Samuel Foster | University of Exeter (original) (raw)

Videos by Samuel Foster

Samuel Foster sits down with Vladislav Lilic, academic interviewer for New Books Network, to disc... more Samuel Foster sits down with Vladislav Lilic, academic interviewer for New Books Network, to discuss his academic monograph 'Yugoslavia in the British Imagination: Peace, War and Peasants before Tito', first published by Bloomsbury Academic in June 2021.

This recording was originally released through New Books Network's official website on Tuesday 27th September 2021:

https://newbooksnetwork.com/yugoslavia-in-the-british-imagination

31 views

Talks by Samuel Foster

SSEES Study of Central Europe Seminar , 2022

Over seventy years after his death, the historian and political activist R.W. Seton-Watson (1879-... more Over seventy years after his death, the historian and political activist R.W. Seton-Watson (1879-1951) remains a divisive figure. Having written extensively on ethnic tensions in Austria-Hungary since 1906, he gradually established a reputation as Britain’s leading authority on Central and Eastern European affairs and advocate for the rights of ‘small nations’. The First World War saw him channel these energies into anti-Habsburg secessionist causes, specifically the Czechoslovak and Yugoslavian movements. This has subsequently seen him characterized as a political ‘dilettante’ and unwitting pawn of regional nationalists, or a partisan non-state actor who leveraged his connections and influence to shape British policy in favour of his preferred national groups. This session seeks to readdress these assertions by situating the figure of Seton-Watson within the domestic context of early-twentieth century Britain and the cultural vagaries of ‘British identity’. Besides genuine belief in a humanitarian rationale for Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, Seton-Watsons’ views converged with his vision of Britain as arbiter of a reconstituted Liberal European order. However, these efforts to formulate a doctrine of ‘popular internationalism’, rooted in the political and cultural impact of the Great War, proved unsustainable in its reliance on an ever-fickle British ‘public opinion’.

Mentioned in Dispatches (Podcast), 2019

An episode of a podcast on all aspects of the Great War. Produced and edited by Dr Tom Thorpe fro... more An episode of a podcast on all aspects of the Great War. Produced and edited by Dr Tom Thorpe from The Western Front Association (United Kingdom).

Dr Thorpe invited me onto the podcast to talk about the history and role played by the kingdom of Serbia during the First World War. The interview took place in August 2019 and was uploaded on 16th September. This talk is intended for a non-specialist audience (see link).

Book Reviews by Samuel Foster

Eurasian Geography and Economics , 2021

Europe-Asia Studies, 2021

Europe-Asia Studies, 2020

European History Quarterly, 2020

European History Quarterly , 2019

European History Quarterly, 2019

reader sharp, precise analyses of the people he is meeting, the context in which he is operating,... more reader sharp, precise analyses of the people he is meeting, the context in which he is operating, and the impact certain events would have. Perhaps one of the most interesting moments in the book is Doyle's account of a meeting with Milosˇevicá fter he was reassigned to Belgrade in June 1992. Reflecting on the meeting, Doyle notes that:

European History Quarterly, 2018

232 pp., 2 b/w illus.; 9781138749993, £115.00 (hbk); 9781315180076, £35.99 (ebook) Reviewed by: S... more 232 pp., 2 b/w illus.; 9781138749993, £115.00 (hbk); 9781315180076, £35.99 (ebook) Reviewed by: Samuel Foster, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK As the late Keith Jeffery recently observed, the Easter Rising in Dublin against British control of Ireland, which would subsequently lead to the Irish War of Independence, 'was far from being the only rebellion against imperial rule in 1916' (3). However, scholarship continues to frame the Rising strictly within the domestic context of Irish national history as a romantic failure, often echoing contemporary depictions in British propaganda. This recently edited volume seeks to address this lacuna by internationalizing the events of 1916, challenging historical preconceptions that Russia in 1917 offered the definitive model for revolutionary politics and anti-imperialism in the twentieth century.

European History Quarterly, 2018

representations of the enemies. Although these images tended to be vague, distant and imagined fo... more representations of the enemies. Although these images tended to be vague, distant and imagined foes could be more fleshed out; in Sweden, this was the case with the Ottomans, who get to illustrate the construction of adversaries in the seventeenth century, alongside opponents of the French crown. Forssberg subsequently considers the French and Swedish annus horribilis of 1709 and how it affected the story of war and the royal communication with the populace. The section summary underscores the national variances in the martial master narrative corresponding to disparate belief systems and political arrangements.

