Politics Of National Identity Research Articles

Unrevealed diaspora force? Diaspora education as a source of diaspora identity politics in Lithuania

ABSTRACT Education is a staple in the nation-building process. Therefore, diaspora education is among the main diaspora policy directions in many European states. However, it has been greatly overlooked in diaspora policy studies, as the diaspora policies and institutions are mostly examined from the perspective of the political and economic inclusion of the diaspora. This paper aims to discuss the role of education in diaspora policy studies and diaspora identity politics in Lithuania. This study investigates how the state of origin practices its education policy as a part of identity politics and the diaspora engagement and governance process. The analysis is fostered by the case study of the diaspora education politics in the Republic of Lithuania as an example of an emigration state. The study presents three main groups of mechanisms of using diaspora education for national identity politics, namely, (1) formal, nonformal and informal education; (2) education as a tool of the returning migration and (3) transnational ties with “young ambassadors.”

Authoritarian welfare and resilience: politics of child benefits in Russia

ABSTRACT Recent literature on authoritarian stability and legitimation has highlighted the role of propaganda and information control, national identity politics, participation technologies and other communication strategies autocrats use to shape public opinion. The authoritarian tool kit is, incomplete if we do not account for governance-related measures. Focusing on authoritarian social policy and contributing to the literature on the authoritarian welfare state, this study measures the political effects of unconditional and conditional cash transfers, specifically focusing on child subsidies, that the Russian government has increasingly integrated into its policy tools. Social policy and child support earn the government political dividends in terms of shoring up public support and have acquired added significance over the last few years. It is part of the current social pact that enables authoritarian resilience during Russia’s war against Ukraine and that is made possible by the actions at the federal, regional, and municipal levels of government.

Letters from Exile: Canadian Media, the Romanian Diaspora, and the Legionary Movement

This article traces the post-Second World War immigration of Romanians to Canada, and addresses themes of self-identification versus outside perception, national identity, and myth-making in the Romanian-Canadian community. It subsequently documents the scrutiny faced by the Romanian diaspora for supposed links to the interwar Romanian far-right Legionary Movement. Beginning in the 1950s, Romanian exiles in Canada forged their own community organizations, churches, and media, in which a unique synthesis of national identity and far-right politics was promoted, placing these new immigrants at the center of intracommunity and inter-ethnic conflict. Following the release of the Deschênes Report on war criminals living in Canada in 1986, as well as a series of unsolved terrorist attacks, Romanian-Canadians were subject to investigations by the mainstream Canadian media for potential involvement in far-right organizing. In the years since the collapse of state socialism in Eastern Europe, significant strands of the Romanian diaspora in Canada have continued to embrace historical figures of the Legionary Movement, synthesizing a diaspora identity flavored by anticommunism, radical right politics, and (ultra-) nationalism well into the post-communist period.

Kazakhs in Mongolia: Navigating Governance, Education, Religion, and National Identity

This article introduces readers to a case study of ethnic Kazakhs in Mongolia. The main goal was to identify the institutional factors that are likely to systematically influence Kazakhs’ integration or division in Mongolia’s larger society. Therefore, the study focuses on key institutional structures behind the politics of representation, education system, religious institutions and national identity. It draws on official data, surveys and interviews focusing on Kazakhs in Mongolia. The findings suggest that current institutional settings are likely to contribute to structural inequalities and social tensions. Consequently, indicating a need to support orientation toward tolerance at the larger society.

