European History Commons^™

Defying De-Stalinization: Albania’S 1956, Elidor Mehilli

Publications and Research

Drawing on recently declassified Albanian, Soviet, East German, and Western archival sources, as well as a rich historiography on Nikita Khrushchev's secret speech and the Hungarian revolution of 1956, this article investigates the little-known events of 1956 in Albania. Rejecting de-Stalinization, the Albanian Communist leader Enver Hoxha was able to vindicate his position against Yugoslavia's brand of socialism abroad, fortify his rule at home, and claim more aid from Moscow, Beijing, and the Soviet bloc. This article discusses the Tirana Party Conference of April 1956, treating the Albanian Party of Labor (the Communist party) as an “information society.” The article …

Viking Age Arms And Armor Originating In The Frankish Kingdom, Valerie Dawn Hampton

The Hilltop Review

The export of Carolingian arms and armor to Northern regions outside the Frankish Empire from the 9th and early 10th century is a subject which has seen a gradual increase of interest among archaeologists and historians alike. Recent research has shown that the Vikings of this period bore Frankish arms, particularly swords, received either through trade or by spolia that is plunder.1 In the examination of material remains, illustrations, and capitularies, the reason why Carolingian arms and armor were prized amongst the Viking nations can be ascertained and evidence found as to how the Vikings came to possess such valued …

Burgundian/Habsburg Mint Policies And World Bullion Flows: A Monetary Interpretation Of The Rise And Fall Of Antwerp, 1400-1600, Shawn Adrian

The Hilltop Review

During the first half of the sixteenth century, the city of Antwerp (located in present-day Belgium about thirty miles north of Brussels) was one of the most significant entrepôts of the nascent modern world economy. A transcontinental clearinghouse, Antwerp served as a center for the redistribution of commodities from the Baltic and Mediterranean regions of Europe as well as from Africa, Asia, and the New World, and, as such, was the nexus of a trade network that encompassed the entire globe. Yet Antwerp’s position at the heart of the world economy was ephemeral; its economic power lasted scarcely more than …

The Invention Of Modern State Terrorism During The French Revolution, Guillaume Ansart

Re-visioning Terrorism

This essay discusses three aspects of the Terror (September 1793–July 1794): (1) The Institutions of the Terror: The Committee of General Security, the Committee of Public Safety, and the Revolutionary Tribunal; (2) the Theory of Terror: The unity and indivisibility of the people, the category of enemy of the people, and the concept of Revolution as a state of war against aristocratic/foreign conspiracies; (3) the Language of Terror: The Terror is also a performative language, a language which embodies terror by aiming to silence all debate. In this sense, the language of Terror is Terror itself.

Vigilance, Vigilantism, And The Role Of The Citizen In Combating German Terror, 1967-1977, Todd Michael Goehle

Re-visioning Terrorism

By closely analyzing the Charles Bronson vehicle Death Wish -released to German speaking audiences as Ein Mann sieht rot- and the controversies that surrounded its West German debut in November 1974, the essay addresses broader debates about vigilance, Selbstjustiz (vigilante justice), and citizenship during the “Red Years” (1967-1977). Conceptualizing Selbstjustiz as a discursive site, I reveal how Ein Mann sieht rot’s representations of Selbstjustiz negotiated broader German anxieties about Americanization, masculinity, urban crime, the fascist past, state power, media effects and sensationalism, constructions of the citizen and the criminalized or terrorist “other,” and the responsibilities of the citizen in …

Review Of The Book Fifty Key Thinkers On The Holocaust And Genocide, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book Fifty key thinkers on the Holocaust and genocide.

