Toward a Received History of the Holocaust

In this article, I examine both the problem of so-called postmodern history as it relates to the Holocaust and suggest the ways that Saul Friedlander's recent work successfully mediates between the somewhat overly polemicized positions of “relativist” and “positivist” history. In this context, I find that in his search for an adequately self-reflexive historical narrative for the Holocaust, Hayden White's proposed notion of “middle-voicedness” may recommend itself more as a process for eyewitness writers than as a style for historians after the fact. From here, I look at the ways Saul Friedlander's reflections on the historian's voice not only mediate between White's notions of the ironic mode and middle-voicedness, but also suggest the basis for an uncanny history in its own right: an anti-redemptory narrative that works through, yet never actually bridges, the gap between a survivor's “deep memory” and historical narrative. For finally, it may be the very idea of “deep memory” and its incompatibility to narrative that constitutes one of the central challenges to Holocaust historiography. What can be done with what Friedlander has termed “deep memory” of the survivor, that which remains essentially unrepresentable? Is it possible to write a history that includes some oblique reference to such deep memory, but which leaves it essentially intact, untouched and thereby deep? In this section, I suggest, after Patrick Hutton, that “What is at issue here is not how history can recover memory, but, rather, what memory will bequeath to history.” That is, what shall we do with the living memory of survivors? How will it enter (or not enter) the historical record? Or to paraphrase Hutton again, “How will the past be remembered as it passes from living memory to history?” Will it always be regarded as so overly laden with pathos as to make it unreliable as documentary evidence? Or is there a place for the understanding of the witness, as subjective and skewed as it may be, for our larger historical understanding of events? In partial answer to these questions, I attempt to extend Friedlander's insights toward a narrow kind of history-telling I call “received history”—a double-stranded narrative that tells a survivor-historian's story and my own relationship to it. Such a narrative would chart not just the life of the survivor-historian itself but also the measurable effect of the tellings—both his telling and mine—on my own life's story. Together, they would compose a received history of the Holocaust and its afterlife in the author's mind—my “vicarious past.”     

范文澜:倡导优良学风,捍卫历史学的科学性

建国后十七年,史学界实际存在着两种学风,一种是教条主义学风,在1958年以后一度盛行;另一种是倡导实事求是、独立思考、刻苦钻研的学风。范文澜恰恰是后者的代表人物,他作为正直的史学家,十几年如一日潜心治学,精心修订和重写《中国通史简编》这部巨著;作为近代史所的创建者,他卓有成效地提倡和培育了全所坚持不懈、勇于创新的优良学风,他在领导中国史学会的工作中,更是贯穿了高度重视扎实的史料基础和提倡严谨学风的指导思想,当教条化的错误潮流袭来时,他挺身而出进行抵制,表现出捍卫历史学的科学性和尊严的高风亮节。     

Fieldwork is Good: the Student Perception and the Affective Domain

This paper reports on research that investigates the effectiveness of residential field courses in geography, earth science and environmental science courses at UK institutions of higher education. The research focuses on the effects of fieldwork in the affective domain, which is thought to be linked to the adoption of effective approaches to learning. Approximately 300 students were surveyed immediately before and after a field class, enabling analysis of changes in responses brought about as a result of the field experience. Potential differences were looked for between groups of students determined by gender, age, previous experience of fieldwork and place of residence. The research finds that fieldwork leads to significant effects in the affective domain. In general, student responses were very positive prior to fieldwork and became more positive as a result of the field experience. Some groups exhibited higher levels of anxiety about this learning method prior to the field class; however, such differences were mitigated by the field experience. This study concludes that fieldwork is good.     

