Development Of Historiography Research Articles

Exploring Difference within Rural Communities in the Northern Iberian Kingdoms, 1000 1300

Historical studies in Spain have been dramatically revitalized since the 1970s and 1980s, not just for the medieval period but in general. This has meant the gradual integration of Spanish work into debates and developments in other countries. The myth of Spanish difference, for long so carefully fostered by official ideology in almost every sphere, was thus questioned in its medieval dimensions as well. It is not my intention here, however, to address these historiographical developments, which are well known.2 Rather, I will examine some issues relating to peasant communities in the north of the peninsula, in particular in regard to internal forms of inequality, a theme on which Rodney Hilton wrote many illuminating pages.3 His influence, indeed, played a pivotal role in the shift from legal and institutional history to more social approaches among Spanish medievalists.4 The changing approach by historians to rural communities in medieval Castile has unquestionably been closely related to new ideas concerning the development of feudal society in the peninsula, and has benefited greatly from new critical editions of documentary sources. These allow a better appraisal of both the information these sources contain and the contexts in which they were compiled. Sadly, with a few notable exceptions, historians have been slow to integrate into their field the great potential contribution of archaeology, which in Spain is underdeveloped and usually under-funded.5

Note from the Editors

Note from the Editors Due to a proofreading error, the published version of Professor Gary Hamburg's recent article, "Writing History and the End of the Soviet Era: The Secret Lives of Natan Eidel´man" (Kritika 7, 1 [2006]: 71–109), omitted the following footnote: "This article is dedicated to Professor Semion Mikhailovich Lyandres in gratitude for many happy hours we have spent discussing Eidel´man and the evolution of historiography in the Soviet Union. I also wish to acknowledge the help of Professors Samuel Ramer and Terence Emmons, who commented on earlier versions of the article." Copyright © 2006 “Kritika” and its author

The Origins of English Puritanism

AbstractThe history of English Puritanism has changed dramatically over the past forty years, but our understanding of the origins of Puritanism has remained relatively unchanged. This article examines some accounts of the origins of Puritanism, evaluates them in the light of recent historiographical developments, and suggests an alternate approach to the question.

Frank Huisman and John Harley Warner (eds), Locating medical history: the stories and their meanings, Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, pp. x, 507, £32.00 (hardback 0-8018-7861-6).

Frank Huisman and John Harley Warner (eds), Locating medical history: the stories and their meanings, Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, pp. x, 507, £32.00 (hardback 0-8018-7861-6).

Подданство, лояльность, патриотизм в имперском дискурсе России XVIII в.: К постановке проблемы

SUMMARY: Aleksandr Kamenskii begins his article with the observation that the growing field of empire studies (or in a more paradigmatic rendering, “New Imperial History”) makes contemporary historians return to traditional questions of historical scholarship and cast them in a new light with the help of innovative interpretative frames, such as microhistory, local history, a history of everyday life, and a history of mentalities. A by product of this intersected historiographic development is the emergence of a line of inquiry that focuses on perception and languages of description of empire by different political and social actors (not necessarily representing the privileged and educated layers of society). In his article, Kamenskii surveys recent historical studies of the formative period of the Russian empire (from the Petrine reforms to the reign of Catherine II), and suggests possible interpretative frames and research questions that concern the problem of how former tsar’s subjects described, imagined, and related to a new political entity: the Russian empire. Kamenskii notes the exploration of this process, alongside with the inquiry into the historical semantics of employed concepts and categories, is even more important insofar as attempts to arrive at an essentialist definition of the character of the pre-Petrine and post-Petrine polity (be it a “state” or an “empire”) yielded meager and confusing results. In the first part of the article the author describes the development of historic concepts of “state” ( gosudarstvo ) and “Russian land” ( russkaia zemlia ), and notes that from the Time of Troubles through the first half of the eighteenth century there appeared a new meaning of the “state” as an abstract entity divorced from the persona of the ruler. This transformation paved the way for the emergence of the concept of “fatherland” in the Petrine political language, and concomitantly the concept of patriotism. These new concepts were a by product of the development of the Russian state and the process of secularization of Russian society in the eighteenth century. Alongside an abstract concept of the state as “fatherland” there appeared a new individuating concept of the emperor’s subjects, whose main duty was loyalty to the sovereign and love of fatherland. Kamenskii argues that research on these semantic transformations should continue, taking into account a peculiar feature of Russian political reforms and discourse in the eighteenth century, namely the reception of Western European texts, concepts, and discourses, and their telescoped historical development. The latter peculiar feature is very important for the author for he sees in the Russian case the coexistence of modern concepts of sovereignty and subjecthood (which constituted a foundational setting for the modern national state in Western Europe), and the belated formation of the modern state and empire. Kamenskii then turns to the figure of Lomonosov and devises a complex picture of the relationship between the national myth and the understanding of Russia in the imperial and Enlightenment framework – which would enter into conflict much later, and parallel the semantic differentiation of the concept of fatherland from that of the state. In his concluding remarks Kamenskii infers the unavoidability of a historical approach to the problem of patriotism that is overloaded with ideological connotations, and remarks that the inquiry into the history of patriotic discourse must be supplemented with exploration of the changing categories of description of imperial polity.

