European History - Science topic

1)https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380427514_Kalergi_and_Hart-Cellerand_Memetics_White_Antifragility

2)https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380904462_Maybe_I_lack_white_privilege_Do_Hapas_look_Scandinavian

Dear all,

the EU is currently in its greatest crisis: Brexit, Euro-crisis, migration-crisis, populism and rising nationalism...

The EU has grown to 28 EU-member states and many are blaming a brussels dictatorship, many southern member states are having rather bad economic data and a high unemployment...

What are the benefits of the EU? Will it survive? Will nationalists and populists win and will there be new tensions in Europe? Will the EU break up? The EU must undergo some reforms? Which, how and why? Let us discuss with our history, knowledge and wisdom in a common EU forum on necessary reforms, options and outcomes. All views are welcome - but let us try to exchange our views in friendly arguments and not accusations...

Keyworts: Europe, European Union, EU, European History, European Politics, European Economics, European Reform, European Future.

Good day.

To make sure I am on the right path, would anyone care to chime in on what they consider to be the major historiographic issues associated with Romantic era historical scholarship in western Europe. So far I have been focusing on Germany and Denmark - but, I would appreciate any and all input, suggestions, direction etc. that you can provide as regionality is not an issue.

Thanks and keep well.

Kat

Preferably speaking Portuguese and English, Spanish or German.

Archduke Leopold-Willem of Habsbourg, emperor Ferdinand III's brother, lived from 1647 to 1656 in Brussels, where he was general governor of the Low Countries.  He was a great collector of paintings; he bought no less than 1400 paintings of, among others, Holbein, Bruegel the Elder, Van Eyck, Mantegna,Giorgione, Veronese.

On May 6th, 1656, Léopold-Willem goes back from Antwerp to Vienna, bringing with him his collection of paintings, which he made install in 1657, partly in the Stallburg, in the Hofburg palace, partly in the Neue Burg.  He makes the Flemish painter Jan Anton van den Baren his manager of his collection.  In this collection, stands the Tower of Babel, as testifies the inventory written in 1659.  

In this inventory, the painting is described as follows : «581. Ein grosses Stückh von Öhlfarb auf Holz, warin der babilonische Thurn.  In einer alter Ramen mit verguldten Leisten, 6 Spann 4 Finger hoch, vnndt 8 ½ Spann braith.  Original vom älten Brögel.» (f° 255)

My question is : which was the value (in cm) of a Spann in this time ?  I didn't find a more recent book about the ancient measures than this (a bit old) one : Horace DOURSTHER : Dictionnaire universel des poids et mesures anciens et modernes, contenant des tables des monnaies de tous les pays, Bruxelles : M. Hayez, 1840.  But the author says nothing about the Spann.  Can anyone help me ?  I would be very glad, and thankful.

(Please, forgive me my bad english; I do my best, but it is not my mother language.)

Xavier de COSTER

Good afternoon Ms. Farkas,

my name is Eva Brnušáková, I am a master student of Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic) at Faculty of Social Studies with a field of Environmental Studies. I have been working on my master thesis with a title: "Influence of totalitarian regime on the phenomenon of building intentional communities in the Eastern Europe: a case studies of ecovillages within the V4 countries." I am just at the beginning of my research and searching for a appropriate resources in literature. My supervisor (Mgr. Ing. Jan Blazek) recommended me to contact you via two english articles of yours (which I already downloaded). I am interested in a history of ecovillage movement in Hungary, before and after 89 ( comparative with Czechoslovakian situation of the falling regime) as well as recent situation. I would be pleased, if you pass me some other possible contacts, who I may ask for a collaboration such as some of the oldest (or well-going) hungarian ecovillages, which I may use as the example - a case study of Hungarian ecovillage. In addition If you have other researchers, articles or studies written in English related to this phenomenon in Hungary, please do not hesitate to let me know. I would be very grateful for that. Hopefully I will hear soon from you. 