显学的背后:沈垚西北史地学述论

本文通过对沈垚西北史地研究经历的回溯,从一个侧面考察了清代学术史上被后人称为显学的道光年间西北史地研究学术活动的进行过程。认为因中国传统学术特点影响、受中国社会条件所限,当时的西北史地研究者缺乏实地考察手段与科学实测技术的支持,他们的研究不可避免地走向文献考索,研究中的经世意义有所消减。     

The Good Life in Victorian and Edwardian Surbiton: Creating a Suburban Community Before 1914

Abstract

Throughout their recent history suburbs and suburban society have been characterised by a number of writers — including historians — as being dull, detached, monotonous, lacking in community spirit and devoid of cultural activity. The aim of this article is to challenge these negative stereotypes by examining the reality of community life in the classic suburban town of Surbiton before 1914. It sets out a framework within which communities can be defined and analysed and argues that the criteria used to identify working class communities in the past are not necessarily applicable to more middle class suburban communities. The historical evidence for community life and identity in Surbiton before 1914 is provided by the existence of clubs and societies; sporting and leisure activities; participation in cultural events; support networks when necessary; multi-class activities; and enlightened middle class leadership.     

Before September: A History of Counter-terrorism in New Zealand

The events of 11 September 2001 have prompted many states throughout the world to reinvigorate and strengthen their focus on countering terrorism. Surprisingly New Zealand, arguably a relatively unlikely target for terrorist action, already had in place a very comprehensive set of counter-measures both prior to this more recent event and even before the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in the mid-1980s. This article investigates why and how a state as 'secure' as New Zealand has purposely created a comprehensive set of counter-terrorist measures over the years. Reasons of caution and prudence in the domestic arena are perhaps sufficient, but this article further asserts that various other 'international' elements have also been, and will continue to be, major factors in the development of legislative and substantive counter-terrorist measures in New Zealand.     

"Good Fences Make Good Neighbours": History and Significance of an Ambiguous Proverb

This essay focuses on the narrative traditions of the Nama-speaking peoples in Namibia, South Africa. It describes tales in which children are the main protagonists and discusses the character of African tales of magic. It shows that in these tales the “laws” of tale-telling that are known from studies of Western tales by Axel Olrik and Max Lüthi, for example, are stronger than a desire to depict reality. The African tales about children are compared with Western ones about children, particularly in relation to the ATU 327 complex. The paper suggests that both these European tales and African tales of magic should be treated as a special subgenre.     

Historicizing the German Question: Toward an International History of the Cold War

Book reviewed:
William Glenn Gray. Germany's Cold War: The Global Campaign to Isolate East Germany, 1949–1969 . Chapel Hill, NC and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2003. xii + 351 pp. Maps, notes, bibliography, index. $49.95 (cloth).     

Maori Hapu as a Whole Way of Struggle: 1840s–50s Before the Land Wars

Research in Maori land history, burgeoning under the influence of the Waitangi Tribunal since the mid-1980s, promises a better understanding of the history of Maori kinship as well as New Zealand political economy. It has often been merely assumed, for instance, that contemporary hapu are a (or the) traditional form. I argue that Maori kinship and especially hapu or their equivalent need to be better understood in historical perspective. This essay examines some evidence and issues arising from the first few decades of colonisation before the land wars of the 1860s.     

Toward Historical Ethnography: Notarial Records and Family History in the Middle Ages

One can easily use nineteenth-century tithe data of England and Wales in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyze a range of subjects, for example, land use, productivity, land ownership, or tenancy. Making the tithe data GIS ready, on the other hand, is a nontrivial matter. The tithe data consist of two main types: spatial, that is, the tithe map, and nonspatial attribute data linked to the map. The tithe therefore has the characteristics of a GIS, albeit in paper form. The author outlines the process of creating the structures for building a data repository that allows the storage and dissemination of both tithe schedules and maps in a single GIS-ready system. The author chose Oracle to host the repository. The Oracle Spatial module allows storage of both spatial and attribute information. Oracle also provides the means of serving data to users via the Internet.     

Cultivating the Common Good at the Margins of the Commons: An Ethnographic Portrait of Transformative Pluralism in a High-Security Prison

ABSTRACT

Arising from an ongoing research project, this article presents an approach to religious and societal pluralism through ethnography. During a course convened inside a high-security prison, with a combined group of students currently resident in the prison and students currently studying in the University of Cambridge, participants and lecturers from diverse faiths and no faith explored concepts of citizenship and the common good. Bringing Rowan Williams’s proposals for “interactive pluralism” together with the transformative pedagogical framework of the course and its resonance with liberative theologies, I describe how the course participants co-created a space in which we were able to enact a transformative approach to the societal pluralism of which our gathering was a microcosm.