Deference and Dissent in Tudor England: Reflections on Sixteenth-Century Protest

Historians have long characterized the riots and rebellions of sixteenth-century England as conservative and constrained. Recent work in the field has embraced an expanded definition of politics and moved outward from riot to popular political culture more generally. In this transition, negotiation and participation have become key words. In reviewing these historiographical developments, this article echoes studies that have begun to question the pervasiveness of conservatism in protest and to explore the limits within which negotiation took place. It examines the responses to one riot and the role of prophecy in protest to emphasize the dissent behind the deference and the power behind the paternalism.

Las otras rebeliones: cultura popular e independencias

This article comments on historiographical developments pertaing to popular participation during the Independence of Mexico and on the political culture of the period. Its point of departure is the argument advanced by Eric Van Young in his book The Other Rebellion (2001) and the debate sparked by its publication. The article also discusses wether or not a “cultural turn” may be said to characterize historical studies of Latin America and compares the political process in Mexico with that of the Andes. It is suggested that we need to take into account, too, the symbolic and cultural world of both Indians and commoners who participated in the political and military actions of “other rebellions”, the outcome of a time of change and general crisis in colonial society.

The Airplane in American Culture (review)

This collection of essays is a long-overdue study in the field of aviation history. As the editor, Dominick Pisano, notes in his introduction, "New Directions in the History of Aviation," most work in this field has been "narrowly focused" (p. 10). This is due to a variety of reasons. Aviation history owes much to military patronage, which has significantly limited its scope and objectivity. Also, aviation historians often have behaved as "enthusiasts" rather than scholars (p. 8). As a result, the field has "remained virtually static in its aims and methods over the course of its history," (p. 2) and has failed to keep up with historiographical developments. This work seeks to broaden the focus of aviation history by exploring various social and cultural facets of the field.

Dickens, the German Reformation, and the issue of nation and fatherland in early modern German history

AbstractThis article offers an outline of the historiographical developments in German Reformation history since the later nineteen-sixties. It argues that Dickens picked up major issues in his treatment of the German Reformation that have again come to the fore in recent years. In particular, his combination of local social history with the history of political thought, and with the history of the new pamphlet medium that emerged from the early sixteenth century, allowed him to try to connect these different arenas of research. This remains a primary concern for current Reformation research, as pioneered by studies such as Andrew Pettegree's book on Emden.1

Was There a Reformation in the Sixteenth Century?

Reflections on historiographical developments in the history of Christianity tend to be a rather dry matter. Though dry, however, such reflections are important, since historiographical emphases not only tell us where scholarship has been in the past, but also—since we are directed to look at thelonge durée—why we are where we are. Historians tend to be, alas, a herd of independent minds, and there are vogues in scholarship no less than there are in haute couture. A generation ago, few historians used such terms as “discourse,” “construction,” “close reading,” “intertextuality” even as monographs—even splendid monographs—on a burgomaster's daughter would have issued only from the pen of a secondary school teacher in Germany.

