History Commons^™

For The Purpose Of Instruction And Diversion: The Library At The South Dakota State Penitentiary, Lisa R. Lindell

Hilton M. Briggs Library Faculty Publications

The library at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls played an important role within the institution’s history and can serve as a lens into wider cultural dynamics. This article examines the development of the library and how its use reflected societal perceptions of reading. In connection to the library, it explores the introduction and influence of entertainment and educational programs at the penitentiary. Many historical insights about reading at the penitentiary come from the inmates who oversaw the library. Notably, the study discloses the committed efforts of these library caretakers in advocating for the transformative power of reading. …

Cohen-Lasry: The Architectural History, Jennifer Krulisz-Hossain

Strassler Center Archival Collection Finding Aids

This collection contains images, newspapers and architectural plans related to the current Strassler Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies at 11 Hawthorne Street in Worcester, MA

Introducing The New Sahs President & Vice President, Thomas Quinn Marabello

Swiss American Historical Society Review

It is an honor to serve as the new President of the Swiss American Historical Society, an organization that I have come come to truly enjoy being associated with.

Swiss Good Offices In Afghanistan, 1979-1992, Dr. Liliane Stadler

Swiss American Historical Society Review

In February 2024, I published my first monograph on Switzerland’s good offices in Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion of 1979. In October 2024, I presented my book at Johns Hopkins University in Washington D.C., where I currently hold a two-year postdoctoral position at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs. I would like to thank the Swiss American Historical Society (SAHS) for reprinting my remarks in the SAHS Review, as well as Ambassador Dr. Ralf Heckner and Vincent Barras from the Swiss Embassy for joining us at Johns Hopkins for the event.

Leo Schelbert Award

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The Leo Schelbert Award is given to the best submitted research paper and is open to both undergraduate and graduate students. The topic can be anything that relates to the mission of the Swiss American Historical Society (SAHS), which focuses on increasing an understanding of Swiss and/or Swiss-American history.

Centennial Committee

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The Centennial Committee of the Swiss American Historical Society is organizing to plan and consider ideas for celebrating our milestone 100th anniversary which will occur in the year 2027. In addition to a trip to Switzerland and holding our annual meeting in Chicago where the Society was founded, we also are interested in potentially doing an exhibit at the Embassy of Switzerland and/or the Swiss Center of North America, doing an oral history project, finding donors to contribute to the Leo Schelbert Award, creating merchandise, potentially creating a video, and publishing a commemorative book on the history of the Society. …

2024 Reports, Thomas Quinn Marabello, Barbara Müller, Ernie Thurston, Richard Hacken

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Business Meeting Report—September 28, 2024

President’s Report for 2024

President’s Report for 2024 for The Friends of the Swiss American Historical Society

Annual Financial Report of the SAHS

SAHS Membership Report

Publications Report

SAHS Website Report 2024

The Archie Family Interview, Shane Hand, John Brundrett

Oral Histories

This is an interview related to the integration of Alvin Community College (ACC), which was called Alvin Junior College (AJC) from its founding in 1948 until 1976. The interview is with Sharmeal Archie, Mary L. Smith, and Lynette Mason and takes place on February 10, 2025. The interviewers are Dr. Shane Hand and Professor John Brundrett.

Front Matter

Swiss American Historical Society Review

No abstract provided.

The Connection Between Zermatt And Vail: How A Swiss Alpine Village Influenced The Creation Of A Colorado Village And Ski Resort In The Rocky Mountains, Thomas Quinn Marabello

Swiss American Historical Society Review

When one hears the places “Zermatt” and “Vail” we tend to think of skiing. Both are known worldwide for great skiing and beautiful mountains. While Zermatt has existed for centuries, Vail only became permanently inhabited by people after World War II. Zermatt did not become a well known place until the nineteenth century when adventurers sought to climb the Matterhorn, and then it became a popular tourist destination. However, Zermatt influenced the creation of the village of Vail, thanks to a man named Peter Seibert who spent time there and wanted to create a European Alpine style ski village in …

New Swiss Ambassador To The U.S.

