bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Zigmas Stankus
Authors: Reich Anna
Published: October 2024

This chapter looks at the story of Zigmas Stankus, who spoke mostly about his time after the war. Stankus wanted to better understand Afghanistan and his time there, so he studied the country's history as well as Islam. He feels that the many decades of Western conflicts in the Middle East stem from people's inability to accept differences. Upon returning from Afghanistan, Stankus felt compelled to try to reveal some sort of truth. He began writing everything from the experience that was consuming him. The first result was an article that his sister took to the local newspaper, and it was quickly published. The paper sold out. Stankus continued, ultimately writing numerous books about his experiences prior to his death in 2019.
Italian Forgers
Authors: Helstosky Carol
Published: October 2024

This book takes an unorthodox approach to art forgery, focusing on the major forgery scandals that shifted the Italian art market in response to constant, and often intense, demand for Italian objects. By focusing on power dynamics that both precipitated forgery scandals and forged Italian cultural identities, the book connects the debates and discussions about three well-known Italian forgers—Giovanni Bastianini, Icilio Joni, and Alceo Dossena—to anchor and investigate the mechanics of the Italian art market from unification through the fascist era. The book examines foreign accounts of transactions and Italian writings about the art market. The actions and words of Italian dealers illustrate how the Italian art and antiquities market was an undeniably modern industry, on par with tourism in terms of its contribution to the Italian economy and to understandings of Italian identity. These accounts also reveal how dealers, artists, go-betweens, guides, and restorers worked to not only meet the intense demand for Italian products but also to develop highly sophisticated business practices to maintain financial stability and respond to shifts in demand consciously (but not always conscientiously). The book weaves a compelling narrative about the history of Italian identity, forgery, and the value of the past. As a result, it brings historical perspective to the study of art forgery and art fraud. The book reveals how historical circumstances and structural imbalances of cultural power shaped the market for art and antiquities and amplified incidents of art deception and forgery scandals.
The Benivieni Affair
Authors: Helstosky Carol
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses the life and career of Giovanni Bastianini, one of the most controversial figures in nineteenth-century Italian art. It describes Bastianini's work, primarily produced in the 1850s and 1860s, which was largely unrecognized outside Florence until the 1867 Benivieni bust controversy. This scandal erupted when the bust, purchased in Italy and displayed in the Louvre as a Renaissance piece, was claimed by Bastianini as his own creation. The chapter highlights how the Benivieni incident sparked debates about whether Bastianini was a skilled artist or a clever forger, with figures like art historian Anita Moskowitz advocating for his artistic recognition and others like Jeremy Warren viewing him as complicit in forgery schemes. The chapter examines how the Benivieni affair highlighted the power dynamics between Italy and France and the intense international interest in Renaissance art, affecting perceptions of Bastianini's legacy.
The Dossena Affair
Authors: Helstosky Carol
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses the life and career of Alceo Dossena, the most famous Italian art forger of the twentieth century, renowned for his versatility in imitating multiple styles and working with various media. Dossena's claim of authorship over several major works in museums and private collections drew significant media attention and public curiosity. The chapter recounts how the Dossena affair highlighted the hubris of US museums and prompted private investigations into their collections. Despite his notoriety being overshadowed by forgers like Han van Meegeren, Dossena's ability to channel past artistic traditions and his subsequent trial underscored Italy's struggle to balance its rich artistic heritage with fascist cultural policies. The chapter highlights how Dossena's career exposed the vulnerabilities in art connoisseurship and emphasized the broader implications of art forgery on cultural identity and the art market during the fascist period in Italy.
From Petersburg to New York
Authors: Akif′ëv Ivan Nikolaevich , Gentes Andrew A.
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses the author's travel from Petersburg to New York. It explains the author's intention to leave for Chukotka Peninsula by crossing and sailing two oceans. According to the author, they were traveling to find gold in the Chukotka Peninsula after bountiful gold was discovered on the Alaska coast. Essentially, foreigners showed up in Petersburg and appealed to the Russian government for a legal concession on the Chukotka Peninsula. The chapter introduces the author's travel companions, Karl Ivanovich Bogdanovich and his wife, Aleksandr Gennad'evich Miagkov, and Terek Cossack. It details the voyage to New York wherein the author spent most of his time eating and finding entertainment such as a charity concert, smoking, or gaming.
In America
Authors: Akif′ëv Ivan Nikolaevich , Gentes Andrew A.
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores the author's thoughts upon arrival in New York. He and his team visited several places of importance, such as the national library and the parliament on the Capitol, and stayed at the Raleigh Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue and then at San Francisco's Palace Hotel. The chapter details how the author met with their final travel companion, John A. White, following the introduction of Frederick W. Baker despite Karl Ivanovich Bogdanovich's initial refusal. It elaborates on the members joining their expedition spearheaded by Karl Ivanovich Bogdanovich. Eventually, the author and his traveling companions prepared and resumed their journey on the steamer.
Along the Chukotka Peninsula Coast
Authors: Akif′ëv Ivan Nikolaevich , Gentes Andrew A.
Published: October 2024