Here is my gmail contact: eva.brnusakova@gmail.com

Best Regards 

   Bc. Eva Brnušáková

A must-see film addressing a sensitive topic: " Je ne suis pas votre nègre " (I Am Not Your Negro).

First, let’s give a big round of applause to the Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck, for his Oscar-nominated film I Am Not Your Negro. The film is coming soon to theaters near you, probably in February 2017.

This post is rather an attempt to create an analysis of the film – in order to help audiences decipher the anagrams and thus discover the central message behind the film. 

In this film analysis, the term “America” is used to collectively refer to the Americas — encompassing the totality of the continents of North America and South America (including the Caribbean).

James Baldwin was an American novelist and an outspoken advocate on the topic of “The Negro And The American Promise.” In 1948, he left the USA and moved to France, due to American prejudice and harassment.

On the other hand, Raoul Peck was only 8 years old when he fled post-colonial dictatorship in Haiti. He then landed in the colony of Congo during its decolonization. Peck studied various subjects and resided in different countries, including Haiti, Congo, Belgium, and France. In the end, he settled in Germany where he studied industrial engineering, economics and filmmaking.  His company Velvet Film is also based in Germany.

I Am Not Your Negro was an unfinished piece written by James Baldwin. In 1987, Baldwin died of stomach Cancer. Raoul Peck finished the screenplay and made the film in 2016.

I Am Not Your Negro is, without doubt, a mesmerizing collation of artwork created by the revered director Raoul Peck:

Following is a transcript of Baldwin's voice in the film I Am Not Your Negro:

It appeared that Raoul Peck rewrote and/or finished Baldwin’s manuscript with a brush of another story that has not been told.

In terms of previous achievements, cultural and historical background, the Haitian director was a perfect match for the direction of the film.

Due to the controversial sensibility of the topic, Peck presented the film — as if he was neither for, nor against “skin-color privilege” in the world.

Naïve audiences might have a difficult time to understand this movie, due to untold or hidden histories. The de-colonialists were afraid of so-called “fear of blaming.” Therefore, a huge part of history has been deleted in the textbooks and not taught in school... The new generation is therefore in a state of blackout and repeats the past in different forms. Not giving the new generation a chance to learn from its past caused the world to preserve and perpetuate the systems of abuse and victimization of the victims. It is probably the most powerful contributor to racial profiling, stigma/prejudice, and the police-brutality that we see today, especially against people of African descent. The act had already caused an incredible amount of deaths in the USA alone, in the 21st century.

To perceived the central message hidden in the film, it could be helpful to know a bit about American history:

- The 15th century was a century of change. Christopher Columbus arrived in America. The amount of “PACTOLE” (gold, sugar and other precious resources) found or produced on the island of Hispaniola made it become known as the “BIG APPLE” of America. The lucrative discoveries on Hispaniola attracted pirates from all over the world.

- The American inhabitants of Hispaniola were nearly exterminated. New slaves were needed to put food on the table of the colonists.

- In 1516, Bartolomé de las Casas, a priest of the Catholic Church, advocated the use of African slaves instead of the natives in America. He succeeded in selling his ideas to the European Great Powers (monarchies) of the era.

- Bartolomé de las Casas is infamously credited for the ideology behind the Atlantic Slave Trade, the largest deportation of mankind, to this date.

- Then the French colonists wanted the best and strongest African slaves to generate an extraordinary production of wealth to outcompete the Kingdom of England. The French empire purchased and/or captured gladiators from Dahomey,  and enslaved them on Hispaniola.

- 1685: The Code Noir (The Black Code) was introduced in America by king Louis XIV. It taught the African slaves arrogance and violence.

- On Hispaniola started pseudo-scientific research for “fabrication” or “manufacture” of human beings in America: selective breeding of human beings and the development of ideas of race. Joseph Arthur (Comte de Gobineau) wrote An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races, in which he claimed that aristocrats were superior to commoners and that they possessed more Aryan genetic traits because of less inbreeding with inferior races (Alpines and Mediterraneans).

