Modern History Research Articles

“In Pursuit of Reform”

The religious and intellectual history of early modern and modern Islam is often reduced to a teleological and Arabo-centric narrative, in which modernity began with Napoleon’s Egyptian Expedition or the Nahḍa, the Arab Renaissance. Within this narrative, the succession of Sufism, Islamic reformism, Islamism, and Salafism is seen as a “genealogy of Islamism.” Using a regressive history approach, and presenting the currents of international historiography on Islam between the fifteenth and the twenty-first century, this article seeks in contrast to illuminate the plurality of possible pathways and the heterogeneous nature of historical moments. Moving backward through time, it attempts to identify ruptures and continuities, and to highlight successive interpretations of medieval authors and concepts (such as salafiyya). In so doing, it endeavors to demonstrate the constructed nature of the received historiographical narrative of late nineteenth-century “Islamic reformism,” as well as that of “Arabic thought in the liberal age.” Historiographical debates on the “neo-Sufism” and Aufklärung of the eighteenth century have led to a better understanding of Islam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, a thirst for renewal (tajdīd) flourished in hadith, Islamic law, and Sufism. Recent research on the process of “confessionalization” over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has highlighted the importance of political factors in developments of Islam during the age of the three Empires (Mughal, Safavid, and Ottoman).

The politics of voluntariness in modern history: introduction

ABSTRACT The introduction to the theme issue on the Politics of Voluntariness in Modern History starts by discussing the origins and uses of the liberal discourse on voluntariness in the seventeenth century. It was during this period that philosophers and politicians began to present voluntariness as specific to liberalism. By the same token, voluntariness and authoritarian rule have been declared incompatible. This introduction and the papers in the theme issue critically discuss the exclusive linkage of voluntariness and liberalism – an interpretation that fails to capture authoritarian governing in its entirety, while ignoring compulsory and exclusionary practices in liberal societies. This theme issue shows voluntariness to be essential to policies and political practices in both liberal and illiberal societies. Political practices are at the core of our articles: amid a web of actors, institutions, discourses, and expectations, the individual means and capacity to act voluntarily, make choices, and overcome constraints are historically and socially variable. The introduction and the theme issue explore this variability to illuminate how voluntariness operates as a driving force for political practices in liberal and illiberal societies, drawing on case studies from German, Swiss, and U.S.-American history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Islam, Purity, and Modernity

From the 1930s to the 1950s, the Mzab region in the north of the Algerian Sahara, then under French rule, was shaken by controversies over the consumption and lawfulness of European goods. Historians typically analyze these debates as a form of cultural resistance to colonization or as a sign of the allegedly difficult adaptation of “Islam” to “modernity.” They single out two types of reaction: that of self-proclaimed “reformist” scholars and that of “conservatives,” caricatured as shoring up a barren tradition. Based on the case of the Mzab and on a wide range of Islamic legal documents, this article opens up a new perspective on the relations between Islam, modernity, and colonialism, demonstrating that other logics were also at work. For the Islamic scholars involved, the most important issue at stake was the purity of their community and its preservation in a context of cultural and political uncertainty. Using the tools of Islamic law, both advocates and detractors of these “innovations” shaped a particular vision of their community and its boundaries. By bringing together colonial and Islamic sources, and drawing on both colonial and Islamic studies, this article challenges a reading of the modern history of Islam based on notions such as modernity and reform, which were essentially instrumental in these debates. It also moves away from a historiography that is blind to the internal complexity of these societies, drawing attention to the multiple rationales at work in colonized North Africa.

Die Macht der Dissimulation

Abstract This paper reconstructs and discusses a shift in meaning that has taken place in the modern history of the concealment of art, a history that begins in classical rhetoric. It first shows how the ars-est-celare-artem doctrine was taken up in the early modern period by authors such as Accetto, Castiglione and Gracián and translated into a concept of sprezzatura, an art of disguising that has both aesthetic and political implications. The authors in question emphasize the difference between manipulative deception (simulazione) and an ethically acceptable disguise (dissimulazione), a deliberate concealment of one’s own arts, skills and abilities, which on the one hand provides protection in a power-dominated courtly culture, and on the other is linked to the aesthetic ideals of grace and naturalness. The distinction between simulazione and dissimulazione, which was very common in the Baroque period in particular, faded into oblivion in the 18th century. Dissimulation now tended to be fully integrated into the concept of simulation.

