Search

Wie westdeutsche Arbeiterorganisationen nach 1945 um Rückerstattung und Entschädigung stritten. Im Jahr 1933 zerschlugen die Nationalsozialisten die deutsche Arbeiterbewegung. Der NS-Staat enteignete das auf rund eine Milliarde Reichsmark geschätzte Vermögen und setzte es nicht zuletzt für Verfolgung, Propaganda und Kriegswirtschaft ein. Als 1948 die Nachfolgeorganisationen Anträge auf Rückerstattung stellen konnten, entbrannte ein erbitterter Kampf um Immobilien, Zeitungsdruckereien und Entschädigungen. Jana Stoklasa erinnert ausgehend vom Beispiel Hannovers an dieses lange vergessene Kapitel deutscher Nachkriegsgeschichte. Auf der Basis neuer Quellen spürt die Historikerin dem Beziehungsgeflecht zwischen Geschichtspolitik, Justiz und Vergangenheitsbewältigung nach. Sie dekonstruiert die Auseinandersetzungen zwischen SPD und KPD im Zeichen der innerdeutschen Teilung mithilfe der postkolonialen Diskursanalyse; und sie zeigt für die Konsumgenossenschaften in beeindruckender Weise, wie eng Restitution und Vergangenheitsblindheit miteinander zusammenhingen.

Mit der Dekolonisation nahm die Bildungsmigration aus Afrika in den Globalen Norden schlagartig zu. Internationale Stipendienprogramme gewannen im Kontext des Kalten Krieges an Bedeutung. Aber auch für die Entwicklungspläne postkolonialer Staaten stellten sie ein wichtiges Instrument dar. Am Beispiel der berufspraktischen Bildungskooperation zwischen Ghana und den beiden deutschen Staaten zeigt Jana Otto auf der Grundlage ghanaischer und deutscher Quellen, welche Ziele alle drei Staaten dabei verfolgten und wie sich Konzepte, Herangehensweisen und Machtverhältnisse im Laufe der Zeit wandelten. Sie zeichnet nach, welche Interessen die ghanaischen Fachkräfte mit ihrer Teilnahme an den Fortbildungsprogrammen verbanden und welche Handlungsspielräume sie besaßen. Die transnationale Verflechtungsgeschichte erschließt nicht nur das bislang vernachlässigte Feld der berufspraktischen Bildungskooperation, sondern bereichert auch die ghanaische Zeitgeschichtsschreibung um neue Einsichten.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2023 in the subject History of Europe - Colonialism, grade: 3,0, University of Wuppertal, language: English, abstract: The imperial legacy of the Colonial Age is ever-present in our modern society. Although the belief in Western superiority was implemented in the era of European colonialism, institutional racism, cultural prejudices, and xenophobia are contemporary consequences of Europe's past as Colonial Superpower. Europe's latest standing towards refugees has constructed the resurgence of an anti-immigrant and nationalist sentiment within various European countries; imperialistic convictions, therefore, still operate within humankind. In particular, the national belief in Britain's exceptionalism, as the mightiest European colonial power within the 19th century, controverts with its modern multicultural society. Which policymakers have influenced the representation of what it means to be ‘British'after the powerful Empire had ended? To what extent did the British society undergo a change, concerning a tolerant and accepting attitude towards immigrants from former British colonies? Most importantly, how accurate has knowledge about the British involvement during the Colonial Age been represented within different time periods?

Jedes Jahr verteilt die Bundesregierung Abermilliarden Euro deutsches Steuergeld in die Welt. Das geschieht im Namen des guten Gewissens gegenüber den Ärmsten der Armen. Doch in Wirklichkeit profitieren nicht die Ärmsten von dieser Umverteilungsmaschinerie. Sondern es profitieren korrupte Kleptokraten in Afrika, palästinensische Terrorgruppen und links-grüne Aktivisten, die sich auf Kosten der Steuerzahler ein schönes Leben machen. Markus Frohnmaier ist 2017 in den Deutschen Bundestag eingezogen und als unvoreingenommener Neuling in die skurrile Welt der Entwicklungshilfe eingetaucht. Schockiert war er von der weitgehend unkritischen Eintracht der etablierten Fraktionen und ihrem saloppen Umgang mit dem Steuergeld der deutschen Bürger. Abgeordnete, NGOs und Durchführungsorganisationen der Entwicklungshilfe legen eine völlige moralische Überheblichkeit an den Tag und meinen, mit ihrem Tun die Welt zu retten. Doch im Gegenteil: Sie richten in den Entwicklungsländern großen Schaden an. Die internationale Entwicklungshilfe ist in Wirklichkeit eine'Vergewohltätigung'der Welt. Dieses Buch formuliert eine schonungslose Abrechnung mit den Lügen der Entwicklungshilfe. Frohnmaier demaskiert die linken Narrative, welche den milliardenschweren Kampf gegen den'menschengemachten Klimawandel', die'koloniale Ausbeutung'und den'Raubtierkapitalismus'rechtfertigen. Er bringt Licht in die Intransparenz der internationalen Entwicklungspolitik, die sich hinter dem Vorhang vermeintlicher moralischer Legitimität versteckt. Lesen Sie'Die Vergewohltätigung'und erfahren Sie, wie globale Eliten und die deutsche Bundesregierung Massenmigration, Korruption, linke Ideologie und das Elend in der Welt fördern.

With concepts of participation discussed in multiple disciplines from media studies to anthropology, from political sciences to sociology, the first issue of the new yearbook History of Intellectual Culture (HIC) dedicates a thematic section to the way knowledge can and arguably must be conceptualized as'participatory'. Introducing and exploring'participatory knowledge', the volume aims to draw attention to the potential of looking at knowledge formation and circulation through a new lens and to open a dialogue about how and what concepts and theories of participation can contribute to the history of knowledge. By asking who gets to participate in defining what counts as knowledge and in deciding whose knowledge is circulated, modes of participation enter into the examination of knowledge on various levels and within multiple cultural contexts. The articles in this volume attest to the great variety of approaches, contexts, and interpretations of'participatory knowledge', from the sociological projects of the Frankfurt School to the Uppsala-based Institute for Race Biology, from the Argentinian National Folklore Survey to current hashtag activism and Covid-19-archive projects. HIC sees knowledge as rooted in social and political structures, determined by modes of transfer and produced in collaborative processes. The notion of'participatory knowledge'highlights in a compelling way how knowledge is rooted in cultural practices and social configurations.