- As a result: Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the favorite American of Queen Marie Antoinette, was born as the son of an aristocrat and an African slave woman. Saint-Georges was privileged and considered superior to even some White noblemen in Europe. Saint-Georges was the first African descent to ascend to the rank of colonel in a European army. On behalf of King Louis XVI, Saint-Georges negotiated with Haitian rebellion leader Toussaint Louverture. Saint-Georges then urged the conscience of France to give the slaves hope for a better life, after centuries of extremely-hard labor to put food on the table of Europe. The absolute monarch somewhat listened... Saint-Georges actual dream was to be in the performance arts, not in the royal army. Further promotion of Saint-Georges quickly became a scandal and an embarrassment for the French kingdom.

- In 1779, Louis XVI abolished serfdom on all land under royal territories.

- In 1784, Louis XVI signed an ordinance allowing slaves to trial their owners for abuses.

- In 1791, Louis XVI abolished slavery on all French territories.

- In 1792, Louis XVI was overthrown.

- During the revolution, King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were both decapitated by guillotine.

Napoleon’s dream was to conquer the entire world. He wasted the precious wealth of France...and needed more wealth to capture Russia and defeat the British naval blockade.

In 1802, Napoleon reestablished slavery in all the French territories, including Hispaniola, in order to generate more wealth to boost his army.

Indeed, France succeeded in conquering world commerce with a single piece of land in America (i.e. Hispaniola). At one point, France owned almost the entire North American continent (including the Caribbean). England and its allied nations raged wars after wars against France to sabotage Hispaniola. England’s Royal Family nearly became bankrupt. France flourished and became the world’s superpower. The French strategy was long regarded as a smart idea — until Haiti led the greatest slave uprising in the history of mankind, since the Spartacus slave uprising against the Roman Empire.

When a smart idea — that was already known to be a mistake —  is repeated, it is no longer a mistake but a decision.

The Haitian revolution seemed to be an evidence for further dehumanization of the people of African descent in America.

In 1865, the US Congress sign the 13th amendment to formally abolished slavery in the USA.

Even though the film is set in the USA, the original intent seemed to actually explore the people of African descent within America and beyond — from pre-colonialism... colonialism... decolonization… to... post-colonialism… neocolonialism.

The central message seems to be: Was it really the last stage of colonialism? To this date, is it?

Please share your thoughts.

I am interested in studying narratives from Latin America (esp. Mexico) focusing on topics such as money, precarity, debt, esp. from the years from the external debt crisis to present.  I am very familiar with recent literature and film from Spain, but not so much from Latin America.  I know novels such as Piglia’s Plata quemada, Gumucio’s La deuda, Ortuño’s Recursos Humanos and films such as Amores perros, El baño del Papa, 7 cajas, La deuda (Oliver's Deal)...

Dear Sirs/ madams 

kindly, i am looking for names and contacts of scientific journals and revues in field languages, linguistics, and translation studies in particular. 

Place: Jordan and Algeria 

Could you please speak a little more about the volume on the subaltern? I am currently researching on this very topic, both on its theoretical and fictional representations.

Regards.

Specifically I am looking for lists that may be able to identify anonymous contributors to The Edinburgh Magazine and The European Magazine and London Review during the 1820s and early 1830s. I have consulted The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900, but it didn't return the desired info on Thomas Richards (1800-1877). It lists some contributions to other magazines, but the ones I'm looking for.

Thanks in advance for any leads.

In spite of an apparant invasion plan and a list of individuals to be rounded up following an invasion there is little to indicate that Hitler intended a full blown invasion and occupation of Britain in the early stages of WW2.

Hitler did however have a pathological obsession with destroying the Soviet Union and openly talked of expanding the Reich into Soviet territory.

Would, or more likely could Hitler have ever occupied Britain in 1940?  

In spite of clear tendencies of Alexander III the Great to build an empire that would unite number of nations, it is not quite clear how far he practiced the “brotherhood of nations”, i.e. homonoia. (See below Tarn, and de Mauriac  as well as the use of the term by Aristotle, that I gave later). His empire and later Diadochi states were apparently not quite compatible with the idea “of being of one mind together”, what the word “homonoia” probably should mean. Was the reality quite opposite?