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The new Swiss Ambassador to the U.S., Dr. Ralf Heckner, presented his credentials to President Joseph R. Biden during a ceremony at The White House on September 20, 2024. A native of Davos, Ambassador Heckner served as ambassador to India and Bhutan before coming to Washington, DC. He also served as Deputy Head of the United Nations and Other International Organizations, and has a PhD in history from the University of Fribourg.

Anabaptism 500th Anniversary In 2025

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The year 2025 marks the 500th anniversary of the beginnings of Anabaptism. It all began on January 21, 1525, when a small group of Christians in Zurich renounced baptism for infants and experienced voluntary baptism as adults. Throughout the year, we will include trivia questions, opportunities, new scholarship and resources that will be commemorating this milestone, in the SAHS Review and on our LinkedIn and Facebook pages.

Laina Farhat-Holzman: Distinguished Iscsc Author, Incisive Thinker, Fearless Commentator, Innovative Leader, Joseph Drew

Comparative Civilizations Review

It is a sad duty to report that a luminary who was long associated with this journal and with the leadership of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations, Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman, has died.

Literary Executor Of The Estate Of Christopher Dawson, Julian Scott

Comparative Civilizations Review

Christopher Dawson was a historian of religion and culture who wrote and lectured in England and America between the 1920s and his death in 1970. The author of this review, Dawson’s grandson and literary executor, argues not only that Dawson is very interesting to read as a historian, but also that many of his insights and proposals — such as his writing on European unity, nationalism, the consequences of a secularized culture and the conflict between humane individualism and state totalitarianism — remain highly relevant today. This article highlights some of Dawson’s most interesting and insightful ideas and aims to …

Ccr Style Guide For Submitted Manuscripts, Carolyn Carpentieri Potter

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Swiss Mountain Guides In The Canadian Rockies, Richard Hacken

Swiss American Historical Society Review

With the Golden Age of Alpinism (ca. 1850-1890) having drawn the world’s attention to the necessity of trained and experienced Swiss mountain guides, the services of such guides were in high demand, and not just in Switzerland. Climbing as a summer sport began to take hold in Europe in the 1860s. English alpinists, along with their Swiss local guides, began checking the mountains of the Swiss Alps off their list.

Table Of Contents

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Editor’S Note: Want To Help Develop A Textbook On Comparative Civilizations?, Joseph Drew

Comparative Civilizations Review

Is anyone here in the United States or elsewhere teaching a course in the comparative study of civilizations at the undergraduate level these days?

Since I was thinking about organizing the writing of a textbook on the topic, I began recently by considering what the major areas were to be covered in such a book. What, I wondered, have been the significant approaches scholars have taken over the past century or so to address the fluid, debatable, tenuous meanings and shapes of civilizations?

Ethiopia: Ancient Glory, Awaiting Recovery, Tseggai Isaac

Comparative Civilizations Review

The name Ethiopia is associated in the Book of Genesis with the creation of the world, indicating a sacred and ancient heritage. We find Ethiopia mentioned as having relations with the ancient Biblical nations such as Israel, Egypt, Assyria, and Mesopotamia. Ethiopians get uplifting gratification in reading specific scriptural references from the Bible and applying them to the country. These Biblical allusions include discussion of the Queen of Sheba and her son, King Menelik the First, born from her relationship with King Solomon, who was himself the son of King David, the founder from whom came the lineal parentage of …

Russia’S Geopolitical Civilizational Narratives And Strategic Direction In The Contemporary Multipolar World Order, Sharyl Cross, Igor Okunev

Comparative Civilizations Review

This article sets forth the foundations for recent geopolitical civilizational narratives in Russia that are influencing Moscow’s contemporary foreign policy behavior and the future direction of the Russian “civilizational state” in the global multipolar world order. This article is not intended to provide justification for Russia’s foreign policy choices and actions, but rather the purpose is to explain Moscow’s official geopolitical narratives, and thus to provide a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the considerations informing Russia’s foreign policy behavior.

Vladimir Putin has been at the helm of leadership in Russia exerting unparalleled influence as President and Prime Minister since …

The Enlightenment In Early America, Annette Gordon-Reed

William & Mary Law Review

The founding of the United States of America is often said to have been the product of Enlightenment ideals that emphasized reason, individual liberty, and notions of progress. During this same era, however, racially based slavery, which confounded reason, denied individual liberty to millions, and challenged ideas about progress, existed in all of the colonies of North America.

