Historical Writings Research Articles

THREE LATE FIFTEENTH- EARLY SIXTEENTH-CENTURY CHAPEL FURNISHINGS BELONGING TO THE EDGCUMBE FAMILY IN CORNWALL

This study documents three chapel furnishings dating from around 1500 belonging to the Edgcumbe family at Cotehele, Cornwall, south-west England, and discusses their survival during the Protestant Reformation and beyond. The textiles were exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries of London by W H St John Hope, FSA and the text of his presentation was published in the Proceedings of the Society in 1912–13. The present article brings together the numerous other historic writings concerning the textiles. Their possible origins are explored and assessed in context with pieces of similar date. Observations of their original making and later changes are recorded, while interpretations by historians of this period are put forward for consideration. The rarity of survival of the textiles and their documented history is acknowledged.

Creating Recorded Zoom Video Evaluations for American University Students’ Historical Writing Following the Covid-19 Pandemic

Creating Recorded Zoom Video Evaluations for American University Students’ Historical Writing Following the Covid-19 Pandemic

“Unification” and “Non-unification”: On Art Criticism and Art History Writing

“Unification” and “Non-unification”: On Art Criticism and Art History Writing

Thomas Carlyle and kingship

ABSTRACT Despite an efflorescence of historical scholarship on the theme of monarchy in nineteenth-century Britain, the views of the great Victorian man of letters Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) in this regard have been explored only in fragmentary and incomplete fashion. The present article aims to offer a comprehensive survey of Carlyle's thought regarding monarchy, arguing that on the whole, Carlyle was strongly and consistently opposed to monarchy on the hereditary principle, claiming that this had become an absurd anachronism in the modern (democratic) world. Instead, Carlyle strongly and consistently promoted a merit-based aristocracy of talent, in which the ‘best’ man would rule, regardless of heredity or social origin. Indeed, in his historical writings, he was quite prepared to endorse regicide as a means to replacing inept hereditary monarchs with low-born men of destiny such as Oliver Cromwell. Although Carlyle refrained from publicly demanding the abolition of the monarchy in contemporary Britain, his private correspondence and conversation were replete with sneers and snide asides regarding Queen Victoria and her predecessors.

Between Granite and Rainbow: Woolfian Literary Speculation in Ozick’s Nonfiction

Abstract While figures such as Ruth R. Wisse hold that Cynthia Ozick’s melding of fiction with nonfiction is a rejection of authorial responsibility, Ozick’s fictionalized accounts of real-life writers has a literary precedent: Virginia Woolf. Just as Woolf speculates about how Austen might have become an experimental, proto-modernist writer had she lived longer, Ozick speculates that Woolf herself might have fully realized her genius if she had lived like her sister. By examining how Ozick adopts Woolf’s technique of turning real-life writers into her own characters to speculate about their lives, this article argues that Ozick revises Woolf’s approach—using literary-historical counterfactuals to redress the historical omission of women writers—to counter the suppression of Jewish writers in history. This article makes a case for how Ozick’s creative rewritings of other writers’ lives is not a rejection of authorial responsibility, but a real attempt to redress the unfulfilled promise of real people whose lives were unjustly cut short by violent historical realities.

The political alignment of presidents of the early Royal Society of London

PurposeThis study aims to identify the political alignment and political activity of the 11 Presidents of Britain’s most important scientific organisation, the Royal Society of London, in its early years 1662–1703, to determine whether or not the institution was politically aligned.Design/methodology/approachThere is almost no information addressing the political alignment of the Royal Society or its Presidents available in the institution’s archives, or in the writings of historians specialising in its administration. Even reliable biographical sources, such as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography provide very limited information. However, as 10 Presidents were elected Member of Parliament (MP), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social and Local History provides a wealth of accurate, in-depth data, revealing the alignment of both.FindingsAll Presidents held senior government offices, the first was a Royalist aristocrat; of the remaining 10, 8 were Royalist or Tory MPs, 2 of whom were falsely imprisoned by the House of Commons, 2 were Whig MPs, while 4 were elevated to the Lords. The institution was Royalist aligned 1662–1680, Tory aligned 1680–1695 and Whig aligned 1695–1703, which reflects changes in Parliament and State.Originality/valueThis study establishes that the early Royal Society was not an apolitical institution and that the political alignment of Presidents and institution continued in later eras. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the election or appointment of an organisation’s most senior officer can be used to signal its political alignment with government and other organisations to serve various ends.

