Square-eyed Farmers and Gloomy Ethnographers: The Advent of Television in the West German Village
During the 1950s and 1960s, television arrived in the West German countryside. All across Westphalia, elderly villagers recorded how their lives changed because of it. Their reports, solicited by ethnographers at a Münster folklore archive, allow unprecedented insight into TV’s impact on daily schedules, family routines, living rooms, neighbourly networks, local associations and church activities. This rare body of sources allows us to test the claims of media researchers about television’s early phase. It confirms that television accelerated the ongoing modernization, nationalization and politicization of rural society, rapidly reshaping village life. Only the patriarchal family – the decline of which contemporary ethnographers were most worried about – emerged unscathed.
Quelle: http://jch.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/51/4/839?rss=1
Colonial Twilight: Italian Settlers and the Long Decolonization of Libya
Italian decolonization has often been described as precocious, given Italy's loss of effective control over its colonies as a result of military defeat in the Second World War. In Libya, however, the projects of agrarian ‘demographic colonization’ that became a showpiece of fascist colonialism continued until 1960 and created persistent tensions between Italy and the independent Libyan state. This article examines a key aspect of Italy's protracted disengagement from Libya: the extended colonial twilight in which Italian farmers continued to work land under the aegis of the parastatal Italian National Social Security Institute. The analysis demonstrates that the fascist colonial project in Libya aimed to sedentarize not only rebellious Libyan pastoralists but also the restless Italian agrarians who formed the backbone of Italian mass emigration overseas. In placing families in planned rural settlements in Libya, the Institute and Italian state officials struggled to circumscribe the mobilities of these colonists. Even after 1945 and fascism's end, settlers possessed little freedom of movement, as demonstrated by the frequent obstacles to repatriation to Italy. Examining settlers' experiences reveals the complexity of the ‘long decolonization’ of Italian Libya, as well as how mobility became a key site of contest under fascism and beyond.
Quelle: http://jch.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/51/4/813?rss=1
Hugh Trevor-Roper and the English Editions of Hitler’s Table Talk and Testament
This article examines the publication of the famous ‘Hitler’s Table Talk’ and ‘The Testament of Adolf Hitler’ as well as the role of British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper in this process, including his relationship with the Swiss banker Francois Genoud – the owner of the ‘original' manuscripts. The article is based on research utilizing Trevor-Roper's personal correspondence and papers; material that has never before been used to investigate this matter. Besides shedding light on many previously unknown details concerning the publication of these documents, the article shows how Trevor-Roper consistently failed to enlighten his readers about central source-critical problems connected to the documents he was validating. He did so on numerous occasions and through several editions of the sources, even though his personal correspondence shows that he was well aware of the problems. The article argues that Trevor-Roper chose not to reveal these problems in public so as not to upset his business relationship with Genoud so that he would gain access to further documents in Genoud's possession.
Quelle: http://jch.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/51/4/788?rss=1
The Limits of Hate: Japanese Prisoners on US Submarines during the Second World War
The Pacific War is frequently characterized as a ‘race war’ and a ‘war without mercy’. The experience of Japanese prisoners on American submarines, however, suggests that hatred could often quickly be overcome once combatants spent time in close proximity. The confined space of submarines made a degree of interaction between prisoners and captors unavoidable. Through a series of case studies, the evidence suggests that submariners sometimes contravened the Geneva Convention in extracting work and obtaining information from prisoners. On the other hand, it appears that relations between prisoners and captors were for the most part amicable and at times mutually supportive. Although these relationships were manifestly unequal, occasionally prisoners exercised a degree of influence over submariners’ fates.
Quelle: http://jch.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/51/4/738?rss=1