Category Of Historical Analysis Research Articles

‘Rethinking camaraderie as emotional practices: deindustrialisation and deskilling in South Yorkshire coalfields, 1980s-2000s’

ABSTRACT Historical and sociological scholarship on the British coalfields has been driven by a sustained interest in community and class. Consequently, however, a focus on community can subsume camaraderie/comradeship as a category of historical analysis and its potential value as a framework for understanding change and continuity in practice, experience, and identity. Drawing on methodological tools from the history of emotions, and oral history interviews with ex-miners, this article employs the concept of ‘emotional practices’ to define camaraderie as a learnt, embodied, and affective workplace practice. Arising out of class processes, camaraderie constituted a workplace skill, important in communicating and mobilising ways of feeling and being, which oscillated between integration and alienation, alleviating and aggravating work experiences. It argues men’s lamentations over the loss of camaraderie should be understood as a profound emotional experience of deskilling, affecting how workers navigated and negotiated work and workplace transitions, and communicated with their co-workers and to themselves who they are. By integrating the history of work and the history of emotions into an analysis of camaraderie, it offers a contribution on the lasting effects of deindustrialisation on the body, experience, and identity, and towards a new way of conceptualising camaraderie as ‘emotional practices’.

Remembering Herbert Gutman's Work, Culture, and Society Fifty Years On

Remembering Herbert Gutman's <i>Work, Culture, and Society</i> Fifty Years On

Was Muṭarrif b. al-Mughīra al-Thaqafī a Khārijite?

This article reassesses the “Khārijite” rebellion of Muṭarrif b. al-Mughīra b. Shuʿba al-Thaqafī in 77/696–97 and recontextualizes it within a different “category” of revolt. Analyzing both the history and the historiography of this uprising, the article argues that Muṭarrif’s rebellion is best understood not within a Khārijite framework, but rather as part of a series of revolts carried out by other Iraqi tribal notables (ashrāf) in the same period. This reevaluation is based, for example, on the composition of Muṭarrif’s following, which shows clear connections with other important Iraqi/eastern leaders, such as Muṣʿab b. al-Zubayr, Ibn al-Ashʿath, and Yazīd b. al-Muhallab. These connections, observable in other structural patterns common to Marwānid-era rebellions as well, point to a similarity of grievances, reactions, and aims whose salience far exceeded the context of individual revolts. More broadly, this article also seeks to challenge the received scholarly understanding of Khārijism and to question its usefulness as a category of historical analysis, suggesting instead different approaches to a renewed engagement with this phenomenon.

The Polish Countryside as a Gray Zone: Village Heads and the Meso Level of the General Government, 1939–1945

This article focuses on a cluster of institutions rooted in Polish rural life that were co-opted by the German authorities into the lowest level of rule in occupied Poland from 1939-1945. It identifies these institutions as key meso-level structures that shaped the behavior of individuals on the ground. Specifically, it places the axis of analysis on the figure of the village head ( sołtys). It argues that the village security system, combined with the introduction of collective responsibility and imminent violence, was at the heart of a process of community-making, in which village heads inescapably played an important role. In this new dynamic of accountability, notions of “community” and “belonging” evolved relative to notions of “security” and “self-preservation” in the changing circumstances of life under occupation. The reimagined community forged in this wartime crucible was one of transformed identities, ingrained ethnic categories, new lines of solidarity, and new antagonisms. A collective biographical approach to village heads in this period culminates in the collective ethical dilemma as a category of historical analysis. The article draws primarily on testimonies found in postwar August Decree trials of individuals tried for collaboration in historic Western Galicia or District Krakow of the General Government. It employs a thick description of the subject to map personal narratives onto the broader social processes under examination.

Soraia André: the struggle inside and outside the mats in the (re)construction of the self

The work, by incorporating gender as a category of historical analysis, without disregarding the importance of class and race conflicts, examines how the construction of the sports trajectory of Soraia André, black judoka, former athlete of the Brazilian Olympic team, was processed until her departure from the mats in the early 1990's. Thus, I understand sports as a field of power, plots, conflicts, tensions and investments, the athlete's life story leads to an achievement for Brazilian female judo, in addition to revealing Soraia's struggle for the reconstruction of herself and the affirmation of her blackness.

