Liberating Force Research Articles

Practical Liberators: Union Officers in the Western Theater during the Civil War by Kristopher A. Teters

Reviewed by: Practical Liberators: Union Officers in the Western Theater during the Civil War by Kristopher A. Teters Jonathan Engel Practical Liberators: Union Officers in the Western Theater during the Civil War. By Kristopher A. Teters. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2018. Pp. 240. Notes, bibliography, index.) In Practical Liberators, Kristopher Teters contends that the Union officer corps in the American Civil War’s western theater supported emancipation primarily for military considerations rather than moral objections to slavery. He further argues that this pragmatic approach guided how these officers implemented emancipation in the field, clarifies why their racial prejudices changed little during the war, and explains part of why northerners lost the will to persist in Reconstruction: they cared about emancipation only insofar as it helped them crush the rebellion, not because of any commitment to the well-being of black people. This study presents a broad spectrum of views on slavery and emancipation, with company and regimental officers tending to be more avidly emancipationist than their generals. Teters’s thesis rests on a sample of 410 Union officers from across the western theater. Teters himself notes that generals are over-represented in his sources, a reality apparent in his study’s content, but he still provides strong representation for the perspectives of more junior officers. Union officers fought to save the Union, and their embrace of emancipation hinged on becoming convinced it was a military necessity. The Second Confiscation Act (which stated the Union Army could take property from persons in rebellion against the United States), the Emancipation Proclamation, and firsthand experience did much to solidify the western officer corps’ support for freeing slaves. Western officers prioritized the liberation of able-bodied men who could perform useful labor for the army and showed little interest in women, children, and the aged. The book’s final chapter presents William T. Sherman as an exemplar of Teters’s previous claims about western officers, a man who began the war unopposed to slavery, held racist views throughout the conflict, opposed the use of black soldiers, and yet became a powerful force for liberation simply because the war rendered it logical. Teters’s work fits into several ongoing historiographical conversations. In the scholarly debate over Union soldiers’ concern with emancipation, Teters aligns himself with the utilitarian perspective toward emancipation shown in Gary Gallagher’s The Union War (Harvard University Press, 2011) and diverges from the more idealistic view of studies such as Chandra Manning’s What This Cruel War Was Over (Knopf, 2007). Teters [End Page 466] rightly emphasizes that, however much modern readers might find fault with officers’ intentions, the Union’s western armies nonetheless brought liberty to countless slaves and effectively destroyed slavery as an institution throughout most of the Confederacy. Practical Liberators also pushes back against texts that so heavily emphasize slaves’ agency in liberating themselves that they seriously understate how indispensable the Union armies were to the process of emancipation. Finally, this study is a welcome addition to the paucity of scholarly work on the Civil War officer corps. Teters effectively highlights the common thread of military necessity that ran through western officers’ comments regarding slavery, emancipation, race, and black soldiers, while also acknowledging the range of views found among Union officers. Indeed, the number of dissenting examples he supplies may leave one wondering if he downplays too much the place of moral factors in officers’ support for antislavery measures. Teters’s articulate and clean writing should be accessible to scholarly and non-scholarly readers alike who are interested in the attitudes of Union soldiers toward slavery and race, in Civil War officers collectively, or in the practical mechanics of emancipation. Jonathan Engel Tampa, Florida Copyright © 2019 The Texas State Historical Association

American Priest: The Ambitious Life and Conflicted Legacy of Notre Dame’s Father Ted Hesburgh by Wilson D. Miscamble