Der Berliner Immobilienmarkt boomt weiter, Kieze werden „entwickelt“, Menschen aus ihren vertrauten Lebenszusammenhängen verdrängt. Wohn-, Arbeits- und Gewerberäume dienen Immobilienkonzernen, Investmentfonds und anonymen Eigentümer•innen als Anlageobjekte, während die mietenpolitische Bewegung das Recht auf Stadt für alle fordert. Doch wer sind die tatsächlichen Akteur•innen hinter der Ökonomisierung städtischen Lebens? Was ermöglicht ihr Handeln – und wie lässt es sich politisch und gesellschaftlich kontrollieren und durchkreuzen? X Properties verhandelt die Wirkmacht des Finanzkapitals über die soziale und kulturelle Produktion von Stadt, ihre Beziehungsweisen und Subjekte. Das Heft erscheint im Rahmen des gleichnamigen Recherche- und Veranstaltungsprojekts der neuen Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbK). Die Textbeiträge von Christian (Syndikat-Kollektiv), Christoph Casper, Jana Gebauer, Kathrin Gerlof, Katrin Lompscher, Louis Moreno, Raquel Rolnik & Isadora Guerreiro & Paula Freire Santoro und Pheli Sommer verbinden Berliner Fallstudien mit globalen Perspektiven auf die De-/Finanzialisierung der Stadt.

In Rescue and Remembrance, Kobi Kabalek examines how the rescue of Jews during the Holocaust has been understood and represented in Germany from the Nazi period to the present. In many regions outside Germany, a small number of known Holocaust rescuers are often held up as exemplars of broad pro-Jewish sentiment among that country's population during World War II, thereby projecting an image of national moral virtue. Within Germany, by contrast, rescuers are often presented in both scholarship and public commemoration as a small minority; their examples condemn the majority by showing what Germans could have done but did not do. Kabalek argues that such simplistic depictions of the majority versus minority obscure the complex motivations and situations that led people in Nazi Germany to help persecuted Jews. Against the view that the rescuers were “forgotten” after the war, he shows that portrayals and interpretations of helping Jews appeared in various media and social discourses in East, West, and unified Germany and were used to actively debate questions of collective morality. Rescue and Remembrance analyzes the varied and changing depictions of rescue in the distinct German polities from the Nazi period, examining how the very notions of “majority” and “collective” were articulated and reformulated.

Der Band präsentiert ausgewählte Ergebnisse der 38. Jahrestagung der Prinz-Albert-Gesellschaft, die vor dem Hintergrund der 200. Geburtstage der Königin Victoria von Großbritannien und Irland und des Prinzen Albert von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha im Jahr 2019 in Coburg durchgeführt wurde. Indem sie nach den »Wegen und Wirkungen« Victorias und Alberts fragen, verfolgen die hier versammelten Studien allesamt einen rezeptionsgeschichtlichen Ansatz, der es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht hat, nicht nur die Biographien der beiden Protagonisten zu thematisieren, sondern vielmehr auf deren historisches Vermächtnis zu fokussieren. So werden bleibende Eindrücke der Herrschaftspraxis Victorias und Alberts ebenso beleuchtet wie ihr dynastisches Erbe und die geschichtspolitische sowie mediale Auseinandersetzung mit ihrer historischen Wirklichkeit. Durch ihre vergleichende Perspektive soll die Summe der Ergebnisse zur Erforschung der deutsch-britischen Beziehungsgeschichte im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert beitragen.

This volume explores the life of Bjargey “Bíbí” Kristjánsdóttir (1927–1999), an Icelandic woman with intellectual disabilities, through analysis of her autobiography and personal archive on the basis of the research disciplines of critical disability studies and microhistory.Bíbí, who grew up in northern Iceland on a small farm called Berlin, fell ill when she was in her first year and was afterward labeled'feeble-minded'by her family and the local community. When Bíbí died, she had finished a 145,000-word autobiography which she had written alone and kept secret from her family and neighbors, very few of whom even knew that she could read and write. This book aims to consider Bíbí's life through her autobiography and other historical sources she created, to identify how various historical, social, and cultural factors interacted and influenced her circumstances. It explores Bíbí's agency, and how she managed to play her cards within the narrow scope given to her by society. What makes Bíbí's history extraordinary is precisely the direct connection to her world through her counter-archive.This book provides students and scholars of the humanities and the social sciences with a new way of critical thinking about both disciplines.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

'Heimat'ist in Geschichte und Gegenwart ein besonders schillernder Kampfbegriff: Vereinnahmt vom Rechtspopulismus, umgarnt von der Klimaschutzbewegung und intensiv diskutiert in der Forschung, trägt dieser Band zu seiner Historisierung bei. Er bringt dabei empirische Beiträge renommierter Historiker und Historikerinnen zusammen. Diese vermessen Heimat unter drei Perspektiven: räumlich, akteurszentriert und thematisch. Geographisch liegt der Schwerpunkt auf der deutschen Geschichte mit internationalen und globalen Seitenblicken. Während ein Blick über eine längere Zeit zum Verständnis des Heimatkonzeptes nötig ist, markiert das'lange'20. Jahrhundert den Fokus des Bandes: Denn hier kam es zur'Fundamentalpolitisierung'des Heimatbegriffes. Der Band leistet auch einen Beitrag zur Debatte um einen „deutschen Sonderweg', die in den letzten Jahren im Kontext der neuen Preußenkontroverse, den wiederaufflammenden Diskussionen zur deutschen Kriegsschuld 1914, den Auseinandersetzungen zur deutschen Demokratietradition und der Debatte um die Entschädigungsforderungen der Hohenzollern wieder aufgeblüht ist. Die Beiträge unterstreichen, wie sich Heimat gesellschaftlich zu einer Sonde für Probleme und Fragen der Migration, der politischen Gewalt, des sozialen Wandels und der demokratischen Partizipation entwickelte.