This chapter considers the unpleasantness aboard the Samoa sailing along the Chukotka Peninsula Coast. It explains that the ship finally left Nome to journey to Cape York and look at the mines. Everyone's mood was very low since the business was a failure and relations with the Americans were impossibly strained. The team tried searching for gold as they hammered a prospecting shaft six-feet deep, but there proved to be neither gold nor substrates. The chapter details the dismay onboard, enough that Americans said the situation was infringing on their liberty and Karl Ivanovich Bogdanovich argued that he saw no such thing on the expedition. Eventually, the crew travelled along the strait and journeyed to Providence Bay.
Release from Captivity
Authors: Akif′ëv Ivan Nikolaevich , Gentes Andrew A.
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses the author's return to Russian shores aboard the Iakut. As soon as the Iakut arrived, Karl Ivanovich Bogdanovich went to it in good form and officially informed N–ii, the ship's captain, of the foregoing unpleasantries. N–ii took the case and formed a commission of two officers with himself as chairman, allowing Captain Jahsen to testify about going to Nome to avoid disorder aboard the ship. To avoid any misunderstanding, the commission decided to take all the written testimony and turn it over to the local leadership and transfer them to the Iakut for removal to Petropavlovsk. The chapter then elaborates on the journey to Petropavlovsk.
Japan
Authors: Akif′ëv Ivan Nikolaevich , Gentes Andrew A.
Published: October 2024

This chapter focuses on the arrival of the author in Japan. It explains that the work of human hands and hard labor are visible everywhere in Japan. The author toured across the country, particularly in Nagasaki where he watched geishas. Eventually bored with watching geishas, he managed to catch a touching scene of Aleksandr Gennad'evich Miagkov teaching a young little girl to scribble. The author deemed Japan's military and commercial fleets as not inferior to Europe's, and its aspects of life demonstrated the country's high culture. The chapter also considers the author's experience with Japanese people being cruel and vindictive regardless of their culture.
Milwaukee in Stone and Clay
Authors: Wiggers Raymond
Published: October 2024

This book offers a wide-ranging look at the fascinating geology found in the building materials of Milwaukee County's architectural landmarks, and it reveals the intriguing and often surprising links between science, art, and engineering. Laid out in two main sections, the book first introduces the reader to the fundamentals of Milwaukee's geology and its amazing prehuman history, then provides a site-by-site tour guide. Written in an engaging, informal style, the book presents the first in-depth exploration of the interplay among the region's most architecturally significant sites, the materials they're made of, and the sediments and bedrock they're anchored in. The book is an informative and exciting overview of the city, and the two decades of the author's experience leading architectural-geology tours have demonstrated the popularity of the book's approach and the subject matter.
A Theory of Religious Liminality and Violence
Authors: Tezcür Günes Murat
Published: October 2024

This chapter presents a novel theoretical framework to explain religious violence, emphasizing the role of beliefs in the supernatural in intimate forms of violence. It explores the idea that violence is classified as religious only when there is empirical support that perpetrators are motivated by a desire to please or be in favor of a supernatural entity. The framework builds on historical and experimental studies to propose that religious belief may uniquely motivate violent political action, particularly through religious stigmatization of certain faith groups. These groups, termed liminal minorities, are especially vulnerable due to their core beliefs being subject to fabrications and slurs, making them targets during times of religious revivalism. The chapter engages with Walter Benjamin's typologies of violence and Jacques Derrida's deconstruction, arguing that religious violence is inherently contradictory as seen in the experiences of Baha'is in Iran and Ahmadis in Pakistan.
Beginning
Authors: Blenkinsop Sean , Kuchta Estella
Published: October 2024

This chapter delves into the profound interconnectedness of ecosystems, particularly focusing on the Coastal Pacific Northwest. It describes the land as a sentient being, rich with interspecies relationships that have evolved over millennia. While Indigenous peoples see the land as a living world, providing both spiritual and physical foundations for their culture, European settlers viewed it as an object to be owned and exploited for profit. The chapter focuses on today's efforts to understand and restore ecological health, recognizing the vital importance of forests to planetary and human health alike. It highlights the shift in forestry research towards acknowledging and studying the intricate ecological relationships within forests, signaling a more holistic approach to land management.
Theorizing
Authors: Blenkinsop Sean , Kuchta Estella
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores the analogy between soil and theory, emphasizing how theory, like soil, is essential for growth and development. Using the example of different tree varieties thriving in specific soil conditions, the chapter illustrates how theory drives teaching practices and learning outcomes. It also points out the importance of understanding one's theoretical stance, especially in educational contexts seeking to change cultural norms. The chapter calls for a deeper change in education, akin to redesigning urban centers for sustainable living, and notes the critical role of philosophical inquiries like epistemology, ontology, and axiology in ecologizing education. It underscores the need for collaborative efforts and diverse perspectives in redefining educational paradigms.
Cultivating Possibilities for a Better World
Authors: Blenkinsop Sean , Kuchta Estella
Published: October 2024