Temporality in the United Nations 2030 Agenda: development or rupture?

Time is a constitutive element of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations (UN). This article analyses how the 2030 Agenda articulates time – i.e. how its discourse connects past, present and future. This analysis shows how the agenda partially breaks with the 19th-century evolutionist assumptions that pervaded previous UN development policies and strategies. On the one hand, the 2030 Agenda implicitly assumes that a historical rupture is needed to shift the world towards a sustainable path in order to avert a civilisational crisis, and that the history of modern, industrialised Western countries is no longer exemplary in this respect. On the other hand, the 2030 Agenda fails to integrate the need for a historical rupture consequentially: it falls into contradictions and continues to replicate the linear logics that caused the very problems that the agenda aims to solve. ‘Development or rupture?’ seems to be the troublesome and difficult dilemma that haunts the UN’s endeavour to transform the world.

Correlates of avian extinction timing around the world since 1500 CE

Avian extinctions have been relatively well documented in modern history, and in the past millennia, more bird species are known to have gone extinct than species in any other vertebrate class. We examined the biological correlates of extinction timing among 216 bird species that recently were either observed to go extinct or disappeared since 1500 CE, performing a novel analysis for examining the extinction trends of birds by modelling traits against the number of years since present day during which species have been extinct. We analyzed a broad range of traits and characteristics that have previously been associated with extinction and extinction risk in birds and compared the effects of these traits simultaneously against one another. In order to provide a more comprehensive and robust assessment of trait-based drivers of global bird loss in comparison to prior studies, we included extinct species recognized by any of the three major avian taxonomies as well those birds that lack recent confirmed sightings and are at least functionally extinct. We found that insular, flightless, larger-bodied, ecologically specialized species, as well as those with high aspect ratio wings, were likely to go extinct earlier in time. Besides identifying the key locations and time periods over the past five centuries where birds have gone extinct, and highlighting specific extinction-prone taxonomic groups, we provide a complete and unified dataset of traits used in this study that helps address the lack of extensive public data on modern extinct species.

Security or Democracy?

For much of the modern history of U.S.-Thai relations, the United States has tried to balance democracy and security, with the latter mostly taking precedence. During the Cold War, the United States sought to keep Thailand anti-communist by supporting various military governments. Democracy was an afterthought, though the United States purported to promote it. After the Cold War, other strategic concerns replaced the fear of communism, specifically the rise of China. By examining the Cold War period in comparison to the years 2014 to the present, we can see a pattern in U.S. foreign policy toward Thailand. This article draws on archival work in the United States and Thailand, along with recently published sources to focus on U.S. policy during the Cold War and the 2014 to the present. Drawing parallels between challenges the U.S. government faced during the Cold War and recent events, I argue that the United States has pursued an unbalanced policy between security and democracy and will continue to do so to protect its interests.

Educator’s Sentiments and Time Values of Zhang Jian

As a preeminent patriotic industrialist and educator in modern and contemporary Chinese history, Zhang Jian not only ventured into industrial enterprises to improve people's livelihood during the exploration and practice of early modernization in China but also initiated educational endeavors, holding profuse educational thoughts and concepts. Zhang Jian's educationalist sentiments are manifested in such aspects as his aspiration for enlightening and strengthening the nation, his advocacy of morality and culture, and his pragmatic and innovative demeanor. Propagating Zhang Jian's educationalist sentiments not only contributes to our comprehensive and profound understanding of the essence, essentials, undertones, and characteristics of the spirit of educationalists in the new era but also facilitates our steadfast establishment of the historical sense of mission and responsibility for educating talents for the Party and the country, and ultimately promotes the high-quality development of Chinese education and Chinese-style modernization.