Antisemitism and Pogroms

Antisemitism and Pogroms Anna Cichopek-Gajraj (bio) In the last decade, there has been an outpouring of important his-torical research on anti-Jewish violence, in general, and pogroms in Eastern Europe, in particular. Elissa Bemporad, Tim Buchen, David Engel, William W. Hagen, Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, Artur Markowski, Daniel L. Unowsky, Jeffrey Veidlinger, and Steven J. Zipperstein, among others, have redefined the field. While appreciating the significance of the Baronian antilachrymose turn in Jewish historiography, they have seriously considered the outsized impact that mob violence has had on Jewish lives in the modern period. Questions about the relationship between antisemitism and violence often framed their analyses, offering critical new insights. This historiographical violent turn has little representation in Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism, an otherwise brilliant volume. The chapter on pogroms by Jeffrey Kopstein—a renowned political scientist and coauthor of the influential Intimate Violence, on the 1941 pogroms in the Polish borderlands—focuses on political theory while leaving little room for the rich findings of the aforementioned scholarship. This short essay attempts to fill that gap. Kopstein is certainly right that "scholars disagree about the necessary and sufficient criteria for the term [pogrom]'s proper application."1 Historians, for example, hardly agree on its definition or even its utility as a category of historical analysis. Artur Markowski, in his important study of the 1906 pogrom in Białystok, argued that arriving at an all-encompassing definition is not only impossible but ultimately useless since every pogrom has varied mechanisms, causes, and consequences. He thus broadly defined it as "an act of collective violence, associated with an attack against Jews."2 David Engel also famously challenged the usefulness of the concept by asking: "What exactly is gained by grouping together under a single rubric" disparate occurrences of anti-Jewish violence? Do they "really have anything in common significant enough to warrant placing all of them under a single analytical heading?"3 Indeed, the term is burdened with longue durée paradigms and misconceptions such as its exclusive association with Russian or Eastern European history, assumptions of "backwardness" of the perpetrators, the involvement of the powers that be (conspiracy or provocation), and finally, the prominent role of [End Page 174] antisemitism as its major explanatory tool. Yet scholars, including Kopstein and myself, insist on using it to describe and explain anti-Jewish violence. Perhaps we do so out of habit, or perhaps because no other term allows the placement of Jewish ethnicity at the center of analysis. Donald L. Horowitz defined a pogrom as "a subcategory of the ethnic riot," that he understood as "an intense, sudden, though not necessarily wholly unplanned, lethal attack by civilian members of one ethnic group on civilian members of another ethnic group, the victims chosen because of their group membership."4 What makes the pogrom a useful analytical category is thus its ethnic coding, or as Rogers Brubaker and David D. Laitin explained, "ethnic difference [that] is integral rather than incidental to violence."5 The presumed modernity of ethnic categories does not make the concept unusable for other historical periods.6 Kopstein's analysis of violence in Alexandria (38 CE) and Valencia (1391) best illustrates how "contemporary scholars use 'pogrom' to describe anti-Jewish riots and 'exclusionary violence' in virtually every era of Jewish history from antiquity to the present."7 Still, historians of modern Eastern European Jewry view the eighty years of recurring pogroms in the region as a specifically modern urban phenomenon. Eugene M. Avrutin and Elissa Bemporad, in their introduction to a documentary history of pogroms in Eastern Europe, defined them as "mob attacks or deadly ethnic riots that were usually, but not always, carried out in urban settings."8 Engel underscored the modernity of pogroms by analyzing the role of states as major players in what he called "a particular interval [1860s–1940s] in the long-term historical evolution of public attitudes toward the modern state and its role in society."9 He argued that pogroms occurred when "a higher-ranking ethnic or religious group" claimed collective injury while lacking confidence "in the adequacy of the impersonal rule of law to deliver true justice."10 In other words...

The imperative for inclusion: A gender analysis of genetics

It has now been more than thirty years since Joan Wallach Scott (1986) argued that gender is a legitimate and necessary category of historical analysis that applies to all fields, including genetics. In the intervening years, a substantial body of work has appeared that adds women to the historiography of genetics. While this is a necessary component for including gender as a category of analysis in genetics, it is not sufficient. Gender analysis involves the broader goal of integrating gender into the interrogation of how social factors within research practices and institutional organization influence scientific work and knowledge production in genetics. This article argues for the imperative for inclusion—including both women and gender analysis—which, taken together, not only provide a more equitable and informative picture of the discipline's development, but also yield a historiography that more faithfully reflects the activity of doing science.

The Pleasure and Pain of Passing as (Dis)abled: Rudi Dutschke’s Exile in the United Kingdom (1968–1971) and the Ableism of the West German Student Movement

The Pleasure and Pain of Passing as (Dis)abled: Rudi Dutschke’s Exile in the United Kingdom (1968–1971) and the Ableism of the West German Student Movement

Magic as a Useful Category of Historical Analysis

AbstractThis article outlines the role and function of ‘service’ magic in premodern society, and suggests ways in which the study of magic can be used as a lens to investigate and understand broader historical questions. Magic studies is a marginalised field, and the supernatural generally is treated as an unusual aspect of the human experience. This article shows that there are major benefits to reintegrating magic into wider historical studies. The article begins by introducing the concept of service magic as a phenomenon in premodern societies, and argues for its fundamental importance particularly during the medieval and early modern periods. Having established this, I explore the ways that its reintegration can affect our interpretation of the past. This article suggests ways in which magic might be useful for exploring other fields of social, political and economic history. Its function as an illicit tool makes magic a unique window for exploring a number of topics, such as cultures of tolerance and persecution, black market and proto‐capitalist economics, and liminal or marginalised communities.

