The European miracle. Environment,economies and geopolitics in the history of Europe and Asia

This article analyses the 1936 “Wotan” essay by Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung in light of one of its reigning motifs, Ergriffenheit. First, this term is examined within the works of Protestant theologian Rudolf Otto and Indologist Jakob Wilhelm Hauer, who used it to describe what they claimed to be the original religious experience, a state of being deeply stirred or even seized by the “the holy” or by “the ultimate reality.” The article then examines antecedents in Jung's theory of states of psychic seizure, in which two halves of the psyche come into conflict, the resolution of which leads to an increased capacity to create the arts of culture. The analysis then moves to the “Wotan” essay itself, where Jung brings together his own theory of psychic seizure with the theory of the original religious experience as proposed by the above-named scholars of religion in order to suggest that, under National Socialism, the Germans were in the midst of a collective confrontation with their own inner divinity, which should lead to a national spiritual rebirth. The article then investigates the works of several of the men Jung mentions in the essay, as well as his use of ancient Germanic mythology, to support his claim. Through his portrait of the Germanic archetype Wotan, Jung psychologizes and thereby essentializes the Romantic image of the Germans as “a people of poets and philosophers” as well as that of a Nietzschean “master-race.” In conclusion, the article argues that, at least in 1936, Jung's attitude towards Hitler and National Socialism was much more favorable than has previously been recognized.     

The hanging of William Cragh: anatomy of a miracle

This paper is a case study of a miracle story, the hanging and resuscitation of William Cragh. It studies the metamorphosis from a historical event to a miracle story. The miracle itself, on the first impression, seems to be relatively insignificant. Most of the persons involved are unknown from other sources, and the story was rejected in the final phase of canonisation. It is the very weakness of the story that makes it important. The testimonies of the witnesses are often contradictory and there are obvious deviations from the truth.Why were the witnesses economical with the truth? Some stood to gain, some simply did not remember correctly, some wanted to emphasise their own role, and some wanted to meet the expectations of the papal commission. There is, however, no evidence that the witnesses would have been manipulated by the proctors of the Hereford chapter which stood to gain from the canonisation. It is also evident that the papal commission was not satisfied with merely having the witnesses' statements written down. The commissioners did everything possible to produce an objective and informative file of each miracle for the use of the pope and cardinals.     

美国在亚洲的石油扩张（1860——1960）

美国利用石油工业创始国之优势,全方位地向亚洲推销石油产品、决定油价,于19世纪后期取得了在亚洲市场独占鳌头的地位。缺乏石油资源的英荷等国则乘机控制了亚洲的主要油源,竭力阻止美国染指。从20世纪20年代初始,美国利用“门户开放”政策,一一敲开了紧闭的亚洲油源之门,与英荷等共享之。美国在亚洲的石油扩张,大大提高了作为重要石油资源和市场的亚洲在美国经济和美国全球战略中的地位,使美英等国的石油利益达到一致,导致了伊斯兰世界与美英之间激烈的利益冲突,引起列强对世界油源的激烈争夺,也是20世纪60年代世界资本主义经济繁荣的一个原因。     

The Left(s) and Nationalism(s) in contemporary Western Europe

This article introduces our themed section on The Left(s) and Nationalism(s), which provides a comparative analysis of the relationship between nationalism and different left-wing parties in Western Europe. It highlights the innovative comparative perspectives offered by this themed section, which not only concerns a series of different geographical cases studies but also involves the ideological plurality of the Left. The larger research question that our contributors address is how different left-wing parties have dealt with the inherent ideological tension between the universality claimed by the Left and the particularism inherent in nationalism, as a doctrine and a principle of political legitimacy. The article stresses three main contributions of our themed section: (1) Western European left-wing parties do engage with the themes of nationalism and nationhood, but they often rely on convenient silence to solve some of the contradictions with their progressive ideology. (2) None of these parties have formulated thick versions of the respective national identities. (3) State-wide left-wing parties have used instrumental conceptions of nationhood to address the challenge of separatist parties, but only with mixed results.     

