History News

I'm moving on, so this is my last post at GSU History News. Thanks to everyone for reading! I'll still be blogging, so if you liked what you read here, you'll find more of it at History News.

Jared Poley. Decolonization in Germany: Weimar Narratives of Colonial Loss and Foreign Occupation. Bern: Peter Lang Publishers, 2005. 281 pp. Notes, bibliography, index. $54.95 (paper), ISBN 3-03910-283-4.  Available in the University Library General Collection (call number: PT405 .P574 2005).

Reviewed for H-German by Robbie Aitken, School of Cultures, Languages, and Area Studies, University of Liverpool.

In this original and thought-provoking work (a published version of his doctoral thesis), Jared Poley investigates the impact of German colonial loss upon German culture, in particular upon metropolitan society. Poley's work owes a degree of debt to the theoretical framework provided by Kristin Ross's Fast Cars, Clean Bodies: Decolonization and the Reordering of French Culture (1996), which considers the reshaping of French culture in the period immediately before and after Algerian independence. Much like Ross, Poley works from the assumption that the severing of the relationship between colony and metropole had an important impact upon the latter. Following the Versailles settlement, Germany became the first European power to experience decolonization--in a world still dominated by colonialism. This transformation took place against a backdrop of military defeat, political collapse and foreign occupation. In particular, Poley (again, like Ross) argues that the abrupt ending of this relationship affected the way that citizens of the former colonial power viewed the world. New circumstances forced a reconsideration of numerous issues such as race, gender and power structures on behalf of metropolitan society. In examining the historical legacies of imperialism in the Weimar Republic, Poley sets about to trace the German postcolonial imagination. It is revealed to have been dominated by conceptual categories established by imperialism and full of complex, inverted and threatening images such as the African imperialist and the colonized German or the whipped German and men who had become women.

[read the rest of the review at H-Net Reviews]

[This is a great opportunity for anyone doing French studies.  A former colleague did this and very much enjoyed his time there - for one thing, the Center is located in a beautiful spot.]

The Camargo Foundation
Call for Applications

The Camargo Foundation, located in Cassis, France, is a residential center for scholars pursuing studies in the humanities and social sciences related to French and francophone cultures as well as for composers, writers, and visual artists (painters, sculptors, photographers, filmmakers, video artists, and new media artists) pursuing creative projects.  Residencies are one semester (either early-September to mid-December or mid-January to the end of May) and are accompanied by a stipend of $3,500.  The Foundation's campus includes thirteen furnished apartments, a reference library, and three art/music studios.

Applicants from all countries are welcome to apply. The application deadline is January 12 for either semester of the following academic year.

For more information and to apply, please consult our website at www.camargofoundation.org or write to apply@camargofoundation.org.

"Without forcing a 19th-century figure into 21st-century disputes, Mr Brogan brings out two related ways in which Tocqueville remains part of the argument. One is his insight that despotism has no dates, but can be ancient or modern, monarchical or democratic. The other is a conviction, shared with the ancient Greeks and Machiavelli, that good citizens matter more to free societies than good institutions. Tocquevillian liberals believe that governments should encourage better citizenship. Economics liberals distrust fiddling with markets, however worthy the goal. It is unsure if the two can be more than tactical allies. Before either side says another word about Tocqueville, though, they should both read Mr Brogan. - "It took a Frenchman," The Economist (Nov 23rd 2006).

[link from Ralph Luker at Cliopatria]

The fall issue of World History Connected, "Teaching Religion in World History," is now online:  http://www.worldhistoryconnected.org 

Here's the editor's blurb: "Several of the essays featured in this issue address special problems and issues of teaching about religion in the world history classroom. Other essays and columns address specific religions and ways discussion about them might be incorporated in the world historical classroom. Indeed articles about Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism, Sufism, Shintoism and even syncretism (which is not a religion but a blend of religions) are featured in this issue. In addition, for those wishing to explore the world beyond religions in this issue, we have showcased a variety of columns, reviews, and a follow-up debate about the "rise of the West" here as well."

The Columbia University Library has rolled out an exciting new digital resource: The Papers of John Jay.   Here's an excerpt of their description:

The Papers of John Jay is an image database and indexing tool comprising some 13,000 documents (more than 30,000 page images) scanned chiefly from photocopies of the originals.  Most of the source material was assembled by Columbia University's John Jay publication project staff during the 1960s and 1970s under the direction of the late Professor Richard B. Morris.  These photocopies were originally intended to be used as source texts for documents to be included in a planned four-volume letterpress series entitled The Selected Unpublished Papers of John Jay.

There's a good amount of background material (including a biographical essay) to help provide historical context for the documents.  Well worth visiting.

The Harvard University Gazette has an article about the ongoing digitization of the papers of John Adams:  Historical society, HU Press join forces to digitize Adams papers.  It's a bit boosterish, but worth reading to get a sense of what goes into digitizing historical collections.

