AI & collective memory.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to examine the Russian/Soviet military scientist Andrei Snesarev’s articulation of the voyenno-politicheskaya obstanovka (VPO, or military-political situation) as the conceptual hinge between geography, politics, and military science in Russian strategic thought. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the VPO was treated as a legitimate subject of open academic and staff debate, discussed in lectures, journals, and official publications concerned with military geography. This relative transparency reflected a professional culture that viewed the mapping of political and geographic conditions as a prerequisite for rational state defense. In contrast, the modern Russian Federation classifies the VPO as sovershenno sekretno—top secret—acknowledging its continuing role as the integrative framework through which political, economic, and territorial factors are synthesized into strategic threat assessment. Historically, Snesarev’s formulation of the VPO offered an early attempt to systematize that synthesis, transforming geography from a passive description of terrain into a dynamic tool for forecasting conflict. Today, as geopolitical instability once again blurs the line between political analysis and military planning, Snesarev’s approach retains both historical and theoretical importance. It underscores the enduring truth that effective strategy depends not only on the mastery of space, but on the disciplined understanding of the political forces that animate it.

This article traces fourteen years of the life of lesbian-feminist poet-activist Minnie Bruce Pratt in the state of North Carolina from 1968 to 1972. This history of Pratt’s movement through North Carolina demonstrates that the landscape of the state, both its lesbian-feminist and natural ecologies, shaped Pratt’s writing long after she left. First, Pratt’s involvement in a radical, supportive, and connected community of lesbian-feminists across the South and nation fed her—figuratively and literally—as she embraced her identity as a lesbian in the mid-1970s. Second, it illuminates the strength and influence of the important North Carolina lesbian-feminist print movement, of which Pratt and the women of Feminary, a southern lesbian-feminist literary journal, were part. This movement developed anti-racist and anti-misogynist critiques of southern culture that spread in lesbian-feminist communities throughout the United States. The women of Feminary also produced a specific, non-essentialist view of womanhood through natural imagery that continued to influence Pratt’s writing and engagement with the natural world throughout her life. Finally, it shows how violent anti-gay and racist events in North Carolina shook Pratt and developed her social justice consciousness, first in Fayetteville and later within the lesbian and gay movement in Durham. These experiences also connected the burgeoning lesbian movement to the broader activist Left in the state. Although the work produced by the lesbian-feminist community of Durham, North Carolina has had a far-reaching impact on the national movement, the size of the community itself was small. Understanding Durham’s lesbian-feminist community illuminates Pratt’s political and artistic perspective. Similarly, Pratt’s biography and creative output highlight the story of North Carolina as a lesbian-feminist hub in the late twentieth century.

Danning: A Historical Study of the Interpretations of a Central Norwegian Educational Concept

Abstract This article examines the work of the French historian and war hero Ernest-Charles Babut (1875–1916), and in particular his scholarship on fourth-century Christianity, especially that on the figure of St Martin of Tours. It is suggested that much of his discussion of the period, notably that of church/state relations and the question of compulsory military service, may profitably be read as commentary on the issues in French public life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

ABSTRACT This article deals with the urban planning histories in the Nordic region of Europe, including Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. During the late nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the development of municipal infrastructure and services (keywords ‘welfare’ and ‘sustainable’) was deeply intertwined with broader political and societal changes in Europe. During this period, there was a notable shift in the perception of what services were considered crucial for the daily lives and routines of modern urban citizens and, therefore, expected to be provided by the city administration. The idea of Nordic mutual understanding was strong when the capital cities of Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki and Oslo started with mutual conferences in 1923. The need for transnational co-operation increased as cities expanded, activities expanded, and social problems became more diverse. In the Nordic capital city conferences (NCC), delegates met and learned from each other. Again, after 1945, the need for urban cooperation increased, as municipal planning was centralized and local tasks multiplied. Since then, these meetings take place every 3rd year. These meetings form a unique way of understanding how transnational planning cooperates.