This chapter delves into the Maple Ridge Environmental School's profound experience with the ecological crisis, particularly focusing on a devastating flood that closed their learning site for weeks. The chapter highlights how the students, deeply connected to nature, especially to the Salmon population in the Alouette River, were experiencing firsthand the impacts of environmental degradation. It also emphasizes the importance of supporting students emotionally through these challenges, allowing them to voice their feelings and concerns. The chapter discusses the mental health challenges faced by both students and educators, stressing the need for community and connection, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. It touches on the resilience of both the land and the human spirit, suggesting that healing and adaptation can occur through a deeper understanding and relationship with the natural world.
Taking Notes in Class
Authors: Cribiore Raffaella
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores the intricate practice of note-taking in ancient educational and rhetorical contexts, emphasizing its importance and the varying attitudes toward it. From the advice of Plato, Plutarch, and Basil of Caesarea to discard or select passages for ethical reasons, to the detailed observations of Seneca and Quintilian, the chapter illustrates how students and orators alike utilized notes. The practice of taking notes was fundamental in learning oratory, with students needing reminders of their teacher's words. The chapter looks at Seneca's collection of annotations with orators like Porcius Latro and Cassius Severus, who relied on their notes in different ways. It discusses the continued use of notes in late antiquity, with figures like Libanius adapting to physical limitations, and highlights the indispensable role of annotations in delivering speeches, contrasting Seneca's flamboyance with Quintilian's insistence on memorization and brevity.
Students’ Annotations in Philosophy
Authors: Cribiore Raffaella
Published: October 2024

This chapter describes the establishment and intellectual activities of Aristotle's Lyceum in Athens, also known as the Peripatos, and details the school's significance in the ancient world. Despite the lack of surviving documentation, it is believed that Aristotle's teaching involved both reading and lecturing, with his works divided into exoteric and esoteric texts. The chapter explores the decline of the Peripatos after Theophrastus, considering various factors beyond the loss of the library. The chapter examines the evidence of note-taking practices, revealing that Aristotle's rough lecture notes were likely used within the school. It outlines the role of notes in higher education, illustrating their importance in the teaching and learning processes of ancient philosophers like Alexander of Aphrodisias and Plotinus.
Epictetus as an Educator and a Man
Authors: Cribiore Raffaella
Published: October 2024

This chapter examines the longstanding belief that Arrian of Nicomedia, the historian of Alexander, transcribed Epictetus's Discourses as class notes. Despite his senatorial career and rhetorical historical writing, Arrian's somewhat cold prose shows no philosophical influence, contrasting with Epictetus's vivid style. The chapter cites Arrian's letter to Lucius Gellius, which reveals his loyalty to Epictetus and his recording process. The chapter describes Epictetus's harsh pedagogic methods, authoritative presence, and the dynamic interactions with his students that reflect a rigorous educational environment. It argues for the traditional theory, incorporating evidence of abbreviations and the broader context of text dissemination and educational practices in antiquity.
Taking Notes in the School of Didymus the Blind
Authors: Cribiore Raffaella
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores the shortcomings of classical education, such as rigid rules, reliance on authoritative texts, and a narrow curriculum, which stifled creativity and individual thinking. Despite these flaws, classical education provided rigorous training, a deep admiration for ancient texts, and rhetorical excellence. The chapter reviews Stenger's recent work highlighting the dynamism and innovations within late antique education, particularly the educational theories of Christian thinkers like Didymus the Blind. Didymus, a renowned Christian teacher, integrated classical paideia with Christian teachings, addressing students of various levels and subjects, including grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, and numerology. The chapter discusses the role of marginalia, notes, and the potential involvement of stenographers in recording lectures, emphasizing the spontaneous and oral nature of these texts.
Introduction
Authors: Allum Felia
Published: October 2024

The chapter introduces the significance of the women in the Neapolitan Camorra. It explains the existing gender inequality in Italian mafias is due to the nature of the traditional gender norms. The Neapolitan Camorra is a mafia-type criminal organization that has been a constant presence in the Campania region during the postwar period. The chapter explores the interplay between Naples and Campana, the Neapolitan Camorra, Camorra women, and Camorra Space. It highlights that Camorra women refers to all women who knowingly engage in or accept Camorra activities, regardless of legality, and whose behavior advances the criminal organization and reinforces its power.
A Cigar Girl and a Wicked Woman
Authors: Fulton R. E.
Published: October 2024