European History Quarterly, 2017

European History Quarterly, 2016

Foreign Affairs and also in the domestic sphere, such as within the Ministry of Internal Affairs.... more Foreign Affairs and also in the domestic sphere, such as within the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Curiously, it was clever and wholly reactionary ministers such as Petr Durnovo that proved to be both the most far-sighted about the coming cataclysm of European war and also the least dangerous threats to European stability; conversely, it was when Russia's rulers desired to exploit more modern ideas about harnessing public opinion and manipulating the tensions associated with state-building that key mistakes were made in the run up to war. In the final chapter of the book, Lieven discounts the idea that Russia's mobilization meant that the nation was largely to blame for what happened in the middle of 1914, in contrast to other recent scholarship. Outside of the very detailed chapters on the crises of 1914 and the decision makers, the work can feel somewhat fragmentary in its approach as it takes into account a number of very diverse areas; this is not, however, a problem, as the work is overall a very skilful analysis of the final few decades of late imperial Russia. It touches on points of interest for many specialists as well as those interested in European history on a more general level and should appeal to a very wide readership. James Lyon, Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914: The Outbreak of the Great War, Bloomsbury: London, 2015; 328 pp.; 9781472580030, £65.00 (hbk) Reviewed by: Samuel Foster, University of East Anglia, UK

Samuel Foster sits down with Vladislav Lilic, academic interviewer for New Books Network, to disc... more Samuel Foster sits down with Vladislav Lilic, academic interviewer for New Books Network, to discuss his academic monograph 'Yugoslavia in the British Imagination: Peace, War and Peasants before Tito', first published by Bloomsbury Academic in June 2021.

This recording was originally released through New Books Network's official website on Tuesday 27th September 2021:

https://newbooksnetwork.com/yugoslavia-in-the-british-imagination

31 views

SSEES Study of Central Europe Seminar , 2022

Over seventy years after his death, the historian and political activist R.W. Seton-Watson (1879-... more Over seventy years after his death, the historian and political activist R.W. Seton-Watson (1879-1951) remains a divisive figure. Having written extensively on ethnic tensions in Austria-Hungary since 1906, he gradually established a reputation as Britain’s leading authority on Central and Eastern European affairs and advocate for the rights of ‘small nations’. The First World War saw him channel these energies into anti-Habsburg secessionist causes, specifically the Czechoslovak and Yugoslavian movements. This has subsequently seen him characterized as a political ‘dilettante’ and unwitting pawn of regional nationalists, or a partisan non-state actor who leveraged his connections and influence to shape British policy in favour of his preferred national groups. This session seeks to readdress these assertions by situating the figure of Seton-Watson within the domestic context of early-twentieth century Britain and the cultural vagaries of ‘British identity’. Besides genuine belief in a humanitarian rationale for Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, Seton-Watsons’ views converged with his vision of Britain as arbiter of a reconstituted Liberal European order. However, these efforts to formulate a doctrine of ‘popular internationalism’, rooted in the political and cultural impact of the Great War, proved unsustainable in its reliance on an ever-fickle British ‘public opinion’.

Mentioned in Dispatches (Podcast), 2019

An episode of a podcast on all aspects of the Great War. Produced and edited by Dr Tom Thorpe fro... more An episode of a podcast on all aspects of the Great War. Produced and edited by Dr Tom Thorpe from The Western Front Association (United Kingdom).

Dr Thorpe invited me onto the podcast to talk about the history and role played by the kingdom of Serbia during the First World War. The interview took place in August 2019 and was uploaded on 16th September. This talk is intended for a non-specialist audience (see link).