Measles is an infectious disease that affects mostly children. It is caused by the measles morbillivirus, which can be spread through inhalation and direct contact with the patient. There are insufficient literary documents on the prevalence of measles in the Ottoman Empire; its seasonal variation, the public health responses and epidemiological changes it caused. This study reviews archival documents from the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic Archives, alongside relevant literature, to investigate measles cases, mortality patterns, seasonal distribution and public health interventions between the 18th century and 1938. The analysis focuses on quantifiable epidemiological data and recorded official measures such as quarantine, school closures, disinfection practices, and isolation protocols. A total of 2716 people had measles in the Ottoman Empire, 462 (17.0%) of whom died. Among the patients, 116 (4.3%) were adults, and 2600 (95.7%) were children. Thirty-six (31.0%) of the adult patients died, and 396 (15.2%) of the child patients died. These figures represent only the documented portion that reached central administration through archival notification; the true burden in the Ottoman period was undoubtedly higher due to under-reporting and non-standardized disease registration, exacerbated by almost continuous warfare, territorial losses, population displacements, and administrative disruptions during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which further limited the completeness and continuity of public health reporting. In the early Turkish Republic (from 1920 to 1938), 67,427 measles patients were identified. Of these, 67,427 were children, and 4571 (6.8%) of the children died. The highest number of deaths from measles disease in Istanbul occurred in children aged 0-5 years (35.7%) in the Ottoman Empire. Measles was a persistent and high-mortality childhood disease in both periods studied with marked seasonal and regional variations. Archival records demonstrate that the Ottoman Empire and the early Turkish Republic implemented a range of organized public health responses to limit transmission, many of which are comparable to modern infectious disease control practices. This historical analysis may inform current epidemic preparedness by highlighting early institutional and community-level interventions.

ABSTRACT As Norway became an increasingly popular destination in the latter half of the nineteenth century, British travellers turned to guidebooks to structure their travel. Guidebooks to Norway were published in international series by John Murray, Thomas Cook and Baedeker, but also by local travel agents such as Thomas Bennett. Norway seemed to offer an escape from the urban and industrial, yet travellers relied on modern networks of transport and infrastructure. The 1916 guide, Sunlit Norway, was published by the Bergen Steamship Line and the Norwegian State Railways. Visual and textual depictions of infrastructure are prominent and this involvement of transport companies also suggests that the use of certain forms of infrastructure was not simply assumed but actively encouraged. Considering guidebooks as a form of travel writing shows how this travel was fundamentally transnational and highlights the involvement of local people in tourist practices. The presence – or absence – of local people in travel guides provides insight into the impact of tourism on local communities. It also complicates the representations of Norway found in travelogues and travel guides in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, reemphasising the modern and alternative ideas of the nation.

ABSTRACT This essay discusses the role that astrological prediction played in the culture of speculative capitalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To make sense of this increasingly abstract form of capitalism, astrologers used their own symbolic language, rich in metaphor, which helped to make financialization a part of everyday life. The most famous financial astrologer of the period, Evangeline Adams, defended her craft as a ‘science’ in her memoir The Bowl of Heaven (1926). At a time when it was still illegal to practice astrology in New York, Adams’s memoir emphasizes a disenchanted practice, far removed from the mysticism of the occult, by focusing on techniques of mathematical calculation and close reading. Financial advice manuals of the period used a similar strategy when they distinguished speculation from gambling. And yet despite their emphasis on rationality, both retain the language of enchantment whether in the form of prophesies or mystical ‘hunches’. The essay’s final section turns to the legal constraints on astrological prediction and how Adams successfully challenged them. At stake was the question of who has the authority to predict the future at a time when the future for financial and astrological seers was a category that was speculative, fictive, and radically uncertain.

ABSTRACT Our studies of invention are dominated by a narrative that sees independent inventors replaced as the source of technical novelty by corporate research labs. Born of practical considerations, this narrative has become so normative that some studies are hemmed in by it without their authors even being aware of it. Refusal to update the old concept of invention creates a gap between what we tell students about how invention happened and what our research says. Indeed, young historians are so estranged by the old narrative that they don’t even frame their work as a contribution to the study of invention. The dominant invention narrative reproduces several problematic focuses of the field: the individual, particular American industries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a particular understanding of what institutions make important contributions to technology, and what technology is. By updating the narrative, we stand to enrich a deeply embedded and alienating narrative that shapes where and how we look for technical change.

Feminist poets and scholars have transformed Queen Esther from a relatively silent biblical figure into a complex literary character, yet systematic analysis of their interpretive strategies remains limited. This study examines how these poets employ feminist hermeneutical frameworks to reimagine Esther’s experiences and choices. Using a close-reading methodology, the analysis applies Alicia Ostriker’s hermeneutical modes (suspicion, desire, and indeterminacy) and Wendy Zierler’s hermeneutics of identification to poems by Janet Ruth Heller, Carol Barrett, Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Stacey Zisook Robinson, Jill Hammer, Enid Dame, Yala Korwin, and Bonnie Lyons from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The poems organize into three thematic categories: transformation and identity formation during Esther’s preparation for queenship; the interior and moral costs of her heroic actions; and retrospective reflections comparing her strategic compliance with Vashti’s direct defiance. The analysis reveals that these poets challenge traditional binary oppositions between the two queens, positioning both strategic accommodation and direct refusal as legitimate forms of feminist resistance within patriarchal structures. By giving Esther a first-person voice and exploring her interior life, these works create a new literary midrash that addresses contemporary concerns about women’s agency while maintaining deep engagement with Jewish textual tradition.