This edited volume explores the role of education in the process of European cooperation and integration as it has been conceived and realized in the late 20th century and the early 21st century, as well as the mirror of this narrative: the effects of the European integration process on education.Through this dual analysis, the contributors reflect on the concept of Europeanization by showing the complex interplay between Europeanization through education and Europeanization of education. Part I offers a critical overview of the actors, spaces, actions, and pedagogies designed to promote the European project and build Europeans. Part II examines how work done on the European continental level has impacted the educational sphere and national education systems. The case studies cover a wide range of international institutions (College of Europe, European Schools, European Centre for Culture, European University Institute), international organizations (EC/ EU, OEEC/ OECD, Council of Europe, UNESCO), and transnational actors (European Trade Union Committee for Education, European Federation of Education Employers), providing interdisciplinary insight into how this dialectic contributed to shape Europe as a whole.This book will be of interest to graduate and postgraduate students, teachers, and researchers of international cultural relations, Europeanization, and education from a transnational perspective.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

How did a diversity of intermediaries shape not only the everyday divisions but also the dynamics and growth of the colonial city? This is the central question of Dividing Dar. Focusing on South Asian elites, Askari soldiers and police, and a minority of European settlers, the book illustrates how three continents converged to produce the colonial city in East Africa. Dividing Dar shows how negotiations, ranging from contestation to anti-colonial resistance, derailed German colonial plans to transform African'cosmopolitanism'into neatly divided races and city spaces. Dividing Dar offers a novel approach to colonial urban history. In contrast to the traditional focus on top-down urban planning, knowledge production, and municipal politics, the book builds on a growing body of literature on colonial intermediaries and urbanism'from the middle'to address questions of historical agency, the construction of sociocultural hierarchies, and the mutations of African urbanism under the forces of German colonial occupation.

Every year, the Bibliography catalogues the most important new publications, historiographical monographs, and journal articles throughout the world, extending from prehistory and ancient history to the most recent contemporary historical studies. Within the systematic classification according to epoch, region, and historical discipline, works are also listed according to author's name and characteristic keywords in their title. Volume LXXXIV (2015) mentions works published with the date 2015, in thirty-five languages (in order of appearance: Italian, French, Latin, Hebrew, Romanian, English, German, Castilian, Spanish, Dutch, Persian, Hungarian, Swedish, Latvian, Arab, Portuguese, Serbian, Finnish, Danish, Slovak, Polish, Croatian, Russian, Bulgarian, Norwegian, Greek, Turkish, Japanese, Catalan, Czech, Lithuanian, Chinese, Korean, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Kurdish). The large Editorial Board of IBHS is interdisciplinary and multinational, reflecting the composition of the research community the journal will serve. This breadth of languages ​​and countries represented is an important sign of continuity in a publication characterized since from its origins by a broad sight and a collective work.

Südosteuropa bei aller Spezifik besser als bisher historisch zugänglich zu machen, ist das Ziel dieses Handbuchs. In steter Bezugnahme auf gesamteuropäische und weitere Zusammenhänge werden hier die Ereignisgeschichte und die Strukturen von Staatlichkeit und Herrschaftsweisen im Zeitalter beschleunigten Wandels ab ca. 1800 behandelt. Die Diskussion von Quellen und Sekundärliteratur bezieht die Forschung in den südosteuropäischen Ländern in aller sprachlichen Vielfalt ein und vermeidet „westliche“ Perspektivverengung.Der Darstellungszeitraum ist zunächst gekennzeichnet durch ein starkes Fortbestehen der imperialen Ordnungsrahmen durch Habsburgermonarchie und Osmanisches Reich, neben der nationalstaatlichen Strukturierung, die auf zuvor osmanischem Boden bald nach 1800 begann. Das religionspolitische Ordnungsmoment trat schrittweise zurück. Wie in Gesamteuropa rückt in den staatlichen und politischen Prozessen die Frage nach administrativer und machtpolitischer Teilhabe mit neuen Ordnungsvorstellungen in den Vordergrund. Über den fachspezifischen Forschungsstand hinaus bietet der Band umfassendes analytisches Orientierungswissen, das auch für internationale Vergleiche herangezogen werden kann.

This book offers snapshots of sex work in global history, examining how it has differed in different places around the world at different points in time. Focusing on certain moments in certain places and examinations of historical lives, it offers a diverse approach with a heavy focus on lived experience to see what selling sex was like instead of what it “meant”. Therefore, this book aims to argue that selling sex has been different at different times and present the diversity of experience in sex work throughout history, through case studies and comparisons.Aimed for students, scholars, and general readers alike, Histories of Sex Work Around the World provides an introduction to the history of sex work within a global perspective. The case studies cover a wide range of topics and geographical regions – from North America to Mexico City to Vietnam, spanning across 12 different countries and over 400 years of history, before considering the future of sex work in the internet age. Furthermore, this book features chapters with personal accounts from writers with experience selling sex, managing a brothel, or working as a dancer. It also includes a foreword from renowned writer and historian Julia Laite, author of bestselling book The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey.

The Indian National Army (INA) trials of 1945–46 have generally been given short shrift by historians in their cataloguing of the Indian freedom movement. This book examines to what extent the trials had an impact on the final phase of India's quest for independence. In so doing, it unveils that, while the Indian National Congress's extended odyssey to win independence was essentially about a passive push-back, at a critical juncture of its campaign to extinguish British colonialism in India, it applauded and capitalised on the INA's use of force. The central, explosive narrative is about Britain holding a court martial of three officers of the INA – Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Sahgal and Gurbaksh Dhillon – convicting them, before a dramatic turn in events.The material unearthed by the book throws new light on a decisive juncture leading to the transfer of power in India. It will be indispensable for researchers interested in South Asia, especially the Indian freedom movement. It will be invaluable for students of history, colonialism, military studies, politics in pre-Partition India and law.

Dieses Buch ergründet, was uns die Erfahrungen der Menschen, die zwischen 1914 und 1924 in Großbritannien und Frankreich als Deutsche identifiziert wurden, über das Verhältnis von Minderheiten und ihren Gastgeberländern in Zeiten des Konflikts sagen können. Bislang hat sich die Forschung kaum mit den persönlichen Schicksalen der deutschen Minderheiten in Großbritannien und Frankreich zu dieser Zeit beschäftigt. Dabei kann eine solche Perspektive wertvolle Erkenntnisse über Minderheitsidentitäten in Konfliktzeiten bieten. Anhand des Vergleichs ihrer Identität und Behandlung in beiden Ländern entwickelt Mathis Gronau eine übergeordnete Theorie der migrantischen Permeabilität: Geraten Nationen in Konflikt, werden Individuen zunehmend auf bestimmte nationale Identitäten festgelegt oder finden sich, wenn sie im Raum dazwischen situiert sind, in einem sogenannten Niemandsland der Identität wieder. In dieser Hinsicht erweitert das Buch den bisherigen Forschungsstand um die deutsche Minderheit während des Ersten Weltkrieges nicht nur um die Ebene der individuellen Erfahrung. Es trägt im weiteren Sinne zu dem Verständnis und der Erweiterung bestehender Kategorien des Nationalismus in der europäischen Geschichte seit 1789 bei.