This chapter examines Josephine and Robert McCarty's arrival in New York in 1845. The city, in the minds of many New Yorkers, represented danger, particularly to the most vulnerable. Of particular concern to moralists, lawmakers, and mothers was the fate of the thousands of young single women who moved to New York City from rural towns and family farms in the 1840s. Through both consensual and nonconsensual sexual encounters, these unattended women could become pregnant with illegitimate children. The chapter then considers how the Laws of 1845, which took effect during Josephine's first pregnancy, made several crucial changes to the state's position on abortion. Until 1845, the only anti-abortion statutes in the country punished doctors who performed abortions—not their patients. Now, for the first time in US history, New York State had made it illegal to get an abortion. This legislature related directly to women like Josephine—two women, in particular. Just before Josephine arrived in New York City, Mary Rogers's death and Madame Restell's role in it reshaped the landscape of reproductive politics in New York State.
“A Woman’s Remedy”
Authors: Fulton R. E.
Published: October 2024

This chapter assesses Josephine McCarty's efforts to get a divorce from Robert McCarty. In England, Josephine had tried and failed to file for a divorce in London's ecclesiastical court. But in the United States, divorcing Robert was a real possibility. US divorce law, like abortion law, followed the English common law precedent, which effectively made divorce illegal for any but very wealthy, very patient men. On the other hand, extralegal forms of divorce, in which spouses simply separated and remarried either through mutual agreement or through desertion, were common. Josephine faced one major problem: New York was notoriously one of the strictest states on this subject. She traveled to Indiana, where early statute laws on the subject of divorce were more loose than those of other States. Josephine's divorce from Robert leveled the legal playing field between her and Milton Thomson and allowed her to begin her career as a physician without fear that her selfish and violent ex-husband would claim her earnings. At the same time that Josephine was navigating the country's complex divorce laws in order to begin her medical career, other American physicians were concerned with another set of laws bearing on marriage, family, and the rights of the husband: abortion laws.
The Blockade Runner
Authors: Fulton R. E.
Published: October 2024

This chapter addresses how the path of Josephine McCarty's career diverted sharply in the face of the American Civil War. It was not just the overwhelming number of fatalities that altered the landscape of America, or the physical destruction of the land, particularly in the South, that changed things for Americans on all sides. The war redrew state boundaries, challenged social divisions, and, with the Emancipation Proclamation, ushered in a new era of racial politics. In the shadow of the Civil War, Josephine would endure imprisonment, escape a murder attempt, give birth to two children, and emerge on the other side as spy and a professional abortionist. The chapter considers how the war created the conditions necessary for a major reorganization of gendered labor in the field of medicine. As the anti-abortion crusade of the American Medical Association stalled in the war years, the business of terminating pregnancies, still legal in New York if the operation was performed before quickening, presented a potentially lucrative opportunity for Josephine.
The Long Journey of Central Banks
Authors: Moschella Manuela
Published: October 2024

This concluding chapter reviews the technocratic versus political nature of central banks. It examines the empirical evidence against the tenets of the reputational argument. The chapter then elaborates on the main findings and connects them to policy and scholarly debate on the role of central banks in domestic societies. In particular, it reflects on the institutional capacity of central banks to deviate from their inflation mandate and so stimulate economic growth and take on a more active role in other policy areas, including the one related to the fight against climate change. The chapter also looks at the debate in political economics on which political and societal actors lend their support and legitimize central banks and the neoliberal macroeconomic regime centered around price stability.
Fire Dancers in Thailand's Tourism Industry
Authors: Pollock Tiffany Rae
Published: October 2024

This book explores the evolution of fire dancing from informal community jam sessions into the iconic, tourist-oriented performances at beach parties and bars, through a close consideration of the role of affect in the lives of fire dancers in the ever-changing scene. Rather than pursuing the common notion that tourism industries are exploitative enterprises that oppress workers, the book centers the perspectives of fire artists themselves, who view the industry as simultaneously generative and destructive. Dancers reveal how they employ affect to navigate their lives, art, and labor in this context, showcasing how affect is not only a force that acts on people but also is used and shaped by social actors toward their own ends. The book highlights men as affective laborers, investigating how they manage the eroticization of their identities and the intersections of art and labor in tourist economies. Exploring moments of performance and everyday life, the book examines how fire artists reimagine their labor, lives, and communities in Thailand’s tourism industry.
Feeling Art and the Labor of Sharing
Authors: Pollock Tiffany Rae
Published: October 2024

