Intellectual History Commons^™

Assur Is King Of Persia: Illustrations Of The Book Of Esther In Some Nineteenth-Century Sources, Steven W. Holloway

Libraries

The marriage of archaeological referencing and picture Bibles in the nineteenth century resulted in an astonishing variety of guises worn by the court of Ahasuerus in Esther. Following the exhibition of Neo-Assyrian sculpture in the British Museum and the wide circulation of such images in various John Murray publications, British illustrators like Henry Anelay defaulted to Assyrian models for kings and rulers in the Old Testament, including the principal actors in Esther, even though authentic Achaemenid Persian art had been available for illustrative pastiche for decades. This curious adoptive choice echoed British national pride in its splendid British Museum collection …

Invariance: A Tale Of Intellectual Migration, Steven Gimbel

Philosophy Faculty Publications

The plotline of the standard story told about the development of intellectual history at the end of the 19th/turn of the 20th century follows the move from absolutism to perspectivalism. The narrative takes us, on the one hand, from the scientism of late Enlightenment writers like Voltaire, Mill, D’Alebert, and Comte and the historical determinism of Hegel, all of which were based upon a universal picture of rationality, to, on the other hand, the relativistic physics of Einstein, the perspectival art of Picasso, and the individualism of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard leading to the phenomenology of Husserl and Heidegger to and …

Rousseau, The Anticosmopolitan?, Helena Rosenblatt

Publications and Research

Rousseau's repeated criticisms of the Enlightenment's ideal of cosmopolitanism has led to his thought being characterized as 'anticosmopolitan'. His work abounds in denunciations of the ideals of equality of treatment and universal rights supported by his contemporaries. Moreover, his liking of solitude, introspection and socialization in small circles and his preference for patriotism over equity among all men seem to set him up as the counterpoint of the universalism his contemporaries defended. However, a deeper insight into the work of the author of The Reveries of the Solitary Walker shows that, far from being incompatible with true cosmopolitanism, the moral …

Edwards On The Will: A Century Of American Theological Debate, Allen C. Guelzo

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Jonathan Edwards towered over his contemporaries--a man over six feet tall and a figure of theological stature--but the reasons for his power have been a matter of dispute. Edwards on the Will offers a persuasive explanation. In 1753, after seven years of personal trials, which included dismissal from his Northampton church, Edwards submitted a treatise, Freedom of the Will, to Boston publishers. Its impact on Puritan society was profound. He had refused to be trapped either by a new Arminian scheme that seemed to make God impotent or by a Hobbesian natural determinism that made morality an illusion. He …

The Concept Of The General Will In The Writings Of Rousseau, Sièyes, And Robespierre, Stephen Carruthers

Articles

This paper outlines the views on the General Will of Rousseau, as set out in The Social Contract, and compares them to the views developed by Sieyès in Qu'est-ce que le Tiers état? and by Robespierre, most notably in his speeches delivered during the ‘Reign of Terror’ from the establishment of the Committee of Public Safety on 6 April 1793 to his death on 28 July 1794

A. Lincoln, Philosopher: Lincoln’S Place In 19th-Century Intellectual History, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

The nineteenth century in Europe and America was an era of second thoughts. Those second thoughts were largely about the Enlightenment, which had been born in the mid-1600s as a scientific revolution and blossomed into the Age of Reason in the 1700s, when it seemed that no puzzle was beyond the grasp of scientific rationality. That blossom was snipped all too quickly by the French Revolution, which drowned rationality in human politics in a spray of Jacobin-terrorized blood, then by the revulsion of European art and music from the Enlightenment’s canons of balance and symmetry in favor of the Romantic …

Forging Literary History: Historical Fiction And Literary Forgery In Eighteenth-Century Britain, Anne H. Stevens

English Faculty Research

In this essay, I wish to explore a similar dialectic of historical positivism and skepticism in eighteenth-century Britain. Over the course of the century, but particularly in the second half, new and more scientific standards of historical investigation developed, with practitioners expressing a greater confidence about their ability to know the past. During these years, a series of monumental achievements in historiography appeared: David Hume’s History of England (1754–62), Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776), and William Robertson’s History of Scotland (1759), to name just three of the most celebrated. As part of this increased interest …

Evolutionism And Historical Particularism At The St. Petersburg Museum Of Anthropology And Ethnography, Sergei Kan

Dartmouth Scholarship

The paper describes the early 20th century debates between several leading Russian anthropologists, including Lev Shternberg, on the best way of displaying artifacts in the newly refurbished Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology in St. Petersburg. These debates revealed major tensions and contradictions between evolutionism and historical particularism, as well as universalism and nationalism within Russian anthropology of that era.