"El Primer Grito de Independencia" en los ensayos históricos de Francisco Gavidia: la invención de un mito fundacional de la "nación salvadoreña"

In 1911, the centenary festivities of the political movements that took place in the Municipality of San Salvador in 1811 were celebrated with great sumptuousness. The commemorations-celebrations of 1911 were part of a set of rites, symbols, anniversaries, monuments, places of civic memory that the Salvadoran State needed to invent in order to instill feelings towards the country in the population. To achieve this, it was also necessary to create a history based on historical facts that would become a canon and give support to nationalist inventions. To pursue this, in 1912 the President of the Republic Manuel Enrique Araujo commissioned three intellectuals to write an official history. Francisco Gavidia was asked to write about the independence of El Salvador. The result of that request was the publication of the book Modern History of El Salvador. In this book, Gavidia included two chapters on what was called “First Cry of Independence.” Thus, the movements of 1811 became one of the founding myths of the Salvadoran nation. Along with the date —November 5—, the myth of the hero / father of the country José Matías Delgado was created. The third link in the myth was the bell tower of the La Merced Church. In this way, the story to create a “cradle of the country” was resolved. Along with Gavidia, other intellectuals completed that company. This work intends to analyze the context of the invention of “The First Cry of Independence”. Realidad, Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, No. 164, 2024: 39-88.

Literary form and historicised relationality: theorising the city as text in Teju Cole’s novels

ABSTRACT This essay explores the representation and theorisation of the city in Teju Cole’s novels – Every Day Is for the Thief (2007), Open City (2011), and Tremor (2023). It argues that Cole’s writing articulates a new grammar of city-ness premised on historicised relationality and comparative thinking, thus challenging paradigms of urban representation that universalise the Western city. In particular, I propose that Cole’s novels offer a rewriting of Lagos and New York as specifically textual constructions, in which histories of modernity and colonisation get crystallised into their social geographies and cultural infrastructures. By close reading these texts and by drawing from the insights of postcolonial and literary urban studies, I analyse the formal devices – from variations in perspective to restricted focalisation – that Cole employs to textualise the city and its political histories. Through form, Cole’s novels raise crucial questions, both ethical and narrative, about representability, language, and historical violence in urban settings.

Geographic Tunnel Vision and the Past and Future of Democracy

Abstract In the twenty-first century, the democracy bequeathed by the past confronts major, diverse challenges. In thinking about how it might be reimagined, it is important to look beyond conceptions of democracy that are associated with a distinctive Western tradition, indicated at an early point by Athens two and a half millennia ago. Recent scholarship has questioned some clear connection of that specific ancient experience with the democracy that has developed since the late eighteenth century, challenging in several ways what might be called “epistemic exclusion.” One challenge concerns a long debate about Athenian uniqueness. A second concerns how the founding generation of modern democracy thought about, or did not think about, Athenian practices. A third concerns whether a broader geography of influence has infused the entire modern history of democracy in which much innovation has happened in peripheral places in hierarchies of wealth and power. These reflections have implications for where to look for good ideas to construct a better democratic future.

Evaluating the efficacy of support groups in the metaverse for Ukrainian refugees: a protocol for a randomized clinical trial

BackgroundThe Ukrainian crisis, sparked by the Russian invasion, has generated one of the most extensive refugee crises in modern history. Addressing the mental health challenges of Ukrainian refugees is critical to promoting their resilience and successful integration into host communities. Traditional support group interventions might be challenging to implement for geographically dispersed populations, making the metaverse an innovative and inclusive platform for providing much-needed support to such populations.Methods/designDisplaced Ukrainian refugee adults (18 years or older) without current psychiatric diagnoses or current involvement in therapeutic interventions are included in the study. Participants are randomized to one of three conditions: (1) Metaverse Support Groups, (2) In-Person Support Groups, or (3) Waitlist. Both intervention groups (Metaverse and In-Person) undergo 5 support group sessions, and data are collected at baseline, mid-intervention, post-intervention, and 3-month follow-up. Primary outcomes are depressive symptomatology and anxiety. Secondary outcomes are perceived social support, well-being, and gender-based violence awareness.DiscussionTo our knowledge, this is the first attempt to test the efficacy of support groups in the Metaverse for the Ukrainian refugee population. This study can thus add substantially to the body of knowledge on effective interventions and policies for refugees.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT06142032 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06142032). Registered on November 8, 2023.