Getting Personal with Our Sources: A Response

Abstract In a complement to the 2020 AHR Roundtable “Chronological Age: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis” (125, no. 2), this AHR Exchange focuses on the history of children and childhood. Sarah Maza presents a critical review essay, highlighting the limiting factors in the expanding field of childhood studies. Children, she observes, produce few sources of their own voices, have limited agency, and as individuals and as a group soon outgrow their subaltern status—they grow up. Robin P. Chapdelaine, Nara Milanich, Steven Mintz, Ishita Pande, and Bengt Sandin—historians representing diverse geographical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives on the history of children and childhood—react to Maza’s observations by bringing up important methodological questions about subjecthood, agency, and modernity. Maza’s rejoinder reflects on these questions and on the possibility of age-based historical agency.

The Kids Aren’t All Right: Historians and the Problem of Childhood

Abstract In a complement to the 2020 AHR Roundtable “Chronological Age: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis” (125, no. 2), this AHR Exchange focuses on the history of children and childhood. Sarah Maza presents a critical review essay, highlighting the limiting factors in the expanding field of childhood studies. Children, she observes, produce few sources of their own voices, have limited agency, and as individuals and as a group soon outgrow their subaltern status—they grow up. Robin P. Chapdelaine, Nara Milanich, Steven Mintz, Ishita Pande, and Bengt Sandin—historians representing diverse geographical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives on the history of children and childhood—react to Maza’s observations by bringing up important methodological questions about subjecthood, agency, and modernity. Maza’s rejoinder reflects on these questions and on the possibility of age-based historical agency.

Little Voices: The Importance and Limitations of Children’s Histories

Abstract In a complement to the 2020 AHR Roundtable “Chronological Age: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis” (125, no. 2), this AHR Exchange focuses on the history of children and childhood. Sarah Maza presents a critical review essay, highlighting the limiting factors in the expanding field of childhood studies. Children, she observes, produce few sources of their own voices, have limited agency, and as individuals and as a group soon outgrow their subaltern status—they grow up. Robin P. Chapdelaine, Nara Milanich, Steven Mintz, Ishita Pande, and Bengt Sandin—historians representing diverse geographical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives on the history of children and childhood—react to Maza’s observations by bringing up important methodological questions about subjecthood, agency, and modernity. Maza’s rejoinder reflects on these questions and on the possibility of age-based historical agency.

Comment on Sarah Maza’s “The Kids Aren’t All Right”

Abstract In a complement to the 2020 AHR Roundtable “Chronological Age: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis” (125, no. 2), this AHR Exchange focuses on the history of children and childhood. Sarah Maza presents a critical review essay, highlighting the limiting factors in the expanding field of childhood studies. Children, she observes, produce few sources of their own voices, have limited agency, and as individuals and as a group soon outgrow their subaltern status—they grow up. Robin P. Chapdelaine, Nara Milanich, Steven Mintz, Ishita Pande, and Bengt Sandin—historians representing diverse geographical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives on the history of children and childhood—react to Maza’s observations by bringing up important methodological questions about subjecthood, agency, and modernity. Maza’s rejoinder reflects on these questions and on the possibility of age-based historical agency.

Introduction

Abstract In a complement to the 2020 AHR Roundtable “Chronological Age: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis” (125, no. 2), this AHR Exchange focuses on the history of children and childhood. Sarah Maza presents a critical review essay, highlighting the limiting factors in the expanding field of childhood studies. Children, she observes, produce few sources of their own voices, have limited agency, and as individuals and as a group soon outgrow their subaltern status—they grow up. Robin P. Chapdelaine, Nara Milanich, Steven Mintz, Ishita Pande, and Bengt Sandin—historians representing diverse geographical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives on the history of children and childhood—react to Maza’s observations by bringing up important methodological questions about subjecthood, agency, and modernity. Maza’s rejoinder reflects on these questions and on the possibility of age-based historical agency.

Is the History of Childhood Ready for the World? A Response to “The Kids Aren’t All Right”

Abstract In a complement to the 2020 AHR Roundtable “Chronological Age: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis” (125, no. 2), this AHR Exchange focuses on the history of children and childhood. Sarah Maza presents a critical review essay, highlighting the limiting factors in the expanding field of childhood studies. Children, she observes, produce few sources of their own voices, have limited agency, and as individuals and as a group soon outgrow their subaltern status—they grow up. Robin P. Chapdelaine, Nara Milanich, Steven Mintz, Ishita Pande, and Bengt Sandin—historians representing diverse geographical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives on the history of children and childhood—react to Maza’s observations by bringing up important methodological questions about subjecthood, agency, and modernity. Maza’s rejoinder reflects on these questions and on the possibility of age-based historical agency.