Eurasian Geography and Economics , 2021

Europe-Asia Studies, 2021

Europe-Asia Studies, 2020

European History Quarterly, 2020

European History Quarterly , 2019

European History Quarterly, 2019

reader sharp, precise analyses of the people he is meeting, the context in which he is operating,... more reader sharp, precise analyses of the people he is meeting, the context in which he is operating, and the impact certain events would have. Perhaps one of the most interesting moments in the book is Doyle's account of a meeting with Milosˇevicá fter he was reassigned to Belgrade in June 1992. Reflecting on the meeting, Doyle notes that:

European History Quarterly, 2018

232 pp., 2 b/w illus.; 9781138749993, £115.00 (hbk); 9781315180076, £35.99 (ebook) Reviewed by: S... more 232 pp., 2 b/w illus.; 9781138749993, £115.00 (hbk); 9781315180076, £35.99 (ebook) Reviewed by: Samuel Foster, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK As the late Keith Jeffery recently observed, the Easter Rising in Dublin against British control of Ireland, which would subsequently lead to the Irish War of Independence, 'was far from being the only rebellion against imperial rule in 1916' (3). However, scholarship continues to frame the Rising strictly within the domestic context of Irish national history as a romantic failure, often echoing contemporary depictions in British propaganda. This recently edited volume seeks to address this lacuna by internationalizing the events of 1916, challenging historical preconceptions that Russia in 1917 offered the definitive model for revolutionary politics and anti-imperialism in the twentieth century.

European History Quarterly, 2018

representations of the enemies. Although these images tended to be vague, distant and imagined fo... more representations of the enemies. Although these images tended to be vague, distant and imagined foes could be more fleshed out; in Sweden, this was the case with the Ottomans, who get to illustrate the construction of adversaries in the seventeenth century, alongside opponents of the French crown. Forssberg subsequently considers the French and Swedish annus horribilis of 1709 and how it affected the story of war and the royal communication with the populace. The section summary underscores the national variances in the martial master narrative corresponding to disparate belief systems and political arrangements.

European History Quarterly, 2017

European History Quarterly, 2016

Foreign Affairs and also in the domestic sphere, such as within the Ministry of Internal Affairs.... more Foreign Affairs and also in the domestic sphere, such as within the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Curiously, it was clever and wholly reactionary ministers such as Petr Durnovo that proved to be both the most far-sighted about the coming cataclysm of European war and also the least dangerous threats to European stability; conversely, it was when Russia's rulers desired to exploit more modern ideas about harnessing public opinion and manipulating the tensions associated with state-building that key mistakes were made in the run up to war. In the final chapter of the book, Lieven discounts the idea that Russia's mobilization meant that the nation was largely to blame for what happened in the middle of 1914, in contrast to other recent scholarship. Outside of the very detailed chapters on the crises of 1914 and the decision makers, the work can feel somewhat fragmentary in its approach as it takes into account a number of very diverse areas; this is not, however, a problem, as the work is overall a very skilful analysis of the final few decades of late imperial Russia. It touches on points of interest for many specialists as well as those interested in European history on a more general level and should appeal to a very wide readership. James Lyon, Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914: The Outbreak of the Great War, Bloomsbury: London, 2015; 328 pp.; 9781472580030, £65.00 (hbk) Reviewed by: Samuel Foster, University of East Anglia, UK

European History Quarterly, 2017

European History Quarterly , Jan 2015

Slavonica , 2016

Every student interested in the long relationship between Britain and Russia knows the story of R... more Every student interested in the long relationship between Britain and Russia knows the story of Richard Chancellor's 'discovery' of Muscovy in 1553. In the years that followed, numerous other British ambassadors and merchants followed in Chancellor's footsteps. A number of them, like Anthony Jenkinson and Giles Fletcher, subsequently wrote accounts of their travels, more often than not telling stories of a frozen world governed by a 'plaine tyranicall' ruler, whose uncouth subjects looked with deep suspicion on travellers from the outside world. A particular kind of Cold War historian, seeking to put his work within the longue durée, can have a field day with the descriptions found in the writings of early British visitors to Moscow.

European History Quarterly (Vo.43, No.2), Apr 2013

Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe , 2024

This short introduction provides an overview for the first part of the special issue of 'Minoriti... more This short introduction provides an overview for the first part of the special issue of 'Minorities at War'. The issue's overarching theme explores how periods of conflict influenced the relationship between minority groups in Central and Eastern Europe and their respective host states during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The articles featured are based on contributions originally presented at the BASEES Study Group for Minority History's

Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, 2023

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Aegean port of Thessaloniki was recognised as a gl... more At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Aegean port of Thessaloniki was recognised as a global centre of Jewish cultural, spiritual and economic life. However, the increasingly turbulent political climate within the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled over the city since 1430, began to disrupt this unique social dynamic. In November 1912, following the First Balkan War, Thessaloniki's sovereignty was ceded to the neighbouring Kingdom of Greece. The subsequent Great Fire of August 1917 left much of the historic city centre in ruins, accelerating the prewar decline of its Jewish presence. While earlier debates have tended to codify Thessaloniki's Jews in this period as a homogenised 'ethnic' minority, such an approach has been criticised for privileging the perspective of the elites. This article builds upon this reassessment by considering how these wider historical developments impacted Thessaloniki's Jewish working class as an emerging 'social' minority. Key to this was the Young Turk Revolution in July 1908, which precipitated a gradual politicising of the city's poorer residents through a heightening awareness of their economic status. Despite lacking a modern industrial base, such a shift was revealing of Thessaloniki's rapid integration into a transnational European milieu increasingly defined by socioeconomic class.

Works in Slavic Studies/Славістична збірка, 2018

Socialist History, 2018

This article explores how the Southern Slavs, decried as Völkerabfälle by Engels in 1849, managed... more This article explores how the Southern Slavs, decried as Völkerabfälle by Engels in 1849, managed nevertheless to develop a distinctively social­ist movement and culture of their own, particularly from 1903 to 1914, capable of both challenging and shaping politics in the Balkans. Although heavily influenced by Marxist theoretical currents and external ideas such as Austro-Marxism, the formation of this South Slavonic Left was rooted in the social and historic contexts of its adherents’ respective homelands. Limited industrialisation, coupled with the rise of rival political move­ments such as nationalism and peasant agrarianism, prompted many on the Left to turn to the region’s early socialist heritage, specifically the phi­losopher Svetozar Markovic’s concept of Balkan Federalism. As well as providing a means by which the region could begin to modernise through closer economic and political cooperation, the perceived threat of Austro-Hungarian and Italian expansionist ambitions legitimised the left-wing belief that a Balkan Federation was now essential to the future preser­vation of regional identity and political freedoms. Consequently, the creation of the first Yugoslavian state in December 1918 was welcomed as the first step to fulfilling these goals.

University of Sussex Journal of Contemporary History , 2013

This paper examines the British presence on the First World War’s Balkan Front in the British pop... more This paper examines the British presence on the First World War’s Balkan Front in the British popular imagination with a particular focus on the lesser-known woman humanitarian Doctor Katherine Stuart MacPhail. Allied military inertia from 1915 to 1918 led to the British presence in the Balkan theatre being mainly associated through the large number of medical aid volunteers, the majority of whom were women, defining it through a civilian rather than military paradigm. Having been unable to secure a career within the medical establishment of her native Glasgow, Dr MacPhail served as a volunteer doctor in both the Balkans and France during the war. Her
experiences of living and working amongst the peasants of Serbia and Macedonia inspired her to remain in the region following the armistice in the newly created Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Amongst her achievements was the establishment of Serbia’s first children’s hospital in 1919. Whilst the example of MacPhail was not typical of the average medical volunteer, it represented a broader trend of record. Unlike many of her contemporaries she did not leave any precise record detailing her own views or ambitions. In Britain her name and mention of her work tended to reach
wider attention only through the accounts of her more high-profile contemporaries. However it serves as a prime illustration of a unique historical episode in Anglo-Balkan cultural contact in which issues of gender, the changing role of humanitarianism in war and wider public investment within an Allied campaign primarily viewed as pointless, coalesced. It also reflected the limitations such an extraordinary yet brief historical context imposed on this equally extraordinary situation illustrated by the sudden change in MacPhail’s own fortunes following the war’s conclusion.

Samuel Foster examines the varying currency of albums containing 'visual evidence' of the history... more Samuel Foster examines the varying currency of albums containing 'visual evidence' of the history of the South Balkans.

Socialist History (Special Issue)

History has always played a crucial role in the making of the modern left, both in Britain and ar... more History has always played a crucial role in the making of the modern left, both in Britain and around the world, providing a vital tool for theoretical rationale, social critique and direct action. Whilst offering an important source of intellectual stimulus, it has equally been the cause of hot debate, controversy and division, never more so than during the twentieth century. Over the course of those ten tumultuous decades, history became the ground upon which the left struggled to define and redefine itself in response to dramatically changing times. Critique was, and continues to be, all-encompassing, from debates on historical interpretation, method, pedagogy and application, to questions addressing the very nature – or possibility – of historical knowledge itself.

