Carto‐bibliography on the Web: Links Combining Text and Image

Wolfgang Scharfe, Abriss der Kartographie Brandenburgs, 1771–1821. Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission zu Berlin, de Gruyter Verlag, vol. 35, 1972. pp. 357, 27 maps, appendix with indexes. DM. 84.

H. Sigurdsson, Kortasaga Islands. Reykjavik, 1971. pp. 278, 69 × 42 cm. $ 55.

N. J. W. Thrower, Maps and man. An éxamination of cartography in relation to culture and civilization. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice Hall, Inc., 1972. pp. vii + 184.

L. Stegena, Maps of Hungary by Lazarus Secretarius. Budapest, the Department of Cartography, Roland Eötvös University, 1971. 5 plates, 63 × 48 cm.

W. P. Cumming, R. A. Skelton, and D. B. Quinn, The discovery of North America. London, Elek Books Ltd., 1971. pp. 304, 362 ill. £ 10.

C. Koeman, Atlantes Neerlandici. Volume 4, Celestial and maritime atlases and pilot books. Amsterdam, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1970. pp. xlvi + 519, with plates.

A. Schäfer and H. Weber, Inventar der handgezeichneten Karten und Pläne zur europäischen Kriegsgeschichte des 16.‐19. Jahrhunderts im Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe. Stuttgart, 1971. pp. 350, 8 illustrations. DM 48.

G. Grosjean and M. Cavelti, 500 Jahre schweizer Landkarten. Zürich, Orell Füssli Verlag, 1971. 30 map‐facsimiles, 48.5 × 50 cm., with text, in slip‐case, Sfr. 260.

Capitão‐de‐fragata Max Justo Guedes, Anônimo ‐ Antônio Sanches, c. 1633. Rio de Janeiro, Biblio‐teca Nacional, 1970. pp. 25, 1 coloured and folded map, 37 × 27 cm., monograph.

J. Cortesão, Historia do Brasil nos velhos mapas. Brazilian Foreign Ministry, 2 vols., 1965–1971.

National Maritime Museum, Catalogue of the Library. Volume 3, Parts 1 and 2, Atlases and cartography. London, H.M.S.O., 1971, 2 vols. pp. 1166. £ 14 (for two parts).

E. W. Gilbert, British pioneers in geography. Newton Abbott, Devon. 1972. pp. 271. £ 3.95.

Wilcomb E. Washburn (Editor), Proceedings of the Vinland Map Conference. Chicago, 1971. ('Studies in the history of discoveries’, Monograph Series of the Society for the History of Discoveries.) pp. xvii + 185, illustrations. $ 10.

C. Sanz, Ciento noventa mapas antiguos del mundo de los siglos 1 al 18 que forman parte del proceso cartografico mundial. Madrid. 1970. pp. 150, 190 plates.     

The Euro-Arab Dialogue 1973–1978: Britain Reinsurance Policy In The Middle East Conflict

The Euro-Arab Dialogue (EAD) was launched in the aftermath the Arab Israeli Yom Kippur War of 1973 by Nine European countries and the Arabs. The main objective was to create a stable, long-term relationship between the two regions. Despite its political intent, the framework of the Dialogue was restricted to multilateral economic co-operation in selected areas for reciprocal benefits. Due to inevitable obstacles, after almost five years of engagements, the Dialogue seemed to be progressing slowly with the development of only a few practical projects. Nevertheless, the British remained committed to the initiative, which they viewed as supplementary to their successful existing bilateral relationships, as well as an inexpensive but effective way to maintain their political and economic interests in the Arab world. Through historical analysis, this paper examines the British attitude and perspective towards the Dialogue from 1973 to 1978, mainly using archival documents available at the National Archive in England.     

Defending the Individual: the Personal Rights Association and the Ligue des droits de l'homme, 1871–1916

This article investigates the conceptual and organisational connections between late nineteenth-century civil-liberties activism and the emerging human-rights paradigm of the twentieth century. The comparison of the two largest and most influential civil-liberties organisations to emerge in Britain and France before the First World War (the British Personal Rights Association and the French Ligue des droits de l'homme) has three objectives: to place the two groups in a wider context of civil-liberty organisations of the pre-First World War era and to identify personal connections and inspirations. Secondly, by analysing functional definitions of ‘rights’ and who these rights should apply to, the article argues that although one group conceptualised their activism on the basis of ‘civil liberties’ and the other on ‘human rights’ there were significant similarities between the approaches of the two groups. Moreover, differences stemmed from internal politics within each group rather than the dissimilar conceptual framework. Finally the article seeks to understand why the Ligue des droits de l'homme was much more successful than the British Personal Rights Association both in its ability to mobilise supporters, and in inspiring sister organisations in other European countries.     

