A new military history of the Italian Risorgimento and Anti-Risorgimento: the case of ‘transnational soldiers’

The article discusses new studies of foreign soldiers in the Italian armed groups of the (Anti-)Risorgimento against the background of recent scholarship on ‘transnational soldiers’, which acknowledges the complexities of foreigners' initial motives for enlistment and of the transnational processes inside the single armies. The article suggests that from the mundane structures of military life to the perceptions of the rank-and-file, many aspects of the soldiering experience in the multinational armed groups on all sides of the Risorgimento actually advanced rather than obviated national boundaries. This paper further demonstrates that the military cultures of the nationalists and the anti-unity forces were much more porous and mutually constitutive than is often recognised. The histories of the ‘transnational soldiers’ in the armed groups of the Risorgimento and Anti-Risorgimento are crucial for a possibly new, comparative history of the armed groups of the (Anti-)Risorigmento. This paper explores approaches of the culturally revived ‘new military history’ and suggests that it provides much still unrealised potential for Risorgimento historiography.     

关于"杯酒释兵权"若干问题的再探讨

“杯酒释兵权”,是宋初新贵集团取代留用的后周旧臣的重要举措。从这一宋初政治演变的主线索来看,石守信等大将集北宋开国元勋与后周旧臣于一身的复杂性,是“杯酒释兵权”得以产生的最主要原因;宋太祖和赵普之间的相关争论主要不在于要不要解除留用诸将的兵权,而是在什么时候解除他们的兵权,即时机的把握问题;宋太祖在禁军中用以取代留用的后周大将的新贵群体,是由他亲自创建和指挥的嫡系部队殿前军中的亲信们所构成,包括其嫡系部下和亲兵卫士两部分。宋太祖一朝禁军指挥权的转移,呈现出由留用的后周大将向宋太祖的嫡系部下转移,再由宋太祖的嫡系部下向其亲兵卫士群体转移的明显轨迹。     

军事革命对近代早期欧洲军人行为方式和价值观念的影响

军事革命扩大了近代早期欧洲军人与平民的分野,使军人的行为方式和价值观念呈现出一些新的特点:中世纪骑士军队那种以追求荣誉、个人的英勇和对领主的忠诚为美德的观念不见了,取而代之的是以服从命令、遵守纪律、集体感、合作精神、标准化、等级制为特征的行为方式和价值观念.主要由于军事革命而形成的这些行为方式和价值观念,后来被引入到工厂、机关、学校等社会组织中,有效地改善了这些组织的管理,从而在一定程度上促进了欧洲社会的发展.     

‘our children have only known war’: children's experiences and the uses of childhood in northern uganda

This article describes the situation of children forcibly abducted by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda. The involvement of children complicates efforts to end rebellion, and particular notions of childhood circulate through government and aid agencies to affect children's ‘rehabilitation’. This paper examines national, ethnic, and generational causes of the conflict, discussing the ways in which normative and ideal concepts of childhood are employed by different players. Through a situated analysis of children's circumstances, I suggest the need for interlocutors to re-evaluate their goals and methods of assisting war-affected children.     

“Charcoal scribblings of the most rascally character”: conflict,identity, and testimony in American Civil War graffiti

Civil War soldiers’ graffiti survive at more than 60 sites, predominantly in Virginia, including churches, court houses, caves, and houses. Although often terse and fragmentary, they provide an intriguing insight into soldiers’ experiences. This essay offers a tentative framework for analyzing how the graffiti functioned: as informal commemoration of wartime experiences; as a social activity, displaying the loyalties, frustrations, and humor of army life; and as an invasive act, vandalizing southern property.     

The 1948 war veterans and postwar reconstruction in Israel

This article deals with the characteristics of postwar reconstruction in the State of Israel at the end of the 1948 war and during the early 1950s, focusing on the patterns and priorities of reconstruction of society as a whole and the rehabilitation of veteran soldiers in particular. The article addresses the social impact of the rehabilitation of the 1948 war veterans on the emerging Israeli society, including the creation of a social distinction between different sectors undergoing rehabilitation in terms of employment and housing. The article also discusses the social and political protests that accompanied the rehabilitation of the demobilized soldiers who campaigned for recognition and commemoration.     

‘Profits,Savings, Health,Peace, Order’: Prostitution,Urban Planning and Imperial Identity in Halifax,Nova Scotia, 1898–1912

In the early years of the twentieth century, city administrators in Halifax, Nova Scotia articulated a new, modern identity for the former imperial garrison town by identifying the local red light district as both a moral and a spatial problem. Between the twilight of Victoria’s reign and Britain’s entry into the First World War, middle-class toleration of a local sex district as a means of managing the city’s populations of imperial servicemen virtually evaporated. Haligonians were inspired instead by North American urban modernisation initiatives to eradicate this visible and physical space for the world’s oldest profession. This paper examines shifting responses to the imperial sexual and political ideologies underpinning collective toleration of Halifax’s racially mixed sex district, offers a case study of this crucial moment of civic refashioning.     

Consigned to Oblivion: Rehabilitation of First World War Disabled Veterans in Portugal (1917–1927)

The First World War is known for its use of advanced weaponry, which caused massive injuries. Over 8,000 Portuguese soldiers who had fought in the African and European theatres of war returned home with a disability. Through a qualitative analysis of archival data, newspaper articles, and legislation, this article examines what was done for these disabled veterans in Portugal between 1917 and 1927, drawing comparisons with similar situations in other countries. As it will be noted, voluntary organisations and the State took limited measures to rehabilitate disabled ex-servicemen, who were consigned to oblivion.     

义和拳冠县起事考

1898年10月的冠县起事是义和团运动发展过程研究中的一个重点。尽管如此,已有的研究尚在一些问题上难如人意：1．起事究竟爆发于哪一天?2．在起事过程中,梅花拳领袖赵三多是领导拳民积极反教、英勇抗官,还是始则被迫领导起事,继而力图退出并配合官府劝散拳民?3．为镇压起事,直隶和山东两省究竟派出了多少清军?其中有多少及时抵达威县?又有多少清军参加了11月4日在威县候未村对拳民的镇压?本文尝试解决这些疑点。     

Indigènes after Indigènes: post-war France and its North African troops

This article focuses on North African soldiers who served in the French army of occupation in western Germany after its liberation in 1945. Taking as its starting point Rachid Bouchareb's 2006 film, Indigènes, the article contrasts claims the film made about the memorial exclusion of the colonial soldier with his surprising centrality to French accounts of their own military exploits. Using publications issued by the army for its internal readership and archival records of the military occupation's day-to-day activities, the author argues for a modified understanding of the French Republican notion of assimilation that is able to take account of the prolific representation of the North African soldier, and his accommodation, in Cold War Germany.