This conference seeks to explore all aspects of the status and uses of history in modern left imagination.

We are seeking papers of 5000 to 10000 words to be presented at the conference. Conference themes may include, but are not limited to:

- History, Marxism and international socialism
- History, class and class consciousness
- History, philosophy and critical theory
- History, gender, race, sexuality
- History and (post)colonialism
- History and/as activism
- History, pedagogy and empowerment
- National and international histories
- Party histories
- History and the role of the historian as public intellectual

Proposals for papers and any enquiries should be submitted here. The deadline for submitting proposals is Friday 29 November 2019. We shall inform all applicants as to whether their proposals have been accepted as soon as possible after that date. The deadline for receiving completed papers from successful applicants will be Monday 3 February 2020. Selected papers will be published in a special issue of the journal Socialist History. Attendance at the conference for both presenters and audience will be free of charge, but we ask that anyone wishing to attend registers in advance.

Forthcoming 'National Identities' (special Issue), 2019

Among the many challenges facing the new, or enlarged, nation-states that arose on the territorie... more Among the many challenges facing the new, or enlarged, nation-states that arose on the territories of the former empires of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe in 1918, few were as vexing or complex as the ‘minorities question’. Across this mosaic of geopolitical boundaries, what the Czech philosopher Tomáš Masaryk emphatically termed ‘New Europe’, thousands of disparate communities suddenly discovered that they now existed as minorities, often in areas adjacent to their designated homelands. Historical scholarship typically characterises this as coming to fuel authoritarian repression and nationalist animosity. This conference presents an alternative perspective to these notions of inherent antagonism by exploring how interwar minorities strove to develop or preserve their respective sense of national or cultural identity through non-violent means. It also wishes to consider how the interwar period shaped and influenced the idea of minority rights as a legal and ideological concept among international bodies, such as the League of Nations, as well as its historical legacy.

The organisers invite paper proposals examining minority groups in the successor states of the former Habsburg, Ottoman and the western areas of the Russian Empires between the world wars. Local case-studies and papers exploring the subject of interwar minorities from a ‘bottom-up’ perspective are particularly encouraged. Key themes to consider include:

- local and community politics, especially before 1938
- the role of state, cultural or religious institutions in the development of minority
identities and processes of engagement
- the formation, or evolution, of international networks including diasporas and cross-
border connections
- education, sport and mass culture as vehicles for consolidating or expressing
identities
- relations between different minority groups and different types of inter-communal exchange

Blog Article for 'Refugee History', published on 22nd May 2017.

Review Article of 'Austro-Hungarian War Aims in the Balkans during World War I' by Marvin Benjami... more Review Article of 'Austro-Hungarian War Aims in the Balkans during World War I' by Marvin Benjamin Fried (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

Published in 'Journal of Genocide Research' Vol 18, Issue 4 (October 2016) [Special Issue: 'Ethnic homogenizing in southeastern Europe'], pp.503-513. With an author's response to the discussion, pp.515-517.

1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War

Included entries for 'Ante Trumbić', the 'Corfu Declaration', the 'Sarajevo Incident' and 'Propa... more Included entries for 'Ante Trumbić', the 'Corfu Declaration', the 'Sarajevo Incident' and 'Propaganda at Home and in Exile (South East Europe)'. Written and published between 2016 and 2018.

Since the dramatic disintegration of Socialist Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, key historical stud... more Since the dramatic disintegration of Socialist Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, key historical studies contest that, through a proliferation of pejorative cultural and political stereotypes, the wider Balkans region emerged in Western discourses as the inferior peripheral of an enlightened Europe. Such an approach presents this as a linear process with negative regional archetypes emerging in the nineteenth century and evolving in parallel to a, supposedly, fixed European ideal. This essay offers a counterpoint to this perspective by exploring the complex interplay between the changing understanding of European civilisation among its western nations, particularly Britain and France, before the First World War and popular representations of the South Slavonic Balkan territories which formed Yugoslavia in 1918. Beginning in the late 1880s, west European intellectual discourses were permeated by cultural pessimism and latent anxieties concerning the ‘degenerative’ socioeconomic consequences of industrial urbanisation. By 1914, Europe’s global pre-eminence was perceived as having originated in Western civic and moral qualities, rather than industrial and scientific advancements. Concurrently, the philosophical reconfiguration of the European ideal redefined the subjective meaning behind many of the archetypes which characterised representations of the South Slavonic Balkans and engendered positive revaluations of regional culture, with a romanticised emphasis on its largely peasant population. Western European commentators even wrote of South Slavonic rural traditions as a spiritual palliative to the feared ‘decline’ of modern civilisation, often drawing on prevailing domestic concerns than cultural prejudices. The changing status of the South Slavonic Balkans as an inflection of a reimagined European idea, also found allegorical resonance in the region’s rising political instability; Balkan nationalist violence was itself interpreted as an expression of civilisation’s wider slide into a modernistic form of degeneracy: an insidious trend that the Western European, according to many of its intellectual standard-bearers ideal, was morally obligated to confront.