This chapter focuses on Pi Neung, one of the original fire dancers and a master teacher who lamented the loss of the “spirit of juggling” amid market-driven changes. During an interview at his home, Pi Neung nostalgically recalled the communal practice of fire art in the early 2000s at Santichaiprakarn Park, which has since been transformed by the pressures of tourist economies. The chapter delves into the shift from a participatory communal practice to a market-oriented performance genre and examines the resulting anxieties about economic survival. It investigates how these anxieties are often projected onto the new generation of Burmese dancers in Thailand. It goes on to explains how fire dancers challenge ethnonational and market tensions through a system of exchange called baeng pan or sharing.
The Fragmentary City
Authors: Gardner Andrew M.
Published: October 2024

As this book explains, in Qatar and elsewhere on the Arabian Peninsula, nearly nine out of every ten residents are foreign noncitizens. Many of these foreigners reside in the cities that have arisen in Qatar and neighboring states. The book provides an overview of the gulf migration system with its diverse migrant experiences. It focuses on the ways that demography and global mobility have shaped the city of Doha and the urban characteristics of the Arabian Peninsula in general. Building on those migrant experiences, the book turns to the spatial politics of the modern Arabian city, exploring who is placed where in the city and how this social landscape came into historical existence. The book frames the contemporary cities of the Arabian Peninsula not as poor imitations of Western urban modernity, but instead as cities on the frontiers of a global, neoliberal, and increasingly urban future. It reflects on what we might learn from these cities and the societies that inhabit them.
Invisible Gas
Authors: Gardner Andrew M.
Published: October 2024

This chapter examines the political economy that resulted from Qatar's petroleum industry. Migration has had a deep impact on the shape of Qatari society and has left an indelible impact on the whole of the Arabian Peninsula. The bedu of the peninsula's interior relied on mobility as a pastoral adaptation to the arid environment, and via the camel, had built livelihoods around long distance trade with the interior portions of the Arabian Peninsula and beyond. The hadhar, or coastal urbanites, meanwhile, had cultivated livelihoods tethered to the sea and the mobilities that it allowed. In the intertwined history of these two livelihood systems, trade and exchange were always central features, but notably, neither livelihood system was particularly focused on the incorporation of migrants and the facilitation of migration to serve these modes of production. One notable exception to this assertion is the trade in human slaves. The chapter looks at how the invisible gas that drives Qatari wealth and development is at the core of the state and the migration system that has grown and evolved around it. It also traces the development of the city of Doha, which first came into recognized existence in the early nineteenth century.
Culture and Life in a Fragmented City
Authors: Gardner Andrew M.
Published: October 2024

This chapter illustrates some of the social and cultural features unique to the global frontiers of urban modernity found on the Arabian Peninsula, providing three vista points on urban life in Doha. It begins by exploring the positionality of citizens relative to foreign matter, and conveying how the relations between citizens and everything they host reflect this patchworked urban landscape. The chapter identifies a social role particular to this urban spatial discourse—the men and women who can be called imagineers are go-betweens, cultural brokers of a sort, who thrive in the exchange of information and the flows of power between enclaves, and therefore across thresholds of cultural difference. Finally, it looks at the social vitality of the spaces in between the units of development characteristic of Doha and the urban spatial discourse shaping its growth. The chapter traces the importance of this interstitial urban space to the whole of society, and particularly to the more marginal elements of Qatari society.
Borne by the River
Authors: Van Noy Rick
Published: October 2024

In this book, the author charts the story of discovery and healing that came from a solo canoe journey. Paddling two hundred miles on the Delaware River to his boyhood home just upriver from Trenton, New Jersey, the author contemplates his fate and life, as well as the simple joy of sitting in a small boat floating down a large river with his dog, Sully. Deftly combining memoir, natural and local history, and engaging reportage of his encounters with other paddlers and river enthusiasts, including members of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania, the book reveals deep and shifting layers of environmental, historical, cultural, and personal significance of the Delaware. It reckons with the way that rivers braid into one's own life—thrilling rapids, eddying pauses, and life-changing rifts and falls. The author rediscovers and shares how river journeys can scatter anxieties, wash away regrets, and recreate the spirit in its free-flowing currents.
Confluence
Authors: Van Noy Rick
Published: October 2024

This chapter delves into the poignant encounter between the author and Danielle, a waitress at the Circle E Diner in Hancock, who endured significant health challenges, including a connective tissue disease and two strokes. The author, who also experienced a stroke, feels an immediate connection with Danielle as she shares her story good-naturedly, expressing her passion for kayaking as a form of therapy. The chapter details that the friendly exchange between the author and Danille extends beyond medical histories, revealing Danielle's aspiration to write books about her struggles and etiquette and reflecting her observations of human behavior in the diner. The chapter also emphasizes how the meeting with Danielle became a moment of reflection for the author as he contemplated the randomness of life and the profound connections formed through shared experiences. The journey continues as the author embarks on a solo paddling adventure with his dog Sully, navigating both the physical and metaphorical currents of the Delaware River and life.
Islands
Authors: Van Noy Rick
Published: October 2024