Abstract Scholars of nationalism in the Arab Middle East in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have focused mainly on its spokespeople from among state officials, military officers, and intellectuals. These groups were shaped by European colonialism, modernization, the expansion of education, and state formation, and aspired to achieve national independence and constitutionalism. Little attention was paid to religious scholars (ulema) because they were largely perceived as gatekeepers of the traditional imperial order who had, in the modern era, lost their influence and status. Focusing mainly on Egypt and Syria, this article seeks to contest the prevailing paradigm by highlighting the contribution of ulema to the fostering of ethnic identities in premodern times, and re-examining their place in the emerging national discourse in the Arab Middle East.

ABSTRACT This article analyzes a recent Japanese reality-based web series on YouTube entitled The Roland Show, which portrays the daily life of a male host named Roland. Roland is a media personality who found stardom in the world of host clubs, establishments where a mostly female clientele patronizes male nightlife workers who offer an idealized version of masculinity and romance. Interestingly, Roland has remarked upon his channel’s overwhelmingly male audience. Although his vocation as host is to embody an ideal man for women clients, he has found an audience in the media largely comprised of men rather than women. In this article, I highlight the homosocial aspects of what other scholars have called entrepreneurial masculinity which refers to how male workers in the host industry in Japan perform an idealized version of masculinity to appeal to female clients. I contextualize entrepreneurial masculinity in Japan in light of the long-standing connection between masculinity and labor dating back to the origins of modern Japanese culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I use scholarship about YouTube as a medium by Martin Roth and Takinami Yūki to analyze how the performers and viewers of The Roland Show interact with Takeyama’s term entrepreneurial masculinity. Roland’s popularity with male viewers is due to his ability to teach them how to be a better man and perform entrepreneurial masculinity. I argue that, for The Roland Show, entrepreneurial masculinity is above all pedagogical: it must be taught to other men. For Roland, the skill of teaching other men is itself an important aspect of what it means to be an ideal man.

Abstract The article explores the little-known history of Lithuanian immigrant children in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Between 1868 and 1914, approximately 500,000 Lithuanians left the Russian Empire for the United States, fleeing poverty and social and political unrest. This migration has attracted a considerable amount of research among scholars, but it has focused primarily on the migratory experiences of adults. This article begins by locating Lithuanian children in the history of the American migration. It then examines how children in American exile became “national property” and were transformed into objects of ethnic conflict both by members of the Lithuanian national movement in exile and in Lithuania. Finally, the article demonstrates how children responded to the nationalization process by broadening the monolithic understanding of ethnic belonging. The article seeks to show how the categories of childhood, nation-building, and migration were intertwined in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This essay examines the emergence of obstetric anesthesia through two competing methods for "painless childbirth" in early twentieth-century America: Twilight Sleep and Sunrise Slumber. It explores the ways in which childbirth practices were established in America at the turn of the twentieth century and aims to reveal how contemporary American society accepted these two methods, what distinguished them from one another, and how medical knowledge and techniques competed for dominance. Sunrise Slumber, which involved the inhalation of nitrous oxide, was ultimately adopted in many regions, including Britain, Canada, and Australia. In the United States, however, it could not surpass Twilight Sleep, a method that rendered expectant mothers unconscious through the injection of morphine and scopolamine and had garnered strong support from American women. This essay demonstrates that the adoption of medical technology was shaped more by the political and social circumstances of the time than by its purported objective utility. Furthermore, it contributes to existing scholarship by tracing the history of various anesthetic methods developed to reduce or eliminate labor pain during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This article aims to assess the impact of colonial historiography on precolonial modes of knowledge from Malabar. It examines the colonial writing of the early history of Malabar based on a local tradition centered on Cēramān Perumāḷ in manuals and gazetteers produced in British Malabar and the Indian princely states of Cochin and Travancore in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The colonial-era historians interpreted the contradictions contained in the Perumāḷ tradition as signs of an ahistorical society. This study offers a critique of the conception of ahistoricity and argues that the colonial attempt to historicize the Perumāḷ tradition reveals a gap between Western positivist history and local mythmaking. It reads the contradictions as integral to the tradition and finds that they offer a window into the heterogeneous contexts in which the Perumāḷ served as a founder-hero for rival political, economic, and religious stakeholders in Indian Ocean trade since the twelfth century.

