

Switzerland’S Banished Children, Una Suseli O'Connell

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Over a one hundred year period a practice known as verdingen (indentured servitude) operated in Switzerland. Children were removed from their families and sent to work on farms. It is estimated that between 1860 and 1960, one hundred thousand children were verdingt in this way, a quarter of them in the Canton of Bern. Local parishes paid farmers a monthly allowance to provide disadvantaged children with board and lodging. Although some treated their charges well, countless children suffered terrible hardship over many years. A veil of silence fell across entire communities as clergy, social workers and villagers chose to ignore …

Attending The Annual Meeting Of The Sahs In Washington, D.C.: An Exaggeration, Albert Winkler

Swiss American Historical Society Review

As president of the Swiss American Historical Society last year, 2022, it was my pleasure to attend the Society’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. I always go anyway. The thought of trying to be charming, clever, and insightful at the meetings was just too much for me to bear alone, so I groveled at the feet of my son, Kurt, and his wife, Razil, to go with me. Rather than watch an old man cry, they agreed to go too if I paid. What a deal! We got on the plane in Salt Lake. I can still remember when you …

Dietmar Kuegler 1951-2022: In Memoriam, Albert Winkler

Swiss American Historical Society Review

A dear friend and strong supporter of the Swiss American Historical Society, Dietmar Kuegler, died on December 3, 2022, in the village of Övenum on the island of Föhr, Germany, where he had lived for several years. For many years, he translated and published my articles from the Swiss American Historical Society Review dealing with the Swiss in the American West in his Magazin für Amerikanistik in Germany. He also translated and published eleven of my books including The Germans and Swiss at the Battle of the Little Bighorn 1876, which was also published in the SAHS Review …

Book Review: Switzerland And Sub-Saharan Africa In The Cold War, 1967-1979: Neutrality Meets Decolonisation, Thomas Quinn Marabello

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Switzerland and Sub-Saharan Africa in the Cold War, 1967-1979: Neutrality Meets Decolonisation was written as part of the series “New Perspectives on the Cold War,” which looks at different issues, events and regions impacted by the Cold War. While Switzerland was not a major power, nor did it have colonies in Africa or elsewhere, it had economic interests in the continent and a foreign policy that guided its decision making and values, centered around its historical tradition of neutrality. This well researched work of historiography gives readers new insights into Switzerland’s relations, especially with Portuguese colonies during and after decolonization. …

Book Review: Einer Für Alle, Alle Für Einen—One For All, All For One, Stephen P. Halbrook

Swiss American Historical Society Review

In English, this title is translated as One For All, All For One. A Commemorative for the Bicentenary of the Swiss Shooting Association SSV. This tome does much more than celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of Switzerland’s marksmanship society. Given the central role of the SSV in the political, military, and social life of the country, this work is also an interactive history, indeed a reference work, for those same years. This review pinpoints some of the highlights of the volume.

Full Issue

Swiss American Historical Society Review

No abstract provided.

Challenges To Swiss Democracy: Neutrality, Napoleon, & Nationalism, Thomas Quinn Marabello

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The year 1291 is considered the birth of Switzerland as we know it. Yet this is not entirely correct, since it was when the Swiss Confederacy was formed. This defensive alliance between some cantons that would expand over time did not mean Switzerland was a unified nation-state. Most of Europe in 1291 was stuck in the Middle Ages with few unified nations existing at the time. 1648 was an important year for Switzerland and the rest of Europe. The Treaty of Westphalia marked the end of the Thirty Years’ War that involved most of the continent over religion and politics. …

Remembering A Mensch— Dr. Waseem A. Malick: In Memoriam, C. Naseer Ahmad

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Dr. Waseem A. Malick, who spent over 30 years working for Swiss Pharmaceutical giant Hoffman-La Roche, was a mensch. He passed away in December 2022 in New Jersey. On February 5, 2023, about 150 of his friends, colleagues and family members gathered to remember him. Being by the side of Dr. Malick’s wife and his children, his Roche colleagues were a source of comfort for the family.

End Matter

Swiss American Historical Society Review

No abstract provided.

The Fight Against The Threat Of Witchcraft And Paganism In Anglo-Saxon England, Russell I. Knapp

Lux et Fides: A Journal for Undergraduate Christian Scholars

Unlike the general assumption that England was completely Christianized after Augustine’s mission to the island, witchcraft and paganism thrived all throughout the Christian period of Anglo-Saxon history. Sources condemning witchcraft and paganism increased during the Danish raids in the mid-ninth century and beyond due to an increased sense of a perceived threat of paganism. King Alfred himself reacted to this threat by doing everything he could to strengthen his people in their Christian beliefs through education reform and his law code. The Church battled against the perceived threat through penitentials–which they used to discourage pagan practices. Lay-people fought against …

Phenomenographic Interpretation Of The Spanish Universalist School: Part I/Iii

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

Since the beginning of the XX Century, it exists as anti-Spanish propaganda, a stable narrative promoted since the XVI Century: The black legend (Leyenda Negra). This is one of the main reasons why, frequently, the Spanish pensamiento has been reconstructed in a half-hazard and incomplete manner. Paradoxically, this is the result of a past with high relevancy, developing as it did as imperial Catholic culture, integrating and civilizing different peoples as humanly and morally equals. More deservedly, a modern sense of a “self,” rightfully examined, is the idea of a “self” created by the School of Salamanca (see …

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 …

De Desciptione Temporum: Revisiting C. S. Lewis' Inaugural Lecture, Jean Bethge Elshtain