[link from the Harvard University Press Publicity Blog]

The current issue of History and Theory is a theme issue (GSU access and the table of contents in Ingenta) devoted to history and religion.  An excerpt from the introduction:

Perhaps the boldest argument advanced in this Theme Issue is that history and religion are so close in their cultural functions that they may be substituted, one replacing the other as the most authentic form of reconciling human beings to their freedom and their limitations. Another claim, not as different as it might at first seem, is that history works against religion, as its other and opposite, but that this is not as it should be. The opposition is an artifact of modernity. Indeed, throughout these papers the theme develops that modernity is the obstacle or prejudice that stands not just between historians and the people of the past, but also between historians and many religious people today. These are among the latest insights in a very long line of deep reflection about the link between history and religion, two monsters among concepts, having many shifting meanings between them and sharing one of the oldest and most complex semantic interactions.

The latest issue of the Journal of World History (GSU off-campus access) features articles about the possibilities of studying littoral societies, giraffes as an engine for European expansion, the science of spices in the early modern Spanish empire, and the rise and fall of Dutch Taiwan.

Neal Ascherson reviews Beim Häuten der Zwiebel by Günter Grass for the current issue of the Times Literary Supplement.  An excerpt:

A great deal of the abuse heaped on Grass in the last few months has come from old enemies and rivals. Those, especially on the nationalist right, who had writhed under his satire and resented what they saw as his systematic undermining of German self-confidence, were enchanted. What a downfall to relish! He, too, the mighty novelist accepted by the outside world as Germany’s political conscience, had hidden his past. But there are many more Germans who had used those early novels – The Tin Drum, Cat and Mouse, Dog Years – to form their own idea of their nation and its curse of amnesia. And they are hurt, as if Grass had let them down. He could have told the truth about those months, they lament, and nobody would have thought much the worse of him. In fact, to admit that he had been in the Waffen SS, however briefly, might have given even more resilience to his fiction and to his politics. What held him back, until it was too late?

[from H-Net Announcements:]

The American Association for History and Computing (AAHC)
2007 Annual Conference
In association with the Brown University Public Humanities Program

Providence, RI
April 19-21, 2007

Join the American Association for History and Computing and Brown University’s Public Humanities Program for an innovative look at how technology is allowing for a shared public dialogue between historians and a broad public audience. This conference will be of interest to anyone who is charged with bringing history to a general audience, including museum professionals, archivists, librarians, historic preservationists, filmmakers, as well as academic historians. The conference will explore:

• The role of technology in breaking down the barriers between historians and the larger public
• Ways that historians have used digital technology to communicate with diverse public audiences
• Ways in which the practice of "academic history" is altered when made public
• The "wikipedia-ization" of history
• New forms of collaboration between historians, archivists, librarians, historic preservationists, teachers and students
• New forms of display and historical representation

If you are an historian (academic, public, secondary education, graduate student) or engage history through a related discipline (librarian, archivist, publisher, editor, etc.), you are invited to submit your panel or single presentation proposals.

All presenters must be current members of the AAHC. For more information about membership, please visit our website http://theaahc.org

Proposals for complete panels should include a chair. All proposals must include a 200-word abstract for each paper, along with a brief vita for each participant. Please be sure to indicate which member of the panel will serve as the contact person for future correspondence. Please include name, address, telephone number, and email address for each participant.

Deadline for Proposal Submissions: January 31, 2007. Electronic submissions are encouraged.

Please direct submissions and inquiries to either:

Aaron Marcavitch
President, AAHC
Phone: 508-325-6231
Email: aahc-providence@yahoo.com

or

Sue Collins
Secretary, AAHC
Senior Librarian
Hunt Library
4904 Frew Street
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
Phone: 412-268-5019
Fax: 412-268-7148
Email: sc24@andrew.cmu.edu

[from H-Net Announcements]

The Labor and Working Class History Association
and Southern Labor Studies present

Working Class Activism in the South and the Nation:
Contemporary Challenges in Historical Context
May 17, 18, 19th 2007, at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Join us for an innovative dialogue on current issues facing the working class and their allies. This conference will bring together scholars, students, social justice and union activists, policy makers and rank-and-file workers to explore the connections between contemporary challenges facing the working class and their historical context. This gathering aims to enhance personal and organizational ties between those engaged in ongoing workplace and community organizing efforts and students and scholars whose work documents the long history of activism in the United States.

The key thematic areas for the conference will be:

• The New Working Class: Public Sector and Service Workers
• Farm Labor & Immigration
• Organizing Outside the Workplace
• Environmental Justice
• Intellectuals’ Role in Labor Struggles

Five plenary sessions featuring round-table discussions among an academic, an activist, a policy maker and a rank-and-file worker, will each address one of the conference themes. Panels, documentary presentations, and cultural programs will further explore the issues raised in the plenary sessions.