Introduction. The paper deals with the history of Russia-Mongolia economic relations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Goals. The study seeks to determine, analyze and evaluate the role of Siberian merchants in strengthening Russia-Mongolia trade relations in the specified period. To facilitate these, the work shall examine why Siberian entrepreneurs were that interested in developing trade with Mongolia, identify some factors that hindered Russian economic expansion in the region, characterize the significance of the Siberian merchant class in the competitive struggle for internal markets of Mongolia. Materials and methods. The study focuses on a set of both published and unpublished documents. The former include international treaties that regulated Russia-China political and economic relations from the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, legislative acts of the Russian Empire pertaining to trade and industrial activities. The unpublished sources include statistical and record-keeping papers from public archives of the Republic of Buryatia and Irkutsk Oblast. Methodologically, the study rests on modernization theory in combination with a number of special methods of historical research — the chronological, statistical, system-historical ones — that prove instrumental in reconstructing the process of evolution of Russia-Mongolia trade relations in the context of political and economic transformations experienced by the Russian Empire and Inner Asian nations at the turn of the twentieth century. Results. The change in Imperial Russia’s foreign policy vector towards the Asia-Pacific entailed an intensified development of Russia-Mongolia economic ties. The former resulted from the desire of imperial authorities to facilitate further development of domestic trade and industries. The main role in strengthening trade ties with Mongolia was played by representatives of private capital — Siberian merchants. The expansion of Russian merchants into Mongolia’s internal markets was challenged by a number of problems and obstacles, the main one having been competition with Chinese trading companies that were enjoying huge financial resources and government support. Siberian entrepreneurs would rely on forces and resources of their own, count on state support — and did withstand the competition to retain control over some part of Mongolia’s internal market by the beginning of the 1911 Hsinhai Revolution.

This study examines artistic imagery in Ukrainian fine arts in the first quarter of the 21st century. It outlines the main directions in the development of visual art within the contemporary cultural process. The research employs philosophical, historical, cultural, and art-historical methods, supported by structural and systemic approaches, to ensure scholarly novelty. Artistic processes of the past twenty-five years have been shaped by the cultural achievements and heritage of the late twentieth century. Much of Ukraine’s artistic development in the 21st century is rooted in earlier historical transformations. The author sup-ports the view of art critic Halyna Sklyarenko, who argues that Ukrainian art of the second half of the twentieth century—from the “Thaw” to independence—occupies a distinctive place in global art history, having developed according to a unique and incomparable tra-jectory. Ukrainian art and cultural studies still lack sufficient research that would fully reflect the specific artistic and stylistic features of Ukrainian fine arts in the early 21st century. To date, the artistic processes of this period, as well as the interaction between visual art and society, have not been comprehensively systematized. It is important to emphasize that the last twenty-five years have witnessed a signifi-cant transformation of the artistic language, enriched by influences from related fields of knowledge. This has provided scholars with new tools for understanding the role and sig-nificance of visual art within broader cultural development. At present, reassessing the ar-tistic output created in Ukraine over the past quarter century has acquired particular ur-gency. This reassessment enables a deeper understanding of the evolving figurative struc-tures and conceptual approaches that define contemporary Ukrainian visual art. The study of the factors influencing this cultural development remains ongoing.

This paper examines the overlooked collaborations between the Milanese artist collective Studio Azzurro and Italy’s national broadcaster, Rai, during the 1980s and 1990s. Drawing on previously unpublished documents, sketches, and footage preserved in the artists’ archive, it reassesses the role of artistic contributions in Italian television history. While some collaborations reflect Studio Azzurro’s openness to experimenting with television formats and aesthetics—as well as Rai’s interest in leveraging the artists’ technical expertise—the many unrealized project proposals also reveal the structural limitations of Italian broadcasting in accommodating more ambitious creative interventions. Studio Azzurro’s archive thus emerges as a valuable resource for reconstructing neglected aspects of Rai’s programming, shedding light on the intersections between contemporary art and the production logics of public television. By foregrounding these materials, the paper explores the convergence of art history, television history, and cultural production, offering new perspectives on the institutional tensions that shaped Italy’s media landscape in the late twentieth century.

The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the life path, pedagogical views, and methodological system of Safaraly bay Valibayov, a prominent educator who played a significant role in the development of Azerbaijani pedagogical thought at the turn of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.