H. te Velde, Stijlen van leiderschap. Persoon en politiek van Thorbecke tot Den Uyl Jac Bosmans, The political culture between political history and the history of civilizationIn principle, the author agrees with Te Velde's choice of Thorbecke, Kuyper, Colijn, Drees and Den Uyl as examples of styles of policy-making which, with the benefit of hindsight, seem to be an apt expression of the political spirit of their days, though he does place a few question marks against the choice of Colijn and Drees. In addition, he advocates the establishment of a mutually beneficial co-operative relationship between tfiose political historians who focus in particular on investigating the cultural aspects of politics and those who are more interested in examining the actual results. He argues that this kind of co-operation is necessary in order to withstand the tendency of many cultural historians to claim almost the entire past as the focus of their research, a claim which leaves no room for political history as a separate field of study. This review is part of the discussion forum 'Stijlen van leiderschap' (H. te Velde).
The purpose of this article is to understand why the traditional pattern of a leftist working class and a rightist middle class has declined over the years in many Western countries. Two explanatory theories are put forward. The material explanation suggests that because Western countries have become richer over the years, issues tied to class conflict have become less salient while new, cultural issues of individual freedom versus order have become more salient. The second explanation, focusing on the process of secularization, suggests that cultural issues have become more salient as church membership has declined in these countries. It is studied whether the emergence of a new political culture has weakened economic voting motivations for the working class to vote left and the middle class to vote right, whereas it has strengthened cultural voting motives leading members of the working class to vote right and members of the middle class to vote left. Hypotheses are tested using party-manifesto data and World Values Survey Data. It is concluded that as societies become more secular cultural issues become more salient, causing cultural voting motives to undermine the conventional pattern of a left-wing working class and right-wing middle class.
The authority of 'Mr. Speaker' in nineteenth-century Dutch parliamentary cultureThe contemporary authority of the Speaker of the Second Chamber is obvious. His presence, for example, is repeatedly evoked with the enchanting mantra 'Mister Speaker' ['Mijnheer de voorzitter'], even though the Speaker hardly ever has anything to say concerning content. In the nineteenth century — the so-called 'age of parliamentarianism' — presidential authority was not a matter of course and was an important subject of political debate that lasted for decades. This article investigates the struggle for authority through the words and deeds of representatives, Speakers and political commentators. This quest for exemplary chairmanship resulted in a number of parliamentary rules, rituals and (invented) traditions. These will prove that, far from being a matter of course, the authority of 'Mr. Speaker' was in fact a wily construction.This article is part of the special issue 'Parlementen in de Nederlanden'.
National and Local Professional Associations of Journalists in the Netherlands, 1880-1930In the Netherlands it was only at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth that a true journalistic culture - the art of reporting, the strive for objectivity, exploring social life etc. - started to emerge here and there. Although members of a national professional association, the Nederlandsche Journalistenkring (NJK, founded in 1883) participated in debates where ideas about 'new journalism' were discussed, in the eighteen nineties there was no journalistic tradition worth mentioning, not on a national level. It is true that the NJK was not a local affair, but gross differences existed within the association between the independent press with a growing reporter potential in Amsterdam and the parliamentary press in the Hague who principally focused on relevant to public government values like 'honor and responsibility'. Gradually, the NJK members working in The Hague started to gain more influence. In 1920 the power in the NJK was taken over by Haguean group. The shift completely changed the mentality of the NJK. It used to be a union stressing attitudes and rights of journalists in relation to their profession and the news. Now it had become an organization highly preoccupied with ethics, duties and the rules journalists should abide in their relation to authority and politics.
Sjoerd Keulen, Monumenten van beleid. De wisselwerking tussen Nederlands rijksoverheidsbeleid, sociale wetenschappen en cultuur, 1945-2002 (Dissertatie Universiteit van Amsterdam; Hilversum: Verloren, 2014, 400 pp., ISBN 978 90 8704 443 5).
