Suchergebnisse

U dosadašnjim istoriografskim tumačenjima, nedovoljna pažnja je poklanjana procesima preinačavanja urbane matrice Beograda, uzrokovanih promenljivim socio­ekonomskim interesima. Neuhvatljiv u svom vremenu i tek sa distance razumljiv, kulturni identitet srpske prestonice se u poslednja dva veka često menjao, uporedo sa njenim prostornim proširivanjem, gustim izgrađivanjem i demografskim omasovljavanjem. Radikalna i umerenija graditeljska preinačavanja, prevashodno izazvana ratnim razaranjima, diskontinuitetima u razvoju društva, promenama političkih uređenja, vladarskih i arhitektonskih ideologija, rezultirala su preteranom stilskom šarolikošću i visinskom neujednačenošću izgrađenog fonda. Preinačavanja su uglavnom inicirana planskim odlukama viših društvenih instanci ili spontanim, najčešće neobrazloženim manifestacijama tihe građevinske evolucije. Transformacije srpske prestonice preduzimane tokom poslednja dva veka najpre u vazalnoj, a potom nezavisnoj srpskoj i jugoslovenskoj državi, nejednako su se odražavale na sistem zatečene gradske strukture i život u njoj. Na osnovu dosadašnjih kritičkih promišljanja, preinačavanja se mogu diferencirati prema obimu realizovanosti, civilizacijskoj primerenosti (ili neopravdanosti), stepenu obrazloženosti, urbanističko­arhitektonskoj metodologiji i ideološko­ekonomskim platformama na kojima su počivala. ; So far, the historiographic thought has not paid enough attention to the processes of transforming urban patterns of Belgrade, caused by changing socio­economic interests. Evasive in real time and comprehensible only from a time distance, the cultural identity of the Serbian capital has often changed over the last two centuries, in parallel with its spatial growth, dense development and demographic boom. Its transformations, sometimes radical and sometimes more moderate, were primarily dictated by war destructions, discontinued social developments, overturning of political systems and with it ruling and architectural ideologies, which resulted in too many different styles and non-harmonized height lines of the constructed edifices. The alternations were usually initiated by decisions of state urban planners or spontaneous, mainly unjustified manifestations of 'silent' building evolution. These transformations of the Serbian capital which first occurred in a vassal and then in an independent Serbian and later Yugoslav state, had different impacts on the existing system of the city structures and the city life. According to critical thought so far, these transformations can be differentiated by the scope of their completion, civilizational appropriateness (or inappropriateness), degree of justifiability, urbanistic-architectural methodology and ideological­ economic platforms that inspired them.

USApp Managing Editor, Chris Gilson looks at the best in political blogging from around the Beltway.

AbstractThis article explores the American role in the Syrian political scene in Cairo toward the end of World War I and in its immediate aftermath. It challenges the absence of the United States and of American actors as primary players in much of the historical writing on the Middle East in this period. It illuminates a neglected episode of regional American diplomacy, argues that the United States was not relegated to the periphery in local debates surrounding the dismemberment of Ottoman Syria, and emphasizes the broader uncertainties that characterized the competition for Mandate territories in the Middle East prior to 1920. In doing so, it takes a close look at the long-forgotten reports of William Yale, the U.S. State Department's "Special Agent" in Cairo in late 1917, and situates them within evolving trends in Syrian-Arab politics. Yale, who surfaced in Egypt after serving with Standard Oil in Palestine, was the key Arabic-speaking American "on the spot" and proved to be an astute if imperfect observer of the diversity of Syrian national sentiment. A survey of his reports allows for a new perspective on Cairo's Syrians and their pragmatic and ideological turn toward the United States as World War I unfolded. Alienated from Britain and France, they looked increasingly to the United States, and the appeal of a postwar American trusteeship over Syria gained currency among émigré intellectuals and aspiring powerbrokers.