'Macedonia 2013: 100 Years after the Treaty of Bucharest' (Edited by Natasha Garrett), 2017

The early twentieth century saw a resurgence of cultural and political interest in the Ottoman Em... more The early twentieth century saw a resurgence of cultural and political interest in the Ottoman Empire's Balkan territorial holdings among Britain's political and intellectual elites, and to a lesser extent the wider general public. Rising nationalist violence and growing unrest in the Empire's 'Macedonian vilayets' quickly came to dominate this discourse while colouring popular perceptions of south-eastern Europe in general. Nevertheless, in contrast to previous waves of interest, this was caveated by a range of political and humanitarian concerns. This chapter explores how these intersecting factors influenced these emerging perspectives in Britain with the so-called 'Macedonian Question' increasingly serving as their cause célèbre. The Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 would ultimately bring these developments to a head.

Yugoslavia in the British Imagination: Peace, War and Peasants before Tito, 2021

The final set of proofs for my forthcoming monograph, 'Yugoslavia in the British Imagination: Pea... more The final set of proofs for my forthcoming monograph, 'Yugoslavia in the British Imagination: Peace, War and Peasants before Tito', have now been confirmed. The book will be published this June in ebook format followed by the hardback version in July.

To pre-order a copy, please follow the link below.

Despite Britain entering the 20th century as the dominant world power, public discourses were imb... more Despite Britain entering the 20th century as the dominant world power, public discourses were imbued with a cultural pessimism and rising social anxiety. Through this study, Samuel Foster explores how this changing domestic climate shaped perceptions of other cultures, and Britain's relationship to them, focusing on those Balkan territories that formed the first Yugoslavia from 1918 to 1941.

Yugoslavia in the British Imagination examines these connections and demonstrates how the popular image of the region's peasantry evolved from that of foreign 'Other' to historical victim - suffering at the hand of modernity's worst excesses and symbolizing Britain's perceived decline. This coincided with an emerging moralistic sense of British identity that manifested during the First World War. Consequently, Yugoslavia was legitimized as the solution to peasant victimization and, as Foster's nuanced analysis reveals, enabling Britain's imagined (and self-promoted) revival as civilization's moral arbiter.

Drawing on a range of previously unexplored archival sources, this compelling transnational analysis is an important contribution to the study of British social history and the nature of statehood in the modern Balkans.

Forthcoming Bloomsbury Academic (2021)

This study explores the link between perceptions of British identity in the early twentieth centu... more This study explores the link between perceptions of British identity in the early twentieth century and representations of foreign cultures, focusing on the South Slavic peasant communities of the Balkan territories which formed the first Yugoslavia in December 1918. Utilising a range of source materials, including archival documents, memoirs, press articles and scientific literature, it presents an original perspective on Anglo-Balkan engagement – in the specific historical context of Yugoslavia’s creation as opposed to the region in general – from a social, rather than political, dimension. Furthermore, it challenges previous historical interpretations of this period as representing merely the conclusion of a ‘long-nineteenth’ or the beginning of a ‘short-twentieth’ century process of ‘othering’. In doing so, it contributes to the study of Western engagement with southeastern Europe before the Second World War.