Johannes Henricus van der Palm (1763-1840) was the most famous orator of his age in the Netherlands. He was educated as a Protestant minister, but the revolutionary movements of the 1780s and 1790s launched him into politics and he became Minister of National Education. His extreme tendency to shy away from public conflicts made him less fit for politics and he returned to academia as a professor of oriental languages and sacred rhetoric, after which he reached the pinnacle of fame by speaking about the virtues of peace and harmony at almost every important public occasion. He personified the virtues of the Restoration (1813-1840) and his magnificent voice added to his attraction. Studying the extreme popularity of his oratory and the reasons why he was praised so much helps to better understand this period which was much more devoted to (classical) eloquence than the time after his death. Only if we understand the importance contemporaries attached to oral instead of just written presentation, can historians begin to reevaluate the Restoration that has always been criticised for being dull, superficial and obsessed with reconciling the polarised society after the revolutionary age.Johannes Henricus van der Palm (1763-1840) was de beroemdste redenaar van zijn tijd in Nederland. Hij werd opgeleid als predikant, maar de revolutionaire verwikkelingen van de jaren 1780 en 1790 wierpen hem in de politiek en hij werd agent van Nationale Opvoeding. Zijn extreme neiging openbare conflicten te vermijden maakte hem minder geschikt voor de politiek en hij keerde terug naar de universiteit als hoogleraar in oosterse talen en gewijde welsprekendheid en bereikte toen het hoogtepunt van zijn roem als spreker over vrede en verzoening bij vrijwel ieder belangrijk publiek evenement. Hij verpersoonlijkte de deugden van de Restauratie (1813-1840) en zijn prachtige stem versterkte zijn aantrekkingskracht. Bestudering van de enorme populariteit van zijn welsprekendheid en van de redenen waarom hij zo hoog werd geprezen, helpt om deze periode te begrijpen die zoveel meer gehecht en gewijd was aan (klassieke) welsprekendheid dan de tijd na zijn dood. Alleen als we het belang doorgronden dat in die tijd werd gehecht aan orale in plaats van alleen schriftelijke presentatie, kunnen historici de tijd van Restauratie gaan herwaarderen die altijd bekritiseerd is als saai, oppervlakkig en geobsedeerd door de verzoening van de maatschappij na de revolutionaire tijd.ActualiteitsparagraafSpeeches in crisistijd. Verzoening met woorden in de negentiende eeuw De uitzonderlijke speech van Mark Rutte over het coronavirus staat niet in een Nederlandse traditie van spreken door gezagsdragers. Die was er echter wel aan het begin van de negentiende eeuw, toen de beroemde redenaar, minister, predikant en hoogleraar Johannes Henricus van der Palm bij grote nationale gebeurtenissen het woord nam. Hij behoorde tot de laatste generatie die de welsprekendheid leerde volgens de principes van de klassieke oudheid. In zijn artikel voor BMGN – Low Countries Historical Review (135-1) toont Henk te Velde aan dat Van der Palm door zijn redenaarstalent onvoorstelbaar populair werd. Zijn geruststellende en opbeurende toon paste helemaal in de sfeer van verzoening na de crisis van de Franse Revolutie en oorlog rond 1800. Ook zijn heldere en emotionerende stemgeluid droeg daaraan bij. In de vele beschrijvingen van zijn redes kunnen we hem bijna horen spreken. De volgende generatie keerde zich echter tegen zijn postrevolutionaire harmonie en consensus. Thorbecke nam afscheid van Van der Palms verzoenende crisisretorica: geen holle woorden, maar wetenschappelijke precisie! Hardhandig kwam er een einde aan deze traditie; de nadruk op harmonisch overleg zou telkens terugkeren, maar sinds Van der Palm kent Nederland geen traditie meer van ministeriële speeches.
In the institutional context of literature in Flanders Herman de Coninck (1944–97) was an important player (or "actor"). The author is well known as a poet, a literary critic and editor of the Dutch Granta-like magazine Nieuw Wereldtijdschrift (NWT). Academics and essayists have paid much critical attention to de Coninck's poetics and aesthetic views. In a recent anthology of Flemish poetry since the sixties, Hotel New Flandres (2008), he is called an innovative "paradigmatic poet" in the poetry system of Flanders. Much less known is his place in and relationship to the field of Afrikaans literature. Daniel Hugo published two anthologies with poetry of de Coninck in Afrikaans and Antjie Krog was invited by the Flemish editor to participate in NWT. Later on, these essays were rewritten and brought together in Krog's Country of My Skull. Reading prose and poetry by de Coninck and focusing on references to South Africa, we can study his perspective on Afrikaans (language and literature), his points of view on social and political developments in the post-apartheid era. The purpose of this article is to present documentary material to illustrate and comment on de Coninck's ideas on literature, language and society. This commentary on ideological and aesthetic opinions can form the basis for further discursive and institutional research with regard to the presence in and the image building of South Africa in the works by a canonized Flemish writer.