From Citoyenne To Amazon: The Evolution Of Women’S Political Self-Identity During The French Revolution, 1789 – 1793, Jacob Cassens

Psi Sigma Siren

French women were already presenting concerns and ideas into the charged atmosphere during the summoning of the Estates General before the Revolution of 1789 began. This meeting of members from all classes of French society was elected to present the citizens’ concerns to King Louis XVI. From their petition to the king on January 1, 1789 to the laws prohibiting women from gathering in clubs in 1793, women made themselves heard by many means, yet there was never any one particular group or movement which encompassed the entirety of the female population of France. Women’s involvement varied from impassioned pleas …

'My Happiness Overturned': Mourning, Memory And A Woman's Writing, Rachel Greenblatt

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

In the late seventeenth century, Beila Perlhefter mourned her seven children in the introduction she wrote to a Yiddish ethical work written (at her urging, she tells her readers) by her husband, Ber. While the autobiographical information provided in the introduction is sparse indeed, it shares certain generic characteristics with other self-writing by early modern Jews from Prague, including Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller's "Megillat eivah." At the same time, each voice is a different voice, all the more so the rare instance of a woman's voice, and this short piece defies easy categorization.

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Sefer …

Personal Life In The Context Of Personal Death, Avri Bar-Levav

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

In his ethical will, R. Naphtali Ha-Kohen Katz (1650? - 1719), a central rabbinic figure in his time, gives specific instructions for death rituals that he wants, and also addresses his family in warm words, while mentioning meaningful events of his past. The presentation will analyze this personal voice of the beginning of the 18th century.

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• The Ethical Will of R. Naphtali Ha-Kohen Katz

Introduction To Megillat Sefer By Rabbi Jacob Emden, Jacob J. Schecter

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

Among Jacob Emden’s many works is Megillat Sefer, one of the most unusual, open, revealing, and unself-conscious egodocuments in Jewish and even general history. Written between 1752 and 1766, this work existed only in manuscript form for one hundred and thirty years, first in Emden’s hand and then in the hand of someone who copied the original. Emden’s handwritten version is no longer extant and only the copy exists. The work was first published in Warsaw, 1896 by David Kahane. In 1979 it was printed again in Jerusalem by Abraham Bick-Shauli who claimed that he was correcting mistakes in the …

Generational Conflict In Converso Families, 1492-1550, Sara Nalle

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The egodocuments presented to the seminar are Inquisitorial confessions of second-generation "nuevos convertidos" who in one way or another were caught between their parents' desire to maintain contact with Judaism and their own alleged desire to assimilate as Spanish Catholics.

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Trial of Francisco Martínez, apothocary, resident of Deza (1533)
• Trial of Gaspar de San Clemente (1541)

Autobiographical Accounts For A Non-Jewish Friend: Joseph Attias' Letters To L.A. Muratori, Francesca Bregoli

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The Livornese Jewish scholar Joseph Attias (1672-1739) is known for his contributions to eighteenth-century Tuscan culture as a book collector and mediator. Attias sent two autobiographical letters to a beloved correspondent, renowned Modenese historian Ludovico Antonio Muratori, in 1724 and 1733. This presentation will analyze the documents as self-conscious life narratives and examples of early Enlightenment self-fashioning that shed light on the strategies employed by a Jewish member of the Republic of Letters to present his formative years, his training, and his achievements to one of the most esteemed representatives of eighteenth-century Italian culture.

This presentation is for the following …

The Travel Diaries Of Hayim Joseph David Azulai, Yaacob Dweck

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

This presentation examines the travel diaries of Hayim Joseph David Azualai, an emissary of the Jews of the Palestine in the third quarter of the eighteenth century. In particular it addresses the question of the place of reading and books in his diaries and compare Azulai's experience of books and reading to two of his contemporaries Hayim Isaac Karigal and Israel Landau.

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Hayim Joseph David Azulai's Ma'agal Tov (The Good Journey, 1770s)

Descend To The Abyss: Jacob Frank's Going To Poland, Pawel Maciejko

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

This presentation examines several autobiographical fragments of the most important Frankist document, The Words of the Lord. It focuses on the motif of recurrent divine calls to 'go to Poland' and, ultimately, the justification of Frank's conversion to Christianity.

