Gramsci's unorthodox Marxism: political ambiguity and sociological relevance

Gramsci's work continues to enjoy popularity amongst academics and activists. There is nonetheless a real question about the relevance of his central political ideas for the twenty-first century. This paper defends the thesis that Gramsci's humanism is part of a long tradition of political thought which dates back to Machiavelli, and that although this national-popular humanism is now outdated for reasons which are suggested in the writings and films of Pier Paolo Pasolini, there is also a sociological component to Gramsci's theorising that retains resonance today.     

Nationalism and war commemoration – a Latin American exceptionalism?

Recent scholarship on collective memory and nationalism in Latin America argues that – in sharp contrast to Europe – war commemoration has been of little importance to the memory work of states in the region. The article challenges this claim. A comparative‐historical analysis of school textbooks and school ceremonies in twentieth‐century Mexico, Argentina and Peru reveals that the commemoration of major civil and international wars was central to official national narratives in these countries. The article further identifies important qualitative changes in war commemoration over time, especially with respect to how commemorative discourses portrayed agency and assigned responsibility for military victories and losses. These changes are situated within broader transformations of nationalism and new alignments in the politics of nationhood and memory.     

Colonial rule,colonial repression and war crimes in the Italian colonies

A strange silence has long reigned in the public memory as well as in Italian historical studies regarding possible crimes committed by Italy in its colonial territories. The aim of this article is to reflect on the reasons for this silence through an examination of the major historiographical questions and a review of the few studies available on the subject. The historiographical use of the judicial category of ‘crimes’ or ‘war crimes’ should not be taken for granted, above all in examining the history of the colonial experience. The most important authors have ignored the risk that the sensationalistic use of the category ‘crime’ – in itself an extraordinary and exceptional event – can make one forget the weight of the ordinary running of a colonial power. With these precautions, the article offers a list of the principal episodes historians now unanimously define as crimes. These episodes eliminate any possibility of taking refuge in the self-absolving and vague appeals to stereotypes of Italians as ‘good people’. The article concludes by defining precisely the triple order of silences that together produced the general silence that the author considers an obstacle and a post-colonial stain on the memory of colonial Italy.     

German volunteers in the armed conflicts of the Italian Risorgimento 1834–70

Abstract

Between 1834 and 1870, Germans participated in the armed conflicts of the Italian Risorgimento in the ranks of both Mazzini and Garibaldi and of the Pope and Francis II of Naples. While acknowledging the difficulty in analysing the motives of historical actors, the essay compares the reasons that led these Germans to volunteer and fight. For those who fought for the cause of Italian unity, the networks created in exile in the 1830s remained decisive down to 1870, whereas the mobilization of volunteers in Germany for the Papal states reached its height only later between 1867 and 1870. Despite these chronological differences, the methods used in terms of the media and forms of organization to mobilize the volunteers and to legitimize war were very similar across the political spectrum. The foreign volunteers were described by their own side as brothers, but as mere mercenaries by the respective enemy side. At the same time, Germans and Italians brought their national stereotypes to the various armed groups and armies in which they served and in ways that made the latter important places for the staging of national ‘re-virilization’ achieved through heroic fighting.     

关于1940年美英“驱逐舰换基地”协定的历史考察

1940年 9月美国和英国签订的“驱逐舰换基地”的秘密协定 ,是第二次世界大战爆发后美国尚处在战争之外的情况下 ,两国间达成的第一个重要双边军事协定。经过近 4个月的谈判 ,英国获得了迫切需要的驱逐舰 5 0艘 ,美国以此换取了租借英国在西大西洋和加勒比海上的 8个海空军基地 99年的权利 ,以及英国政府的重要保证 :英国一旦战败 ,皇家海军决不投降也不会被凿沉 ,而是开到海外继续保卫帝国     

语境、政治与历史：义和团运动评价50年

百年以来,占支配地位的对义和团的评价意见,主要不是来自学术本身,而是源于对中国现状与未来走向的观察与判断。整个20世纪,人们据以言说义和团的语境发生了多次深刻变迁：从五四时期反传统启蒙语境到2040年代的反帝国主义救亡语境,从50-60年代的反西方冷战语境到80年代的反封建新启蒙语境,再至90年代的反激进新保守主义语境,大体可以看作指导义和团评价的语境变迁史。语境不同,义和团这一历史事件的面貌也在不断变动。21世纪初叶,中国仍将处在义和团暴动所提出的问题的覆盖之下,对义和团的研究与评价,仍将难以完全摆脱以民族主义为主要内容的政治的制约。     

"特种战争"与中国"援越抗美"的初步酝酿

为了遏制共产主义在东南亚的扩张,维护美国的全球霸权,1961年5月,美国总统肯尼迪公然发动了对越南的“特种战争”。面对美国在“南大门”的战争挑衅,中国政府从无产阶级的国际主义和维护越南独立和统一的立场出发,在政治、经济、外交和军事等方面积极支持越南人民的抗美爱国斗争,并应越南党和政府的请求,开始了“援越抗美”的初步酝酿,最终确立了“美国走一步,中国走一步;美国出兵,中国也出兵”的基本原则和立场。     

中国抗日战争在世界反法西斯战争中的历史地位

抗日战争时期,在中国共产党的倡导和推动下,建立了全民族的抗日民族统一战线,中国人民的抗日战争抵制和消耗了日本军队大量的兵力,阻止了日本进攻苏联的计划,配合和援助了世界反法西斯战争。因此,中国人民抗日战争在世界反法西斯战争中具有重要的历史地位。     

Companions,zappers, and invaders: The animal geopolitics of Sealab I,II, and III (1964–1969)

Between 1964 and 1969, the US Navy undertook a series of experimental projects designed to enable ‘man’ to live and work on the seafloor, in undersea habitats, for prolonged periods of time without surfacing. These little studied projects, known as Sealab I, II, and III, were framed as an ‘attack’ on the hostile space of the sea by the warrior like figure of the American ‘aquanaut’. Drawing on feminist geopolitical scholarship, this paper seeks to decentre the human protagonists of Sealab by foregrounding the role of non-human animal life in the projects. In doing so, it argues that animals actively shaped how the undersea environment came to be understood and inhabited by the US military and calls for greater attention to be paid to the agency of animals – their lives and fleshy affordances - in the construct of territory, and to the ways in which non-human life can complicate the ideas associated with the frontier, gender, and the exertion of colonial power.     

Alfred Walter Campbell’s return to Australia

Alfred Walter Campbell (1868–1937) established the basic cytoarchitectonic structure of the human brain while he was working as a pathologist at the Rainhill Lunatic Asylum near Liverpool in the United Kingdom. He returned to Australia in 1905 and continued doing research while establishing a neurological practice. His research over the next 17 years focused on four topics: (a) localisation in the cerebellum, (b) the neuroses and psychoses in war, (c) localisation in the cerebral cortex of the gorilla, and (d) the causes and pathology of the mysterious Australian “X” Disease (later known as Murray Valley encephalitis). In this article, I elaborate on his research in these areas, which provided evidence (a) against Louis Bolk’s thesis that variation in the size of the cerebellar cortex reflected variation in the amount of cortex controlling various groups of muscle, (b) against the view that the neuroses and psychoses in war were different from those in civilian life, (c) for a parcelation of the cortex of the gorilla brain that supported his earlier findings in the higher apes, and (d) on the cause and pathophysiology of Australian “X” disease. Much of this research was overlooked, but it remains of considerable value and historical significance.