Migration and mobilisation in New York during the First World War

ABSTRACT This article examines the impact of the First World War on immigration into New York from 1914 into the 1920s. From the nineteenth century onwards, New York had become the destination for global migration as individuals sought to settle in the city or the wider United States. Millions had passed through the immigration points in New York by the beginning of the twentieth century but the outbreak of war in 1914 suddenly brought this flow to a halt. Naval blockades, restrictions on civilian movement and mobilisation of economies in Europe ended what had been one of the most significant migration routes in modern human history. The impact on the city of this curtailment brought fear and anxiety to the streets. New York’s population was overwhelmingly made up of first or second-generation immigrants in 1914 and a concern that the war could be ‘exported’ to the United States through New York created anti-immigrant concern amongst the city and federal authorities. This created a wartime culture in New York that – at least for the duration of the conflict – removed its status as a city of immigrants and instilled a sense that the metropolis should be remade as ‘American’.

Drama as an Aid in Academic Learning and Creative Writing: The CBS Radio Mystery Theater

A comprehensive radio series of 1,399 episodes which originally ran seven nights a week from January 1974 to December 1982. The series dealt with a very large expanse of subject matter, not only in classic and modern literature and history, but also at times featured basic facts in the areas of the sciences including chemistry, medicine, astronomy and physics. As a result, the series served, and continues to serve as an effective educational tool in addition to being a source of entertainment very similar in style to the audiobook. It also serves as a virtual template for the study of the art of storytelling and creative writing.

INDONESIAN NATION BUILDING DISCOURSES IN JAPANESE NEWSFILMS, 1942–1945

As an important chapter in Indonesia's modern history, Japanese occupation had profound impacts on every aspect of the nation's culture and society. It was at this time that Japan started to develop and manage Indonesian film industry which was crucial in providing the idealized and positive role models needed to strengthen and reaffirm Indonesian nationalism. Considering the importance of this industry, this paper aims to investigate how the concepts of nationalism and national characters unique to Indonesia are defined and reinforced in wartime newsreels used as social communication tools under Japanese imperial control. The method used in this study is discourse analysis to observe the ideological messages inside the newsreels important for nation building. The result of this study shows that the main elements in films of this period are systemically designed to construct narrative in line with Indonesia’s nation building despite its nature as media of Japanese propaganda. Through the use of cinematic discourses, newsreels tend to visualize images of an emerging nation having successfully developed a sense of identity and national belonging. This analysis is further contextualized with the propaganda reports of the time to identify how the Japanese inspired nationalism is still embodied in modern texts.

«Confrontation of fonts: Gothic vs Antiqua» in the language politics of the Third Reich

The article is devoted to the consideration of the script in the modern history of the German literary language, associated with the design of its normative graphics (graphemics), in particular the «font dispute: antiqua vs gothic» in the first half of the 20th century. For a significant period of historical development, the German literary language is marked by «cognitive dissonance» caused in the linguistic consciousness of its speakers by the collision of «conflicting» variants of Latin characters. The parallel use of various graphic variants of writing (diglyph), especially at the stage of the modern history of the German language, is marked by the influence of various extra-linguistic factors (ideology, confessional, cultural differences, national and state policies, etc.). A pressing issue is the consideration of the radical and controversial language policy in the totalitarian Third Reich in 1933–1945. Declaring Fraktur as a «national script», a symbol of identity and the embodiment of basic doctrines (unity of the nation and German-speaking ethnic groups, anti-Semitism, «struggle for culture», the idea of superiority), the National Socialists in 1941, at the stage of reorienting their policy towards «Eurocentrism», declared it replacement of the previously rejected antiqua as «normative German writing». The article provides a critical stage-by-stage analysis of the scenarios of the language policy of National Socialism in the «dispute about graphics», attempts to use a «compromise font» (Futura). Ideologemes associated with this practice are analyzed as lexical markers (Sprachregelung, Kulturkampf, Schrifttum, Judenlettern, deutsche Volksschrift/Normalschrift, etc.). The result of the study was the construction of a model of «font strategy» as a special linguistic-semiotic phenomenon of the language policy of the Third Reich. The conclusions note a peculiar reflection of the «font dispute» in different types of texts of 1933–1945 and in the military discourse of the Third Reich.