Between Religion and Politics: The Case of the Islamic Movement in Israel

The power of the “moderate” branch of the Islamic Movement (Alharaka al-Islamiyya, subsequently referred to as IM) Southern Faction (IMSF) in Israel stems from its ability to adapt to different situations, reconcile with the complex reality of being an indigenous minority in a state that defines itself a “Jewish state”, and operate within the state structure accepting democratic processes that have long been debated to clash with Islamism. Besides being represented in the Israeli Knesset since 1996, the culmination of this adaptation was the joining of the movement to the short-lived Zionist coalition government on 2 June 2021 (the government collapsed in July 2022). This historic entry of an Arab Party into a Jewish/Zionist government coalition for the first time in Israel’s history was a shocking surprise to many, not only due to the IM being an Arab–Palestinian movement but also an Islamist movement. My analysis shows that despite this reconciliation, the IM continues to emphasize religiosity, binding it to the national political struggle and identity of Israel’s Palestinian minority. For its supporters, the IMSF is seen as a meeting point of spiritual/religious needs on the one hand and material needs in the social, political, and cultural spheres on the other. However, for its opponents, mainly from the other Arab political parties, the IM had deviated from the national consensus and accepted strategies and tools to deal with the challenges facing them as a minority in Israel. And, for some others, the IM had even deviated from Islam itself. I draw on a field study that spanned several years. It is based on qualitative, extensive interviews with senior Islamist and non-Islamist leaders in Israel, as well as primary sources of the IM, including publications, leaders’ speeches, and social media. All quotes in this article are based on the author’s interviews during 2022–2024. Interviews with the following leaders and activists: IM leader Abdul-Malik Dahamsheh, sheik Ibrahim Sarsour, former MK Muhammad Hasan Ken`an, Nosiba Darwish `Issa, IM MK Eman Yassin Khatib, NDA’ chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh, secretary general of Abnaa al-Balad (Sons of the Country) Muhammad Kana`neh, and with Kufr Qare` former mayor Zuhair Yahya were conducted by in-person or by phone during summer–fall 2023. The interviews with former IMNF activist Aisha Hajjar, activist Zuhriyyeh ‘Azab, journalist Abd el-Rahman Magadleh, and DFPE member Elias Abu Oksa were conducted via What’s App, Messenger, and e-mail in 2022. The interview with political analyst Ameer Makhoul was conducted in December 2023 via Messenger. Follow-up communication was mainly through What’s App to clarify certain points. The interview questions focused on the reasons for the Islamic Movement’s division into two wings, the religious and political justifications for entering the Knesset and the coalition, the relationship between the southern wing and the main Arab parties active in the Israeli Knesset, the experience of unity with them, and the experience of its members while in the Zionist coalition. This article examines how the Islamic Movement in Israel uses religion as a tool to influence the national, cultural, political, economic, and social lives of the Arab minority in Israel. It asks: How does the Islamic Movement, religiously and politically, justify its involvement in the political game and in a Zionist government coalition, and how do Arab parties perceive this involvement? Moreover, it raises an important question about the nature of the movement: to what extent is the Islamic Movement a political Islam movement, and whether it has abandoned the basic goals of political Islam for the sake of becoming a democratic Islamic party? This article will provide significant insight into crucial aspects of the IM that have been previously overlooked. While being in a Zionist coalition gave hardly any latitude in decision making about policies, budgets were an attractive avenue for the Islamic Movement to guide public opinion and gain political support. The article comes during the ongoing war on Gaza, which will undoubtedly cast a shadow on the political climate and the political map in Israel in general and on the political work of Arab parties and the Islamic Movement in particular. Although it is too early to predict the impact of this war on the Islamic Movement and its political future, it can be assumed that the impact will be profound.

Study on the Path of Informatization Construction of Civic Education in Colleges and Universities Empowered by Digitization

Abstract This study focuses on the informatization construction of ideological education, which is carried out in two modules, namely, teaching management and student education evaluation. Apriori algorithm in association rules is adopted in teaching management to improve teaching efficiency. Principal component analysis is introduced to construct a comprehensive evaluation model for student education evaluation, and SPSS software is used for dimensionality reduction to simplify the evaluation indexes. Further, this paper analyzes the status quo and challenges of the informatization of Civic Education in colleges and universities, and puts forward a specific path of informatization construction. To verify the effectiveness of the teaching method, a controlled experiment was set up, and through three months of practical teaching, the experimental group showed significant improvement in the Civic and Political scores and core dimensions, such as family and national sentiment and political identity. The results show that the informatization teaching practice has significant effectiveness in Civics education.

‘We all just want a flag to get behind’: the politics of English national identity

ABSTRACT This paper explores English national identity through qualitative interviews with English-identifying voters in rural South-West England, amidst post-Brexit and COVID-19 uncertainties. Analysing 16 in-depth interviews, the study uncovers micro-level foundations of English identity, revealing a multifaceted view where participants consider it an absent identity. As members of the dominant cultural group, they define Englishness by their perceived 'normal,' distancing anything diverging from their norms as foreign. The study suggests a connection between English identity and reactive resentment towards perceived asymmetrical identity norms compared to neighbouring devolved nations. These findings shed light on the nuanced nature of English identity in rural areas and contribute to discussions about fostering a progressive and inclusive English identity.

