Ethnurgy,mobilisation, memory and trauma in consociational systems

I intend to study three characteristics of deeply divided societies that hinder consociationalism: ethnurgy (politicisation of ethnic identities), mobilisation, memory and trauma. My argument is that consociational practices may be hampered by non‐structural elements, which is a break‐away from the classical study of consociationalism which focuses on institutional functions and external actors. By studying consociationalism from this new dimension, I intend to show that internal factors are critical in understanding the threats and pressure of any consociational arrangement, in an attempt to create better power sharing arrangements and/or improve the existing consociational provisions in deeply divided societies.     

Standing Upon a Volcano: Cincinnati’s Newspapers Debate Emancipation, 1860–1862

Newspaper editors in Cincinnati saw the abolition question on a spectrum before President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862. Most favored some form of confiscation of Confederate slaves for use in the Union war effort; some favored emancipation of slaves as a means to weaken the Confederacy; but almost all vociferously opposed any idea that unrestrained black freedom might be an outcome of the Civil War. While it appears to historians that there was an “inexorable logic” in the development of Union war aims, it is clear from the point of view of Cincinnati that the inexorability of that logic was heavily contested.     

古代小说中的龙宫及信仰文化考述

龙宫原为佛教文化意象,当其以文学意象的身份进入我国古代小说后,成为小说作品中的一个常见文学形象。受时代的小说创作潮流、创作群体以及受众层次变化的影响,唐宋小说与明清小说中龙宫的文化内涵及美学旨趣产生变化。历代小说中龙宫意象即在这种历史的变迁中不断发展丰富,构建起意蕴深厚的龙宫信仰文化。     

Southern rebels against Italian unification: the Great Brigandage in the province of Capitanata

This article explores counter-revolutionary brigandage in Southern Italy after 1860 (also known as Great Brigandage). Working from archival sources, the article offers a new interpretation of the interactions between the political, social and criminal aspects of the guerrilla war against the Risorgimento. Notwithstanding the plurality of the individual motives leading single actors to fight, it is argued that brigandage was an essentially political phenomenon and that the alliances between common bandits and loyalist forces were made possible only in the macro-political setting of the collapse of the Neapolitan monarchy, the difficulties facing Italian state-building, and the emergence of popular legitimist sympathies after 1860.     

Partisan identity in the French civil war, 1405–1418: reconsidering the evidence on livery badges

This article examines the efficiency with which John the Fearless used his personal badges during his conflict with Louis of Orleans and the Armagnacs, and questions current thinking on the relationship between the emblems of both parties. As early as 1405, he began distributing emblems that corresponded directly to his ideology: first the carpenter's plane, and from 1410 onwards, his mason's level, two symbols that were representative of his platform for reform. In August 1411, his urban supporters in Paris and elsewhere began wearing crosses of St Andrew, his patron saint, as a means of identifying themselves as Burgundian partisans. This study argues that in making a conscious decision to link his symbols to his ideology, and in making them available to his vassals and urban supporters alike, John the Fearless forged a strong Burgundian community that transcended social barriers. In so doing, he also manufactured an Armagnac anti-community, a tangible entity against which his partisans' animosity was directed from 1411 onwards. As badges of allegiance, the symbols helped fuel a war that had, thus far, remained a private conflict between the princely houses of Burgundy and Orleans.     

Partisan identity in the French civil war, 1405–1418: reconsidering the evidence on livery badges

This article examines the efficiency with which John the Fearless used his personal badges during his conflict with Louis of Orleans and the Armagnacs, and questions current thinking on the relationship between the emblems of both parties. As early as 1405, he began distributing emblems that corresponded directly to his ideology: first the carpenter's plane, and from 1410 onwards, his mason's level, two symbols that were representative of his platform for reform. In August 1411, his urban supporters in Paris and elsewhere began wearing crosses of St Andrew, his patron saint, as a means of identifying themselves as Burgundian partisans. This study argues that in making a conscious decision to link his symbols to his ideology, and in making them available to his vassals and urban supporters alike, John the Fearless forged a strong Burgundian community that transcended social barriers. In so doing, he also manufactured an Armagnac anti-community, a tangible entity against which his partisans' animosity was directed from 1411 onwards. As badges of allegiance, the symbols helped fuel a war that had, thus far, remained a private conflict between the princely houses of Burgundy and Orleans.     

The moral conundrums of the historian: Claudio Pavone’s A Civil War and its legacy

The recent English translation of Caludio Pavone’s book on the Italian civil war (1943–1945) represents an occasion to reconsider Resistance historiography and memory politics. This paper discusses Pavone’s book and looks back on its genesis, while at the same time reflecting on its legacy. The aim is to offer some insight on the evolution of historiographic narratives concerning the Resistance and the civil war in the last decades.     