Were the political and administrative structure of the Macedonian states, the empire of Alexander of Macedonia, Egypt of Ptolemy’s and the Hellenistic Diadochi states, while its citizens were of mixed national origins, prominently “nationalistic states”?

What kind of state was the empire of the Alexander of Macedonia? Was it a Macedonian nationalistic state, where all high administrative and military positions as well as core military units were occupied by the Macedonians; or did its political structures mirrored the mixed multi-national population that constituted the empire? How many of Alexander’s generals and high officials were Greek and how many Macedonian? Did Alexander chose for satraps in the occupied territories some Geeks or exclusively Macedonians and local dignitaries? What was the national structure of the core military units that were left in the occupied regions?

I am also interested in the political system of the Ancient Egypt at the end of the 4th century BC. Was the Egyptian Ptolemy dynasty an Egyptian, Macedonian or Greek dynasty? Did the Ptolemy family mix with the Greek families or with local Egyptian families or it remained “racially clean” Macedonian?

What kind of states were Hellenistic states? Were they by their political and national structure Macedonian or Greek? How many generals in those states were Greeks and how many still Macedonians? Did they rely exclusively on high military or state officials that were Greeks or they were mostly Macedonians; did “nationalism” lose its power with time and when?

* When the commentators would advance significant affirmation, I would encourage them to put the most relevant and direct reference, if possible avoiding popular reviews and other non scholarly publications.

____________________________________________

Tarn, WW: Alexander the Grat, Vol II, Sources and Studies, Chapter 25, Cambridge University Press, 2002 (1948).

Henry M. de Mauriac: Alexander the Great and the Politics of "Homonoia", Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Jan., 1949), pp. 104-114, Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press, Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2707202

The expression “homonoia” in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (EN) was translated by Crisp, Reckham and Thomson by “concord”. Here below are some parallel translations of some connected Greek espressions from the classical and more recent translators of the EN (in the following order: Bartlett-Collins, Crisp; Reckham; Ross; Thomson). This list may help make clear some points that get easily confused.

Homonoia = like-mindedness; concord; concord; unanimity; concord

1155a24 (Book 8, VIII, 1)

1167a22 (Book 9, IX, 6)

Eunoia = goodwill; goodwill; goodwill : goodwill; goodwill

1166b30 (Book 9, IX, 5)

Koinonia = community ; community; partnership; community; community

1159b27 (Book 8, VIII, 9)

_________________________________________________________

The image below represents my (crude) drawing of what is likely a personal coat-of-arms that appears inscribed on an artifact excavated in Texas; although currently undated, most-likely from a mid-16th-thru-early-17th century context.

I have provided my interpretations (labels in the image), so far, as to possible identities (whereas the 13-stars undoubtedly represent the Salazar lineage, I am far-from-certain of the two-headed eagle [aguila bicefala], which was a very ancient heraldic symbol [e.g., reputed to have been Julius Caesar's], but likely here the imperial icon of a Holy Roman Emperor, perhaps Charles V ... or possibly the Estrada lineage, who were [along with Hernando Cortes, as another early example] among the earliest non-royals granted the imperial privilege of using this symbol in their armorial bearings ... though, so far, I have found no record indicating any prominent Estrada ever did actually use it).

Any hints as to whom this escudo may have belonged [or how I may further research this] will be greatly appreciated!

I suspect it MAY have belonged to Gonzalo de Salazar (Charles V's imperial Factor in Mexico ca 1524-1540s); or one of his sons, sons-in-law or a nephew; the Factor was known derisively as "El Gordo" ... but I have not located an image (or description) of his personal coat-of-arms, although I have recently seen a reference indicating that it was among the exhibits of Mexico at a national celebration in Madrid ca. 1920s.

PS - I have already searched-through THOUSANDS of historic (late-15th-thru-17th-c) printed armorials (and archival sources), to no avail ... so, please, do not bother recommending more of that ... I've more-than-likely seen them all!