Dear Diary — Shining a light on the work of 200 nurses

BackgroundTo celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the World Health Assembly designated 2020 as the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife. AimTo celebrate this event, we aimed to collect and analyse 200 nurses’ personal accounts of a time when they made a meaningful difference to patient care and to compare the contemporary perspectives that emerged with those evident in Nightingale’s historical writings. MethodsThis project employed a narrative inquiry design with diary entries collected from nurses employed at one metropolitan hospital in Australia thematically analysed. FindingsIn total, 209 nurses from 46 clinical units representing a diverse range of roles and clinical specialties contributed to the project. Five overarching themes emerged from analysis: (1) compassionate practice; (2) person-centred care; (3) human connection; (4) patient safety; and (5) teamwork and collaborative practice. Discussion and conclusionThis project provided nurses with an opportunity to meaningfully reflect on their practice and to consider what matters most to them as they deliver care to patients and families. By mapping contemporary nursing practice to Nightingale’s writings, the findings highlight the historical legacy of nursing practice, provide a rich commentary on modern-day nursing, and illuminate nurses’ experiences of providing safe, high-quality, and compassionate patient care.

Rise of Neo-Tribal Nationalism in North Cyprus: Debates on Migration and History Writing

Bu çalışma Kuzey Kıbrıs’ta kimlik ve milliyetçilik tartışmalarını yeni bir analitik çerçeve olan ‘yeni-kabileci milliyetçilik’ temelinde incelemektedir. Kıbrıs’ta özellikle İngiliz sömürgesiyle birlikte karşılıklı
 rekabet içinde olan Rum ve Türk milliyetçilikleri 1960’lardan itibaren yeni bir dönüşüm yaşamış ve 1974’ten sonra da yeni bir evreye girmiştir. Adanın her iki kesimindeki hâkim iki resmî milliyetçi konuma yerlici alternatif bir ideoloji olarak ‘Kıbrıs milliyetçiliği’ ya da ‘Kıbrısçılık’ ortaya çıkıp gelişmiştir. Özellikle KKTC’de sol siyasetin ideolojisi olarak dillendirilen Kıbrısçılık 2000’li yıllarla birlikte küreselleşme ve AB üyelik süreçleri etkisi altında gittikçe güçlenmiş, toplum ve siyaset düzeyinde belirleyici hâle gelmiştir. Bu makale, Kıbrıs özelinde milliyetçilik üzerine yapılan çalışmalarda sıklıkla referans verilen etnik ve sivil milliyetçilik zıtlığının Kıbrıs’ta yaşanan dönüşümü açıklamada yetersiz kaldığını ileri sürmekte ve Kıbrıslı kimliği inşa etme anlamında Kıbrısçı yerliciliği merkeze alarak seçmeci bir şekilde mitler yoluyla kurgulanmış bir geçmişe dayalı hayali bir cemaat yaratması, göçmenlere karşı ötekileştirici söylem ve eylemlerle ayrımcı ve dışlayıcı olması bakımlarından Kıbrısçılığı ‘yeni-kabileci milliyetçilik’ olarak değerlendirmektedir. Bu inceleme KKTC’de göç ve tarih yazımı tartışmaları üzerinden yapılmaktadır.