Reviewed by: American Priest: The Ambitious Life and Conflicted Legacy of Notre Dame’s Father Ted Hesburgh by Wilson D. Miscamble James L. Heft SM American Priest: The Ambitious Life and Conflicted Legacy of Notre Dame’s Father Ted Hesburgh. By Wilson D. Miscamble, CSC. New York: Image Books, 2019. 464 pp. $28.00. The dramatic changes in Catholic higher education in the United States since the early 1960s generate fascinating case studies for researchers interested in understanding how Catholic tradition has been understood, changed, and debated within a particular institutional setting—the Catholic university. Except for Norman Francis, the president from 1967 to 2014 of Xavier University of Louisiana, a historically black and Catholic university, no Catholic university president had to navigate these turbulent waters of change for as long as Father Theodore M. Hesburgh did, the president of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana from 1952 to 1987. Father Wilson D. Miscamble, a historian and also, like Hesburgh, a member of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, assumed the formidable task of chronicling and evaluating Hesburgh’s leadership during those thirty-five years and beyond, until Hesburgh died on February 26, 2015, at the age of 96. Miscamble divides his book into two parts, one ad intra and the other ad extra: the first part focusing on the impact of Hesburgh’s leadership at Notre Dame, and the second on Hesburgh’s relationship with U.S. presidents and popes. As a historian of American foreign policy since World War II and of the role of American Catholics in twentieth-century public life, Miscamble is especially well-positioned to explore Hesburgh’s interactions with U.S. presidents. For those of us who have lived through these decades, this section of Miscamble’s book evokes vivid memories; for those who are younger, they will be highly informative. Miscamble is most at home writing about corridors of political power in the United States during the second half of the twentieth century. Miscamble recognizes that Hesburgh was a dynamic and influential leader, committed to raising the academic quality of Notre Dame and to serving the country he loved. Yet, he describes Hesburgh’s legacy as [End Page 85] conflicted. Joining the liberal forces in the church when he dissented publicly over Humanae Vitae published in 1968, Hesburgh argued for greater reform in the church. His service on presidential task forces to end poverty and racism, and to promote nuclear disarmament and scientific research, further cemented his reputation as a liberal. Miscamble believes that Hesburgh became so enmeshed in the liberal elite establishment that he was unable to interpret the “signs of the times” correctly. Miscamble concludes: [Hesburgh] never sufficiently grasped, as did Pope John Paul II, how the individualism, utilitarianism, and secularism of later modernity represented such a threat to his religion. Nor did he grasp how some of the very liberal elites who lionized him bore a deep-seated hostility to the faithful living out of religious principles” (376). For Miscamble, the 1967 Land O’Lakes Statement was a “declaration of independence” of the Catholic university away from “formal ecclesiastical control” (92). Miscamble never explains what “formal ecclesiastical control” should look like. He believes that its authors, Hesburgh leading them, defended an ill-conceived demand for academic freedom which functioned “without any restraints” (102). Institutional autonomy and academic freedom, however, are complex issues that require more careful analysis than Miscamble gives them. Miscamble never acknowledges that three years after Hesburgh stepped down as Notre Dame’s president, Pope John Paul II’s apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, actually affirmed as essential for a Catholic university both institutional autonomy and academic freedom (with appropriate qualifications). Except for the expectation that theologians request a mandatum from the local bishop to indicate that they are authentic Catholic theologians, Ex Corde did not in fact require any formal ecclesiastical control. Miscamble’s critique of Hesburgh gets personal. He thinks Hesburgh craved the approval of “liberal elites,” both in the secular academy and in government. Beyond just listing Hesburgh’s numerous prestigious awards from prestigious universities and his service to many presidents of the United States, Miscamble judges that Hesburgh “relished...

Women and Religion in Contemporary Taiwan

Religion in general, and Christianity in particular, plays an ambiguous role in the issue of gender equality and women’s rights in Taiwan. While women are very often marginalized in traditional culture, religious reasons are also often used to reenforce gender inequality and discrimination in confirming the traditional gender roles in the family and religious institutions. However, religion is also a force for liberation of marginalized women in the work of some scholar-activists of religion and theology who struggle for gender justice. This article aims, on the one hand, to let the reader have a glimpse of the situation of women in Taiwan as reflected in these authors’ works, and, on the other hand, to show how they draw resources from religion and work for the rights and liberation of women in their society, through their advocacy and discussions on issues such as sexism, divorce and abortion.

