state-run Intershops, where goods could be had for western currency, also cemented the view that ... more state-run Intershops, where goods could be had for western currency, also cemented the view that the 'have-nots' in the GDR were those without relatives in the West. The Wall also contributed in unexpected ways to the revolution of 1989. Wouldbe emigrants, increasingly vocal in 1989, coalesced into interregional groups that developed into an embryonic civil society. The mass emigration of East Germans that occurred when Hungary opened its border to Austria in the summer of 1989the pent-up result of the Wall-caused more protest at home, among those reformers who did not want to simply abandon the GDR. As Major summarizes: 'The refugee wave thus acted as an important catalyst to formalization of the citizens' initiatives' (244). Major successfully demonstrates the role that the Wall played in East German state and society, although it must be said that his strictly clinical approach tends to downplay the tragic human elements of the Wall. After all, many East Germans may have been allowed out on compassionate grounds, but many more were not.
BIHG 2016 Conference call for papers 24 BIHG Committee @BIHGroup | Newsletter 2015 Conferences, n... more BIHG 2016 Conference call for papers 24 BIHG Committee @BIHGroup | Newsletter 2015 Conferences, news and events BIHG 27th Annual conference 2015 The conference, which was the largest in the organisation's history, attracted over ninety delegates from all over the world The School of History at the University of Kent played host to the 27th Annual Conference of the British International History Group, 10-12 September 2015. The conference, which was the largest in the organisation's history, attracted over ninety delegates from all over the world, including Malaysia, South Korea, the United States, Canada, the Middle East, as well as a large contingent of academics from British universities. The conference opened with a round table discussion about changes in the
Following the bracing theoretical ferment of the 1990s, and amid the ongoing relentless rise of c... more Following the bracing theoretical ferment of the 1990s, and amid the ongoing relentless rise of culture, the disciplinary air has recently been thick with calls to curb experimental exuberance in favour of stabilization, or even recession.1 If David Reynolds’s elegant survey of the cultural turn in international history incarnates just such a sentiment, it is also distinguished by its generous tone.2 Moreover, he renders international historians a double service: not only has he provided an occasion for reflection on the achievements and limitations of culturalist approaches, but in illustrating to the broad readership of this journal that we are in fact engaged with cutting-edge theoretical and methodological concerns, he might also help to rescue us from the enormous condescension with which we are still regarded by many of our disciplinary peers. On the substantive issues at stake, I heartily concur that the cultural turn has enriched international history, but over prescription ...
First edition published 2011 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Sim... more First edition published 2011 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa ...
Abstract As the participant generation passes away, the current moment of Second World War cultur... more Abstract As the participant generation passes away, the current moment of Second World War cultural memory is suffused with a sense of an imminent ending and of our passing into a new phase of engagement beyond living memory, a phase which – so it is often held – will be the poorer for lacking the validating presence of first hand witnesses; it may even constitute a kind of closure. This essay takes this observation as a point of departure for a wider exploration of this contemporary landscape of remembrance which, it is argued, is peculiarly and multiply fraught with anxieties about authenticity. It begins by discussing how the steady disappearance of the participant generation serves as a foundation for this anxiety, looking at how it has helped to fuel particular sorts of mnemonic activity as part and parcel of a post-Cold War boom in Second World War remembrance. It then explores some wider aspects of that remembrance which are generating new concerns about authenticity and interrogating it in novel terms. Finally, it makes the case for what can be gained by viewing contemporary Second World War cultural memory through this particular lens and sets out a research agenda for the future.
state-run Intershops, where goods could be had for western currency, also cemented the view that ... more state-run Intershops, where goods could be had for western currency, also cemented the view that the 'have-nots' in the GDR were those without relatives in the West. The Wall also contributed in unexpected ways to the revolution of 1989. Wouldbe emigrants, increasingly vocal in 1989, coalesced into interregional groups that developed into an embryonic civil society. The mass emigration of East Germans that occurred when Hungary opened its border to Austria in the summer of 1989the pent-up result of the Wall-caused more protest at home, among those reformers who did not want to simply abandon the GDR. As Major summarizes: 'The refugee wave thus acted as an important catalyst to formalization of the citizens' initiatives' (244). Major successfully demonstrates the role that the Wall played in East German state and society, although it must be said that his strictly clinical approach tends to downplay the tragic human elements of the Wall. After all, many East Germans may have been allowed out on compassionate grounds, but many more were not.