For instance, the Stahlhof and the Walzstahlhaus in Düsseldorf (North Rhine-Westfalia) are of such kind. These syndicates resp. their buildings, I am searching for, may have existed pre WW II.

A hypothesis with narrative attributions:

We have a catholic-identity-conservative (or reconstructing) government in Poland. An identity-reconstructing government in Hungary. And differently strong post-liberal or (back to) pre-liberal parties and ideologies/movements in many European societies.

Is there (rather) a similar pattern of events and contextual identity and conflict constructions like in former European times? Or is it rather that we, in a maybe Derrida-sense, make (up) these/such analogies - but maybe based on rational validity/empirical signs. Or based on our structural urgence to create (narratives of) sense/meaning.

In the above sense:

Is the European Union somehow similar to/reminding of the Congressional Europe after 1815? Trying to keep national states/national state movements from nationalising their politics.

Or is it (also/rather) somehow like the Inter-World-War period when there was a lack of meaning and meta-narratives in a post-monarchical and post-classical-bourgeois world? So that this lack/"vacuum" is filled with new meta-narratives, like then Sovyet socialism, different forms of fascism, etc. Do we experience such a lack/vacuum, and the different ideologies trying to fill it, in the current situation of Europe too?

Is there a pattern or are there similarities? Or is it somehow similar but also qualitatively different? Or is it qualitatively and/or structurally completely different?

This would have been funded by the Prague YMCA, for a trip for Slovaks from Tótkomlós (Slovenský Komlóš) and elsewhere around Békéscsaba (Békešská Čaba) in southern Hungary (possibly also for Slovaks in Yugoslavia then). My guess is that fundraising was done in 1927. Information on anything at all on this, in any language, would be wonderful.

I would like a summary of major studies of stratification, class and mobility conducted in Poland and/or Central and Eastern Europe since 1989. What has been written on this subject?

After a PhD about the public land registries from the rural spaces of medieval and early modern Southern France, I am beginning new researches about the role of the surveyors in the same region.

I am very interested in improving our knowledge of this underestimated microcosme, which inserts between the masses and the notables of the countryside, whether these last ones were noble persons or commoners.

I will take with pleasure any bibliographical information or archives references.

Thanks !

I am in need of authentic literature on the subject of the historically occurred land enclosures in Europe. I will be thankful for your help with regard to any information, document, resource, source, opinion, reference etc.

Your views and opinions on the subject are also very humbly anticipated.

With kind regards to all.

Dear colleagues, dear friends

I need information about the first wife of Franz Brentano (1838-1917), i.e. Ida Lieben (1852-1984, Austria, Vienna). Can you help me please?

Many thanks

Antonio Russo

University of Trieste, Italy

Of course I already have some literature, for example

Zwischen Isolation und Sprachkontakt: Der romanische Wortschatz der Vorarlberger Walser: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40503977

Alessio Boattini, Clio Griso & Davide Pettener. Are ethnic minorities synonymous for genetic isolates? Journal of Anthropological Sciences. Vol. 89 (2011), pp. 161-173. 

Mathieu Petite. A new perspective on the Walser community.

But I can not find an article with the results of the research.

The WWII co-operation of exiled political representations assembled in London counts to my research subjects. Hardly a revelation: the picture is complicated, probably little more disappointing than one is likely to expect when entering the ground. In a manuscript which I hope to publish soon I conclude:

"The story sketched in this article documents how difficult it was for small European nations, despite a common enemy and a shared meeting-place, to find solid ground for mutual understanding. ...The activities of the exiles were first and foremost directed to the preservation of their threatened nationsʼ identity, state, cultural or other. Thus, much of the communication between them was condemned to fail or to get lost ʻin translationʼ of cultural codes."

Intercultural communication is no doubt the issue I address here. Unfortunately, most literature I came across studies communication between "Great Cultures". This is still useful but my issue - intercultural communication within one (European, Western) culture - seems to lay pretty below the prevalent level of analysis.