Shiite Clergy in Iran’s Political Life

The article is devoted to the role of Shiite clergy in the Islamic revolution and in the political life of Islamic Republic of Iran. The author attempts to analize the possibilities of the Islamic regime’s survival in the context of modernizing society. IRI is a special model of the state system that embodies the idea of the Islamic rule of Imam Khomeini. Its political, socioeconomic, legal spheres are based on Islamic principles. The clergy managed to establish almost absolute control over secular institutions. At the same time, the Iranian regime can not be regarded as the only theocratic. It combines Islamic ideas with republican principles and admits democracy as a form of political participation. Iran’s political system combines elements of the modern Islamic theocracy with republican principles. Over nearly 40-years of its existence (since 1979), the political system underwent certain transformations which were caused by the economic and sociocultural development of the society and external factors. The liberalization of the economic sphere and the development of political parties put on the agenda political changes. Liberal-minded clergy relying on the ideas of religious modernism support the strengthening of democratic elements within the Islamic Republic. Some of them are ready to abandon the principle of “velayat-e faqih” or to reduce the authority of the leader in political sphere. They initiated reforms in political and public sphere.However, the clergy standing on the positions of fundamentalism, is not ready to reduce the Islamic component. They condemn the modernization trends intensified in Iranian society in recent years and are trying to bring the country back to the first post-revolutionary decade. However, the society is not ready to share such approaches. During the recent election campaigns Iranians have supported the liberal forces. The events of early 2018 demonstrated the protest potential of the society.This shows the desire of the citizens for further democratization of the political system and secularization of the public life. Although, there are calls for overthrowing the dictatorship of the clergy among the opposition groups in the West and inside the country. Hopes for the democratisation of the regime have not been lost. If external factors do not have a destructive effect, then the implementation of the Iranian model of modernization can become a reality.

Policy visions of big data: views from the Global South

Government intentions stand at the heart of debates about how big data can and should be used in the Global South. This paper provides new insights by examining the political and economic visions promoted by emerging power governments in Brazil, India and China (the BICs). Doing so is crucial as these countries not only comprise some of the world’s largest populations, but have also demonstrated their initiative in national and international promotion of big data politics. Drawing on a content analysis of strategic and legal documents discussing the use of big data, we identify potential areas for big data cooperation among the BICs by determining the compatibility of national policy visions. Three visions are apparent: data as a force for political liberation or repression, for improving public services and for facilitating development. Successful BIC cooperation is likely related to the latter two, but less probable for the liberation/repression vision. We conclude by identifying the implications of BIC engagement with big data for the Global South more broadly.

Thabo Mbeki’s ‘AIDS Denialism’

In his nine years as South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki was known as a leading pan-Africanist and an advocate of the African Renaissance. Pan-Africanism is an ideology aimed at uniting Africans into a strong force for total liberation. The African Renaissance is a project aimed at restoring Africans’ self-esteem damaged by colonialism and slavery. During and after his presidency Mbeki was criticised by the local and international media for putting at risk hundreds of thousands of South African lives by questioning the link between HIV and AIDS, and blocking drugs that could have saved many lives. If true, this would suggest that there is a contradiction between Mbeki’s pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance, which are supposed to be life-affirming on one hand, and exposing Africans to the perils of a fatal disease, on the other. This article examines Mbeki’s opponents’ arguments, and Mbeki’s stance in the context of pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance.

“To Live in this World”:

Maxine Kumin wrote in the “Women’s Review of Books,” that Mary Oliver is an “indefatigable guide to the natural world.” Her verses produce a relieving effect and concentrate on the calm aspects of nature, assiduous Hummingbirds, hunting owls. The present study is an exploration of the relationship between the humankind and the world of nature in the poems of Mary Oliver from an eco-feminist point of view. Ecological feminism or eco-feminism is a term first coined by the French writer Froncoised’ Eaubonne in her book Le Feminismeou la Mort(1974) to denote women’s inherent ability for bringing an ecological revolution to ascertain the survival of human being on earth. It started its journey as a movement in the twentieth century against environmental destruction, suppression and oppression of women. From the origin of the earth, man tries to desert the fertile earth and turns her into a barren land. To free women and nature from the clutches of male dominated society, many nineteenth century women wrote about the local landscape that is often an integral part of their daily life. The close examination of the bountiful objects of nature, plants and animals have established them as a liberating force. Mary Oliver took multifarious forms of nature to expose her clear and poignant observations regarding environment. She also sees earth as an upholder of human life and relationships. Nature and humanity is strongly emphasized through her poems to show a deep alliance between them. The reason I choose the poems of Mary Oliver is because they encourage us to think passionately about the kinship of humans with nature and the immense idea a person can gain in understanding one’s life in a meaningful way.