Tory anti-exclusionism in church and state: Richard Thompson of Bristol in 1678–85

This article examines the career of Richard Thompson, briefly dean of Bristol in 1685, as an example of a clergyman of Tory royalist and anti-exclusion principles. Thompson’s public attack on the Popish plot and impugning of the exclusionist cause led to his attempted impeachment by the House of Commons in December 1680. Only the prorogation of parliament in January prevented his impeachment. Nevertheless, Thompson remained a figure strongly associated with the anti-exclusion cause in Bristol. His fractious behaviour brought him to the attention of Archbishop Sancroft on a number of occasions. But this did not prevent his advancement to a prebend and then the deanery of Bristol. His sermon during the Monmouth rebellion is one of the highest expressions of Tory theology. Thompson’s extreme High Tory position therefore also serves to illustrate the spectrum of views within Toryism in the late 1670s and 1680s.     

CIVIL WAR,MARRIAGE BAN AND SEX RATIO

The civil war in mainland China during 1945–1949 resulted in an enormous influx of immigrants to Taiwan, the majority of whom were single male soldiers in their twenties or thirties. In addition, a military marriage ban prevented most of the immigrant soldiers from getting married until 1959. These two factors have profound, but distinct, influences on the effective prime-age sex ratio in the marriage market in post-war Taiwan. Unfortunately, the official population data in Taiwan excluded the military and thus did not reveal the true male population until the late 1960s. This paper proposes a method to impute the effective prime-age sex ratio. The imputation result shows that the effective prime-age sex ratio first rose in the 1950s, peaked in the 1960s, and then declined in the 1970s. At its peak, as many as 120 men were competing for only 100 women in the marriage market.     

中共中央对战后中国和、战问题的盱衡与抉择

随着全面抗战胜利的到来,国内阶级关系发生了重大变化,以蒋介石集团为代表的大地主、大资产阶级同以中国共产党为代表的人民大众之间的矛盾,上升为中国社会的主要矛盾。和平与战争,民主与独裁两种力量的斗争,成为战后国内政治的显著特点。依据中国共产党七大对战后国际国内形势的科学分析,中共中央高举“和平、民主、团结”的旗帜,确定了和平建国的战略方针,极力推进和平建国构想的实施。中国共产党通过自己追求和平、民主的真诚努力,揭破了国民党蒋介石内战独裁的真实面目,极大地团结和教育了全国人民,从而把政治主动权牢牢掌握在自己手里,为最终用战争手段解决问题准备了必要条件。如果没有争取和平建国的斗争,也就没有广大人民群众的广泛觉悟和国民党的彻底孤立。     

中国内争不统一:日本乘虚侵占东北的政治背景

东北易帜后,全国虽然实现了统一,但还主要是形式上的。国民政府下诸军政集团问的内战频频发生,中国共产党领导的红军战争星火燎原。中原大战和平定石友三之乱,东北军大量调入关内,严重削弱了东北边防。连年内战,耗损了国力,无力抵御外侮。日本侵略者正是利用了中国的内争不统一,乘虚而进,发动九一八事变,占领东北。1931年发生的宁粤对立,严重地影响了对日和战的决行。张学良对中央政府具有相当大的独立性。当关东军向辽西进攻时,张氏拒绝中央政府的一再指令,擅从锦州撤兵,终致东北全部沦陷。民族不统一,给外敌人侵造成了可乘之机。日本充分利用中国内部不统一,侵略东北,策划建立满蒙“独立”政权。这是九一八事变的重要历史教训。     

In God We Trust: Abraham Lincoln and America's Deathbed Repentance

Abstract

This article maps several key moments in the evolution of religious symbolism and language on US currency, focusing largely on Abraham Lincoln's overlooked role in signing the motto "In God We Trust" into law. Interpreting the motto through the lens of Lincoln's "Second Inaugural Address"—which he delivered just one day after Congress passed the first statute allowing "In God We Trust" to be stamped on US coins—offers a counter-intuitive interpretation of the motto that functions as a deep, ironic, and historically significant critique of religious nationalism.     

The Swedish journal Morgonbris on political violence in Finland 1917–1918

Women participated actively in the Finnish Civil War in January 1918–April 1918. The radicalization of the Finnish Social Democratic Party and the embracing of a revolutionary discourse sent tremors also to Sweden. In this article, I investigate how the Swedish Social Democratic women’s journal Morgonbris addresses women’s political violence in the period surrounding the Russian Revolution in March 1917, the October 1917 Bolshevik takeover and the following Civil War in Finland early 1918.

Morgonbris did not shun from reporting or debating women’s political violence, however, as this article shows there is a great discrepancy between how different acts of violence are understood in the greater discourse. Some violence, and especially some acts of violence committed by women, is clearly framed as more legitimate than others.