The LAWCHA/Southern Labor Studies Program Committee invites submissions of paper and panel proposals broadly related to the conference theme and plenary topics. The Committee prefers proposals of complete panels, but will accept single paper proposals.

LAWCHA encourages proposals that are interdisciplinary in nature, include public historians and activists as well as academics, take creative approaches, and that will speak meaningfully to those both inside and outside the academy.

Proposals for sessions should include: a one-page summary of the session as a whole; a one-page abstract of each paper; a brief curriculum vitae of each participant.

Please be sure to include contact information for each participant including name, title, institution or affiliation (please indicate if independent), mailing address, contact phone number and e-mail address.

Submissions are due December 15th; decisions will be announced by January 15.

Please address proposals and papers to:
Max Krochmal, Executive Secretary
Labor and Working Class History Association
Box 90239
Sanford Institute of Public Policy
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708
(919) 613-7399
lawcha@duke.edu

The current issue of Early American Studies contains a number of articles about Women's Economies in North America before 1820 (for GSU off-campus access).

Victorian flower power, Sweden's Atlantic moment, the strange career of Labor Day, and a practicing Mormon's reflections on faith, biography, and the life of the prophet Joseph Smith—find all this and much more, including a new and improved "Coffee Shop," in the new issue of Common-place, the interactive journal of early American life, www.common-place.org.

For the first time in over a decade, PBS is broadcasting the landmark documentary series Eyes on the Prize. PBS will be airing the first three parts of the series (up through 1965) on Oct. 2, 9, and 16th at 9pm. There is no indication that PBS will be airing the rest of the series.

Some may remember the copyright troubles in 2004 that meant that broadcasting "Eyes on the Prize" was no longer legal; last summer, the Ford Foundation and others came up with a pile of money to resolve the copyright issues and ensure that the documentary could be purchased and watched again. Indeed, PBS has the 20th Anniversary DVD set for sale on their website. Libraries should make sure that they run out and get copies to replace their VHS tapes that are worn out from use.

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES VISITING FELLOWSHIPS, 2007-2008, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON

King's College London is pleased to invite applications for three short-term visiting fellowships to promote scholarly use of its Special Collections and Archives.

The fellowships will be worth up to £2,000 each and are intended to meet the cost of travel to and accommodation in London during the tenure of the fellowship, which will normally be of one month.

The closing date for applications is 12 January 2007. Awards will be made by 2 March 2007 and must be taken up by 1 March 2008.

Applicants' project proposals should address the specific strengths of the Special Collections and Archives at King's College London, and in the current round preference will be given to proposals in the fields of: travel and discovery; the history of science; the history of medicine; English and American literature; Hellenic studies; aspects of the First and Second World Wars.

Further details of the fellowship scheme and the application procedure are available at:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/iss/library/speccoll/news.html#nae

King's College London is one of the oldest and largest colleges of the University of London. It is now a multi-faculty institution with some 19,000 students, occupying a leading position in higher education in the United Kingdom and enjoying a world-wide reputation for teaching and research.

Nathanael Robinson was kind enough to post links to German-language historical newspapers; I'll reproduce much of it here for local benefit.

• ANNO - The Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (Austrian National Library) has an ongoing project to make a number of Austrian newspapers available online.  Most of what has been digitized to this point roughly covers the period from 1870-1920; the notable exception to this is the Wiener Zeitung which currently is available from 1807-1935 (plus 1780-1781).  You can also browse by year to see all of the newspapers digitized for that year.
• Zeitschriften der Aufklärung - Search or browse German newspapers from the Enlightenment.
• Compact Memory - German Jewish newspapers covering the period from 1806 to 1938.
• Exilpresse digital - Newspapers of the German exile community around the world, 1933-1945.

Also, keep in mind these (non-German) sources for online newspapers:

• GALLICA Liste des périodiques - Provides access to newspapers and other periodicals (scholarly journals & magazines) primarily from the nineteenth century.  Not everything that they've digitized is in French.
• Penny Illustrated Paper - Complete run from 1861-1913; fully searchable.
• British Library Online Newspaper Archive - Still ongoing with variable coverage.  Contains some issues of The Daily News, News of the World,  Penny Illustrated, Manchester Guardian, Weekly Dispatch.

The current (September 2006) issue of the Journal of Modern History has two review articles of interest (links are to PDFs; if off-campus, go through our SFX system to activate access):

• Andrew Sartori, "The British Empire and Its Liberal Mission"
• Neil Gregor, "Politics, Culture, Political Culture: Recent Work on the Third Reich and Its Aftermath"

The Internet Archive Moving Image Archive has a bunch of 1950s films that focus on consumer goods and the miracles of modern technology.  These Populuxe films are part of the Prelinger Archives.  There are a number of interesting historical films available in the Moving Image Archive, so be sure to check it out.

[links from BoingBoing]