In den Jahren 1880 bis 1914 suchten radikalisierte politische Gruppierungen weltweit mit Anschlägen und Attentaten öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit auf ihre Anliegen zu lenken. Ihre Gewaltakte lösten globale Reaktionen aus: Sowohl die Medien als auch die Politik bis hin zu politischen Aktivistinnen und Aktivisten rezipierten die Nachrichten über die Gewalt, äußerten ihren Abscheu oder ihre Bewunderung. Die Arbeit erzählt die Globalgeschichte des Terrorismus ausgehend vom Russischen Reich und damit von einem Staat, der um 1900 zum Dreh- und Angelpunkt globaler Debatten über Ursachen, Konsequenzen und Legitimität terroristischer Gewaltformen wurde. Bis heute gilt das Russische Reich als Ursprungsland des modernen Terrorismus. Global war das erste Zeitalter des Terrorismus vor allem in der medialen Vermittlung und im Bewusstsein der Zeitgenoss:innen. Politische Gewalt löste staatliche und mediale Reaktionen aus, die weit über den Horizont der Erwartungen der Attentäterinnen und Attentäter hinausreichten. Die Debatten im Anschluss an die Gewaltakte verweisen damit auf tiefe innergesellschaftliche und internationale Konflikte in den letzten Jahrzehnten vor Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkrieges. Die preisgekrönte Studie leistet einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Gewaltforschung, zur internationalen und globalen Geschichte sowie zur Geschichte transnationaler medialer und emotionaler Vernetzungen.

Die Arbeit behandelt die Kartellrechtspraxis in Westdeutschland nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg bis zum Inkrafttreten des deutschen Wettbewerbsgesetzes 1958. In diesem Zeitraum wurde der Rechtszustand durch die 1947 auf amerikanische Initiative von den Alliierten erlassenen und auf dem amerikanischen Antitrustrecht basierenden Dekartellierungsgesetzen bestimmt. Die Thematik war bisher ein Desiderat, da die historische Forschung vor allem den Entstehungsprozess des deutschen Wettbewerbsgesetzes untersucht hat und die konkrete Rechtspraxis im behandelten Zeitraum vernachlässigt wurde. Diese wurde sowohl durch alliierte Behörden und Gerichte als auch durch deutsche Richter und Politiker geprägt. Die Arbeit untersucht also aus mehreren Perspektiven unter anderem, wie erfolgreich alliierte Verfahren gegen Verstöße vorgehen konnten, ob das alliierte Kartellverbot die Wettbewerbspraktiken der traditionell kartellfreundlichen deutschen Unternehmer zu ändern vermochte und wie strikt deutsche Gerichte die Gesetze angesichts des vorhandenen Interpretationsspielraums auslegten.

Cold War Museology is the first volume to bring together interdisciplinary and international contributions from leading practitioners and academics specialising in Cold War museology. Bringing the most recent historiography of the Cold War into conversation with museological theory and practice, chapters within the volume analyse the current condition of Cold War museology. By unpicking some of the unique challenges facing museum specialists dealing with the Cold War, this book takes a lead in developing the collection, display and interpretation of this history. The chapters question what makes a Cold War object; address the complexity of Cold War time; face up to questions of Cold War race, gender and imperialism; and reveal how to materialise the Cold War imaginary in museums. Most importantly perhaps, the volume demonstrates that, a consideration of the interconnecting forces of global twentieth-century history enables experts to add important complexity and nuance to the narratives with which they work and improve visitor understandings through innovative interpretations.Cold War Museology will encourage readers towards a more nuanced, holistic and inclusive approach to Cold War materiality in museums. It will be of great interest to academics, museum professionals and students engaged in the study of museums, heritage and the Cold War, as well as those with an interest in archaeology, media, culture and memory.

The third edition of Consumerism in World History explores the nature of consumerism and its evolution, with particular emphasis on the modern “consumer revolution” and its global scope.The book deals with crucial interpretive issues, such as whether consumerism is a natural human expression or involves other causes, the relationship between consumer apparatus (such as shops and advertising) and human needs, and the interplay between Western and other regional forms of consumerism. It covers major historical moments and changes, including the consumer revolution in Western society beginning in the 17th century and regional cultural patterns from the 19th century onward. This is a substantially revised edition, with updated suggested readings, rewritten sections on premodern consumerism in agricultural societies, and globalization and consumerism, and expanded coverage of major regions like India and Latin America.This volume is essential reading for all students of world history and will be of great value to those in business history and environmental history.

This open-access book offers a clear and thorough exploration of Asia's history from an international relations perspective. The book investigates key political, economic, and cultural forces defining Asia. It highlights the historical and current significance of the Indo-Pacific region, particularly shedding light on its strategic role in global geopolitics. Through detailed historical analyses, the authors guide readers toward a comprehensive understanding of Asia's complex international relations, from colonization and imperialism, through the Cold War, into decolonization and the wave of democratization in the region, to the rise of China, unpacking the various dimensions of regionalism in Asia. This book serves as a practical scholarly resource for advanced students, researchers, and lecturers interested in understanding the region's past and its implications for future geopolitical dynamics. It is relevant to historians focused on Asia and to international relations and political science scholars interested in the shift to an Asian world order, from past to present.

This is the first critical work on the history of the French Riviera from its origins in the eighteenth century to the present day in the English language. It makes the argument that multi-faceted power and violence – war, murder, land dispossession and other privations targeted at the poor, imperialism and ecological degradation (land, sea, rivers and air) – has been integral to the making of the Côte d'Azur. Invariably, this has been downplayed in previous general histories that tend to focus on the personal lives and loves of famous outsiders. In effect, the complex general history of the place is rarely told. Bryant seeks to set that record straight in an innovative work crisscrossing the borders of European and imperial history, geography, politics and environmental studies that will be of interest to an array of scholars, students and general readers who wish to learn about how the planet's most famous coastal resort was made.