The whistleblower and the canary: rhetorical constructions of climate change

This paper is concerned with the historical dimension of the current debates on climate change, and argues that the history of the understanding of climate change has itself become part of the rhetorical account. Key historic moments of disclosure and revelation have become central to the ways in which climate change is presented as a persuasive narrative today. This paper takes a discursive approach to exploring the background of these signal moments in climate change history, and aims to show how they have helped to shape the terms of the current debate.     

Malaysian Electronics: The Changing Prospects for Employment and Restructuring

The electronics industry in Malaysia was assigned a central role in creating urban jobs for the indigenous Malays and restructuring their employment from low- to high-paying activities. The initial labour-intensive phase generated jobs but failed to provide openings for Malays higher up in the occupational hierarchy. In the current phase, a buoyant economy makes job creation per se less important; but the growing technological sophistication in the industry threatens to undermine the restructuring of Malay employment because many Malays lack the critical skills necessary to take advantage of this development. This article reviews these issues and suggests policy initiatives.     

The Gubbio Papers: historic centers in the age of the economic miracle

World War II is over. Italy is radically transformed with new modes of production and consumption, of thinking and dreaming, of living the present, remembering the past, and projecting the future. Here is the end of an 'old' archaic Italy, and the beginning of a 'modern' one, which rethinks its own national identity on the basis of its 'Atlantic' collocation and Marshallized economy - but also as resistance to an 'Americanization' of its culture. An emblematic episode in this reconstruction of Italy is the discussion, opened by the Gubbio Papers in the early 1960s, on the ­'management' of Italy's artistic 'patrimony'. The restoration of Italy's historic centers, aimed at avoiding American urban sprawl and the culture of US neo-capitalism, engenders, however, new and more peculiar problems - last but not the least the 'museumification' of both Italy's culture and its past. This article frames the Gubbio 'solution' within the larger contemporary debate concerning the models of economic and cultural development that should be deployed in Italy's 'reconstruction'.     

The 1561 Earthquake(s) in Southern Italy: New Insights into a Complex Seismic Sequence

In the summer of 1561, a strong seismic sequence struck southern Italy, then the Spanish-ruled Kingdom of Naples. Both the Italian seismological tradition and the latest catalogues locate it in the Vallo di Diano (Diano Valley), a low-seismicity intermontane basin 100 km south-east of Naples. We explore the hypothesis that current perception of the 1561 earthquake is distorted by the nature of the historical dataset from which its parameters have been assessed, and which mostly derive from a single—albeit very detailed—primary source. We present and discuss several previously unconsidered original accounts. Our results cast doubts on the traditional interpretation of the earthquake, which could have been either one Vallo di Diano mainshock or several strong earthquakes within a time/space window compact enough for contemporary viewers to perceive them as one. Unquestionably, there is much more to the 1561 earthquake(s) than previously appeared. We hope that this groundbreaking effort will rekindle the interest of the seismological community in this seismic episode, our knowledge of which is still far from complete.     

Beyond the beyond(s): On the (many) third way(s) beyond primordialism and instrumentalism in the study of sectarianism

This meta‐study examines the nature of past and current theoretically informed debates on sectarian politics in the Middle East and identifies the biggest challenges and possible directions for the future study of sectarianism. Contrary to the conventional narrative about a “sectarian journey” torn between a flawed primordialist and instrumentalist approach in between which a new superior “third way” is needed, the article shows that both primordialism and instrumentalism are rare in the academic debate on sectarianism, quite similar to the broader ethnicity/nationalism debate. However, this has not resulted in a “new conventional wisdom” about how to proceed. Thus, the article identifies a cacophony of suggestions for how the much aspired‐to third way should look like. Against this background, the article suggests that it is time to go beyond the ritual calls to “get beyond primordialism and instrumentalism.” Instead, it is time to devote more attention to examining the multiple already existing suggestions for “third ways”. Rather than highlighting a single third way as superior, the article contributes to this move in two ways: it shows how the various third ways can be grouped into three “beyond strategies” (the New Saviour, the Baby and the Bathwater, and the LEGO eclectic strategies) and outlines a number of meta‐theoretical issues to consider in order to move the debate forward.