The Unimaginable Revolution: 1917 in Retrospect

The essay takes off from current controversies about Communism, and on the relative weight of its cultural, political and economic components. The discussion then moves, in light of recent historical scholarship, to problems of conceptualizing the revolutionary process that gave rise to Soviet Communism. A strong emphasis is placed on the singularity of the Russian revolution, and on the limits to general theories of revolution. Hasegawa’s revised work on the February revolution of 1917 is discussed at some length, and his interpretation of that event as an interaction between popular and liberal forces is accepted. The following months saw the emergence of multiple revolutionary movements, but also the strengthening of an organization and an alternative leadership with a project different from the main currents of the revolution, but capable of conquering power through a selective mobilization of revolutionary forces. The presuppositions of Bolshevism are analyzed, as well as the implications of its victory. The essay finishes with reflections on Stalinism and its roots in the revolutionary process.

Power and Integration. An Historical Overview on Euro- Mediterranean Relations

This contribution aims to analyze the power relations underlying the international relations of theMediterranean space since the late XIX century in order to assess if and how the most recent initiativesimplemented by the European Union (EU) represent continuity or discontinuity with the modern past.The main idea is that the European Union has tried to shape the Mediterranean space along its basicpreference for free access to the markets of the southern and eastern countries of the Mediterranean,similar to what European powers did in late XIX and early XX century: the liberal order of the “Levantine”period combined the patterns of cooperation and consent, which were needed to foster market and eliteintegration, with those of conflict and coercion, which in turn were required to enforce the Europeanledeconomic and political order against restive and opposition forces. Compared to the past, however,the European Union has succeeded only partially in enforcing a “neo-liberal order” because it lacksmeaningful political and military capacity for coercion against partners and rivals. The current crisisof liberal forces across Europe and the Mediterranean has enhanced those forces advocating a returnto “state sovereignty” and control over flows of people, goods and ideas. This might recall the earlypostcolonial period of the 1950s and mid-1970s where the states struggled either to retain power andwealth, or overcome related asymmetries, by standing firm and “tough” in negotiations and resistingforeign interventions. However, if the centralized state was the main political and institutional driver ofthat period, it is highly difficult that today current states might effectively claim a monopoly over theeconomy and the public space on highly differentiated, secularized and interconnected societies likethe Mediterranean ones.

Nieheteronormatywność i kultura psychoterapii

Nonheteronormativity and culture of psychotherapyCulture has a paramount impact on every aspect of psychotherapy, its conceptualizations, clas­sifications, diagnostic procedures, use of psychometric tools, implementation of therapeutic ap­proaches and outcome expectations. Cultural changes evoke psychotherapeutic permutations, they may be subtle but at times shifts are radical. Nonheteronormativity serves as an interesting example of struggles between forces of sexual liberation and social control. This article objective is to present selected aspects, dynamics of changes as well as relatively stable tendencies regarding capricious re­lations between homosexuality and psychotherapy, which could be perceived as vehicle of self-real­ization and/or agency of control.