Tom IV Źródeł do dziejów Uniwersytetu m. Adama Mickiewicza obejmuje protokoły posiedzeń Senatu Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego (UP) z pierwszych lat działalności Uczelni po II wojnie światowej (1945–1956), czyli z okresu sprawowania władzy rektorskiej przez Profesorów: Stefana Tytusa Dąbrowskiego, Stefana Błachowskiego, Kazimierza Ajdukiewicza oraz Jerzego Suszko. Był to czas wydzielenia z UP niektórych wydziałów i powstania na ich bazie nowych poznańskich uczelni oraz nadania Uniwersytetowi nowej nazwy – Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w listopadzie 1955 roku. Materiały archiwalne zawarte w niniejszym tomie ilustrują zachowany w aktach posiedzeń Senatu UP okres odbudowy Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego po II wojnie światowej oraz realizację działalności naukowej i dydaktycznej Uczelni w trudnym okresie transformacji ustrojowej, gospodarczej i politycznej w pierwszych latach PRL. Tom IV protokołów posiedzeń Senatu UP z lat 1945–1956 jest też ostatnim tomem ukazującym działalność uczelni pod nazwą Uniwersytet Poznański i stanowi uzupełnienie trzech tomów Źródeł z pierwszych lat działalności Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego, czyli z lat 1919–1939, wydanych w latach 2019–2021 w ramach wydawnictwa jubileuszowego. Celem publikacji jest nie tylko ukazanie dziejów Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego w świetle źródeł archiwalnych, lecz również upowszechnienie i zabezpieczenie najstarszych archiwaliów do dziejów UP dla przyszłych badań nad historią UAM oraz nad dziejami innych uczelni poznańskich powstałych po II wojnie światowej na bazie wydziałów UP, takich jak: Uniwersytet Medyczny, Uniwersytet Przyrodniczy i Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego.

This book delivers the first substantial study of the preaching of the Third Crusade (1187-92). It assembles c.200 sermon texts and c.100 manuscripts, to understand the explosive dynamic of mobilization in the Latin West. Dealing with the essential fact that a genre called ‘crusade sermon'did not exist, it develops methodological devices for identifying sermons relevant for the crusading purpose. The book contests thus the modern historiography, which has placed too much trust in the few chronicle reports. However, its fruitful blending of crusading, preaching, exegesis, manuscript studies, and intellectual history has much to offer beyond crusade studies.

This edited volume brings together authors from a wide variety of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. A historian first investigates understudied samizdat literature, a film critic then analyzes Balkan cinema via psychoanalysis, a psychologist examines contemporary European border policies, and a political scientist analyzes the Confederate-memorial debate. Philosophers consider the space of those memorials, ethno-national narratives in India, the Anthropocene and the mind's historical imaginary, and the notion of home. Literary critics examine recent developments in modes of storytelling and images of Orientalism. What emerges is a new understanding of history, memory, and time.

Ist die Aufgabenkultur in Geschichtsschulbüchern auf historisches Denken ausgerichtet? Im vorliegenden Band wird dieser Frage anhand einer kategorialen Analyse österreichischer und deutscher Geschichtsschulbücher nachgegangen. Hierfür werden diese hinsichtlich der Umsetzung zentraler Kriterien für Lernaufgaben im Kontext einer fachlichen Aufgabenkultur qualitativ analysiert und quantitativ ausgewertet. Die Studie bietet damit einen repräsentativen Einblick in die Aufgabenkultur der analysierten Schulbücher und begleitet empirisch den Veränderungsprozess zu einem auf die Förderung historischen Denkens ausgerichteten Geschichtsunterricht. Darüber hinaus öffnet der Autor den Blick auf theoretische und praktische Leerstellen im Kontext der Erforschung und Umsetzung einer Aufgabenkultur historischen Denkens – nicht nur in Geschichtsschulbüchern. Is the exercise culture in history schoolbooks centred on historical thinking? The present volume explores this question with the help of a categorial analysis of Austrian and German history schoolbooks. Therefore, the schoolbooks are being qualitatively analysed and quantitatively evaluated according to the implementation of central criteria for learning exercises in the context of a specialised exercise culture. Thus, the survey offers a representative insight into the exercise culture of the examined schoolbooks and empirically assists the transformation process towards history lessons that support historical thinking. Moreover, the author offers a new perspective on theoretical and practical gaps in context of research and implementation of an exercise culture on historical thinking – not exclusively in history schoolbooks.

This volume aims to take up the theme of the relationship between faith and pestilence, which, despite its topicality, is rooted in a long-term dimension that involves different areas of knowledge. A markedly disciplinary look brings together historical, theological, political, and juridical analyses and thus allows to understand this relationship through paradigms, turning points, continuities, and discontinuities. Such a wide perspective makes it possible to observe how the theme has crossed ages and religions, from the fathers of the church, to medicine in medieval Islam, up to contemporary times, with Ivan Illich's harsh critique of forced medicalization and the issues that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Das Buch hat Brief einer Unbekannten, Stefan Zweigs Novelle aus dem Jahr 1922, und die hierauf basierenden internationalen Verfilmungen der Jahre 1929–2017 zum Gegenstand. Es sind Adaptionen u. a. aus der VR China, aus Deutschland, Finnland, Frankreich, Griechenland, Mexiko, Österreich, Südkorea und aus den USA. Der literarische Text und die medialen Artefakte werden unter intra-, inter- und transkulturellen Gesichtspunkten erst jedes für sich kontextualisiert, dann miteinander korreliert und interdisziplinär, intermedial und transmedial ausgeleuchtet. In den Fokus rücken dabei Aspekte jener tertiären Dunkelheit, die sich durch das Stülpen von Pattern aus der Zielkultur über Bilder, Symbole, Motive und Themen des Ausgangstextes auf diesen verzerrend, ummodelnd und verdunkelnd auswirkt. Aus dieser interkulturellen Dynamik entspringen dann Missverständnisse und Unverständnisse, sinnverzerrende Umdeutungen und äquivalente Wiedergaben des Ausgangstextes, die es zu reflektieren gilt.