Ambivalent meanings of the past: state critique and memory politics in 1980s (pro-)Refugee struggles in the Federal Republic of Germany

ABSTRACT Focusing on the largely forgotten early period of (pro-)Refugee activism in the 1980s West-Germany and the role of memory politics therein, this article explores the ambiguity in critiquing the nation-state. Drawing on original data collected in seven social movement archives in Germany, different ways in which German Nazism and the Holocaust are invoked to frame and critique the present (West-)German nation-state and its migration and asylum regime are scrutinised. Three ways in which Nazism and the Holocaust were invoked and discussed by Refugee activists and their supporters are differentiated: the past as ‘reminder and warning for the present’, the past as ‘discrediting and incriminating the present’, and explicit attempts not to draw analogies between the past and the present. Overall, the article makes two key contributions. First, the article makes a historical and empirical contribution as the focus on the 1980s sheds light on a period that has so far been largely ignored when it comes to the study of (pro-)Refugee activism. By tracing different ways in which memory politics has informed and been integral to Refugee activism and support, the article makes, second, an innovative contribution to studying the nexus of (forced) migration, national identity, and memory politics.

How to Increase Political Awareness and Formation of National Political Identity Through Citizenship Education?

Political awareness is very important to be built from an early age in the younger generation. It encourages them to participate and contribute to their nation. This study aims to see how far the effectiveness of citizenship education is in an effort to increase political awareness and national political identity for the younger generation. This study uses a quantitative approach to the type of evaluation design research model. The evaluation instrument used was context, input, process, and product (CIPP), while the data analysis method used descriptive quantitative data analysis. The results of this study are that Pancasila and Citizenship Education (PPKn) has a vision and mission to develop students into human beings who have a sense of nationality and love for the motherland, through the process of accepting and carrying out the teachings of their religion; have honest behavior, discipline, responsibility; and are polite, caring, and confident in interacting with family, friends, and teachers. The findings in this study are that the components in citizenship education are materials taught to students contained in the book Pancasila and Citizenship Education, which includes components to fulfill indicators of forming students’ political awareness, and citizenship education learning strategies have also used a strategy of involving students in the environment where they live. To increase participation, use strategies for activities in schools to increase tolerance and awareness as citizens. A strategy is carried out involving several relevant stakeholders such as election administrators and the police. The formation of national identity in the citizenship education component is that material taught to students to enhance the formation of national identity has not been included in the material being taught; therefore, learning strategies to achieve the formation of student national identity have not been carried out.
 Keywords: Political Awareness, Formation of National Political Identity, Citizenship Education.

Edward Livingston, Nullification, and Louisiana's Political Transformation

Abstract: This article corrects major historiographical flaws concerning Louisiana's early relationship with the United States and argues the federal tariff was the most critical factor influencing state reconciliation. Leading Louisiana historians like Peter Kastor concur that slavery inspired French-speaking Creole planters to embrace U.S. citizenship. Their consensus further holds that Creole commitment to slavery crystalized their national cultural acceptance. However, Creole planters shared far more with Caribbean slaveholders than those in the American South. Throughout Louisiana's early territorial and statehood years, slavery bolstered animosity between Anglo-Americans and Creoles. The former viewed Creoles through a racist lens and remained wary of their slave-related cultural practices, like openly acknowledging mixed-race relationships. The latter feared that English-speaking migrants would undermine their legal hegemony and inspire insurrection. Though slavery impeded Louisiana unity, the federal tariff did more than anything else to foster it. Throughout the 1820s, Creole planters became reliant on federal sugar protections to alleviate competition. Thus, the tariff gave Creoles a considerable incentive to embrace national political identities. Louisiana's redoubtable statesman Edward Livingston was particularly instrumental in promoting reconciliation on both sides. Before becoming Andrew Jackson's Secretary of State, the exiled New Yorker spent decades representing his adopted state's culturally divergent Creoles. When South Carolina triggered the Nullification Crisis in 1832-1833, Livingston spoke with Louisiana's unique perspective and eloquently guided Jackson's response which deftly balanced federalism's necessities with states' rights concerns. Thus, through the tariff, Louisiana not only embraced its new American identity, but the government employed Louisiana's voice to preserve the Union.

More than a Game: Football and Soft Power in the Gulf

ABSTRACT By hosting spectacular international mega-events such as the 2022 World Cup and investing in the heavyweights of global football such as Paris St. Germain, Newcastle United or Manchester City, the monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – in particular Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – are heavily engaged in ‘football diplomacy’ to gain more leverage in terms of regional and international politics, bolster their global reputation, consolidate power on an internal and external level and promote economic diversification. In doing so, these GCC monarchies instrumentalise football for the projection of soft power with the aim of preserving geostrategic interests, consolidating legitimacy and promoting a respective national ‘football identity’. As such, they are competing for ‘beauty’, ‘brilliance’ and ‘benignity’. In addition, sports (particularly football) are drivers of domestic and international human development, as GCC states such as Qatar are increasingly investing in Sports for Development (S4D) efforts. As sport diplomacy is also at risk of ‘soft disempowerment’, S4D provides an instrument to counter international criticism and promote social cohesion and national identity politics.

