History

This is a history of how the Corfiote Jews created a regional commercial and cultural network in the Adriatic during the nineteenth century. The protagonists are merchants, publishers and rabbis who lived in Corfu and had created intimate ties with Corfiote and non-Corfiote Jews, Muslims, Catholics and Christian Orthodox peoples in Padua, Scutari, and Trieste. Through continued interactions in the nineteenth century Adriatic, circulating discourses, commodities and peoples created a distinct Jewish space, which was regional. The analysis of diverse networks shows that the nineteenth century Adriatic in many ways was a post-Venetian space. Polycentric connections that most often are associated with the early modern period also hold true for the nineteenth century and regional mobility remained key in the upholding of the diverse networks Corfiote Jews forged. Chapter one focuses on Jewish Publishing networks centered around Corfu, Padua, and Trieste between 1860-1880. The chapter argues that Corfiote Jewish newspapers did not support unification with Greece until very late. After unification, Corfiote publishers created a publishing network that centered around the Collegio Rabbinico in Padua and Corfiote Jewish merchant enclaves in Austrian Trieste and Alexandria, Egypt. Even after unification with Greece in 1864, Corfiote Jewish publishing forged not only national but also regional identities by cultivating a transnational Corfiote reading public. The second chapter moves to commodities and looks at the ways in which the soap trade was executed. Using private merchant correspondences between the soap merchant family Coen of Corfu and various merchants in Scutari, Albania, I examine the legal and extra-legal means that were used to settle trade disputes and the ways in which those merchants navigated shifting imperial borders. The chapter argues that the Jews of Corfu drew on different legal and extra-legal mechanisms to pursue their trade relationships, challenging our understanding of how legal institutions functioned in the nineteenth-century Mediterranean. Secondly, they creatively used different ports to circumnavigate shifting trade regulations. Chapter three looks at the Etrog trade network, which was reactivated on a yearly basis. The Etrog was both a sacred fruit and a profitable commodity as it passed from Ottoman Christian growers to Italian Jewish merchants, Habsburg rabbis and finally Ashkenazi consumers on its way from its place of production in mainland Ottoman Greece to its places of consumption in Northern and Central Europe during the long nineteenth century. Crossing different empires, I link the Mediterranean to its hinterland and show the diverse interests different actors had in its trade and examine how conflict in these trade relationships was arbitrated in court. Chapter four explores how Corfiote merchants abroad used philanthropy to maintain ties to Corfu. These ties collapsed in the wake of the Blood Libel of 1891 when thousands left the island to resettle in Manchester, Paris and Alexandria, a shift that strained the resources of the already existing Corfiote diaspora communities. The chapter argues that there was nothing " Jewish " about the merchant Philanthropy, but that it was part of a broader merchant diaspora philanthropic setting.

This Master's dissertation examines the rise of violence and hate-speech against Germans in British Boys' literature published from 1914-1918. It notes that as the totalization of the First World War increased, the creative output by boys' authors followed suite. Authors’ imagination of what war was, and crucially, what it should be, changed radically from a "sporting" contest between gentlemen towards a struggle to exterminate Germans as a people or as a culture. This change in thinking is evidence of just how traumatic totalized war could be on a society.

Diplomacy, Diversity, and Dollars: How the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement Shaped International Student Policy at Indiana University, 1950-1970.
During these decades, Indiana University transformed itself into a cosmopolitan hub: International student population increased and diversified significantly. This short paper demonstrates how the political and geopolitical situation - at home and globally -  shaped international student policy and experiences at Indiana University.

Link:
http://blogs.iu.edu/bicentennialblogs/2018/08/20/diplomacy-diversity-and-dollars-how-the-cold-war-and-the-civil-rights-movement-shaped-international-student-policy-at-indiana-university-1950-1970/

The Herero and the Nama Seek Reparations: What Do Historians Have to Say about the Genocide?

Since the 1990s there has been a virtual academic consensus that a genocide was perpetuated by Germany during the Herero and Nama War. But the question of responsibility and continuity are still being debated.

In the last two decades, the Herero and the Nama have sought justice, recognition and reparations from the German government for the genocide they endured at the beginning of the 20th century. Recently, they have taken their struggle to an American court, which started hearing their case a few weeks ago. The German government officially referred to the 1904-1907 events as a “genocide” only recently (in 2016) and still refrains from dealing with who was responsibility and rejects calls for reparation. Instead, Germany has attempted reconciliation through other channels, such as providing aid to the Namibian government and returning victim remains that were stored in Germany after the genocide.

The historiography of German colonialism and Namibian history has witnessed fierce debate regarding the events that took place in Southwest African between 1904-1907. Still today, some historical questions remain. This short essay will try to identify the main debated issues of this genocide and will highlight the most important ideas of the historians who have researched this subject.
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https://thesocietypages.org/holocaust-genocide/the-herero-and-the-nama-seek-reparations-what-do-historians-have-to-say-about-the-genocide/?fbclid=IwAR1a2sXeUpAr2hEBw0htfM4mpd5Lc2YV_RePa0qc48vB76xvC8kbqC7yQbk

German settlers colonizing South West Africa developed specific attitudes towards violence as a result of experiencing the Herero and Nama War (1904–1907). Through analyzing settler discourse at that time period, this article suggests that the war significantly contributed to the development of a distinct settler identity that was gradually growing apart from the German metropole. Settlers increasingly sought
transnational examples of racial regimes for South West Africa, noting that their local conflict was part of a global racial struggle. Policies pursued in other, non-German settler societies became more attractive in light of the destructive German military policy and the disparities between settlers and metropole during the war. The war's goal, in the settler view, was to establish a stable oppressive and coercive structure
which supported the permanent exploitation of Africans for economic, social and political gain. Therefore, they rejected both the eliminatory violence and the ‘humanitarian’ policies promoted by non-settler actors. To this end, settlers demanded the privilege of using domestic and labor-related violence independently, but also condemned violent behavior of European new-comers.

The Muslim conquest of Constantinople was seen in various apocalyptic traditions as one of the portents of the end. An Ottoman mystic, Ahmed Bî-cân, gave voice to these apocalyptic fears and expectations soon after the Ottoman conquest in 1453 CE. His apocalyptic narrative, expressed in the Turkish vernacular, placed the Ottoman enterprise within the final tribulations and hailed the sultan, Mehmed II, as an apocalyptic warrior. This endorsement heralded the emergence of a new imperial ideology in the sixteenth century: Ottoman history became an important component of universal history, while Ottoman sultans were attributed cosmic responsibilities and messianic abilities.