Any reading suggestions? 1900-1950 scope will be appreciated.

We are trying to analyze the changing "recognition" of the Norwegian merchant war sailors during/after war.

The philosophy of recognition is a interdisciplinary field of knowledge and we are looking for studies within a historical perspective. 

There are some awar age archaeological sites in Karpathian-basin, where this special objects came from, but their contemporary origin place should had been in Merowingian-Bajuwar territory.

I need for example:

The Program of the NSDAP.

Anti- Jewish Plans of the Nazis published before their rise to power.

Repors Einzatzgruppen on extermination of Jews in Soviet Union.

Inner and official documents of RSHA.

I am interested in any book or paper about the Lombards, especially about their art. 

These items were supposed to be 'liquidated' under Allied Control Council Directive No. 30 but is there any surviving evidence as to how this was carried out in practice?  Any correspondence, memos, photos etc would be of great interest!  My research project explores burial practices and commemorative culture during and after the Third Reich. 

Try to do some background reading for my dissertation and want to get a basic understanding of the scholarship available. 

Attempting to explore a how influential Jacobinism was outside of France, mainly as a new political framework. 

Mainly looking at background research for the causes of the Revolutions that swept over Europe in 1848, and articles detailing key groups involved in the Revolutions.  

While the IMF estimates public debt at over 55 tn dollars, private debt is much more in the USA private debt is twice the public debt.  Academics and financial analysts alike have been treating debt as an asset for decades and this attitude has contributed to instability.  In the 16th century under the leadership of Jacob II, the Fuggers expanded their loans across Europe loaning to kings and popes.  This allowed them to manipulate the election of Charles V among other political coups, but by the early 17th century defaults had bankrupted the firm.  Are we seeing a reproduction of this today?

Foreign Ministry Archives of Turkey are closed for all researchers, and the Republican Archives of the Prime Ministry of Turkey (Ankara) doesn't have a goog relationship the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

After Rawls British political theory is not in its best mode.  Although we have got theorists like John Gray, Michael Oakeshott and Roger Scruton, surely, one should take into account other authors and oeuvres as well.. How would you sketch a meta-narrative of contemporary British political philosophy?

A small lutheran community coming from Germany exists in Lyon from the 16 century. This group owned a church, settled in Geneva from 1707.It was mostly composed of traders who went to Geneva four times a year for the holy communion. But, from 1770 onward, when the Calvinists from Lyons got their priest, the Lutherans went more and more to that church, letting down Geneva. For about 75 years, the Lutherans disappeared from Lyons. At the turn of the eighteen and nineteen centuries, the community spent her life in the shade of the Calvinist church. Between 1800 and 1850, the immigration movement of swiss, germans and Alsatians was quickening. In 1851, after multiples fruitless tries during the last fifty years, the Lutheran reverend Georges Mayer create an evangelic german church which is quickly linked with the Augsburg Confession. The german community managed the church for nearly 30 years until the arrival of the first French vicar in Lyons .For another 30 years, the relations were stormies between the two communities. The first world war marked the death of the german parish. The French church survived with difficulties during the twenties and thirties. The “renaissance” was due to two extraordinary personalities: André Desbaumes and Henry Bruston The Lutheran church became an inescapable part of the Lyons’s oecumenism and opened itself to the world.2007 marked the beginning of the merger between the Calvinist and Lutheran churches.

I am trying to understand who the people in this procession are. Thank you if you can help. 

Neither the commission, nor the parliament (or Eurostat) are providing this information in a comprehensive way.

For the elections of 2004 onwards post-election reports exist (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/pdf/eurobarometre/2014/post/post_ee2014_sociodemographic_annex_en.pdf).

So I would rather need information for the elections before 2004. Thank your for your support!

Torben

I am writing an essay on the development and possible impact of operations research (OR) on defence planning in different European countries. Finding secondary sources on OR-development in different countries is, however, not that easy. Does anyone have some suggestions? 

Was it the second world war, disagreement with Bretton woods with US Dollar dominance or the aftermath of 1929 great depression?