Transnational solidarities and the politics of the left, 1890–1990 – introduction

The ten articles in this special issue of the European Review of History—Revue européenne d'histoire explore the operation of transnational solidarity movements from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century. This introduction highlights the endurance of methods and strategies across this period, even while the contexts for transnational activism changed. It points to the opportunities presented by expressions of transnational solidarity, but also their inherent limitations.     

Introduction and Historical Context for the Archaeology of Institutions of Reform. Part I: Asylums

This introduction discusses the western cultural context that connects the following three articles of site-specific research on the Adelaide Destitute Asylum in South Australia, the Ross Female Factory (prison) in Tasmania and the Magdalen Asylum in Philadelphia. These institutions are a few of the many types of nineteenth century asylums and prisons. Although some research issues are raised the purpose of this introduction is to provide a general historical context for the different research designs which are presented in the articles. While this introduction provides a largely ungendered historical background from ungendered sources, the companion feminist commentary following the articles addresses the gendered historical context and the feminist issues in the articles.     

Being a nation through the crown. Banal monarchism and nation-building in Spain, 1833–68

ABSTRACT

Studies on nationalism have rarely given importance to the role played by the monarchy. In the Spanish case, studies have principally underlined its negative impact at the beginning of the twentieth century. This article aims to approach the origins of this political and cultural junction between the crown and the phenomenon of nationalism in Spain. A process that took place during the reign of Queen Isabel II (1833–68) and that followed very similar times and formulas to its neighbouring countries. It is first discuss the challenge that the monarchy faced in resignifying and relocating itself politically and symbolically in the nineteenth century. On this path, the crown found in the nation a perfect partner. However, liberalism also used the historical legitimacy of the monarchy to construct a nationalist discourse where monarchical identity was a structuring and undeniable piece of the national essence. Then, the author studies two typologies of strategies undertaken by them to convey their idea of nation, to mobilize people and to engender national loyalty: royal travel and images of the monarchy – both literal and figurative – used by the state. A comparative perspective with different European cases is always follow, particularly with Queen Victoria.     

The Roman Hero in Livy

The use of pseudonyms was a common practice among the ever-growing number of women writers in the nineteenth century, although the elusive nature of the phenomenon makes it difficult to ascertain its importance and frequency. A comparative analysis of the discourse on authorship and identity in the personal writings of four women novelists and memoirists—George Sand, Marie d'Agoult, Delphine de Girardin, and the Comtesse Dash, all of whom adopted, at least temporarily, a masculine nom de plume—reveals conflicted and often contradictory representations of the pseudonymic figure. While some authors, like Sand, Agoult, and to a certain extent Girardin, clearly saw the pseudonym as a means to achieve literary legitimacy and agency, others like the Comtesse Dash remained under the “cover” of their pseudonyms, as they fell into a form of anonymity while struggling to make a name for themselves.     

19世纪英国城市现代化初探

城市现代化是城市化发展的高级阶段。19世纪的英国不仅是世界上第一个城市化国家,而且率先在城市现代化方面做出新的探索。首先在城市物质环境方面进行了巨大的改革,从城市街道的规划改造,到居民住宅的建筑规范,从居民私人空间的营造,到城市公共空间的建设,使城市的物质环境有了极大的改善。其次,在城市的管理方面也进行了全面探索,使城市管理摆脱了中世纪的寡头统治,进入到民主监督与管理的时代。由此,使城市的发展在经历了第一个阶段的数量扩张后,进入到了质量的增长时期,即向城市现代化方向迈进。     

The Relevance of Nineteenth-Century Religion to the Archaeological Record: An Example from the Home of Ellen White, Prophetess of Seventh-Day Adventism

Religion is one of the least tangible aspects of the past, yet it was very real and very important in the lives of past people. Understanding the impact nineteenth-century evangelical Christianity had on the archaeological record will add substantially to studies of historic households in the United States and around the world. One of the most aggressive of these denominations was Seventh-day Adventism, which grew out of the Millerite movement under Ellen White. A brief case study based on a home occupied by her family is used as a way to explore some of these themes.     