Remapping Englishness in Peter Ackroyd’s Milton in America

Abstract Peter Ackroyd’s historiographic metafictional novel Milton in America (2006) entails a critical return to history – critical in the sense that it questions the essence of historical knowledge and revisits the past in order to comment on the politics of national identity. Beneath a façade of historicity, the novel explores the continuity of English cultural identity and narrates a fictional story that centres on the conflict of Catholicism and Protestantism in the context of post-Restoration emigration of Puritans from England to New England. The “old faith”, although marginalized, continued to exist in post-Reformation England. The novel ties the significance of Catholicism to a thorough sense of Englishness. Catholic faith is shown as an ancient anchor of English identity. Peter Ackroyd delves into the collective memory of his race in search of a sense of commonality, believing in the continuity of English national identity. Challenging humanist assumptions about historical authenticity, the novel calls into question the idea of religious homogeneity, offering a different narrative as equally valuable.

Conscripts of secularism: nationalism, Islam and violence

ABSTRACT In the currently resurging contestation about religion and nationalism in the public sphere, secularism has become one of the most intensively contested political concepts. Even staunch advocates concede that across Euroamerica, secularism has in many ways failed to deliver on its promise to guarantee state neutrality and free exercise of religion. However, scholarship critically investigating the effects of secularism is often unclear about what discrimination, harm, or violence it seeks to uncover, creating misunderstandings among secularism’s advocates and critics alike. This contribution suggests that there are three major analytical angles that should be distinguished: the liberal egalitarian critique, the decolonial critique, and the genealogical critique. To demonstrate the benefits and limitations of each perspective, the contribution draws on the case study of Christian national identity politics in Bavaria targeting Islam. It makes the case for the conscious combination of these three perspectives in the analysis of the ‘religion-culture-citizenship’ nexus.

Health management in the Southwest District from 1950 to 1952

A sequence of essential measures were taken by the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the government in the Southwest District, to rebuild social rules, carry out social changes and improve the local health situation in the beginning period of the New China. These measures referred to the construction of an administrative organization system, the recovery and rectification of medical and pharmaceutical administration, the training of health professionals, environmental pollution improvement and disease prevention and publicising medical and health knowledge. These measures not only improved health management but also promoted national unity and political identity. As a result, they helped solve the problems left by the local new democratic government and made social changes and consolidated the new national power.

Entangled memories: Nehanda statue, Gukurahundi plaques and the politics of memory in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT This article examines the on-going memorialization practices of Mbuya Nehanda and Gukurahundi that are performed and contested in various discursive spaces in Zimbabwe. It analyses the media discourses surrounding two seminal commemorative events that occurred concurrently on 25 May 2021. Firstly, the government unveiled a statue of Nehanda, a liberation heroine, in the capital, Harare. On the same day, the Gukurahundi survivors erected a memorial plaque at Bhalagwe to commemorate the victims of a genocide that was orchestrated by the government in Matabeleland between 1983 and 1987. Drawing upon Rothberg’s concept of multidirectional memory, we explore how these different histories are intertwined and entangled in public spaces as various mnemonic communities seek to assert and endorse their narratives of the past. Findings from on our analysis of news media reports demonstrate the entanglements, synergies and interconnectedness of Nehanda and Gukurahundi histories in various ways. On the one hand, Nehanda and Gukurahundi memories represent histories of victimization and injustices. On the other hand, they demonstrate the divergences and contestations surrounding national memory and identity politics.

Tongzhi Sovereignty: Taiwan’s lgbt Rights Movement and the Misplaced Critique of Homonationalism

Abstract This essay reviews the influential work of a group of Leftist ‘sex liberation’ scholars who pioneered queer sexuality studies in Taiwan in the 1990s. In doing so, it focuses on their post-2000 political rift with the mainstream Taiwanese lgbt (tongzhi) rights movement. What ostensibly began as a split over views of same-sex marriage has developed into a contentious politics of Chinese versus Taiwanese national identity and what I call ‘tongzhi sovereignty’. In bringing together both national identity and sexual politics in Taiwan as increasingly intertwined sites of contestation, I argue that the two must be theorised in tandem. As a fertile site for unpacking this contentious divergence, I examine and problematise the way that cultural theorist Jasbir Puar’s popular concept of homonationalism has circulated in scholarship of cultural/sexuality studies about Taiwan as a slanted and largely unchecked analytic to criticise lgbt sociolegal progress and, for some scholars, obscures a pro-unification agenda.