Украинская историография: 1991–2001. Десятилетие перемен

SUMMARY: In his article Yaroslav Hrytsak reviews the development of Ukrainian historiography in the past decade after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, situating it in the context of contemporary Ukrainian politics of identity. The author traces early revisions of Marxist-Leninist historiography and official memory in the context of Perestroika, which provided initial impulses for discussion of politically relevant issues of the past. Hrytsak analyzes the establishment of ethno-populist canon of Hrushevsky from early Perestroika on, which was consciously reconstructed and presented as an alternative historiographic model for national history outside of the academic establishment. The author then surveys institutional and intellectual aspects of Ukrainian historiographic development in Ukraine after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, attributing special significance to the influence of Ukrainian diaspora on development in independent Ukraine. Special sections of Hrytsak’s article are devoted to the distribution of topics in Ukrainian historical studies and to methodological debates and trends in historical scholarship. The author pays close attention to the emergence of new academic institutions and those groups of Ukrainian historians, who consciously engaged theoretical issues in an attempt to modernize historical studies and overcome the shortcomings of the ethno-populist canon of Ukrainian history. Welcoming these groups’ contribution to the Ukrainian historical profession, Hrytsak takes a cautious stance towards historians’ seclusion in theory, observing parallels between the historiographic situation in contemporary Ukraine and the historiographic world at large, which is characterized, in the author’s opinion, by a growing gap between empirical historians and those concentrating on methodological revisionism.

Современное состояние украинской историографии: Методологические и институциональные аспекты

SUMMARY: In his article Georgii Kas’ianov focuses on dilemmas of writing of history in post soviet Ukraine. The author depart from a paradox of the contemporary Ukrainian political and intellectual elite’s reverting to the language of nation building of the 19 th century. He analyzes the canons of Ukrainian writing on national identity and later layers of Marxist historiography and relates them to the political and intellectual conjuncture of the post soviet period to understand the growing domination of ethnocentric and nation-legitimizing approaches to the past. Working toward an explanatory model for understanding historiographic development and prevailing modes of construction of the past, Kas’ianov proposes to view those intellectual processes as the intersection of essentially incomplete modern agenda of nationbuilding and the post-modernist realities of the world, gravitating toward integration and globalization. Concluding his survey of innovative works on Ukrainian history and conceptual-institutional context of development of historical scholarship the author observes promising signs of renewal and diversification of contemporary Ukrainian historiography, especially under the impact of more sustained and systematic discussions of methodological aspects of historical scholarship.

Преподавание Истории в Республике Молдова в Последние Десять Лет

SUMMARY: In his survey Sergiu Musteaюг traces the development of national history in post Soviet Moldova through the research projects and publications of history textbooks, primarily for the secondary school. Being an active participant of this historiographic development, Musteaţă provides a unique insight into the mechanism of the art of national history.

The underclass in the first crusade:: a historiographical trend

This study explores a recent trend in the historiography of the First Crusade, specifically the behaviour of the Jewish and Christian ‘underclass’. This term is used to refer to women in the Jewish society of Latin Europe and to the ‘common folk’ in the neighbouring Christian society; both of these groups did not traditionally dictate social and political norms in their respective milieus. The argument is that historians traditionally accorded both sectors a leadership role in the Rhineland pogroms, based on medieval sources, but that they have recently revised the record and claimed that events were actually driven by the traditional (adult male) leadership, i.e. rabbis and nobles. The article studies the sources that served as the bases for the traditional and revisionist perspectives and traces the chain of historiographical development through the views of prominent historians. It also suggests contemporary issues that appear to underpin the revisions.

The study of urban form in the United States

This paper examines urban morphological research in the United States from a geographical perspective. Attention is given to the historiographical development of the field and the underlying cultural values of American society which make American forms distinctive, but the main emphasis is on the evolution of town planning ideas in practice and the systematic morphological structure and character of American cities. Some discussion is offered of the recent perceptual dimension in American urban morphology.