Following the Second World War there are two priorities in France: the resignation of the economy and the reconstruction of the ravaged cities to house thousands of homeless families. Holidays and leisure activities represented only a limited portion of everyday live and wasn't a sector in which the government was ready to invest. Yet, in a span of barely twenty years, France would built a tourist empire where seaside end ski resorts literally rose out of thin air. Which role did the french culture play in the emergence of mass tourism? ; Peer reviewed
Cultuur Stelsel is the most exploitative conditions in the colonial Dutch East Indies. Cultuur Stelsel is far more draconian than the VOC monopoly system, because the target revenue badly needed state revenue by the government. Assets Cultuur Stelsel can contributed immensely to the country Netherlands. Thus, in the year 1830-1870 was the golden age of Dutch East Indies government. Cultuurstelsel theory does not overload the people, but in practice, Cultuurstelsel proved highly detrimental to farmers, especially in Java, which resulted in misery, poverty and death for the people in the colonie
Recensione di: Claudia Boscolo e Stefano Jossa (a cura di), Scritture di resistenza. Sguardi politici dalla narrativa italiana contemporanea, Roma, Carocci Editore, 2014, 204 p. ISBN: 9788843074143, € 16,00.
Review of: The Italian Renaissance State, A. Gamberini & I. Lazzarini (eds), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2012, 634 p., ISBN: 9781107010123, € 100,00.
Recensione di: Guido Panvini, Cattolici e violenza politica. L'altro album di famiglia del terrorismo italiano, Venezia: Marsilio editore, 2014, 400 p., ISBN-13: 978-8831717533, 22 euro.
Review of: Politics and Society in Italian Crime Fiction: An Historical Overview by Barbara Pezzotti, Jefferson North Carolina, McFarland & Company, 2014, 234 pp., ISBN 9780786476527, € 32.46 / £ 30.56 / $ 40.00 (paperback).
Recensione di: Lindsay Myers, Making the Italians. Poetics and Politics of Italian Children's Fantasy, Bern, Peter Lang, 2012, 251p., ISBN: 9783039113613, € 38,80.
Deze bijdrage gaat in op de cultuurhistorische context van de problematiek van leerstofkeuzes in het geschiedenisonderwijs, een onderwerp dat sterk de aandacht trekt in de politiek en de media. De vraag wélke historische kennis en inzichten relevant zijn voor jongeren en volwassenen in de huidige samenleving wordt echter zelden expliciet gesteld. Nu de buitenschoolse verwerving van historische kennis en inzicht sterk is veranderd, waardoor de historische cultuur gefragmenteerd en gedifferentieerd is, terwijl het aantal uren geschiedenisonderwijs drastisch is verminderd, is reflectie op leerstofcriteria noodzakelijk De van oorsprong vaderlandslievende functies van het geschiedenisonderwijs, gericht waren op nation building, voldoen niet meer. Toch vervult de vertrouwde historische canon als format nog een belangrijke bindende en uniformerende functie in de cultuuroverdracht. De canon ontleent zijn veerkracht aan het finalistisch schema van een voortgang in de tijd, gekoppeld aan een presentatie door middel van een epische concentratie op maatgevende gebeurtenissen, personen en ideeën. Niettemin is er tevens sprake van 'de-canonisering', een proces waarin de vanzelfsprekende betekenis van de vertrouwde historische kennis ter discussie komt te staan door het gebruik van perspectieven als klasse, gender en etniciteit in de geschiedbeoefening. Een geïnstitutionaliseerde wijze van overdracht van historische kennis en inzicht kan niet zonder enig historisch overzicht; losse feitjes zijn nietszeggend zonder samenhang. Systematische reflectie op het fenomeen van de can