In the annals of India's history, a monumental uprising unfolded in 2020, echoing the resilience and coming together of large sections of its agrarian base. Instigated by the contentious farm laws of 2020, the Farmers'Movement burgeoned into a year-long saga of protest and perseverance, ending only in December 2021 after the passing of the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021 by the Indian Parliament. From the initial demand for law repeal to the multifaceted growth of the movement, the book traces the journey of the Farmers'Movement, as each essay dissects the socio-political dynamics, cultural nuances, and mass solidarity that underpinned the protests, including focused analyses from Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and the Sikh diaspora in the United Kingdom. This anthology chronicles the ebb and flow of a nation's spirit, encapsulating the symbiotic relationship between theory and praxis, between change and continuity. It serves as a testament to the power of collective resistance and a roadmap for future struggles, ensuring that the legacy of the Farmers'Movement endures beyond the pages of history.This volume is an interdisciplinary project and will be of interest to scholars from diverse fields such as economics, sociology, public policy, political science, history, political geography, gender studies, cultural studies, international studies, architecture, media studies, psychology, and ethnomusicology.

“We are a much-lectured people,” wrote Robert Spence Watson in 1897. Beginning at mid-century, cities and towns across England used the popular lecture for purposes ranging from serious education to effervescent entertainment and from regional pride to imperial belonging. Over time, the popular lecture became the quintessential embodiment of Victorian knowledge-based culture, which itself ranged from the production of new knowledge in the most elite of learned societies to the consumption of established knowledge in middle-class clubs and the hundreds of humble mechanics'institutions initially founded to provide scientific instruction to workers. What did the “average” Victorian talk and think about? How did the knowledge-based culture of lecture and debate enable men and women to demonstrate both civic engagement and cultural competence? How does this knowledge-based culture and its changing expression give us ways to look at Victorian citizenship long before the extension of the franchise? With engaging and accessible prose Anne Rodrick draws from a variety of primary sources to provide fascinating answers to these pertinent questions. Based on the analysis of several thousand lectures and debates delivered over more than 50 years, this book digs deeply into what those individuals below the most elite levels thought, heard, debated, and claimed as a badge of cultural competence. By the turn of the 20th century, the popular lecture was competing for attention with new institutions of leisure and of higher education, and the discourse surrounding its place in contemporary England helps illuminate important debates over access to and deployment of knowledge and culture.

This is the fifth collection of articles by Eliyahu Ashtor to be published by Variorum and focuses on the fundamental question of why, during the later Middle Ages, technology and industry declined, even collapsed, in the Muslim Levant, while simultaneously making enormous progress in the Christian West. An indefatigable researcher in archives all over the Mediterranean, Ashtor amassed quantities of data on this subject, and began to propose causal links between, on the one hand, demographic trends, types of political regime, economic policies and attitudes towards innovation, and on the other, the progress or decline of technology and industry. Although his work was cut short by his death in 1984, the information that Ashtor has made available, for instance on the sugar and the alkali industries, and the questions and hypotheses he has suggested will provide a vital basis for continuing research. The final article, dealing more specifically with the history of commerce, represents in effect a summation of the author's views on the role of the Jews in the trade of the Mediterranean. La cinquième collection d'articles d'Eliyahu Ashtor à être publiée par Variorum (pour les deux volumes encore disponibles, voir p.00) se concentre sur la raison fondamentale pour laquelle, durant le Bas Moyen Age, la technologie et l'industrie dans le Levant musulman étaient en déclin, voire même en plein effondrement, alors qu'elles faisaient simultanément d'énormes progrès dans l'Ouest chrétien. Cherchiste infatiguable des archives méditerranéennes, Ashtor a amassé quantité d'informations à ce sujet et a commencé à suggérer l'existence de lien de cause entre: d'une part, les tendances démongraphiques, les types de régimes politiques, la politique économique et les attitudes vis-à-vis du changement et, d'autre part, le progrès ou le déclin de la technologie et de l'industrie. Bien que son travail ait été interrompu par sa mort en 1984,

The history of East Asia can be most productively studied through a transnational, translingual, and transcultural approach to the region. In The Sinosphere and Beyond, twenty-six leading and emerging scholars use such approaches in rich clusters of essays on Historiography, Sino-Japanese Encounters, Law and Justice, Politics, Art, Literature, and Translation. Each essay builds on the legacy of Joshua Fogel, whose scholarship defined the contours of the Sinosphere in the Western world and beyond. The collection will be of interest to scholars and students with specific research concerns within these broader rubrics: from the towering progenitors of Japanese Sinology to gendered, diplomatic, and cultural dimensions of Sino-Japanese encounters; from Sinitic poetry to legal culture and revolutionary life; from art commerce and levels of literary expression to the quandaries of translation. In addition to offering a broad range of case studies, the volume is testimony to the methodological importance of a dynamic intra- and transregional approach for an understanding of the layered history of East Asia.

In this path-breaking book, he reflects on the evolution of Polish Jewry in these years against the background of its enormous contribution to Jewish religious traditions and its tragic fate in the Holocaust. A Jewish community, ‘small in numbers'but with a ‘big presence', continues to function in Poland. This book is essential reading for all those who wish to understand this remarkable phenomenon.Antony Polonsky, Emeritus Professor of Holocaust Studies,Brandeis UniversitySmall Numbers, Big Presence is history rooted in assiduous dispassionate research, but no less, in passionate commitment to Polish Jewry. As much Pole as Jew, Stanislaw Krajewski was a witness to Poland's postwar Jewish renaissance and the Jews'de-assimilation. A frontliner in many struggles and triumphs, he tells the story with an insider's knowledge of the intricacies of events and personalities.Moshe Rosman, Bar-Ilan University, IsraelThe most important is Stanisław Krajewski's ability to capture complex phenomena with often mutually exclusive interpretations in a surprisingly new and original way.Stanisław Obirek, Professor at the American Studies Centre,University of Warsaw

This book discusses the history of music warning labels, specifically the Parental Advisory Label (PAL), and the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). It aims to answer these questions: How could the PMRC trigger a debate on music lyrics as a negative influence on children that led to the introduction of the PAL in the long run? What did the implementation of the PAL warning mean for musicians and how had the perception of music changed so that the advisory label was deemed necessary? The central thesis is that through the discourse on explicit lyrics, certain music was marked as an actual threat to children and society and consequently started to be perceived as such. By the way in which the discourse evolved, and how other actors conducted themselves in the debates, this understanding of certain music was repeatedly (re-)negotiated and connected to other current discourses, such as discourses on family values, sexuality, youth culture, generational conflicts and social problems. Through this, the understanding of certain music as a threat to children and society was constantly renewed.The book analyses the PMRC's campaign on explicit lyrics and provides insights into their strategy and success from a historical perspective.

