Suchergebnisse

The height of the French male population of the Ancien Régime is estimated, on the basis of military records, to have been about 162 cm in the 17th century. This extremely short stature implies that, "the crisis of the 17th century" had an immense impact on the human organism itself. The improvement in climatic conditions at the turn of the 18th century had an ameliorating effect on the human organism, increasing in size by nearly 4 cms within a span of 12 years. Improved weather had a beneficial impact on agricultural conditions as well as a direct effect on biological processes. The physical stature of men increased until the birth cohorts of the 1740s, to decline thereafter, in keeping with the European pattern, although the decline of the second half of the 18th century was not more severe than elsewhere in Europe. France was not suffering from a prolonged period of malnutrition of unusual severity, and the threat of a Malthusian crisis was mild compared to 17th-century conditions. Hence, the anthropometric evidence supports the notion that the French economic malaise was not a fundamental cause of the political turmoil. To be sure, there were very large social differences in the biological standard of living, which clearly fuelled the fires of revolution. The height of the French upper classes was 7 cm above average, but, that, too, was standard for contemporary Europe.

Contemporary reactions to neofascist movements for the most part focus on national contexts, and frequently pursue a simplistic argument about a dangerous 'repetition of history'. Warning that historical fascism might rise again like a revenant, commentators miss the fundamentally altered strategies of fascist actors in the era of digital communication and agitation. Introducing the critical term reflexive fascism, this article presents examples from Alt-Right 'meme' agitation to argue that 'reflexive fascism' presents a historiographic distortion: contemporary neofascist actors remake, revise and warp the very conceptions of post-war history and historical scholarship. Far from constituting a mere relapse into earlier states of history, the 'fascisms' currently erupting in many parts of the world and the internet are highly reflexive, self-referential, and include active re-imaginings of historical fascism and the institutional and discursive responses to it. Contemporary fascism is discussed as a reflexive undertaking that remakes post-war histories and democracies as 'risk productions' for ethnically understood nation states. It aspires not only to authoritarian desires, but agitates through a 'bottom-up' production of feelings of 'racial endangerment' for white people. Reflexive fascism is a model that can be used to understand how this updated 'fascism' cannot be imagined as the constitutive other of democracy and capitalism, but rather unfolds within and through the affective and communicative channels of these systems.

A Modern History of the Kurds by David McDowall. A Modern History of the Kurds, a book by David McDowall, is reviewed.

Starting with our students' experiences -- The archaeology of modernity -- The classical modern worldview -- The structural and cultural critiques of modernity -- Modern ideologies and the postmodern worldview -- Evaluating modernity's four worldviews -- Transcendence and modernity: resources for moving beyond modernity -- Meaning from outside: reengagement with religion? -- Culture and religion: Philip Reiff's sacred sociology -- Becoming human: desire, violence, and René Girard -- Modernity, pluralism, and God -- The starving Christ and a preferential option for the poor -- Finding ways beyond modernity -- Engaging the contemporary crisis -- Ways forward for economic life and global climate change -- Bob Goudzwaard's faith-filled witness in politics.

The syllabi on modern Middle Eastern history courses submitted by members of MESA were, not unnaturally, varied in general approach, in time span and in area covered. There were certain common elements, however, within the framework of which this syllabus has largely remained. Four such congruences were most important:1)the use of a chronological rather than a topical or problems approach in teaching the history of the modern Middle East (while particular topics or problems were often isolated within a particular time period, all of the syllabi submitted used a chronological framework);2)a general tendency to begin with a brief survey of the medieval history of the Middle East before beginning intensive treatment at the beginning of the nineteenth century;3)an emphasis on internal development and modernization rather than on political-diplomatic history;4)the frequent use of reading assignments (a chapter from one work, a number of pages from another) from a variety of semi-specialized or monographic works rather than reliance on one or more texts or readers.