The Nobel Effect: Nobel Peace Prize Laureates As International Norm Entrepreneurs, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

For the first time in scholarly literature, this article traces the history of modern international law from the perspective of the constructivist theory of international relations. Constructivism is one of the leadings schools of thought in international relations today. This theory posits that state preferences emerge from social construction and that state interests are evolving rather than fixed. Constructivism further argues that international norms have a life cycle composed of three stages: norm emergence, norm acceptance (or norm cascades), and norm internalization. As such, constructivism treats international law as a dynamic process in which norm entrepreneurs interact with state actors …

Claudius Greer Clemmer, Doctor Of Humane Letters January 4, 1911-November 20, 2005., Sheila Breen Agen Pedersen Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While there are facts that are known about Claudius Greer Clemmer, there is much that is not known. By most accounts, he was a generous man who grew up during some of the hardest years of the Great Depression, worked to get an education, and had a successful teaching career. Clemmer worked diligently to do what he could to support himself and his family, working at two jobs. When his career track changed from teaching to business, in 1946, he experienced success in business and investments, sharing that wealth with East Tennessee State University and others. The intent of this …

Faulkner In The Fifties: The Making Of The Faulkner Canon, Roland K. Végső

Department of English: Faculty Publications

First three paragraphs:

As many commentators of the period noted, one of the most significant events of early post-war literary culture in the United States was William Faulkner’s sudden rise to international fame. The most extensive investigation of this dramatic revaluation of cultural status was carried out by Lawrence D. Schwartz in his Creating Faulkner’s Reputation: The Politics of Modern Literary Criticism. Schwartz examines in detail the cultural and political processes that led to Faulkner’s discovery in the 1940s after the primarily negative reception of his works in the 1930s by leftist critics. He argues that Faulkner’s entry into …

Matthew S. Weinert On Human Security And The Un: A Critical History By S. Neil Macfarlane And Yuen Foong Khong. Bloomington, In: Indiana University Press, 2006. 341pp., Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Human Security and the UN: A Critical History by S. Neil MacFarlane and Yuen Foong Khong. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2006. 341pp.

The Social Construction Of Authorship: An Investigation Of Subjectivity And Rhetorical Authority In The College Writing Classroom, Johannah Rodgers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although we use the term author on a daily basis to refer to certain individuals, bodies of work, and systems of ideas, as Michel Foucault and other critics have pointed out, attempting to answer the question “What is an Author?” is by no means a simple proposition. And, starting from the position that there is no single, or definitive answer to this complex question, this dissertation seeks to contribute to the ongoing discussion of the genealogy of authorship by investigating the ways in which conceptions of the author have informed models of the writing subject in the field of rhetoric …

Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections Oral History Collection, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Finding Aids

This collection consists of the transcripts, original cassette tape recordings of public speeches, lectures, and oral history interviews spanning from 1962-2007. Interviews were conducted and recorded by Georgia Southern University’s Department of History and Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections. Those interviewed are mostly locals to Bulloch County and neighboring counties. Interviewees discuss their personal and family lives, historical events they were a part of, and circumstances surrounding their successes. The public speeches and lectures originated from an assortment of sources.

Find this collection in the University Libraries' catalog.

Madame De Staël, The Protestant Reformation And The History Of ‘Private Judgement’, Helena Rosenblatt

Publications and Research

It is a well-known fact that Madame de Staël held the Protestant Reformation in high regard and preferred Protestantism to all other religions. To her, Protestantism was the most moral and the most enlightened religion available; it was the the religion most compatible with, and even conductive to, progress.

But why was this so, and what exactly did Madame de Staël mean by Protestantism? It is an important question, because answering it will shed light on the nature of her liberalism and, more particularly, on the interconnectedness of her religious and her political views.

Edward Said And The Study Of Music, Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

My first encounter with Edward Said’s work was in the 1980s with the book, Beginnings: Intention and Method (1975). I was exploring a semiotic approach to late 18^th-century music, specifically, a beginning-middle-ending paradigm (an Aristotelian paradigm) that seemed to me to capture the rhetorical intentions of Classic composers. Said’s wide-ranging reflections and ruminations on beginnings – as inaugural moments, as sites for the establishment of difference, as authorially privileged moments, and as "first steps in the intentional production of meaning" – proved inspiring. My enduring impression of him at the time was that he was a very good …

On The Intellectual Sources Of Laïcité: Rousseau, Constant, And The Debates About A National Religion, Helena Rosenblatt

Publications and Research

That French Protestants gave strong support to laïcité is by now well established. In recent work, Patrick Cabanel has even made a compelling case for the Protestant sources of laïcité, placing particular emphasis on the Protestant entourage of Jules Ferry (1832-1893) and stressing the inspiration provided by the pro-Protestant intellectual, Edgar Quinet (1803-1875.)

This article suggests that we look even earlier in time for the intellectual sources of laïcité. Seminal ideas can be found in the writings of two liberal Protestants, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and Benjamin Constant (1767-1830.) Rousseau is usually counted among the opponents, and not the …

To Waken Fond Memory: Moments In The History Of Gettysburg College, Anna Jane Moyer

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Between 1975 and 1989 Anna Jane Moyer produced a series of essays for the Gettysburg College alumni magazine capturing “moments” on campus and in the town of Gettysburg since 1832. Treating people, places, and notable events over the course of the College’s first 150 years, Moyer’s sketches reached an appreciative audience at the time. But with the Gettysburg College 175th anniversary approaching, it seemed appropriate to make her writing more readily available to alumni, friends of the College, students, and scholars.