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• The Collection of the Words of the Lord spoken in Bruenn

Mining An Unusual Ego Text (Or Two), Gershon D. Hundert

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The texts presented here are excerpted from a 329-page-manuscript Divrei Binah in cursive Hebrew entitled Divre binah. The book was completed in 1800 but never published. It is devoted mostly to the Sabbatian and Frankist phenomena; the genre to which the text belongs is open to discussion. Its author is Dov Ber Brezer or Birkenthal of Bolechów (1723-1805) in western Galicia.

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Divrei Bina (Understanding Words) by Dov Ber Brezer (Birkenthal) of Bolechów

Emw 2011: Egodocuments: Revelation Of The Self In The Early Modern Period, Emw 2011

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The Early Modern Workshop in 2011, “Egodocuments: Revelation of the Self in the Early Modern Period,” seeks to examine how individuals in the early modern period wrote and thought about themselves. The workshop participants explore texts ranging from the obvious autobiographical texts to less obvious, such as ethical wills, Inquisition-prompted accounts of self, family diaries of births and deaths, travelogues, and others. Questions raised deal with issues of self-representation, reading, relationship with the divine, gender differences in self-representation, and motivations to write autobiographical accounts.

Thieves Apostates And Bloody Viragos: Female Irish Catholic Rebels In The Irish Rebellion Of 1641., Edwin Marshall Galloway

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the roles played by Irish Catholic women in the Irish Rebellion of 1641. The primary goal is to examine the factors that determined the nature of those roles. To achieve this end, I used the information contained in the 1641 depositions, a collection of sworn statements given by the victims of the rebellion. The depositions are valuable in two ways. First, eyewitness testimony contained therein is generally reliable, and can be used to construct an accurate narrative of the rebellion. Second, less reliable hearsay evidence is crucial to understanding the fears of …

Fifty More Years? Reform And Modernisation Of The Oecd, Richard Woodward

Articles

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is a vital, if frequently unnoticed, cog in the machine of global governance. On the organisation's 50th anniversary, Richard Woodward assesses whether the OECD's reform programme can secure its future in a changing world.

Félix Éboué: The Second Resister, Andrew Skabelund

Student Works

On July 14, 1944, The New York Times reported that French citizens in New York were celebrating both the liberation of Normandy and Bastille Day. The French consul general in New York, Guerin de Beaumont, expressed gratitude for what he called the first time since the beginning of World War II that the French were able to celebrate the holiday in recently freed Normandy without interference. He expressed the hope that "perhaps in another year all of France will be able to celebrate the day so..."

With Our Backs To The Wall' : Entente Grand Strategy In 1918, Saxton Sain Wyeth

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Facing a military defeat in the face of the 1918 German offensive on the Western Front, the armies of the Entente reorganized under a Supreme Commander. This shift to coordinated grand strategy in conjunction with Allied strategic disunity enabled the Entente to destroy the armies of the Quadruple Alliance on the battlefield and bring the Great War to a conclusion on November 11th, 1918.

Royal Pomp: Viceregal Celebrations And Hospitaity In Georgian Dublin, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire, Tara Kellaghan

Articles

During the successive reigns of the Hanoverian kings in England (1714-1830), a total of thirty-seven different viceroys were sent to Ireland as representatives of the British Crown (Table 1). The position of viceroy (also referred to as lord-lieutenant) was awarded as a matter of political exigency, but the viceroy’s role was one of social as much as political significance. The viceroy and his vicereine played the roles of the British monarchs in absentia, and the Protestant minority ruling class, often referred to as the Ascendancy, expected the viceregal court at Dublin Castle to not merely mirror, but to outshine that …

The Penumbra Of Weimar Political Culture: Pacifism, Feminism, And Social Democracy, Shelley Rose

History Faculty Publications

This article offers a new reading of Germany’s complex political culture, exploring the contributions of pacifists, international feminists, and Social Democrats as proactive, yet marginalized, participants in Weimar-era politics. Through a series of historical events including the No-More-War protests, international education courses, pacifist reading sessions, and a transnational peace exhibit, the author demonstrates dynamic exchanges between party and informal politics on the political Left. This interaction, as well as expanding transnational networks and awareness, opened new political spaces for peace activism in the Weimar Republic, the effects of which still endure today.