The book presents the life of Louis Wolowski (1810–1876). Born into a family of Frankist Jews in Warsaw, Wolowski participated in the Polish insurrection of 1830–1831 and later settled in France. Specializing in political economy, Wolowski became a professor at the prestigious Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers at the age of 29 and a member of the Academy in 1855. In 1852 he founded Crédit Foncier, one of the most important French banks and actively participated in the banking revolution of the second half of the 19th century. He also had a political career. Wolowski served as a deputy and from 1875, a life senator. Representing the liberal center of the French political scene, he played a crucial role in the establishment of the Republic in France.

In exploring heterogeneous intersections between jazz, rock, ethnic, and world music, this book answers the question as to whether fusion represents a style on its own or whether it is the base for combining diverse music sources. Social, political, and geographical divides reflected in post-communist, capitalist, and third worlds, and in democratic and dictatorial regimes have compelled substantial changes in musicians'thinking. The book examines ethnic inspirations in American jazz, Slovak-American jazz, young French bands with diverse fusion identities, Hungarian and Czech progressive rock, Czech world music and brass bands, American psychedelic rock, Italian rock, and in a Romani-Slovak-Norwegian music project. New compositional and improvisational trends, and hybrid fusions in contemporary music embrace the African philosophy of ubuntu, which denotes feelings of mutual belonging free of prejudices against racial origins, social inequalities, or other cultural characteristics.

The question of what heritage is and how we deal with it is not a neutral one. Recent events such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the toppling of monuments have made evident how much the colonial past is inscribed in our built environment; at the same time, colonialism continues to affect memorialization and historiography. Hence, those involved in architectural history are challenged to re-consider their positionality. Whose heritage are colonial sites? Which possibly silenced memories are attached to them? How are archives and material evidence reassessed to bring forward the stories of marginalized subjects? Following the call for decolonization, this volume explores historical methodologies and shows the entanglement of narratives at architectural sites, bringing together archaeology, architectural history, and heritage studies. A contribution to the current debate on decolonization and memorialization Interdisciplinary perspectives on architecture and heritage International range of authors

Public school education in the second half of the nineteenth century was completely dominated by classics and sport. Rejecting the view that these were competing strands resulting in friction between aesthetic scholars and athletic philistines, this book shows how classicism and athleticism were closely entwined. Using primary sources, such as school magazines and memoirs, it considers how classical ideas shaped the elite British male's view of his place in the world and his attitudes to masculinity, gender, race, class and duty. At the heart of this process were a comparatively small number of classically-educated men who influenced the reorganisation and reform of games between 1850 and 1914 laying the foundations for modern sport. This book explores their overlapping social networks, and the ways in which they sometimes co-opted ancient history, as they tried to retain control of the sporting landscape and promote an ‘amateur ideal'based on a past that never really existed.

Reflecting Jerusalem in the Medieval Czech Lands maps the reception, reflection, and translation of Jerusalem in medieval Czech lands. The volume deals with Jerusalem as an idea and traces it not only in time but in various forms of art as well – such as architecture, book and wall-painting, and different literary genres – with the aim of covering the whole spectrum of Jerusalem images in medieval Czech lands. Special attention is paid to the interim period, when the Czech lands “lost” direct contact with the Holy Land and the idea of Jerusalem was mediated through Western European and Italian sources.

Die preußische Königin und deutsche Kaiserin Augusta stand in europaweitem Briefwechsel mit den bedeutendsten Persönlichkeiten ihrer Zeit. Als Gattin Wilhelms I. hatte sie zwar selbst keine politische Entscheidungsgewalt, aber vielgestaltige Handlungsspielräume, die sich anhand ihrer Briefe nachzeichnen lassen. In der ersten modernen wissenschaftlichen Monographie zu Augusta werden über 22.000 Briefe mit knapp 500 Personen im Rahmen einer quantitativ-qualitativen Untersuchung ausgewertet. Ihre Briefkommunikation wird dabei aus materiell-organisatorischer und netzwerkanalytischer Perspektive beleuchtet. Augusta baute sich ihr Briefnetzwerk sukzessive auf und nutzte ihre internationalen Kontakte, um Neuigkeiten und Meinungen von Höfen, Gesandtschaften, Hauptquartieren, Parlamenten und Kirchengemeinden einzuholen und weiterzuleiten. Sie fungierte damit als Beraterin des Königs, Ansprechpartnerin von Einflusssuchenden und Vermittlerin zwischen den Instanzen.

Książka stanowi podsumowanie badań własnych autora dotyczących historii Europy Środkowej w trójkącie polsko-czesko-ukraińskim oraz dziedzictwa kulturowego Polski, Ukrainy i Białorusi. Porusza żywą i aktualną problematykę państwowego mitu, idei narodowej oraz nacjonalizmu w wybranych państwach Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej (w Polsce, państwach bałtyckich, Czechach, na Słowacji, Węgrzech, Ukrainie, Białorusi). Państwa te, choć niejedno dzieli, to jednak też wiele łączy. Wspólnie zaistniały jako samodzielne po I wojnie światowej i zetknęły się z dwoma totalitaryzmami. Przystąpiły do budowy systemu liberalnej demokracji, mimo że nacisk bieżących problemów i cień historii dają szansę populizmowi. Autor, wychodząc od kwestii definicyjno-pojęciowych, śledzi na konkretnych przykładach dzieje najnowsze, skupia się na XX wieku, sięga tam, gdzie należy: we wcześniejszą przeszłość. Prezentuje, w jaki sposób dążenie do zdobycia lub odzyskania niepodległości, idea narodowa wraz z mitem państwa etnicznego kształtowały i umacniały świadomość analizowanych społeczności. W ostatnich rozdziałach ukazuje problematykę ukraińską i białoruską, dwie drogi wyjścia ze sfery rosyjskiego wpływu, w tym jedną – białoruską nieudaną. Ukraina zaś, choć skąpana we krwi wskutek napaści sąsiada ze wschodu, wydaje się, że przetrwa oraz umocni swoją państwowość i zbuduje wreszcie naród.