Xi Jinping and the Citation of Historical Writings of Antiquity: From Rhetoric to Politics

The article examines a number of quotations from Chinese historical writings from the ancient period (up to and including the Han era) used by President Xi Jinping in his speeches during his first term in office (2012–2017). The paper is a study of the phenomenon called Xi Jinping yong dian (习近平用典 “Xi Jinping uses classics”) in terms of the intersection of historical process experience in ancient and modern periods within the rhetorical constructions of the bearer of supreme power in modern PRC. The quotations from Chinese historical monuments of the ancient period used by Xi Jinping are considered in the context of the periodization of modern Chinese history and the key stages of the domestic and foreign policies conducted in 2012–2017. Xi Jinping’s political rhetoric at these stages concerns, above all, the areas of interaction with the bureaucratic structures — the CCP and the international organizations. The author has made an attempt to find out what could be the purpose of such citations and what is behind them — a rhetorical device or something more.

Lithuanian Proverbs as a Source of Natural Law Regulations in the Historical Writings of Simonas Daukantas

The purpose of this article is to argue that Simonas Daukantas used the material of Lithuanian folklore, mainly proverbs, as a historical source in his works on the history of Lithuania, and analyze his reasons for doing that. Daukantas used the Lithuanian proverbs as a source for studying socio-moral and legal attitudes, and elucidating their role in the process of history. He was most interested in identification and clarification of Lithuanian customary law norms and natural principles, relying on proverbs. Folklore data was instrumental for Daukantas in proving that the social order in ancient Lithuanian history was based on natural law, and there were natural regulations that fostered the natural human freedom and industriousness.

“I Take True Pleasure in Working with Archives…”. Vladimir Ivanovich Savva: Reflections on the Thorny Path of a Historian

This article, for the first time in Russian historiography, reconstructs the biography of Vladimir Ivanovich Savva (1865–1920), an esteemed Russian historian and archivist, based on the analysis of historical writings, meeting minutes from scientific societies, as well as letters and memoirs from his contemporaries. Researchers have long been captivated by his original path as a scholar, yet it has never been the focus of a dedicated study. Here, V.I. Savva’s biography and professional development are thoroughly explored. His works and archival research are discussed. The interactions he had with other prominent scholars during the turn of the 20th century are considered. It is the first article in a series that will document and examine V.I. Savva’s life and works on Russian history from the 16th to 19th centuries.

Kant on race and the radical evil in the human species

AbstractReligion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason remains one of the most opaque of Kant's published writings. Though this opacity belongs, partly, to the text itself, a key claim of this article is that this opacity stems also from the narrow lenses through which his readers view this text. Often read as part of Kant's moral philosophy or his universal history, the literature has thus far neglected a different vantage point on the Religion, one that does not refute the utility of these lenses but complements them. This paper places the Religion alongside parts of Kant's corpus that it is less typically paired with, namely his natural history writings—in particular, his writings on the concept of race and the development of the human races. I argue that by doing so, we can shed much light on Kant's infamous claim that there is a radical evil in the human species. More precisely, we will come to appreciate that this evil is not, as it is usually understood, a static property or fixed characteristic of human beings. Instead, radical evil concerns a dynamic, changing defect in human nature that increasingly threatens our aspirations to collective moral perfection.

:Transcultural Approaches to the Bible: Exegesis and Historical Writing across Medieval Worlds

:<i>Transcultural Approaches to the Bible: Exegesis and Historical Writing across Medieval Worlds</i>

Introduction. History Writing, Mamlukisation and Social Memory in Late Medieval Egypt

Introduction. History Writing, Mamlukisation and Social Memory in Late Medieval Egypt

“Ab Hoc Dispersione Nomen Rossicum”: G. S. Bayer’s Etymological Quest in the Context of the Scholarly Tradition