A Reassessment of the Military Careers and Writings of Sir John Peyton (1579–1635) and Sir Henry Peyton (c.1580–1623)

AbstractThis research note shines new light on previously misinterpreted and incorrectly catalogued key information about the role‐holder of the Lieutenant‐Governor of Brill in 1612. It identifies that a source for this information previously attributed to Sir John Peyton (1579–1635) was actually written by Sir Henry Peyton (c.1580–1623) and discusses the significance and impact of the newly discovered identification. It reveals Henry Peyton to be a prolific letter writer and collector of military maps and shows how he shared his research with Sir Robert Cotton. It also identifies that further research is needed into the military career of Henry Peyton and the significant role he played in early modern military history, with particular attention to be given to his martial reports from Venice and the Low Countries.

Composting modernity

We have reached the logical end of modernity as it lays waste to the natural world, discards people, and reveals its inherent and thus continual violence. Withdrawing our energy from and breaking down the constellation of modern beliefs, we can repattern ourselves and our communities for a life-giving future. In its structure and content, this article demonstrates a relationality approach to sustainability and climate education that undertakes practices to emplace humans back within the living world. Indigenous philosophies of place as well as posthumanism offer relational notions of time, space, place, and land to consider. Pedagogy-rich, the article provides practices for: restoring the history of modernity as a decolonial counternarrative; composting the most problematic beliefs and practices of modernity; providing tracings of and for possible futures; deriving pedagogical entry points of relevance to learners; and nurturing ways of being that can build a rooted, more life-giving way of being.

A Study on the Layoff Problem After COVID-19 Based on Decision Tree Ensemble Methods

The COVID-19 pandemic, a cataclysmic event in modern history, has upended the global economy, precipitating extensive layoffs across diverse sectors. This study delves into the determinants of these workforce reductions through the lens of decision tree ensemble methods. By scrutinizing a comprehensive dataset, we harnessed statistical and machine learning algorithms to assess the significance of key variablesincluding industry type, geographic location, company development stage, and capital acquisitionon the scale of layoffs. This analysis further entailed predicting the total number of employees laid off and examining their distribution. The use of decision tree ensemble methods, such as random forests and gradient boosting, provided robust insights into the complex interplay of factors influencing layoff decisions. We discovered that industry type and company development stage were particularly critical in predicting layoff patterns, while geographic location and capital acquisition also played notable roles. This research offers a data-driven perspective on the layoff phenomena, shedding light on the multifaceted influences at play and offering a foundation for further inquiry and strategic policy development in response to economic downturns. By understanding these dynamics, policymakers and business leaders can better navigate future economic crises, potentially mitigating the adverse impacts on the workforce and promoting more resilient economic structures.

Вопросы правовой интеграции в Союзном государстве России и Белоруссии на современном этапе

The reasons for integration are primarily economic and political factors, they play a leading role in integration processes. Legal integration is a supporting tool. In the modern history of Russia, there have been a number of attempts to launch integration processes. Taking into account the recent political situation, the most effective integration process in which the Russian Federation participates is the Union State of Russia and Belarus. The main directions of the implementation of the Union Treaty and Union Programs have been adopted. However, the pace of their implementation is insufficient. It is necessary to intensify the processes of legal integration of the Union State. When harmonizing legislation, take into account the positive experience of the Republic of Belarus in preserving the positive aspects of Soviet legislation.