Archives are places of history. They preserve testimonies of the past and make them accessible to the public, and also keep documents that bear witness to their own past.The influence of politics and ideology on archival activity was strongly developed during the period of National Socialism in Germany. Thus, the State Archives of Hamburg took a special position in the issue of the so-called "proofs of the Aryan" ("Ariernachweise") on account of its sources.The present work examines the past as well as the role of the state archives as well as the scientific archivists - Heinrich Reincke, Hans Kellinghusen, Erich von Lehe, and Kurt Detlev Möller - during the period of National Socialism by examination of the records, and considers the results on basis of current research.
Brazilian society was shaken by turmoil in the 1920s and 1930s. The country was rocked by heated debates over race and immigration, burgeoning social movements in cities and the countryside, entrenched oligarchies clinging to power, and nature being despoiled. Against this turbulent backdrop, a group of biology scholars at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro joined the drive to renew the Brazilian nation, claiming as their weapon the voice of their fledgling field. Without discarding scientific rigor, they embraced biology as a creed and activism as a conviction—and achieved success in their bid to influence public policy in environmental protection and the rational use of natural resources. For the first time in English, Brazil's leading environmental historian, Regina Horta Duarte, brings us a nuanced analysis of the National Museum of Brazil's contribution to that country's formation and history. In "Activist Biology", Duarte explores the careers of three of these scientists as they leveraged biology as a strategy for change. Devoted to educational initiatives, they organized exhibits, promoted educational film and radio, wrote books, published science communication magazines, fostered school museums, and authored textbooks for young people. Their approach was transdisciplinary, and their reliance on multimedia formats was pioneering. Capturing a crucial period in Brazil's history, this portrait of science as a creative and potentially transformative pathway will intrigue anyone fascinated by environmental history, museums, and the history of science. Duarte skillfully shows how Brazilian science furthered global scientific knowledge in ways that are relevant now more than ever.
This book traces the origins, history, and memory of the Jalayirid dynasty, a family that succeeded the Mongol Ilkhans in Iran and Iraq in the 14th and early 15th centuries. The story of how the Jalayirids came to power is illustrative of the political dynamics that shaped much of the Mongol and post-Mongol period in the Middle East. The Jalayirid sultans sought to preserve the social and political order of the Ilkhanate, while claiming that they were the rightful heirs to the rulership of that order. Central to the Jalayirids' claims to the legacy of the Ilkhanate was their attempt to control the Ilkhanid heartland of Azarbayjan and its major city, Tabriz. Control of Azarbayjan meant control of a network of long-distance trade between China and the Latin West, which continued to be a source of economic prosperity through the 8th/14th century. Azarbayjan also represented the center of Ilkhanid court life, whether in the migration of the mobile court-camp of the ruler, or in the complexes of palatial, religious and civic buildings constructed around the city of Tabriz by members of the Ilkhanid royal family, as well as by members of the military and administrative elite.This title was made Open Access by libraries from around the world through Knowledge Unlatched.
On 11 September 1973, the Chilean Chief of the Armed Forces Augusto Pinochet overthrew the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende and installed a military dictatorship. Yet this is a book not of parties or ideologies but public history. It focuses on the memorials and memorialisers at seven sites of torture, extermination, and disappearance in Santiago, engaging with worldwide debates about why and how deeds of violence inflicted by the state on its own citizens should be remembered, and by whom. The sites investigated — including the infamous National Stadium — are among the most iconic of more than 1,000 such sites throughout the country. The study grants a glimpse of the depth of feeling that survivors and the families of the detained-disappeared and the politically executed bring to each of the sites. The book traces their struggle to memorialise each one, and so unfolds their idealism and hope, courage and frustration, their hatred, excitement, resentment, sadness, fear, division and disillusionment. 'This is a beautifully written book, a sensitive treatment of the issues and lives of those who have faced a great deal of loss, most often as unsung heroes, in what are now recognized as Chilean sites of memory. The book is a testament to people who have not been asked to speak, until Peter Read and Marivic Wyndham ask them to tell their stories. They do not shy away from hard tensions about memorialization, the difficulties of challenging a powerful state and the long and arduous struggles to ensure less powerful voices are heard.' — Professor Katherine Hite, Frederick Ferris Thompson Chair of Political Science, Vassar College, USA.
After the occupation of Hamburg by British troops on May 3rd, 1945, the Hamburg University was closed, but reopened on November 6th, 1945 - half a year after the end of the "Third Reich" and the Second World War. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of this reopening on 6 November 2015, the University of Hamburg took the opportunity to publicly discuss the difficult transition of its own institution from the Nazi dictatorship into the democratic post-war period. This volume of "Hamburger Universitätsreden" documents the four speeches held on on this occation.