Children’s History Matters

Abstract In a complement to the 2020 AHR Roundtable “Chronological Age: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis” (125, no. 2), this AHR Exchange focuses on the history of children and childhood. Sarah Maza presents a critical review essay, highlighting the limiting factors in the expanding field of childhood studies. Children, she observes, produce few sources of their own voices, have limited agency, and as individuals and as a group soon outgrow their subaltern status—they grow up. Robin P. Chapdelaine, Nara Milanich, Steven Mintz, Ishita Pande, and Bengt Sandin—historians representing diverse geographical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives on the history of children and childhood—react to Maza’s observations by bringing up important methodological questions about subjecthood, agency, and modernity. Maza’s rejoinder reflects on these questions and on the possibility of age-based historical agency.

Szaber in post-war Poland: satirising plunder in Polish magazine cartoons (1945-1946)

ABSTRACT This article explores the representations of plunder in Polish magazine cartoons between 1945 and 1946. More specifically, it discusses how instances of looting or szaber (as it was known in Polish), perpetrated in Poland’s so-called Recovered Territories following the expulsions of ethnic Germans, were portrayed by two major magazines, Szpilki and Przekrój. I propose that the satirical cartoons in question were an important (even if rhetorical) form of social engagement and criticism. In this article, I show that not only did it enable magazine editors to comment on but also to critically intervene in widespread lawlessness that erupted in the former German territories. Explored as historical sources, magazine cartoons can not only enable us to describe how graphic representations of plunder entertained, they also demonstrate how satire functioned as a specific cultural practice with which to shape the new post-war order. In that sense, this article reflects implicitly on how cartoons can be productively used as a category of historical analysis. Constituting a passionate response to both social disorder and dispossession that emerged in the aftermath of World War II, satirical cartoons captured the temper of the times in ways that were not accessible to other historical sources.

INTIMACY IN MODERN BRITISH HISTORY

AbstractRecent developments in the history of modern Britain have led to the emergence of a history of intimacy, whether or not it is recognized as such. This historiographical review argues that intimacy is a useful category of historical analysis. Thinking in terms of inter-relationships between different forms of intimacy allows us to think with greater conceptual clarity about these forms, as well as types of intimacy that are difficult to categorize. The first section reviews recent and significant contributions to the literature and seeks to draw out existing connections and crosscurrents between subfields. The second section turns to recent work on the histories of selfhood and the emotions and considers what thinking about intimacy might add to these fields; it then builds on this recent work to propose that one way to ‘do’ the history of intimacy is to think in terms of ‘intimate practices’.

A vueltas con el género: críticas y debates actuales en la historiografía feminista

El objetivo de este artículo es invitar a la reflexión y provocar la discusión en torno al uso del género para el análisis del pasado. Con este objetivo en mente, se desgranan diferentes críticas que se han vertido sobre el género y su uso: desde la creciente insatisfacción de a propia Joan W. Scott, referente para las historiadoras e historiadores en la conceptualización del género como categoría de análisis, pasando por la a veces más radical propuesta de las historiadoras postcoloniales, hasta los recientes cuestionamientos que apuntan tanto al binarismo implícito en el concepto como a los efectos reificadores de su uso. A través de la exposición de estas tres líneas de crítica, se plantea la reapertura de los debates teórico-epistemológicos que subyacen a las mismas. Por una parte, el carácter y manejo de las categorías analíticas en historia, y, por otro lado, la articulación histórica de las diferencias y de las relaciones de poder, así como la implicación de ambos en la construcción de los sujetos históricos.

The historian beneath the skin: Embodiment as methodology in colonial India

AbstractWhile the pioneering historians of medicine and sexuality in colonial India have left us a rich scholarly legacy, this article contributes to the history of the body by examining recent historiographical trends outside these realms. I provoke and ask: in what other imaginative ways can we understand our body, its meanings, and its engagement with culture and self. I use embodiment as an analytical category and pedagogical device that offers promising possibilities to access wider social, economic, and epistemological shifts in history. When intersected with other critical concepts such as gender, race, nation, class, caste, and sexuality, embodiment becomes a bridge to the past for understanding how key moments were experienced and lived. Embodiment provides a point of convergence at which both the discursive body and its experiences are given equal attention in order to understand histories. I begin this article with an overview of foundational moments in the historiography of embodiment as a category of historical analysis. Subsequently, I explore three main axes of historiographical pursuits keeping embodiment as the pivot: first, social inscriptions on the body; second, the performance of gender; and third, embodiment as experience.