Remembering and Forgetting Sites of Terrorism in New York, 1900–2001

Abstract

This article assesses the manner in which terrorist attacks have been remembered and forgotten within New York during the twentieth century. As a 'global city', New York has frequently been the focus of individuals and groups seeking to promote their cause by attacking targets in the city, its businesses, its infrastructure, its organizations, and its citizens. By examining how these events were reported and subsequently incorporated or dismissed within both the urban fabric and the city's 'collective memory', this article addresses how violent terrorism is engaged with by society. Building upon the advances made within the study of modern conflict archaeology, this article examines the possibility of an archaeology of terrorism.     

Blessed are the Peacemakers: Canada,the United Nations,and the Search for a Korean Armistice, 1952–53

Abstract

Canada's post-war role as a middle power within the UN system and a strong advocate of negotiated settlement of international disputes focuses on Lester Pearson's role in the Suez Crisis of 1956 and dates Canada's new diplomatic stance from that time. This article argues that Canada's emerging diplomatic stance in fact is grounded in the diplomacy surrounding the Korean War at the beginning of that decade.     

The Wortley Park Poachers and the Outbreak of the English Civil War

Abstract

On the eve of the Civil War, Sir Francis Wortley's deer park near Sheffield attracted the persistent attention of well armed plebeian poachers. The killing of Wortley's deer was an act of defiance that slighted his honour. His reputation was further undermined by the verbal abuse of several yeoman, prompting him into defending his reputation in the West Riding Quarter Sessions and the High Court of Chivalry. An examination of this litigation leads into a discussion of Sir Francis's concept of honour, distrust of popular politics and identification with the ideology of Charles I's personal rule. A micro-history approach to Sir Francis and his poacher enemies addresses the historiographical debate over whether deference or defiance defined plebeian attitudes to the ruling elite. It also impacts upon the formation of popular allegiance at the outbreak of civil war, and Wortley's brief notoriety as a national figure when he drew his sword for the King at York on 30 April 1642.     

The Chronology of the Last Scandinavian Kings of York,AD 937–954

Abstract

The Cistercian Abbey of Holm Cultram was a twelfth-century royal foundation of Prince Henry, son of King David I when this part of northern England was under Scottish control. The abbey developed a successful network of benefactors spanning both sides of the Border. It was also effective in developing positive relationships with key ecclesiastical figures including Bishop Christian of Whithorn and bishops of Glasgow. The economic strength of the abbey was derived from wool, salt and fish production. In 1193, a daughter house named Grey Abbey was founded in Ulster. The benefits of the frontier location were cut short with the onset of the wars in the 1290s. Holm Cultram Abbey found itself on the path of the marching armies and had to provide supplies and lodgings. When the estates of the abbey and the precinct were attacked by the Scots on several occasions in the fourteenth century, the community turned to the English kings for compensation. On other occasions the abbots did not hesitate to pay ransom to prevent damages to the abbey. Not only the economic difficulties brought by the war, but also loss of contact with the mother house of Melrose and Scottish benefactors more generally, altered the character of Holm Cultram, which became a much more English institution when the cross-Border networks were cut off.     

THE CITY OF GOD AND AFTER: RELIGIOUS CHANGE AND ORGANISATIONAL DECLINE IN GREAT ENGLISH TOWNS SINCE C. 1850

Abstract

The demands and effects of warfare have not been one of the traditional concerns of historians of early modern English towns. This essay looks at the way in which the townsmen of York, Hull and Beverley responded to the demands of war. It explores the level of urban involvement in the king's wars, mainly but not exclusively against the Scots, and the way in which the pressure of war acted to transform relations within towns and relations between towns and their neighbours. In a period when towns were experiencing rapid economic, social and religious change, war provided one means of renegotiating power relations and allowed urban elites to expand their authority, through partnership with the Crown, vis-à-vis their fellow citizens and non-urban elites. The balance between profiting from war and being ruined by its demands was a fine one, however, exemplified by the experience of Hull in the 1540s.     

South African War (1899–1902) Memorials in Britain: A Case Study of Memorialization in London and Kent

Abstract

Mass public commemoration of war dead is often held to be a twentieth-century phenomenon, with its genesis in the Great War. This article argues for a pre-history occasioned by commemoration of the South African War (1899–1902) that built on shifts in the form and function of war memorials that had begun in the middle of the nineteenth century.     

The Impact of the Franco-Prussian War on Veterans: The Company-Level Career Patterns of the French Army 1870–1895

Abstract

The German Army generally failed to capitalize on early developments in mechanization and armoured vehicles during the second half of the First World War. This article argues that, while the German military was certainly not technophobic nor resistant to change, the developments in 'machine warfare' were fundamentally inimical to the dominant cultural assumptions held by German officers concerning the nature of war, and that this goes a long way in explaining the decision not to mass-produce armoured vehicles.     

‘Against God-Inspired Conscience’: The Perception of Gas Warfare as a Weapon of Mass Destruction, 1915–1939

Abstract

This article explores the distinctive character of the British Legion (Scotland) during the inter-war years, a subject which has generally received little attention. The creation after the Great War of a mass movement for exservicemen and women formed a new departure in British life and had a profound influence in reshaping British attitudes towards veterans and their needs. These developments played themselves out differently in the national communities that constitute the United Kingdom, and the branches of the British Legion rarely spoke with a single voice.     

The Origins of British Military Psychiatry Before the First World War

Abstract

This article discusses the military role of the Moorish units deployed by the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), and assesses their impact in cultural, social, and religious terms, especially given the image of Muslim troops going back to the Reconquista.     

Book reviews

Abstract

This paper explores not just a framework for the protection of cultural heritage relating to a certain place, but also its use as a tool for the enhancement and survival of an identity, based on tradition, common history, and respect for the surrounding environment and identities. The aim is to secure the communities' identities within a common economic framework based on the sustainable development of tourism.

After considering the social complexity of interpreting Spanish twentieth-century history (especially the Civil War and dictatorship), the paper considers the management and interpretation of a Civil War complex at Villargord o del Cabriel, in the Valencia region, which includes the concerns and desires for both resource conservation and economic development. It is proposed that this can be achieved by short-term strategies for community involvement, combined with long-term concerns for conservation of the architecture and the environment, educational and interpretive strategies for the park and surrounding landscape, monitoring, and review, and sustainable tourism in the area.