The Provisioning Crisis during the First World War

Although the agricultural region of Voronezh Province did not experience a food supply crisis during the First World War and up to 1917, it did suffer from a prolonged provisioning crisis, the result of administrative problems and mistakes, that in turn contributed to popular unrest, both in the province and throughout the empire.     

The Ebola Crisis in Sierra Leone: Mediating Containment and Engagement in Humanitarian Emergencies

This article explores how framings of the 2014–16 outbreak of Ebola as a crisis, its causes, nature and consequences gave rise to two seemingly contradictory types of interventions within affected communities in Sierra Leone: a militarized state of emergency on the one hand, and efforts to foster local engagement and ownership on the other. Teasing out explicitly the underlying logic of these two modes of response, we are able to discern the convergence between containment and engagement approaches that are at the heart of contemporary humanitarianism. Rather than being opposed or contradictory, the article shows how they were mutually constitutive, through negotiations between different ways of knowing and responding to the Ebola crisis. The resulting divisive practices, juxtaposing ‘Ebola heroes’ and ‘dangerous bodies’, re‐ordered the landscapes that individuals had to navigate in order to manage uncertainty. Tracing these logics through to the ‘subjects’ of intervention, the article tells the story of one traditional healer's ‘epistemic navigations’ in his efforts to survive both the epidemic and its response. Bringing these dynamics and their consequences to the fore in the Sierra Leonean case invites broader reflections on a humanitarian assemblage increasingly reliant on the mutual constitution of containment and engagement, security and resilience, in its approach to managing ‘at risk’ populations.     

The Connolly Association,the Catholic Church,and anti-communism in Britain and Ireland during the early Cold War

ABSTRACT

During the Cold War era, the Connolly Association, an Irish republican socialist political organisation in Britain close to the Communist Party of Great Britain, was seen by British Communists as a potential means of winning recruits amongst Britain’s growing post-war Irish community. This view was shared by the Catholic Church, which, amidst the broader ideological atmosphere of the Cold War, placed an increased emphasis on anti-communism in the early post-war years. This article will discuss clerical opposition to the Connolly Association in early Cold War Britain and Ireland, drawing chiefly on diocesan archives and Catholic periodicals.     

战争与社会转型中的中国基督教会——中华基督教会全国总会边疆服务研究

1930年代后期,中华基督教会全国总会发起了一场旨在服务西部民族地区以巩固抗战后方的运动,号召教会内外有为之士,到当时被称为“边疆”的西南少数民族地区,开展生计、教育、医疗卫生等多方面的服务工作。此外,总会还联络研究机构及学者从事边疆研究,形成服务与研究的互动,促进了边地尤其是川康地区的社会进步以及与边地相关学术的发展。边疆服务是基督教自1807年传入中国以来第一次在中国政府支持下从事的大规模社会活动。这场运动延续到1955年,不仅经历了战争的洗礼,也经历了新中国建立之初剧烈的社会转型。边疆服务的历史,对于认识基督教传教活动在近代中国经历的变化,提供了一个为以往的研究忽略了的重要例证。     

危机与应对:论皖南地区的经济抗战

经济抗战是中国抗战历史的重要内容,对于保证中国抗战的最后胜利具有决定性作用。在位于东南战场大后方的皖南地区,除对敌开展军事斗争外,经济战也是当地军民反抗日本侵略的一种重要方式。在战时皖南行署的领导下,皖南敌后区实施了增加生产、平抑物价、严查敌货、打击走私、组建金融网等一系列经济举措,在一定程度上改善了皖南敌后区严峻的经济形势,粉碎了日敌的经济进攻,为这一地区乃至东南战场抗战力量的持久存续以及中国抗战的最终胜利做出了重要贡献。皖南地区的经济抗战实为中国经济抗战历史的一个真实缩影。     

The Shifting Fortunes of War: Patronage of the Wurttemberg Hofkapelle during the Thirty Years War

German courts have long been renowned for their support of music.How long could this support continue in times of war? This articleconsiders the fate of the Württemberg Hofkapelle duringthe Thirty Years War (1618-48), a conflict that forced manydistinguished Hofkapellen to close their doors for much of thewar's duration. The Hofkapelle (literally ‘court chapel’or music ensemble) was the focus of much music patronage atearly modern German courts, and typically consisted of an orchestraof strings, horns, and percussion, as well as adult male singersand a boys’ choir. Based on an analysis of church councilaccounts that list all expenditure for court music throughoutthe war, the article asserts that demand for music during religiousservices under both Protestant and Catholic control of the duchyremained relatively constant. This demand enabled the Hofkapelleto continue musical performances, despite the enormous constraintsthe war placed on court expenditure. Music patronage was significant in several ways. Payment forperformers and composers could be highly competitive among Germancourts, with the best musicians earning salaries often far exceedingthose of other officials. Foreign musicians were much in demandin Württemberg as elsewhere, such as English lutenist JohnPrice, who founded a group of English lutenists at the Württembergcourt in 1618 that lasted until the death of Duke Johann Friedricha decade later. While the hardship of wartime effectively endedthe payment of large salaries, forcing many top performers toleave, members of the court still called for music at church,even if they had to pay for performances themselves. A studyof music patronage during the Thirty Years War thus revealsnot only the extent to which the court sought to support thearts, but also how that support reflected the shifting fortunesof war.     

Lewis Harcourt's Journal of the 1914 War Crisis

Lewis Harcourt, who was Colonial Secretary in Britain's Liberal government, from 1908 to 1915, kept a political journal for many years, some earlier parts of which have already been published. Reproduced below is the whole neat version of the journal from 26 July 1914, when Harcourt first mentions the events of the ‘July Crisis’, until 4 August, when Britain declared war on Germany. Originals of the entries are kept at the Bodleian Library, Oxford in file Ms. Eng. c. 8269 of the ‘Further Papers of Lewis Harcourt’, which only came to light in 2008. Historians can be grateful that Harcourt kept such a record of ministerial discussions during the July Crisis, because no official records were taken of Cabinet meetings before 1916, apart from short reports by the Prime Minister to the King. There are some diary entries, letters and memoranda from those involved, but the only source with comparative detail to Harcourt's is the diary kept by the education minister, Jack Pease, which has already been published.