Jon Mee explores the popular democratic movement that emerged in the London of the 1790s in response to the French Revolution. Central to the movement's achievement was the creation of an idea of "the people" brought into being through print and publicity. Radical clubs rose and fell in the face of the hostile attentions of government. They were sustained by a faith in the press as a form of print magic, but confidence in the liberating potential of the printing press was interwoven with hard-headed deliberations over how best to animate and represent the people. Ideas of disinterested rational debate were thrown into the mix with coruscating satire, rousing songs, and republican toasts. Print personality became a vital interface between readers and print exploited by the cast of radicals returned to history in vivid detail by Print, Publicity, and Popular Radicalism.
Spain, China and Japan in Manila, 1571–1644 offers a new perspective on the connected histories of Spain, China, and Japan as they emerged and developed following Manila's foundation as the capital of the Spanish Philippines in 1571. Examining a wealth of multilingual primary sources, Birgit Tremml-Werner shows that cross-cultural encounters not only shaped Manila's development as a "Eurasian" port city, but also had profound political, economic, and social ramifications for the three pre-modern states. Combining a systematic comparison with a focus on specific actors during this period, this book addresses many long-held misconceptions and offers a more balanced and multi-faceted view of these nations' histories.
The Netherlands have a long and important tradition in scholarly philology. For instance in the early days of Leiden University 'philology', or the critical examination of classical texts, was regarded as a 'cutting-edge science'. This field of scholarship had far reaching implications on disciplines such as theology, chronology, astronomy, history, law and other demarcated bodies of knowledge identified as a separate science. Regardless of the exact field of inquiry, philologists as protectors and teachers of the written heritage always played a pivotal role in the formation of the cultural repertoire of the educated public. As men of learning and high esteem, philologists also exerted influence outside the cultural sphere, especially in politics and religion. The ever-changing composition of the philological frame of reference made no difference in this respect. But in the nineteenth century, the practice of philology was passing a crucial phase of change. In both its object of study and in its methods, several fundamental modifications occurred. Texts in the vernacular and national philologies attracted more and more attention of the public, and 'neo-philology' succeeded in taking over the central position traditionally occupied by classical philology. Subfields such as 'linguistics', 'edition technique' and 'history' grew into new, more-or-less independent (sub-)disciplines, whereas scientific methods such as stemmatology and comparative approaches were introduced in the humanities. This redesigned the landscape of philology radically. New boundaries became apparent and existing ones were questioned or drawn sharper. At the time, philology underwent an accelerated process of differentiation and professionalization. Philology demarcated its own more or less independent sphere, with a specific authority. The establishment of a branch of 'national philology' can be regarded as an example of discipline formation in the humanities. This fascinating process of change and the search for new boundaries in Dutch philology is highlighted in this book The Practice of Philology in the Netherlands in the Nineteenth Century, the first book on this topic in the English language.
In Metroimperial Intimacies Victor Román Mendoza combines historical, literary, and archival analysis with queer-of-color critique to show how U.S. imperial incursions into the Philippines enabled the growth of unprecedented social and sexual intimacies between native Philippine and U.S. subjects. The real and imagined intimacies—whether expressed through friendship, love, or eroticism—threatened U.S. gender and sexuality norms. To codify U.S. heteronormative behavior, the colonial government prohibited anything loosely defined as perverse, which along with popular representations of Filipinos, regulated colonial subjects and depicted them as sexually available, diseased, and degenerate. Mendoza analyzes laws, military records, the writing of Philippine students in the United States, and popular representations of Philippine colonial subjects to show how their lives, bodies, and desires became the very battleground for the consolidation of repressive legal, economic, and political institutions and practices of the U.S. colonial state. By highlighting the importance of racial and gendered violence in maintaining control at home and abroad, Mendoza demonstrates that studies of U.S. sexuality must take into account the reach and impact of U.S. imperialism.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, colonial powers clashed over much of Central and East Asia: Great Britain and Germany fought over New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, Fiji, and Samoa; France and Great Britain competed over control of continental Southwest Asia; and the United States annexed the Philippines and Hawaii. Meanwhile, the possible disintegration of China and Japan's growing nationalism added new dimensions to the rivalries. Surveying these and other international developments in the Pacific basin during the three decades preceding World War I, Kees van Dijk traces the emergence of superpowers during the colonial race and analyzes their conduct as they struggled for territory. Extensive in scope, Pacific Strife is a fascinating look at a volatile moment in history.