This book offers fresh perspectives on the legacy of colonialism in the North-east frontiers of India, especially the Naga Hills. The book interrogates the presence of British administrators and anthropologists in the Naga Hills as part of a popular discourse on (post) colonialism. It weaves a coherent chronological sequence of events and the prevailing attitudes of administrators-cum-anthropologists to understand the whole process of colonial intervention in the Naga Hills. It examines the conventional notions of'tribes'and'identity'within the context of the Naga Hills. It explores the transformation of Naga Hills through the lens of colonialism, providing a critical perspective on identity and the intricate web of historical narratives. It is a must-read for scholars, anthropologists, historians, and all those intrigued by the multifaceted legacy of colonialism in the Naga Hills.

Standard work on the German catechisms of the Bohemian (Moravian) Brethren, with the texts of all related documents.

Im Jahr 2024 wird der 250. Geburtstag Caspar David Friedrichs gefeiert. Für seinen internationalen Ruhm waren vor allem drei große Retrospektiven in den 1970er Jahren in London, Hamburg und Dresden ausschlaggebend. Dieser Band untersucht erstmals vertiefend ihre Rolle für die Rezeption des Künstlers ebenso wie für die Betrachtung des Phänomens ‚Romantik‘. Er setzt sie in Bezug zu (kultur-)politischen Kontexten der Zeit und erschließt bislang wenig beachtetes Quellenmaterial für weiterführende Forschung. Die Autorin untersucht außerdem, warum gerade Ausstellungen als von vielfältigen Aushandlungsprozessen bestimmtes Format entscheidende Impulse für die Rezeption von Künstler/-innen zu geben vermögen, und weshalb sie stärker in eine kritische Wissens- und Wissenschaftsforschung einbezogen werden sollten. Blick ins Buch

This book highlights multiple perspectives related to the Cold War presented by scholars from almost all continents. They discuss a variety of consequences of the Cold War for various countries and regions focusing on politics, economy, culture, and memory – according to their own professional interests. Driven by research curiosity and a desire to look at events of the Cold War from different angles, they combined their efforts and prepared this volume. Through this process, the wide and multidimensional perspective of the Cold War has been highlighted. Its legacy appears to be increasingly important today, when the world, just three decades after the collapse of the USSR and the Soviet model of Communism, is experiencing another wave of dangerous tensions in international relations, called the New Cold War.

This chronological collection charts the change in attitudes to witchcraft during the period 1560-1736, which culminates in the educated debate on the reality of witchcraft and the gradual decline in belief in witches and associated phenomena.

The articles in the first part of this volume, two being a revised English version of an article originally in Spanish, examine the place of the city in the historical development of Castile. The focus is the social and economic history of Burgos, and the work is founded on detailed research in the archives of the area. Professor Ruiz also calls into question the long held belief in the democratic character of medieval Castilian municipal life. In the second section he opens the field of enquiry to deal with the controversial question of what impact the conquest of Seville and the subsequent settlement of al-Andalus had on the realm of Castile, looking in particular at demographic factors and the emergence of the latifundia. The following articles analyse the symbolism and ceremonial of royal power, arguing that the claims for a sacred monarchy so usual in the medieval West were absent during this period of Spanish history, and that the kings used popular secular ceremonies, not anointments or coronations, to legitimise their rule. The book then closes with a study of the origins of the Spanish Inquisition. Les travaux contenus dans la première partie de cet ouvrage examinent la place de la Cité dans le développement historique de la Castille. L'intérêt central porte sur l'histoire sociale et économique de Burgos et l'analyse est fondée sur une recherche détaillée dans les archives de cette région. Le professeur Ruiz remet aussi en question la croyance que l'on avait depuis longtemps quant au caractère démocratique de la vie municipale dans la Castille médiévale. Dans la seconde partie, l'auteur élargit le champs de l'enquête afin de traiter de la question controversée au sujet de l'impact de la conquête de Séville et l'occupation consécutive d'al-Andalus sur le royaume de Castille, s'intéressant en particulier aux facteurs démographiques et à l'émergence de latifundia. Les études suivantes analysent le symbol

From the 12th century onwards merchants from the north Italian and southern French towns were able to take advantage of Christian conquests in southern Italy, Sicily and the Levant to penetrate and dominate the markets of these regions and of North Africa. The articles collected in this volume examine the economic, social and religious impact of this combination of trade and conquest. They include studies of the survival of Jews and Muslims in Sicily, of the debate about the'under-development'of medieval southern Italy, Sicily and Sardinia, of relations between the rulers of those regions and the merchants, and of mercantile penetration into the kingdom of Jerusalem, Cyprus and Tunis in the wake of Crusaders and Sicilian kings. A partir du 12e siècle, les marchands venant des villes du Nord de l'Italie et du Sud de la France étaient devenus à même de tirer avantage des conquêtes chrétiennes en Italie du Sud, en Sicile et dans le Levant et de pénétrer, ainsi que de dominer les marchés de ces différentes régions et de l'Afrique du Nord. Les articles rassemblés dans ce volume examinent l'impact économique, social et religieux de cette association entre la conquête et le commerce. Le recueil comprend des études sur la survie des Juifs et des Musulmans en Sicile, sur le débat à propos du'sous-développement'de l'Italie méridionale, de la Sicile et de la Sardaigne au Moyen Age, sur les rapports entre les dirigeants de ces régions et les marchands, ainsi que sur la pénétration mercantile du royaume de Jérusalem, de Chypre et de Tunis, dans le sillon des Croisés et des rois de Sicile.

This book is about the archaeology of science, or what can be learnt from the systematic examination of the artefacts made by precision craftsmen for the study of the natural world. An international authority on historical scientific instruments, Gerard Turner has collected here his essays on European astrolabes and related topics. By 1600 the astrolabe had nearly ceased to be made and used in the West, and before that date there was little of the source material for the study of instruments that exists for more modern times. It is necessary to'read'the instruments themselves, and astrolabes in particular are rich in all sorts of information, mathematical, astronomical, metallurgical, in addition to what they can reveal about craftsmanship, the existence of workshops, and economic and social conditions. There is a strong forensic element in instrument research, and Gerard Turner's achievements include the identification of three astrolabes made by Gerard Mercator, all of whose instruments were thought to have been destroyed. Other essays deal with the discovery of an important late 16th-century Florentine workshop, and of a group of mid-15th-century German astrolabes linked to Regiomontanus.