The Changing Brazilian Language

This article analyzes two female Bildungsromane published by nineteenth-century authors, Las dos Gracias by Fernán Caballero (1867) and La vida íntima by Pilar Sinués (1876). The female Bildungsroman in Spain explores different educational and developmental opportunities open to women since the middle of the nineteenth century. Fernán Caballero and Pilar Sinués, who have been—and still often are—dismissed as anti-feminist and conservative, created a very nuanced vision of female Bildung in their novels. Far from being mere propaganda pieces aimed at keeping women in subjection, these novels discuss the obstacles that society places in the way to female development and offer ways of overcoming these obstacles.     

Excavating Utopia: Why Archaeologists Should Study “Ideal” Communities of the Nineteenth Century

The study of utopias is riddled with contradictions: we admire and fear them; they are a radical critique of the modernist societies that surround them, and yet they are in some ways the archetypal product of modernity. This paper suggests that studying Utopia could be of value in analyzing some of the complexities and contradictions of Western society and ideology in the nineteenth century, as well as causing us to question some of the preconceptions we regularly bring to the study of the archaeological past. Finally I will suggest that a different kind of nineteenth century, one which includes the radical dissent and resistance of utopian thinkers and experimenters, provides a strong basis for a critique of the social values of modern capitalism.     

Police–public relations in transition in Antwerp, 1840s–1914

This article examines how police–public relations have evolved during the nineteenth-century expansion of formal policing. Following recent critiques of the ‘state monopolization thesis’, it dismisses the idea of a ‘policeman-state’ progressively assuming dominion over the governance of crime, generating vicious antagonism between police and public, and effectively coercing the latter into obedience. In order to chart changes in police–public relations across the ‘long’ nineteenth century, the analysis draws on Antwerp police statistics from 1842 until 1913. It assumes that movements in different types of offences reflect the initiative of different actors and also constitute a valuable index of conflicts between police and public. The article argues that although police activity in Antwerp did significantly increase towards the end of the nineteenth century, priorities in crime control were not merely dictated from ‘above’ (the police and authorities) but also delivered from ‘below’ (the people). It shows how police interventions were shaped by shifting policy concerns, by the interests of different urban interest groups, and by the practical constraints of police work. Finally, it counters the idea of a repressive police disciplining a hostile public with evidence of growing public use of the police and of complex popular attitudes towards the ‘blue locusts’.     

Reconstruction of regional and national population using intermittent census-type data: The case of Portugal, 1527–1864

Abstract

We offer a new methodology for the construction of annual population stocks over the very long run. Our method does not require the assumption of a closed economy, and can be used in situations in which local annual gross flows are obtainable. Combining gross flows with intermittent census-type data, it is possible to arrive at local, regional and national population stock estimates at annual frequencies. We provide an application to early modern and nineteenth century Portugal, using a large sample of parish-level statistics up to the first modern census of 1864. All six major regions of the country are considered.     

Selling civilization: toward a cultural analysis of America's economic empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

This essay builds on work that is exploring the convergence of economic and cultural approaches to understanding imperialism through an examination of the particular case of American commercial expansion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Based on my archival research into the promotional and practical strategies of five of the largest American companies that were international in sales, I suggest some of the ways that an analysis of commercial imperial representations of, and knowledges about, race, gender and civilization adds to our understanding of the multiplicity of imperialisms. I argue that examining these multiplicities can help contribute to a critical postcolonial perspective.     

Resisting Traditions: Ceramics, Identity, and Consumer Choice in the Outer Hebrides from 1800 to the Present

On a number of levels, peripheral status has been imposed on the Outer Hebrides (Scotland) since the Jacobite Rebellion in 1745. Drawing on a series of interviews with Hebridean families, this paper explores the changing meanings of ceramics imported into the islands from the early nineteenth century and displayed on wooden dressers. It is argued that in renegotiating their identity in the face of a series of externally generated economic changes, rural communities in the Hebrides have acted as thoughtful consumers, appropriating mainland material culture to their own ends. Throughout this process, imports have behaved ambiguously. This ambiguity is crucial to our understanding of the relationship—here characterized not as resistance but as resistant adaptation—between the Hebrides and the mainland.