Alfred Beit (1853-1906) has been called a financial genius. When he went to South Africa in 1875, no one could imagine that the son of converted Hamburg Jews would soon become one of the richest men of his time - thanks to the diamonds of Kimberley and the gold of the Witwatersrand.As a co-founder of De Beers Ltd. and close friend of Cecil Rhodes, the charismatic promoter of British imperialism in southern Africa, Alfred Beit became one of the colonial fathers of Rhodesia. A British subject from 1898, he tried to mediate politically in the conflicts that developed between Germany and Britain with their respective empires, but failed to achieve a reconciliation between the two powers.Alfred Beit was himself a very prominent art collector and throughout his career he generously supported countless nonprofit-making institutions. TheHamburg Scientific Foundation itself owes its founding to one of his major donations. Beit's will passed on his wealth to a trust, which has financed development aid projects since 1906.This is the first comprehensive biography of this outstanding businessman, art collector and internationally active philanthropist.
When the Second World War ended, Europe was in ruins. Yet, politically and socially, the years between 1943 and 1947 were a time of dramatic reconfigurations, which proved to be foundational for the making of today's Europe. This volume hones in on the crucial period from the beginning of the end of Nazi rule in Europe to the advent of the Cold War. Through a series of interrelated case studies that span the entire continent, it demonstrates how the everyday experiences of Europeans during these five years shaped the transition of their societies from war to peace. The authors explore these reconfigurations on different scales and levels -the local and regional, the ethnic and national, and the international - with the purpose of enhancing our understanding of how wars end.
Human societies are highly exposed to climate and weather conditions. This applies in particular to the pre-industrial period. This volume presents a comprehensive and detailed climate reconstruction for the area of the Burgundian Low Countries in the 15th century. The reconstruction consists of two parts. Detailed weather descriptions from contemporary sources are complemented by systematised indices of seasonal temperature and precipitation patterns. The climate reconstruction serves as the basis for research on the impact of the weather on the economy of the Burgundian Low Countries. For the late Middle Ages grain prices are a very reliable economic indicator. Grain, an indispensable staple food and important merchandise, is directly exposed to the weather for the major part of the year. Statistical analyses of the price development of different grains in conjunction with the seasonal climate indices show a close interlinkage of the two variables. However, climate condition is only one of many factors impacting on grain price; the other factors are also presented and discussed in detail. Finally, the analysis of the development of grain prices reveals three phases of clearly increased prices in the 15th century: during the second half of the 1430s, at the beginning of the 1480s and during the last years of the 1480s until the beginning of the 1490s. The reasons for these grain price peaks, including weather conditions but also economic, political and other factors are outlined in the volume.
The immense ideological significance that the city of Rome held since the times of the late republic corresponded until the 2nd century AD with the actual supremacy of the urbs within the Imperium Romanum: Rome was the place where socially and politically influential players and groups met; it was where they tried to create an atmosphere of mutual understanding and agreement through complex ways of interaction. Until well into the imperial era the senatorial aristocracy considered the interacting presence of Rome as a major constant of their lifestyle. At least until the 1st century AD the emperors could not disengage themselves from the reference framework that the city was. Therefore, the forms and the reasons for aristocratic and imperial absence are of particular interest. Which role the absence of Rome played in the system of aristocratic interaction and which implications it had for politics and the society of the late republic and the early imperial era is the subject of the present study. Astrid Habenstein's work was awarded by the Historical Institute at the University of Bern with the prize for the best PhD-thesis in 2012.
2013 was the 80th year of the takeover of power by the National Socialists in 1933, the 75th year of the Reichspogromnacht" on 9 November 193, and the 70th year of the air raids on Hamburg by allied groups known as ""Operation Gomorrha"" in the summer of 1943. With the slogan ""Hamburg remembers 2013"", a large number of commemoration ceremonies were held. The University of Hamburg was involved in the program of events during the commemorative year through several of its institutions. For its central event, it chose the reference date of 7 April 1933, the day on which the ""Law on the Restoration of Professional Officials"" came into force - the basis for the dismissals of ""non-Aryan"" and politically undesirable university teachers in Germany. This volume brings together the four speeches given at the event on 8 April 2013. The commemoration ceremony on April 8,2013 and its documentation are part of a thirty-year-long intensive engagement of the University of Hamburg with its history in the ""Third Reich"" - a confrontation that has to be continued and revived over and over again over the course of generations."