This chapter begins with the lively chatter of birds in the trees, a morning greeting for the author as he approached his three-legged stool. In the tranquil early hours, overlooking the mist-shrouded river, the author felt a lingering stiffness, reminiscent of the rhythmic torsion of paddling amidst the Delaware River's twists. It notes how Van Noy contemplated the river's dynamic nature, envisioning the rumble of boulders on its bed. Exploring the riverbank, he discovered traces left by wildlife, from delicate bird tracks to the imprint of larger creatures, pondering the intricate tapestry of life along the water's edge. The chapter concludes with the author's day unfolding on encounters with fellow travelers, shared meals, and fireside stories, deepening his connection to the natural world on this downstream journey.
Flood
Authors: Van Noy Rick
Published: October 2024

This chapter vividly recounts the author's journey along the Delaware River, which was filled with moments of reflection and connection to both personal history and local lore. Starting with a peaceful morning by the river, the author reflects on recent encounters and past memories. Despite anticipation of returning home, there's a reluctance to leave the Delaware River's tranquillity. The chapter highlights the area's rich cultural tapestry as the author passes landmarks like Treasure Island that is steeped in Boy Scout history and native traditions. Encounters with local legends, like the Delaware River hot dog man and remnants of old canal life, add depth to the narrative.
Automotive Empire
Authors: Denning Andrew
Published: October 2024

Like seafaring ships and railroads, automobiles and roads were more than a mode of transport—they organized colonial spaces and structured the political, economic, and social relations of empire, both within African colonies and between colonies and the European metropole. European officials in French, Italian, British, German, Belgian, and Portuguese territories in Africa shared a common challenge—the transport problem. While they imagined that roads would radiate commerce and political hegemony by collapsing space, the pressures of constructing and maintaining roads rendered colonial administration thin, ineffective, and capricious. Automotive empire emerged as the European solution to the transport problem, but revealed weakness as much as it extended power. As the book reveals, motor vehicles and roads seemed the ideal solution to the colonial transport problem. They were cheaper and quicker to construct than railroads, overcame the environmental limitations of rivers, and did not depend on the recruitment and supervision of African porters. At this pivotal moment of African colonialism, when European powers transitioned from claiming territories to administering and exploiting them, automotive empire defined colonial states and societies, along with the brutal and capricious nature of European colonialism itself.
Reinventing the Wheel in the French Sahara
Authors: Denning Andrew
Published: October 2024

This chapter traces the early efforts of the 1920s to motorize Algeria's Southern Territories, highlighting a pivotal moment in the creation of France's automotive empire. It mentions Monsieur Danjau of Moteurs Baudouin, who proposed to Gaston Boulogne the integration of diesel motors in North Africa on January 31, 1922, sharing his book on colonial automobiles and Saharan crossings. Danjau emphasized the military and economic benefits of motor vehicles over costly railroads, advocated for automotive services to replace camel caravans, and connected Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and French West Africa. The chapter details how the subsequent collaboration between military officers, French officials, and private actors like Citroën and Renault gave rise to the colonial–industrial complex. This alliance spurred technological innovations and public–private initiatives, transforming the Sahara into a nexus of automotive travel and solidifying the role of motor vehicles in French colonial development.
Whitelash
Authors: Barton Nimisha
Published: October 2024

This chapter provides an overview of the key concept of whitelash, referring to the backlash motivated by anti-Black racism and white supremacy. It looks into how new inclusions over the course of the twentieth century led to a backlash in the United States, resulting in inscribing new exclusions in higher education. Native and Black Americans experienced the greatest systematic, state-sanctioned exclusion from education as they experienced the brunt of white rage. The chapter also highlights how the principle of racist exclusion extended to off-campus extracurricular activities. It elaborates on the era of desegregation, referencing the enactment of the GI Bill and the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision.
The Laboratory of Democracy
Authors: Weiner Daniela R. P.
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses how the reeducation project began in Italy, which was the first Axis power to come under occupation. Hampered by limited resources and buffeted by petitions from various competing Italian interest groups—including the royalist government in the South, progressive anticlerical reformers, the Catholic Church, and the partisans—the Allied educational officers and their Italian educationalist partners muddled along in a highly disorganized situation, trying to create new educational material suitable to instill Italian youth with a new democratic worldview. The Allied educational officers were keenly aware of the historical importance of their task. Yet, while Italy presented many unique challenges and represented the first major British–American reeducation venture, the Allied officers involved also knew that Italy was just the first reeducation project. Thus, they continuously kept an eye to the future—anticipating the challenges that they would face in Germany. In this way, Italy was a laboratory of democracy, where the Allies learned lessons that they would subsequently apply in Germany. The chapter then looks at the philosophy of textbook revision and considers Italian textbooks.
“We Have Decided Not to Kill the Germans, but to Educate Them”
Authors: Weiner Daniela R. P.
Published: October 2024