My Laocoon: alternative claims in the interpretation of artworks

Analyzing the theme, provenance, and history of the Vatican Laocoon, Richard Brilliant traces the interpretation of this masterpiece of Greco-Roman sculpture through the ages, showing how these interpretations have shaped its reception. The Vatican has suffered the vicissitudes of changing tastes, differing agendas of incompatible interpretations, and relegation to the margins of aesthetic preference. Several Laocoons are identified in this erudite and strikingly original study: the alleged, lost 'Greek original' the extant marbles sculpted in the first century; the sixteenth-century restoration and its impact; the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century topos of critical judgment; and, the twentieth-century re-restored artifact of ancient art. Yet, the Vatican contains all of them in its obdurate self, and My Laocoon treats their history as a means of demonstrating an artwork's power to transcend its critical reception. Discovered in Rome in 1506, the stimulated the imagination of sixteenth-century artists and humanists because of the sculpture's expressive exploitation of the human body under stress. Variations in the critical reception of the and disagreements about what the work represented, and how it did so, came to a climax when it became the victim of the controversy between Winckelmann and Lessing. Lessing's anti-Laocoon Laocoon, certainly one of the seminal tracts of aesthetic criticism, eventually won out. Ironically, this victory coincided with Winckelmann's invention of the history of ancient art, which differentiated between Greek and Roman artworks and bestowed upon the former a much higher aesthetic evaluation. This value-laden historiographical development seriously affected the Laocoon's reception, once scholars deemed it a 'Roman' work, perhaps even a copy of a lost Greek original. The was doubly damned: it was Roman, not Greek, and its ontological credentials had been compromised, often to such a degree that the marbles were rendered almost invisible in the search for the Greek precedents. Re-restoration of the in 1960 intensified its emotive power, but by then artists and critics had become indifferent. Brilliant tells the story with wit and erudition, and his selection of illustrations masterfully demonstrates the influence that this work has exerted over the centuries.

20TH CENTURY MALAYSIA: A HISTORIOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVE

This paper offers a general survey of the historiographical development of the 20th century Malaya/Malaysia, in which the author also pinpoints gaps and lackings in the writings of the history of the country.

Comparative Historiography: Problems and Perspectives

Just like history, historiography is usually written and analyzed within one spatio‐temporal setting, traditionally that of a particular nation‐state. As a consequence, historiography tends to localize explanations for historiographical developments within national contexts and to neglect international dimensions. As long as that is the case, it is impossible to assess the general and specific aspects of historiographical case studies. This forum, therefore, represents a sustained argument for comparative approaches to historiography.First, my introduction takes a recent study in Canadian historiography as a point of departure in order to illustrate the problems of non‐comparative historiography. These problems point to strong arguments in favor of comparative approaches. Second, I place comparative historiography as a genre in relation to a typology that orders theories of historiography on a continuum ranging from general and philosophical to particular and empirical. Third, I put recent debates on the “fragmentation” of historiography in a comparative perspective. Worries among historians about this fragmentation—usually associated with the fragmentation of the nation and the advent of multiculturalism and/or postmodernism—are legitimate when they concern the epistemological foundations of history as a discipline. As soon as the “fragmentation” of historiography leads to—and is legitimated by—epistemological skepticism, a healthy pluralism has given way to an unhealthy relativism. As comparison puts relativism in perspective by revealing its socio‐historical foundations, at the same time it creates its rational antidote.Fourth, I summarize the contributions to this forum; all deal—directly or indirectly—with the historiography of the Second World War. Jürgen Kocka's “Asymmetrical Historical Comparison: The Case of the German Sonderweg” examines the so‐called “special path” of Germany's history. Daniel Levy's “The Future of the Past: Historiographical Disputes and Competing Memories in Germany and Israel” offers a comparative analysis of recent historiographical debates in Germany and Israel. Sebastian Conrad's “What Time is Japan? Problems of Comparative (Intercultural) Historiography” analyzes the conceptual linkage between Japanese historiography and specific interpretations of European history. Richard Bosworth's “Explaining ‘Auschwitz’ after the End of History: The Case of Italy” charts in a comparative perspective the changes since 1989 in Italian historiography concerning fascism. All four articles support the conclusion that next to the method of historical comparison is the politics of comparison, which is hidden in the choice of the parameters. Analyses of both method and politics are essential for an understanding of (comparative) historiography.