Heidi And Seek: Cases Of Espionage And Covert Operations In Switzerland, 1795-1995, Brian Champion

Swiss American Historical Society Review

When, exactly, Switzerland became a hub for intelligence gathering

and covert operations has been lost to the mists of time. Despite centuries

of implicit and declared transnational neutrality, Switzerland, by the

cruel ironies of geographic fate, couldn't help being at the confluence of

the intelligence realpolitik in Europe and, later, in the world. This article

seeks to illustrate through selected examples--from the early nineteenth

to the twentieth centuries--facets of the history of the foreign use of

Switzerland and the Swiss neutrality ideal in the tectonic power politics

of international intrigue. Spying and associated covert operations

in Switzerland-then as now-are illegal, …

End Matter

Swiss American Historical Society Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Swiss American Historical Society Review

No abstract provided.

Back Cover

Swiss American Historical Society Review

No abstract provided.

"Videbantur Gens Effera": Defining And Perceiving Peoples In The Chronicles Of Norman Italy, Jesse Hysell

Masters Theses

The goal of this project is to analyze the ways different cultural groups in Sicily and southern Italy were depicted in a set of historical texts associated with the Norman takeover of those regions in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. To achieve that aim, I consider social vocabulary applied to three distinct peoples (native Italians, Greeks, and Muslims) in five sources written by Amatus of Montecassino, Geoffrey Malaterra, William of Apulia, Alexander of Telese, and Hugo Falcandus. Although recent scholarship has posited that medieval identity was often felt through a "self versus other" or "Christian versus non-Christian" dichotomy, I have …

Nutrition And Stature: The Residents Of The Island Of Gotland, Sweden Killed In The Battle Of Wisby, 1361, Michelle A. Miller

Masters Theses

This research examines stature in order to assess the socio-economic status of Gotland, an island (and municipality) off the coast of Sweden, before the 1360's. Gotland was known as a wealthy and autonomous peasant republic although it was loosely ruled by the Swedish Crown. In 1361, the Danish Army laid siege on the seaport city of Wisby to obtain its riches. Three days after the battle, the approximately 1800 dead Gotlanders were tossed haphazardly into five common graves. Archaeological excavations took place from 1905-1930 by Bendt Thordeman, among others. The human remains were analyzed in 1937. Osteological analysis in the …

The Cultural Significance Of Precious Stones In Early Modern England, Cassandra Auble

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Sixteenth and seventeenth century sources reveal that precious stones served a number of important functions in Elizabethan and early Stuart society.  The beauty and rarity of certain precious stones made them ideal additions to fashion and dress of the day.  These stones also served political purposes when flaunted as examples of a country’s wealth, bestowed as favors, or even worn as a show of royal support.  Lapidaries and medical texts advised readers to use stones in myriad ways ranging from the subtle and common, to the bizarre and mystical.

Stones and gems are excellent tools for studying diverse aspects of …

Considering Swiss Neutrality In World War One: Ideas, Successes, And Failures, Brian Wages

Swiss American Historical Society Review

At first glance, the Fifteenth Century Swiss ascetic Niklaus von Flue

and George Washington have only their distinguished military service

in common. Yet they share something far more important to contemporary

citizens of the United States and Switzerland. They were early

proponents of their respective nations' views on neutrality and vocal

advocates of avoiding foreign influences, alliances, and payments. For

international observers, Swiss neutrality is a universal constant and the

nation is quickly approaching two hundred years of uninterrupted neutrality.