The third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, embodied this seeming contradiction at the heart of the American founding. The principal author of the American Declaration of Independence enslaved hundreds of people over the course of his long life.

This Article …

Front Matter

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Christopher Dawson And The Challenges Of Interdisciplinary Studies, Joseph T. Stuart

Comparative Civilizations Review

The following interview was conducted by Ms. Bibi Pelic, the Director of Communications for the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations. The recording is available on the ISCSC YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so-hS2SdoZc

How Companies Heal And Maintain Health: A Unique Function Of Corporate Museums In Japan, Aki Kinjo

Comparative Civilizations Review

Capitalism is embedded in our civilization. Despite its faults, weaknesses, and sins, modern civilization cannot prosper without capitalism. Companies are the engine of capitalism. Yet, just like humans, companies make mistakes, sometimes gross. How do companies overcome unforgivable mistakes? This paper argues that corporate museums in Japan play an important role in helping companies heal from their sufferings, recover, and maintain organizational health.

I deploy a cultural approach to management, analyzing corporate museums as a platform for conveying explicit and hidden narratives. A cultural approach to Japanese management helps us understand why Japan has so many corporate museums, well …

How The State Replaces Civilization: The Japanese Exception, Robert Bedeski

Comparative Civilizations Review

By conceptualizing civilization and state as integrated systems consisting of interacting subsystems, their similarities and differences can be analyzed. The central hypothesis is that civilization consists of three material subsystems — economy, government, and knowledge — and one non-material subsystem, transcendence. When the transcendent subsystem is diminished or destroyed by decree or overwhelming rational and scientific evidence, the emergence of the state occurs as in the cases of the Mongol Empire, the Soviet Union, and communist China.

The apparent universality of this observation is countered by an examination of the Japanese civilization and state, where imperial transcendence dominated and reinforced …

The Rise Of China And The Concept Of Civilization: Constructing A Conceptual Apparatus For Cross-Civilizational Comparisons, Liah Greenfeld

Comparative Civilizations Review

The Rise of China and the Concept of Civilization: Constructing a Conceptual Apparatus for Cross-Civilizational Comparisons

The paper examines the deficiencies of the current understanding of “civilization” in the social science literature, among others exemplified by “civilizational analysis,” and proposes a new concept that adds to the conceptual apparatus of sociological theory — a new, fully independent of others, variant of the cultural process. This independence makes distinctions between civilizations as the root cause of socio-cultural diversity.

Combined with the idea of humanity as a culturally constituted reality sui generis, this concept allows the construction of the theoretical scaffolding …

Civilization, Civilizations, Civilizational State: Untangling Civilizational Discontents In International Relations Theory, Vlad Alalykin-Izvekov

Comparative Civilizations Review

Recently, a herd of terminological hybrids have trampled onto the field of International Relations Theory. These include civilizational state, civilization-state, state-civilization, civilizational nation-state, civilizational privilege, and geopolitical civilizational narrative. What do those notions tell us about global tendencies and trends today?

This paper explores the origin, evolution, and meaning of these terms; it also proposes solutions for problems of a nascent, multi-polar, and multi-civilizational world within the framework of an Integralistic Paradigm in IR Theory.

Books Of Interest Spring 2025, Stephen T. Satkiewicz

Comparative Civilizations Review

Books that may be of interest to scholars of the comparative study of civilizations and may add significantly to the body of scholarship in the civilizational field are highlighted in this new regular feature. These books are also available for book reviews in future editions of Comparative Civilizations Review. Any suggestions for books to be added to this list may be emailed to Book Review Editor Stephen T. Satkiewicz: [email protected].

The Germanic Legends Of The Gold Of The Rhine And Their Āryan Sources, Alexander Jacob

Comparative Civilizations Review

Medieval German legends regarding the gold of the Rhine have both a mythological source, as the gold of the Nibelung dwarf Andvari, and a historical Burgundian one, as a hoard possessed by the Burgundian princes. Here we point to more ancient sources of these legends, ones that are to be found in the cosmological myths and rituals of the Āryans.