British Diplomacy,Propaganda, and War Strategy and the Hungarian-Romanian Dispute over Transylvania in 1939–40

Abstract

Between 1914 and 1935, the cities of Vienna and Pressburg/Bratislava were linked by an electric railway known as the Pressburgerbahn. More than just a line of transportation, the railway became intertwined with the complex politics of identity in Pressburg. The Pressburgerbahn presented nationalists in the Habsburg Empire with a dilemma: it had the potential to contribute to the unification of the nation, but at the same time was transnational by definition. This paradox generated a heated controversy about the Pressburgerbahn between Magyar nationalists and the predominantly German-speaking Pressburg bourgeoisie. Using biologized rhetoric, Hungarian politicians and journalists portrayed their nation as a body politic that was disfigured by having a railway ‘vein’ cross the border into Austria, in particular from such a peripheral location as Pressburg. By contrast, the discourse of the German-speaking bourgeoisie was firmly anchored in an imperial, supra-ethnic landscape. This controversy was replayed following the incorporation of the renamed city of Bratislava into Czechoslovakia in 1919: the Prague-based Ministry of Railways employed the rhetoric of the railway as an integrating structure within the body politic, while the eventual closure of the Pressburgerbahn in 1935 was closely connected to the belated nationalization of Bratislava. The railway to Vienna thus became a symbol of the liminal status of the town as a whole, in terms of nation, geography, politics and culture.     

Contested Cartographies: Empire and Sovereignty on a Map of Sistān,Iran (1883)

ABSTRACT

The papers of Malkam Khān (1833–1908), Iranian ambassador in London from 1872 to 1889, a staunch supporter of Iranian state modernization and a scholar, include an often-overlooked map of the Iran–Afghanistan border dating to 1883. Mirzā Mohammad-Rezā Tabrizi compiled this exceptional piece of nineteenth-century Iranian cartography. The map is an illustration of how quickly the Qajar administration was able to emulate European cartographical discourses to protect its own interests in the context of the so-called ‘Great Game’, that is, the often confrontational Russo–British relations over the control of Central Asia and Afghanistan in the nineteenth century. In this article we show that Iranian officials had developed a much more substantial articulation between cartography and statecraft than is conveyed by the stereotypes in nineteenth-century Western literature, when the capacity of local players to use counter-mapping to their own advantage was often underestimated by European agents. Mirzā Mohammad-Rezā Tabrizi’s map of Sistān exemplifies how the apparently all-powerful Western science that seemingly supported nineteenth-century imperial expansion was rarely left unchallenged locally. The genealogy and circulation of the map also reflects how overly simplistic the postulation of a polarization of ‘Western’ knowledge and ‘Eastern’ attempts at safeguarding local sovereignty can be.     

From laissez-faire to supranational planning: the economic debate within Federal Union (1938–1945)

This article focuses on the early years of Federal Union (FU), the leading British federalist association created in 1938. It sets out to demonstrate that FU members heavily disagreed about the economic powers of the future Federation and that these divisions weakened the appeal of the federalist cause. Archival evidence suggests the organisation shifted from economic neutrality, favoured by allegiance to nineteenth-century liberalism, which emphasized the benefits of free trade while keeping a minimum of centralized force in order to prevent interstate rivalries from boiling over into war, to a radical advocacy of supranational planning, aimed at enforcing social rights and welfare entitlements granted to all the citizens of the member-states. This swing to the Left had several implications, including abandoning the prospect of an Anglo-American union, developing a more sympathetic attitude towards the Soviet system, and breaking ties with influential members of the British establishment who had initially lent support to FU, such as Lionel Curtis and William Beveridge. By pointing at the tension between the models of ‘Federation Pure and Simple’ and ‘Federation Plus’, this article also highlights the supple and muddled nature of federalism as an ideology.     

The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the initial phase of the Italian Racial Laws: reactions and strategies (1938–1940)

ABSTRACT

This article aims to reconstruct the activities of the Board of Jewish Deputies, the central representative body of British Jewry, in support of the Italian Jews affected by the Fascist Racial Laws of 1938. By analysing the institution’s documents and examining the most widely read Jewish newspaper in the U.K., the Jewish Chronicle, this research investigates how the initial phase of the Italian anti-Semitic campaign was received in Great Britain, and what measures were put in place by British Jewry in their attempts to help the Italian Jews. The Jewish historian, Cecil Roth, played an important role during this phase, in active collaboration with the leadership of the Board and the staff of the Jewish Chronicle, gathering as much information as possible on Italy and its history in order to shed light on the events that were taking place during the first years of the Racial Laws and until the entrance of Italy into WWII (1938–1940). The involvement of certain members of the Foreign Office with links to the Board, and the shared goal of helping Italian Jewry, was also fundamental in this period.