This chapter examines how the Allies separated their educational administration in Germany. Most scholars have thus considered the occupation zones' educational policies separately. However, looking at the interactions between the occupied zones of Germany uncovers a surprising truth: the educational policies regarding textbooks in each of the zones sometimes mirrored one another or were intertwined with one another. Some similarities between occupied zones in Germany also stem from the Allies' first attempts at educational reconstruction in Italy. Ultimately, Germany represented both a continuation and a more aggressive implementation of the textbook revision process that had begun in Italy. The chapter then follows Allied officials through their problem-solving process, from their first wartime planning meetings a year before the occupation of Germany to how the Allies' plans unfolded in each of the four occupation zones. It also compares the institutional learning process in Italy and Germany.
Turbulent Times and Stagnant Schoolbooks
Authors: Weiner Daniela R. P.
Published: October 2024

This chapter describes how, despite vast political changes, educational policies in Italy, East Germany, and West Germany with regards to the Holocaust and resistance during the Second World War stayed relatively consistent. Textbooks, which had been vital instruments to remake postwar societies, no longer had the same relevance. There was still a remarkable continuity between the mid-1960s and later years. Indeed, representations of Jewish suffering in the textbooks did not change very much from the late 1960s through the 1970s. In Italy and East Germany, the Jewish identity of victims was briefly acknowledged but then subsumed under more convenient national narratives that exculpated the state. West German textbooks were the only ones that dealt with the specifically Jewish identities of many of the Nazis' victims and asked students self-critical questions about popular complicity.
Introduction
Authors: Taylor Scott K.
Published: October 2024

This chapter reviews the discourse surrounding drug consumption in early modern Europe. It focuses on the intense debates over the medical, social, moral, cultural, and political implications of new drugs. Despite the widespread critical commentary, these drugs gained rapid popularity, driven by their curative powers and the pleasures they provided. The chapter traces how psychotropic drugs like sugar, chocolate, tobacco, coffee, tea, gin, and opium led to significant changes in urban life, social interactions, and the rise of a consumer culture that sparks anxieties about self-discipline and control. It highlights how early modern Europeans navigated the complexities of globalization, capitalism, and modernity, providing valuable insights into the cultural and social transformations of the period.
Chocolate, or an Indian Drink
Authors: Taylor Scott K.
Published: October 2024

This chapter uses chocolate as a focal point to examine the complex relationship between Western European consumers and the exotic drugs that arrived from foreign lands. The introduction of new commodities like chocolate, tobacco, and coffee posed categorization challenges and raised concerns about their safety and societal impact. The chapter discusses how exotic drugs, perceived as psychotropic and linked to Native American and Turkish cultures, threatened European norms by potentially altering gender roles, religious beliefs, and class distinctions. As these substances became more accessible, their foreign origins both intrigued and alarmed Europeans, who relied on external knowledge to understand their effects but feared the social disruptions they might cause. The chapter outlines how these stimulants brought racial, religious, gendered, and class-blurring dangers to European society.
Who from Excess Is Free?
Authors: Taylor Scott K.
Published: October 2024

This chapter investigates the addictive qualities of new stimulants, starting with tobacco. The strange sight of users inhaling and exhaling smoke led to unfamiliar terminology in England, where users were called “tobacconists” and using pipes was termed “drinking” tobacco. The chapter describes how Europeans sought to understand these new drugs and their effects through medicine and botany, justifying their use as new forms of medicine like opium. Orthodox medical thinking, based on Galen and other ancient physicians, began to evolve with a chemical-based understanding of the body and nerves, but it struggled to comprehend why some consumers could not stop using the drugs. The chapter recounts how critics used traditional moralizing rhetoric about gluttony, debauchery, luxury, and custom, as well as the language of bewitchment and slavery to address the drug issue.
Do We Take Physick Every Day?
Authors: Taylor Scott K.
Published: October 2024

This chapter examines the role of coffee and its significance not just through the rise of coffeehouses and the public sphere, but also its impact on early modern European society. As coffee and other stimulants became routine parts of daily life rather than occasional medicines, Western medicine's focus shifted to the nerves. The chapter mentions figures like Thomas Trotter who blamed coffee for a new epidemic of nervous disorders among Europe's elite. It highlights the argument of supporters of exotic drugs that coffee, tea, and tobacco contributed to a new culture of wellness and complemented diets, baths, and exercise in maintaining health and regulating emotions. Critics, however, claimed that these drugs caused the very physical and mental ailments they purported to cure, indicating a shift in governance over soft drugs from the medical profession to the market.
Gendered Meanings of Unemployment
Authors: Strauss Claudia
Published: October 2024