STUDDING OF MANIPULATIVE IMPACT ON THE RUSSIAN YOUTH DURING THE IMPERIAL PERIOD OF NATIONAL HISTORY

Features of studying of manipulative impact on the Russian youth of various subjects of public activity during the imperial period of the Russian history are considered. Studying of purposeful impact on youth of various, not unambiguous subjects of public activity using its as subject to manipulations and also approbations on its political, social and psychological technologies and experiments is the relevant and perspective direction of modern sociological researches. Systematization of knowledge of this perspective and also accounting of the available experiment on studying of this sort of the negative phenomena acquired during the previous periods of national history – the imperial and Soviet periods, has to contribute to development of effective mechanisms of counteraction to manipulative and destructive impact on process of socialization, education and social development of modern Russian youth. The author pays attention to little-known works, official documents and unfairly the forgotten classics of the Russian socio-political thought, opinion of the official government persons and publicists mentioning this perspective in the researches. Interest in this perspective, investigating features of process of socialization, crisis of institutes of socialization, participation of youth in policy, growth of crimes of extremist and terrorist orientation, mood of youth, student’s revolts and performances were generally shown by both official officials, and scientists, experts and publicists, first of all, of the conservative and guarding direction of the Russian socio-political thought. I.K. Palen, K.P. Pobedonostsev, A.I. Georgiyevsky, A.S. Izgoyev, M.N. Katkov, F.P. Elenev, N.A. Berdyaev, S.N. Bulgakov, L.A. Tikhomirov, B.N. Chicherin, etc are highlited as persons who have brought a significant contribution to the development of this perspective. The Russian youth is often acted in ideas of these statesmen and thinkers as the victim of propaganda and as object of manipulative influence from outside both external, and internal anti-system, radical liberal and revolutionary forces.

How do western democracies cope with the challenge of societal diversity?

AbstractIn the modern era, the grand forces of modernism, liberalism and nationalism have opposed and minimized societal diversity in Western states. The Civil Rights Movement in the USA and the flow of millions of unassimilable immigrants, mostly Muslims, to Europe opened Western societies to cultural diversity. But liberal multiculturalism in the West consists mainly of endorsement of subcultures, non‐discrimination and inclusion. It falls short of instituting consociational components like cultural autonomy and power‐sharing. Fear and unease in the West increasingly give priority to majority over minority rights. While all Western democracies object to societal diversity, they differ in the way they handle it: liberal democracies deny it, consociational democracies institutionalize it and ethnic democracies partially allow and partially subordinate it. These three different strategies are evident in the way representative cases of Western democracies, namely the USA, Switzerland and Estonia, respectively, cope with societal diversity.

The Unfree Space of Play: Emergence and Control in the Videogame and the Platform

This article attempts to understand the economic and informatic ramifications of the convergence between increasingly connective games and massive online platforms by considering recent trends in both that center around designing for emergence. Scholarship on emergence as a property of games overwhelmingly treats emergent design as a liberating force that privileges player agency in a virtual space. Yet, as games fuse with surrounding platform ecosystems like Steam, Facebook, and Google, those emergent behaviors are subject to vast systems of inscription that analyze user behavior in order to reshape the free space of emergence and extract greater social and financial capital. At the same time, platforms grow more and more gamified in order to impel users toward interactions that will yield the most valorizable forms of engagement while maintaining the illusion of user agency. Examining the popular design trend of games-as-a-service alongside the public scandal surrounding Facebook's extractive practices shows that the trajectory of these overlapping systems actually colonize the free space of emergence, making it the territory from which technologies of control are derived.

THE CHURCH AND ITS CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STRUGGLE TO LIBERATE THE FREE STATE PROVINCE

The article outlines the contributions of the church to the liberation struggle in South Africa. In doing so, we limit the content to the contributions of church activities in the Free State. The point of departure is that the liberation of South Africa was not only a result of the barrel of the gun – instead, the barrel was complemented by various peaceful liberation forces, including the activities and the narratives of the church. The arguments of this article are based in decolonial theory, a discourse that sensitises understanding that the liberation of South Africa should not only be interpreted politically, but that liberation transcends politics to other spheres of life, and it involves total liberation and emancipation. Data in this article was collected through interviews and questionnaires, which focused mainly on the role of the church in the liberation of the Free State. In this article, it is argued that the place of the church in the post-1994 histories and narratives should be one of being a champion of social justice, equity and the fair distribution of resources, as well as playing a role to unmask corruption, which continues to subject the people of the Free State to poverty and marginalisation.