Challenges to globalisation and the impact on the values underpinning international sport agreements

ABSTRACT Accompanying the spread of sports as a global business and a political/diplomatic resource have been attempts to underpin the organisation and practice of sports with a set of Kantian values that maintain its economic/cultural utility while also protecting the rights and dignity of key stakeholders, especially athletes. In recent years, there has been growing evidence of challenges, at both the grassroots and corporate/governmental level, to the globalisation of liberal Enlightenment values. This paper addresses three research questions: 1) to what extent are the Kantian values that underpin international rights conventions such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights under threat from anti-globalisation pressures; 2) to what extent are these challenges evident in sport and 3) how secure are the liberal values that underpin international sports documents/agreements such as the Olympic Charter, the WADA Code, the Brighton Plus Helsinki 2014 Declaration on Women and Sport and the Universal Declaration of Player Rights? It is argued that the challenges are substantial and have significant consequences for the values underpinning global sport. The focus of analysis is on three elements of the global sports infrastructure: international sports agreements/declarations, national identity politics and international sports organisations. It is argued that the strength of the challenges is undermining the values on which global sport has been built either by attempts to redefine core liberal values or by simply ignoring them. The same countries that are seeking to undermine global human rights conventions are also reluctant to be bound by sports-related institutions and conventions.

Author's Response: A Russian Reckoning?

Author's Response:A Russian Reckoning? Timothy Frye (bio) The only thing better than reading a smart review of your book is to read four smart reviews, as is the case with this Asia Policy book review roundtable. I thank Aleksandar Matovski, Christopher Miller, Andrew Monaghan, and Mark Katz for their close readings of Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin's Russia. They not only provide many useful insights but also raise important questions that can help set a research agenda for studying Russia going forward. All book reviews are written in the shadow of current events, and few events have recently loomed larger than Russia's invasion of Ukraine. I was pleased to see that the reviewers found the book's emphasis on Russia's institutional pathologies to be a useful framework for understanding the invasion in all its senselessness. I address some of these issues in more detail in a new foreword to the paperback version that will appear in September. I was also pleased to see the broad acceptance of the main arguments of the book, such as the benefits of looking beyond Putin, the importance of a comparative perspective, and the value of social science research for comprehending Russian politics. Rather than dwell on the points of agreement, though, this essay will focus on the reviewers' calls to give greater attention to particular issues. I am sympathetic to this call for more detail. In writing a book aimed at the intersection of specialist and general interest readers, I recognized the trade-off in achieving the depth necessary to persuade the specialist reader while not straining the patience of the general interest reader. This made for some uncomfortable choices and hard cuts. Matovksi and Miller applaud the book's emphasis on the importance of public opinion for Putin's regime but each would like to push the argument in slightly different directions. Matovski calls for a deeper probe into Russia's national identity politics and makes the very helpful suggestion of comparing Russia to other post-imperial countries like Weimar Germany and Turkey, to which one might add Britain and France as well. Miller makes a similar insight by noting that "we will need to explore how this [End Page 197] apparently deep-set nationalism interacts with the wobbly state apparatus and political structure" to understand Russian politics. This critique to pay greater attention to nationalism has much going for it. In trying to downplay the "magical" qualities often attributed to Vladimir Putin's popularity, such as his publicity stunts, personal charisma, and Russians' supposed support for strong leaders, I urged observers to look at the more mundane factors that are often critical to a leader's popularity but often discounted in general discussions of Russian politics. I argue that performance matters for the popularity of leaders like Putin—not just information or propaganda about performance, but actual performance. It matters for Putin's support that living standards in Russia soared, that Russia annexed Crimea without bloodshed, and that pensions have been paid on time. Green and Robertson find that even controlling for personality traits, respondents whose economic situation improved in the last year were more likely to vote for and approve of Putin.1 But Matovski and Miller are surely right that we need a better understanding of the causes and consequences of nationalism and national identity. Recent works have made some progress. Gulnaz Sharafutdinova uses social identity theory to argue that Putin has exploited the trauma of the 1990s.2 Green and Robertson point to the intense emotional appeals that bolstered Putin after the annexation of Crimea.3 Matovski's own work on Putin's exploitation of crises and fears of political instability fills an important need.4 These are all important contributions, but this is hard work. Nations have multiple identities that change over time. One person's historic trauma is another person's historic opportunity. National identities are not given in nature but are contested political creations. Identities and interests interact in ways that are difficult for observers to capture. Understanding why and when appeals to identity strike home is not easy. After the anti-government demonstrations of 2011, Putin banged...