BIHG 2016 Conference call for papers 24 BIHG Committee @BIHGroup | Newsletter 2015 Conferences, n... more BIHG 2016 Conference call for papers 24 BIHG Committee @BIHGroup | Newsletter 2015 Conferences, news and events BIHG 27th Annual conference 2015 The conference, which was the largest in the organisation's history, attracted over ninety delegates from all over the world The School of History at the University of Kent played host to the 27th Annual Conference of the British International History Group, 10-12 September 2015. The conference, which was the largest in the organisation's history, attracted over ninety delegates from all over the world, including Malaysia, South Korea, the United States, Canada, the Middle East, as well as a large contingent of academics from British universities. The conference opened with a round table discussion about changes in the
Following the bracing theoretical ferment of the 1990s, and amid the ongoing relentless rise of c... more Following the bracing theoretical ferment of the 1990s, and amid the ongoing relentless rise of culture, the disciplinary air has recently been thick with calls to curb experimental exuberance in favour of stabilization, or even recession.1 If David Reynolds’s elegant survey of the cultural turn in international history incarnates just such a sentiment, it is also distinguished by its generous tone.2 Moreover, he renders international historians a double service: not only has he provided an occasion for reflection on the achievements and limitations of culturalist approaches, but in illustrating to the broad readership of this journal that we are in fact engaged with cutting-edge theoretical and methodological concerns, he might also help to rescue us from the enormous condescension with which we are still regarded by many of our disciplinary peers. On the substantive issues at stake, I heartily concur that the cultural turn has enriched international history, but over prescription ...
First edition published 2011 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Sim... more First edition published 2011 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa ...
Abstract As the participant generation passes away, the current moment of Second World War cultur... more Abstract As the participant generation passes away, the current moment of Second World War cultural memory is suffused with a sense of an imminent ending and of our passing into a new phase of engagement beyond living memory, a phase which – so it is often held – will be the poorer for lacking the validating presence of first hand witnesses; it may even constitute a kind of closure. This essay takes this observation as a point of departure for a wider exploration of this contemporary landscape of remembrance which, it is argued, is peculiarly and multiply fraught with anxieties about authenticity. It begins by discussing how the steady disappearance of the participant generation serves as a foundation for this anxiety, looking at how it has helped to fuel particular sorts of mnemonic activity as part and parcel of a post-Cold War boom in Second World War remembrance. It then explores some wider aspects of that remembrance which are generating new concerns about authenticity and interrogating it in novel terms. Finally, it makes the case for what can be gained by viewing contemporary Second World War cultural memory through this particular lens and sets out a research agenda for the future.
This piece offers a critical appraisal of Keith Jenkins" work over the last two decades, thr... more This piece offers a critical appraisal of Keith Jenkins" work over the last two decades, through the prism of my own personal engagement with his writing. It assesses how Rethinking History and his other works of the 1990s helped precipitate wide-ranging and tempestuous debates about the nature of historical knowledge which were unprecedented in the modern discipline of history in Britain (and beyond). It then traces how these debates developed into the 2000s, as Jenkins" own position hardened and the discipline absorbed the "postmodern" challenge through partial incorporation, as evidenced inter alia by the emergence of new forms of theoretically-inflected cultural history. The impact of Jenkins" work on my own writing and teaching is discussed in an attempt to illuminate the broader collective experience of (parts of) a particular scholarly generation for which these titanic debates were a formative experience.
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