This chapter reignites debates about women's roles in the paid workforce, especially highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Historically, women were excluded from notions of self-worth and dignity associated with waged work, which changed gradually as women increasingly joined the formal workforce. The chapter recounts how the women's paid work suffered disproportionately due to their concentration in low-wage service jobs and the closure of schools and daycare centers. The chapter discusses how the pandemic saw heightened distress among working mothers and a resurgence of the “motherhood penalty.” It reveals how arguments for greater childcare support and shared responsibilities and suggestions that full-time work might be unrealistic for mothers of young children underscore the persistent gendered division of labor and expectations around breadwinning.
Power, Violence, and Rurality in the Soviet Union in the 1930s
Authors: Viola Lynne
Published: October 2024

This chapter studies the concept of “rurality” to contextualize many aspects of violence in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Although the Soviet Union was not engaged in actual war before 1939, the state saw itself at war with parts of its own population, making use of civil war metaphors and a continuing cast of enemies featuring most prominently the kulak and remnants from the civil war. These include prerevolutionary elites (byvshye liudi) and political parties, clergy, bandits, petty traders and artisans, Ukrainian nationalists, and the like. State violence became the primary lever of Stalin's internal accumulation, and it was aimed squarely at the peasantry, the primary source of extraction. Although the list of enemy categories widened during times of mass violence and, at times, differed according to “local conditions,” these categories stayed fairly uniform through the mass operations of the Great Purges. Contrary to long-held assumptions about violence as the expression of power, the author follows Hannah Arendt in suggesting the opposite: that violence stems from a lack of power.
We Make Each Other Beautiful
Authors: Murray Yxta Maya
Published: October 2024

This book focuses on women of color and queer of color artists and artist collectives who engage in direct political action as a part of their art practice. Defined by public protest, rule-breaking, rebellion, and resistance to governmental and institutional abuse, direct-action “artivism” draws on the aims, radical spirit, and tactics of the civil rights and feminist movements and on the struggles for disability rights, queer rights, and immigrant rights to seek legal and social change. The book traces the development of artivism as a practice from the Harlem Renaissance to Yoko Ono, Judy Baca, and Marsha P. Johnson. The book also studies its role in transforming law and society. The book profiles the work and lives of four contemporary artivists—Carrie Mae Weems, Young Joon Kwak, Tanya Aguiñiga, and Imani Jacqueline Brown—and the artivist collective Drawn Together, combining new oral histories with sharp analyses of how their diverse and expansive artistic practices bear important aesthetic and politicolegal meanings that address a wide range of injustices.
Conclusion
Authors: Murray Yxta Maya
Published: October 2024

This concluding chapter explores the activist art of the author's grandmother, which mirrors those of millions of women of color and queer of color people. For these communities, art or craft is a survival strategy and a life raft to build and share with others. As Imani Jacqueline Brown explains, art is inextricable from many home grown forms of problem-solving and, as such, is both a tactic and a way of life. Just as the author's grandmother once used her arts to fight “the law” of her home, the artivists in this book, as the chapter explains, have directly acted to defend against an unjust society whose power and malfeasance is gathered in statutes and court decisions. The chapter emphasizes how artivism “works” as an agent of legal change in the same way that social movements have always done: by pushing at the law, disagreeing with it, challenging it, breaking it, and thus transforming it.
An Atmosphere of Good Relations
Authors: Tounsel Christopher
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores the involvement of African Americans in Sudan during the 1950s and 1960s, a period marked by transformative events in both nations. Sudan served as a crucial crossroads for several notable African American figures, including Malcolm X, Charles Diggs, Shirley Graham Du Bois, and Elton Fax. The chapter analyzes the pivotal roles these African American figures and Black US service personnel played in fostering diplomatic relations and providing economic, agricultural, and cultural support to Sudan during its early postcolonial years. The chapter discusses how the contributions of these individuals mirrored and expanded upon earlier engagements that showcased diversity and the significant participation by Black women. It looks at the foundational groundwork laid by the 1950s and 1960s for future Black American diplomatic efforts in Sudan, influencing later US–Sudan relations up to the highest levels of government.
The “Common and Impure Earth”
Authors: Dawson Brent
Published: October 2024

This chapter assesses the texts of Isaac La Peyrère and the English responses they generated. Around the same time as Gerrard Winstanley, La Peyrère began developing his own version of the preadamite thesis in France. In Praeadamitae, which was not published until 1655 and translated into English a year later as Men before Adam, La Peyrère argued at length that the biblical story of Adam and Eve was not the history of all humanity. God had created people many times and in many places before the couple in the garden, and though he attributed to the Edenic pair a sacred importance, they were not the foundation of human kinship. Like Winstanley, La Peyrère transformed the basis of existing ideas of human equality, which were rooted in the Genesis account of creation. Rather than being concerned with equality inside the nation, La Peyrère used the preadamite thesis to reformulate what people had in common across cultures, particularly in terms of religion. The chapter then considers how La Peyrère's cosmopolitan sense of low equality became transformed into a polygenetic ideology supporting slavery and imperialism.