Introduction: Special Issue: Reproduction, Contraception, and Obstetrics in Modern Mexico

IntroductionSpecial Issue: Reproduction, Contraception, and Obstetrics in Modern Mexico Laura Shelton (bio) and Martha Liliana Espinosa Tavares, Special Issue Guest Editors (bio) This Special Issue elucidates how Mexican obstetricians, mothers, feminists, scientists, and politicians understood the intersections of reproduction and birth control with the politics of national identity and modernization over the course of a century. Each article investigates these changes within a global context, given that Mexican women and men working in and advocating for reproductive health participated in transnational networks that mobilized concerns about pronatalism, eugenics, sexuality, and population control. Several authors examine how foreign mediators and international foundations rooted in the United States and Europe became involved in Mexico's politics of reproduction. Collectively, these works underscore how views of reproduction intertwine with nationalist projects and patriarchal systems. These works interrogate the continued legacies of colonialism and eugenics on the contours of public debates about family planning in Mexico. Despite these public debates, Mexican women worked to exercise control over their reproductive capacities by gaining access to abortions, contraceptives, and securing the material conditions necessary to raise the number of children they desired. The articles that comprise this special issue will be relevant for anyone interested in the contested arenas of gender and reproductive health, since they offer contextualized analyses of the heated debates over abortion, contraception, motherhood, and economic justice characteristic of the current global political landscape. The particularities of Mexico, however, should draw the attention of a broader audience. Although Mexico is the country with the second-largest number of Catholics in the world (and it has powerful "pro-life" evangelical movements, such as the Frente Nacional por la Familia), this did not prevent the country's Supreme Court from establishing a historical precedent in September 2021, when it declared the criminalization of elective abortion in the northern state of Coahuila unconstitutional. The nationwide Mexican feminist movement celebrated this decision, while also recognizing that the full attainment of reproductive rights in Mexico is still far off on the horizon, considering that, as of today, voluntary abortion is legal in only five out of thirty-two Mexican states. How can we understand such a convoluted context? How to make sense of the history of fertility control and obstetrics in a country where popular Catholicism has coexisted with secular and highly nationalistic governments, and in which any foreign intervention, even in the healthcare domain, has been seen with suspicion? The articles that are part of this volume emerge from the need to answer these questions. [End Page 3] Mexico offers a paradigmatic example of how reproductive governance is historically shaped by the dynamic influence of a revolutionary state, the patriarchal and positivist development of medical science, religion, nationalist public health programs, a vocal multicultural and multiracial civil society, transnational organizations and, of course, the very women whose bodies are at stake. Examining the history of reproductive health in Mexico, nonetheless, often requires scholars to draw on documents that men—or foreign women—have authored about Mexican women, a reality that shapes whose voices are centered in the historical narrative. The authors of this collection have thus drawn on correspondence among obstetricians, international foundations, pharmaceutical companies, lawmakers, and feminist organizations to examine the emergence of obstetrics as a modernizing profession and the influence of international foundations and foreign doctors on debates about reproductive healthcare and birth control. Searching for women's agency in these historical records sometimes necessitates finding the contours of women's voices indirectly through their actions and their resistance to projects of pronatalism and population control. Clinical records, for example, reveal how women from all classes actively sought out newly available oral contraceptives while avoiding clinics devoted strictly to teaching the rhythm method, demonstrating initiative to control their reproductive destinies by electing birth control methods of their own choosing, independent of the Catholic Church's teachings and state policies that limited access to birth control. Obstetrics nurses' work and experience remained absent from medical residents' clinical notes, even as medical school correspondence underscored the profound influence nurses exercised over the practical training obstetrics residents received in maternity ward hospitals. The authors of this special issue reveal the ongoing battle on the part of male...

Nation, Class and Resentment: The Politics of National Identity in England, Scotland and Wales, Robin Mann and Steve Fenton (2017)

Review of: Nation, Class and Resentment: The Politics of National Identity in England, Scotland and Wales, Robin Mann and Steve Fenton (2017) London: Palgrave MacMillan, 249 pp., ISBN 978-1-13746-673-0, p/bk, €93.59