The sketches now republished in To Waken Fond Memory remind readers that the culture of a liberal arts college …

0749: Nelson Slade Bond Collection, 1920-2006, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Nelson Slade Bond had a varied writing career that spanned 70 years. Primarily known for science fiction short stories, Bond also wrote plays, radio and television scripts, newspaper and magazine articles, poetry, public relations material, and books. The collection reflects the author's professional and personal lives consisting of writings, correspondence, business papers and financial records from 1925 to 2005. The collection was donated in four installments during and after Bond’s life from April 2006 to September 2007. The order in which the materials were received is maintained with only minor modifications. Input from Nelson Bond and his family members was …

Rousseau's Gift To Geneva, Helena Rosenblatt

Publications and Research

People often seem to forget that Rousseau dedicated his Second Discourse to “The Republic of Geneva.” This is a shame because, in doing so, they miss precious clues not only about the meaning of the Discourse itself, but also about its place in Rousseau’s political thought as a whole.

It is no accident that Rousseau dedicated the Discourse on Inequality, his most radical work of all, to his hometown of Geneva; but it requires some research into the historical context to understand why. In Geneva a patrician ruling elite was using social contract theory to subvert the democratic principles …

The Formative Influence Of French Colonialism On The Life And Thought Of Malek Bennabi (Malik Bn Nabi), Phillip Chiviges Naylor

History Faculty Research and Publications

Malek Bennabi (1905–73) fut un intellectuel algérien de premier rang. Cet article étudie l’effet du colonialisme sur sa vie et ses idées. L’étude considère ses livres et offre une comparaison entre Bennabi et Frantz Fanon. Bennabi montre qu’il n’était pas « colonisable » à cause de sa formation et sa conscience historique.

Surviving The Death Of God: Existentialism, God, And Man At Post-Wwii Yale, Robert Tice Lalka

Kaplan Senior Essay Prize for Use of Library Special Collections

“This is our world to build, adorn, or destroy, not God's or anyone else's.”

These were the words of Hugh McClean, a Yale student both before and after the Second World War. When the war ended, McClean and thousands of his peers returned from duty in Europe and the Pacific to complete their education at colleges across the United States. They saw the world differently than they had before; they certainly viewed the world differently than their parents and grandparents. They had heard leaders of the world’s warring nations invoke destiny to validate their warfare. Some of these teenagers had …

A Look At The Astrolabe, Emily Storrar

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors program.

Students' Choices And Experience During The Transition To Competitive Academic Achievement At Harvard Law School, 1876-1882, Bruce A. Kimball

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Translation: “Building A Platform For Academic Buddhist Studies: Murakami Senshō,” By Sueki Fumihiko., James Mark Shields, Fumihiko Sueki

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Otto Gründler: In Memoriam (1928-2004), Richard Utz

Medieval Institute Affiliated Faculty & Staff Publications

Eulogy on Director of the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University.

Freedom Of The Will, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

The exact nature of the human will is, like the nature of human consciousness, a question so subjective and so interior that no one is ever likely to arrive at a satisfactory judgment about how it functions or even what it is-which may be the best proof that philosophy is not a science, and the best evidence that those social sciences which try to measure, quantify, and control aspects of human consciousness are not sciences either. Still, there is no denying that we are aware of a power or an impulse within us which transJates thought into action, or at …

What Is Your Anthropology? What Are Your Ethics?, Robert H. Holden

History Faculty Publications

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

We tend to think of the great ridge that rose up inside the historical profession some three decades ago, splitting historians into two camps, as some kind of epistemological event. Ancient disagreements about the nature (and existence ) of truth suddenly became more extreme and divisive. Now, the biggest flags wave over the "relativists" on one side, and the "truth seekers" on the other. Smaller banners ("moderate historicists," "construetivists ," "positivists," etc.) fly here and there along the slopes of lower-lying ranges on each side of the …

Two Liberals On Religion: Constant And Tocqueville Compared, Helena Rosenblatt

Publications and Research

As founding fathers of modern liberalism, Benjamin Constant and Alexis de Tocqueville shared a common sensibility as well as a number of key concerns. Of central importance to both men was the need to protect individual rights and freedoms against what they saw as an encroaching social power. Having learned the lessons of the French Revolution, they knew that power, whether concentrated in the hands of one man, or executed in the name of the "people", was a dangerous thing. Thus they worked throughout their lives to establish and defend a representative system with constitutional guarantees that would protect fundamental …

A Brief Note On The Authorship Of The First Flora Virginica: Clayton, Gronovius, And Linnaeus, Joan K. Stemmler

Virginia Journal of Science

A modern Flora of Virginia will soon be published, providing an occasion to remember the publication of the first Flora Virginica in the 18th century and to establish the proper attribution of its authorship. Based on a manuscript by John Clayton, Flora Virginica was published in two parts in 1739 and 1743 by the Dutchman Johan Frederick Gronovius. Although both names are printed on the title page, the book is often cited with Gronovius listed as the author. This tradition, interpreted in modern understandings of plagiarism, has led to an assertion that Gronovius misrepresented Clayton's work as his own. This …