Changing women, changing history: a bibliography of the history of women in Canada

This bibliography, an expanded second edition of Diana Pedersen's indispensable reference tool, is a reflection of continued development of women's history in Canada. With almost 5,000 references, new edition is not just bigger, but better. The improved indexing system (by author and by subject) makes it easier to find specific sources or particular writers and also to explore general themes. Since first edition appeared in 1992, most teachers of Canadian women's history would testify that this has become their most consulted guide. For anyone preparing new courses in women's history or gender history, this is place to start. Possibilities for reading lists and essay topics abound, and happily, with so much being published, problem becomes one of trying to keep up with all of it. But Pedersen's new bibliography reflects more than just numeric growth.Researchers and students of history will find new mini-essays that introduce each section very helpful. In these pithy little pieces (usually four or five paragraphs in length), readers will get a sense of how subject area has developed and current debates that capture writers' attention. With reference to feminism, for example, Pedersen notes that historians are moving beyond problematic 'first-wave' and 'second-wave' model because its implicit emphasis on discontinuity is at variance with research findings about organizational activity that characterized 1920s to 1960s (p. 64). In addition, Pedersen pinpoints areas where few publications exist (World War One is much less studied than World War Two, for example). She even predicts some trends, noting for example that heightened interest among graduate students and organizational developments suggest that the history of sexuality will emerge as one of major growth areas in Canadian history over next decade (p. 187). Graduate students will find bibliography useful, not just to prepare fields and papers, but to help them deduce which areas remain unexplored, underdeveloped, or in need of revisionist attention. Pedersen suggests, for example, that recent interest in post-structuralist approaches and discourse analysis suggests potential for future in area of sport and physical education (p. 191).The book is divided alphabetically into 19 theme sections, so that beginning with table of contents, users can search out sources from arts, education, or ethnicity to sport, unions, or work. In most of these sections, there are further subdivisions -- evidence of more developed areas of women's history. For example, section on Families/Life Stages contains entries of a general nature and demographic studies, but also girlhood, marriage, courtship, couples, motherhood, illegitimacy, aging, widowhood, etc. The section on Work/Economy is another example where publications abound, and eight different sectors of work are considered in addition to general literature on topic. These are a reflection of fact that women's history emerged as part of social history that has dominated Canadian historiographic developments since 1970s. …

Gauchos et Peones du Rio de la Plata Réflexions sur l'histoire rurale de l'Argentine coloniale

De récentes études consacrées à l'Argentine coloniale ont remis en question la naissance du latifundio au 18e siècle comme élément de l'héritage espagnol et, qui plus est, elles laissent entendre aussi que le gaucho, archétype et quintessence de la toute nouvelle nationalité argentine, n'a pas été le seul et unique moteur de l'occupation de l'espace et du déplacement de la frontière. Qu'est-il arrivé pour qu'en si peu de temps des pans aussi essentiels de notre histoire aient connu des ouragans aussi dévastateurs ? Assurément, il n'existe pas d'explications univoques mais plutôt une série de questions de caractère différent liées aux problèmes idéologiques de notre classe d'éleveurs et des secteurs du pouvoir qui lui sont relatifs. Ces groupes sociaux se considèrent eux-mêmes comme les dépositaires d'une nationalité enracinée dans la période coloniale. Rien n'est plus éloigné de la vérité historique, mais toujours est-il qu'on a fait croire que la majorité de la société argentine était d'origine européenne et issue de l'immigration massive qui allait commencer à la fin du siècle dernier (dans les années 1880), et que tel cela avait été. Personne n'aurait osé faire remarquer que beaucoup de patronymes de lignées de propriétaires terriens étaient apparus également au 19e et qu'ils n'étaient même pas d'origine espagnole.