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A discussion of Lewis's lecture giving a "description of the times," published in C. S. Lewis, They Asked for a Paper: Papers and Addresses (London, 1962). Excerpt: "The third and no doubt most salient point for our contemporary consideration is that the “christening of Europe,” deplored by some (like Gibbon, the “humanistic unbeliever”), seemed a unique, irreversible event. “But we have seen the opposite process,” Lewis writes. To be sure, “the un-christening of Europe in our time is not quite complete; neither was her christening in the Dark Ages,” but it proceeds apace. Consequently, while our “ancestors divided history into …

The Gallant Edith Bratt: J.R.R. Tolkien’S Inspiration By Nancy Bunting And Seamus Hamill-Keays, María Fernández Portaencasa

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

To Be Necessary: The Remarkable Life Of Mary Wollstonecraft, Elisabeth Phillips

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Although overshadowed by her daughter, Mary Shelley, in the public imagination, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) stands as a significant figure in her time who left a significant legacy. Her writings advocating for women’s education, equal rights, and career opportunities established her as the progenitor of the modern women’s rights movement. Wollstonecraft’s ideas resonated in the era of the Atlantic world revolutions and laid the foundation for later advances of women in the Western world; therefore, it is important to study her contributions in the present.

The Soldier, The Parliamentarian, The Statesman, And The Historian, Keith C. Sewell

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Review- Archives And Human Rights, Alexandra Pucciarelli

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Archives and Human Rights edited by Jens Boel, Perrine Canavaggio, and Antonio González Quintana utilizes seventeen case studies to examine the role archives and archivists can play in international justice after human rights violations. The cases include but are not limited to; Rwanda, Spain, and Cambodia.

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.

Interpreting The Intentional Inaccessibility Of The Early Modern Roman Catholic Church, Kristen P. Quesada

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

Many may wonder why, in the modern day, the Roman Catholic Church continues to incorporate Latin, a now barely extant language, into its canonic religious rituals and public services. However, to understand whether there is a latently malicious intent lurking beneath this esoteric tradition, we must look back to the 1545 Council of Trent, in which these traditions were first canonized. This choice on the part of the Catholic Church helped incense the Protestant Reformation’s criticisms against the Church for exclusivizing the very religion its followers were practicing. This paper investigates the origins of the Catholic Church’s suppressive practices against …

Lord Northcliffe And The Fall Of The Liberal Party, Jonathan Briffault

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

The decline of the Liberal Party following their 1906 triumph has prompted countless historical analyses. Despite their significant majorities, popular agenda, and divided opposition, the Liberal Party was unable to convert its support into political success. This paper suggests, through an analysis of the papers and writings of Lord Northcliffe, that the rise of New Journalism and, in particular, Lord Northcliffe’s dominance of the press, laid the foundation for the Liberal Party’s demise. Lord Northcliffe, through his monopolization of the press, offered a coherent and unified opposition to the Liberal agenda, successfully splintered the Liberal leadership, and guided the Conservative …

Soviet Commemoration And Myth-Making Of The Nazi Extermination Camps: Case Studies On Treblinka, Sobibór, And Majdanek, Isaac Bluestein

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

The Nazi extermination camps of Treblinka, Sobibór, and Majdanek, all located in Eastern Europe, are understudied, underdiscussed, and undermemorialized in public and scholarly memory. In this paper, I seek to conduct case studies of these three camps, their histories, and their commemoration efforts. Ultimately, four main factors prevented these camps from achieving the solemn recognizability they deserve and from having their victims’ stories adequately told; little remains of these camps compared to concentration camps in Germany, fewer individuals survived them to emphasize their importance, the Soviet Union possessed near complete control of their study and commemoration, which allowed for them …

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 …

The Parish Choir Movement And Generational Festivals In Romania’S Socialist Period: New Community Festivities In Transylvania’S Gheorgheni (Gyergyó) Region, Eszter Kovács

Journal of Global Catholicism

Among the post-1945 East European socialist regimes, Romania and Poland were the only countries where the Catholic Church—despite government interventions, controls, and bans—managed to play a significant social and political role in community life. This case study provides an ethnographic description of the parish choir movement and graduating class reunions, called “generational festivals” in Hungarian, in the Gheorgheni (Hu: Gyergyó) region in the 1970s and 1980s. The gatherings will be analyzed in the context of everyday life, the socialist system’s distinctive shortage economy, and official limits on religious activity that characterized the era. I will first describe the world of …

Overview & Acknowledgments, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

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.

Judicial Murder: The Witch-Craze In Germany And Switzerland, Albert Winkler

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Among the most remarkable and puzzling social, religious and legal movements of the late Middle Ages and Early Modern periods of European history were the witch-hunts. Historians have often disagreed on the exact time frame of the witch-craze, but these actions largely spanned three centuries roughly from 1450 to 1750, most of which took place from 1500 to 1650. Some estimates on the number of people accused of witchcraft and those executed for the supposed crime reach into the hundreds of thousands. Professor Nachman Ben-Yahuda has stated, “From the early decades of the fourteenth century until 1650, continental Europeans executed …

President’S Report For 2022, Albert Winkler

Swiss American Historical Society Review

New President: As of October 2022, I no longer function as the president of the SAHS. The new president is Fred Gillespie. He is a long-term member of the Society and has served as president in the past, and I am sure he will do very well. The position as president was overwhelming for me, and I found it very difficult to serve as both the Editor-in-Chief of the SAHS Review and as president. I can now concentrate my time and effort to publish the SAHS Review.

Financial Report For The 2021-2022 Fiscal Year October 1, 2021-September 30, 2022, Ernie Thurston

Swiss American Historical Society Review

BALANCE SHEET

Opening Closing 10/1/2021 9/30/2022 Assets 101 Checking Account 11,398.05 8,426.23 Assets 102 Vanguard STAR Fund, Unrestricted 70,948.45 53,388.82 Assets 102-A Vanguard STAR Fund, Restricted 10,000.00 10,000.00

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 …