Between North-South Civil War and East-West Manifest Destiny: Herman Melville’s “I and My Chimney” as Geo-Historical Allegory

Between North-South Civil War and East-West Manifest Destiny: Herman Melville’s “I and My Chimney” as Geo-Historical Allegory

The transformative limits of translanguaging

The implementation of translanguaging at school is often seen to have transformative capacities: it will release bilingual subjectivities, and change unequal social structures. In this paper I argue that translanguaging is likely to be less transformative and socially critical than is suggested, because translanguaging research has more in common with the monolingual authorities it criticizes than it may seem, because it trades on causality effects that cannot be taken for granted, and because translanguaging, in some of its representations, is becoming a dominating rather than a liberating force. This does not detract from the value of translanguaging research, nor from the importance of reconciling schools with linguistic diversity. But it may imply arguing this transformation from a different tack.

Finding a Healthy Balance: Evaluating Models for Change to International Intellectual Property Laws Affecting Global Access to Medicine and Realisation of the Human Right to Health

Los derechos humanos han sido difundidos por olas de globalización que también engrosan las fuerzas económicas de la liberalización comercial de manera que incluyen diversos regímenes multilaterales tales como el sistema internacional de la propiedad intelectual (TRIPS). Este artículo considera dicho sistema e identifica problemas con el TRIPS y el modo en cómo afecta la capacidad de los individuos para acceder a la medicina y en consecuencia para darse cuenta del derecho humano a la sanidad. Los casos prácticos de la India, Tailandia y Mozambique demuestran que el sistema de TRIPS existente resulta insuficiente para la comprensión progresiva del derecho humano a la sanidad y nos permiten formular criterios para un sistema mejor. Dichos criterios incluyen una capacidad para el equilibrio ofreciendo a los consumidores medicina esencial y a los innovadores, a menudo compañías multinacionales, incentivos, de manera que continúen desarrollando la medicina con el fin de tratar las necesidades sanitarias. El artículo propone un órgano global de impuestos que exija a los Gobiernos contribuir a un fondo que supervise la distribución de la medicina esencial racionalizando y mejorando la ayuda existente y los proyectos de investigación y desarrollo. Crea un foro multi-participativo al objeto de facilitar este trabajo y anima a los Gobiernos a trabajar con las compañías multinacionales. Si las organizaciones intergubernamentales, la Sociedad Civil y los medios de comunicación se coordinan con el fin de superar los obstáculos que encuentren en la adopción y ejecución de este modelo, puede crear un equilibrio factible entre intereses participantes para desarrollar un sistema de la propiedad intelectual que mejore la ejecución del derecho humano a la sanidad.Publicación en línea: 11 diciembre 2017

In Memoriam: Sadiq Jalal al-ʿAzm, 1934–2016

In Memoriam: Sadiq Jalal al-ʿAzm, 1934–2016

In Memoriam: Sadiq Jalal al-ʿAzm, 1934–2016

In Memoriam: Sadiq Jalal al-ʿAzm, 1934–2016

Re-inventing the Ancien Régime in Post-Napoleonic Europe

‘Revolution’ as a historical category has received continuous academic interest and scrutiny, whereas the regime invented by the French Revolution has received less sophisticated theoretical analysis and unpacking. The term ancien régime was created in the moment of its death. The subsequent restructuring and politicization of this concept during the post-Napoleonic era remains largely unstudied. It is the argument here that the world after 1815 created a number of ‘new old regimes’. These political systems, which made reference to ancien régime inheritances, were not straightforward reflections of a ‘real past’. They were malleable discourses that could be calibrated to corroborate the competing claims made by conservatives, radicals and liberals about how post-Napoleonic Europe was to be organized. The ‘new old regime’ of the nineteenth century, though historically grounded, was instrumental in design and made little effort to resurrect the ‘real past’ to which it purportedly made constant reference. The battle to define the ‘new old regime’ was not a rear-guard action but lay at the very heart of European politics after 1815. The forces of nationhood, constitutionalism, parliamentarianism, liberalism and democracy unfurled by the twin titans of revolution and Napoleonic conquest were not guaranteed to win the day. Dynasticism, aristocratic hierarchy, military glory, religious revival, village communalism and regionalism continued to prosper during the first half of the nineteenth century.