This article examines the ideas on the origin of the name Rus (Russian: русь) formulated by Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer (1694–1738), a professor at the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Bayer expressed his observations in an unfinished Latin text published after his death in the journal of the Academy. Using this publication, which has never been translated into Russian, the authors of the article examine Bayer’s critical comments and objections to various versions of the origin of the name Rus. Bayer’s text is a kind of catalogue of hypotheses that existed in the academic world in the first half of the eighteenth century. From the point of view of modern scholarship, all of them can be regarded as naive folk etymologies or legends (for example, the creation of the name Rus from the ancient name of a river, its comparison with the biblical people of Rosch, or the appeal to the legend of the brothers Lech, Czech and Rus, etc.). These versions are subjected to a fair and ironic criticism by Bayer. Based on new research on ideas of ethnic nomination, the authors place the versions in the context of discussions in historical writings of the sixteenth–eighteenth centuries. The results of the analysis of Bayer’s arguments show that he often makes very good use of his knowledge of ancient and modern languages and of the historical context to criticise other people’s versions. The article also examines in detail the etymology to which Bayer himself adheres. According to Bayer, the name of the Russian people comes from the Slavic word рассеяние (“dispersion”). This etymology was proposed in the sixteenth century by the Austrian diplomat Siegmund von Herberstein and supported by some Polish and German scholars. The authors show that Bayer finds additional historical and linguistic arguments for this hypothesis, which, of course, do not withstand the criticism of contemporary scholarship. The article notes the influence of Bayer’s hypothesis on the ideas of G. F. Mьller. The authors suppose that a certain forgetfulness of Bayer’s hypothesis is due to the fact that it contradicts his reputation as a “Normanist”.

Historical Writing of The Sympathizer in the Context of Postmodernism

Historical Writing of The Sympathizer in the Context of Postmodernism

Nomadic turkic tribes and their role in political history of Transoxiana in XII century: on the example of Qarluks

The migration of the nomadic Turkic tribes of the eastern Desht-i Kipchak and their participation in various political processes in the lands of Transoxiana and adjacent regions in the XII century remains quite an urgent scientific problem for a number of reasons. Muslim geographers of this time on this issue often broadcast information from earlier monuments in their writings and rarely provide up-to-date information. And in the historical writings proper, nomadic Turkic tribes are mentioned, in most cases, only when they take part in military clashes on the territory of the mentioned regions. Muslim historians rarely note other forms of interaction between representatives of settled cultures and nomads in this historical period, and they often provide extremely scant information about the migration routes of the latter in general. In this article, using the example of a specific tribal association, which are the Karluks, we will try to reconstruct their migration routes throughout the twelfth century, as well as analyze their participation in the political history of Transoxiana during this period. In this article we will try to link not only these two historical events, but also highlight other facts related to the history of the Karluks and their participation in the political life of Transoxiana in the XII century.

Classical Era Mongolian History Writing and a Review of Mongolian Sources

Classical Era Mongolian History Writing and a Review of Mongolian Sources

Postmodern History Writing—The Preservations and Alterations of History in The Public Burning

Robert Coover’s The Public Burning is a quintessential example of postmodern historiographic metafiction, presenting a bold reinterpretation of the history concerning the Rosenberg case. In this novel, Coover constructed an absurd world that blurs the lines between fictionality and reality, as well as history and text. He tried to tint a sense of historical reality in his fiction, which is a counterpart to the absurdity in real history, showcasing his reflections on social reality. Through this lens, Coover critiques the mechanisms of power and media that shape public perception. Drawing on New Historicism, which emphasizes the interplay between literature and history within broader cultural frameworks, this paper will analyze Coover’s innovative writing techniques in The Public Burning. It will explore his motivations and intentions behind the preservation and alteration of historical narratives, as well as the significance of historiographic metafiction in illuminating the complexities of historical representation and the ultimate impact on societal understanding.

Applying History: Towards a Responsive Writing

This article discusses African historiography with an emphasis on Nigeria. It posits that the themes in African historiography have continued to evolve, with historians of different eras paying attention to a broad spectrum of issues. The need at one point was to recall the glory of Africa’s past, and to debunk Eurocentric bias and prejudice by early European writers of African history was a central theme in historical research on the continent. Thus, it was employed to address pressing issues of nationalism and to combat Afro-pessimism. The article suggests that contemporary historians can use historical writing to understand, analyse, and make recommendations for policymakers in Africa in such areas as governance, trade, and bilateral relations. Looking at contemporary issues, it has become clear that today’s historians can do more to contribute to finding solutions to some of the current challenges in different African communities.