Despite Britain entering the twentieth century as the dominant world power, public discourse became imbued with distinct cultural pessimism, stemming from a range of social anxieties surrounding the future of British identity, which increasingly undermined nineteenth-century ideals of modernity and progress. By the 1910s, these latent anxieties had even permeated into elite, supposedly unrelated, debates on the contemporary Balkans, recalibrating the image of the South Slavic peasantry as an allegory for Britain’s perceived ‘decline’. Reactions to regional violence signalled this shift, forging a metanarrative of peasant victimhood in the face of modernity’s worst excesses yet also feeding into the emerging notion that Britain had a moral duty to resist such forces. The deployment of thousands of British military and civilian personnel in the Balkans, compounded by a vigorous domestic propaganda campaign, saw this process reach its apotheosis in the First World War: Yugoslavia’s creation was legitimised as the solution to peasant victimisation and became integral to Britain’s imagined revival as civilisation’s moral arbiter.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, surveys by the British Medical Association and other organisations ... more During the Covid-19 pandemic, surveys by the British Medical Association and other organisations reported that persons from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds have suffered disproportionately, both in health and economic terms. While it is too early to draw conclusions regarding the reasons and outcomes of these inequalities, this symposium wishes to explore historical parallels in which minority groups were similarly affected by sudden or prolonged periods of crisis. The organisers wish to bring together scholars to discuss the experiences of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe’s minorities in times of historical disaster, natural and man-made, and the responses these engendered such as the provision of relief and medical aid or maintaining law and order.

British Association of Slavonic East European Studies, Newsletter , 2019

Report on the academic conference 'Contested Minorities in the ‘New Europe’: National Identities ... more Report on the academic conference 'Contested Minorities in the ‘New Europe’: National Identities from the Baltics to the Balkans, 1918-1939', held at Birkbeck, University of London, 1-2 June 2019.

This study explores the link between perceptions of British identity in the early twentieth centu... more This study explores the link between perceptions of British identity in the early twentieth century and representations of foreign cultures, focusing on the South Slavonic peasant communities of the Balkan territories which formed the first Yugoslavia in December 1918. Utilising a range of source materials, including archival documents, memoirs, press articles and scientific literature, it presents an original perspective on Anglo-Balkan engagement – in the specific historical context of Yugoslavia’s creation as opposed to the region in general – from a social, rather than political, dimension. Furthermore, it challenges previous historical interpretations of this period as representing merely the conclusion of a ‘long-nineteenth’ or the beginning of a ‘short-twentieth’ century process of ‘othering’. In doing so, it contributes to the study of Western engagement with southeastern Europe before the Second World War. Despite Britain entering the twentieth century as the dominant world...

This article explores how the Southern Slavs, decried as Volkerabfalle by Engels in 1849, managed... more This article explores how the Southern Slavs, decried as Volkerabfalle by Engels in 1849, managed nevertheless to develop a distinctively social­ist movement and culture of their own, particularly from 1903 to 1914, capable of both challenging and shaping politics in the Balkans. Although heavily influenced by Marxist theoretical currents and external ideas such as Austro-Marxism, the formation of this South Slavonic Left was rooted in the social and historic contexts of its adherents’ respective homelands. Limited industrialisation, coupled with the rise of rival political movements such as nationalism and peasant agrarianism, prompted many on the Left to turn to the region’s early socialist heritage, specifically the philosopher Svetozar Markovic’s concept of Balkan Federalism. As well as providing a means by which the region could begin to modernise through closer economic and political cooperation, the perceived threat of Austro-Hungarian and Italian expansionist ambitions legit...

war-aims-in-the-balkans-during-world-war-i-m fried/?isb=9781137359001 Place of Publication: Basin... more war-aims-in-the-balkans-during-world-war-i-m fried/?isb=9781137359001 Place of Publication: Basingstoke Reviewer: Mesut Uyar 'Shackled to a corpse' is a quote widely attributed to General Erich von Ludendorff, which allegedly describes the alliance between Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although Ludendorff complains bitterly in his memoir that the Austro-Hungarians were a continuous 'drain on German blood and German war industries' throughout the war (1), he probably never used this exact form of words. However, it has stuck to the Empire in such way that it not only became the title of an episode of the BBC's highly successful The First World War documentary series, but also the general epitaph of Austria-Hungary's war effort until recent times.(2) Therefore it is no great wonder that current literature often limits its coverage of Austro-Hungarian involvement to the outbreak of the war, military blunders and its disintegration at the end. The Austro-Hungarian Empire has not been treated kindly by historians, but a new generation has now begun to redress the balance. Dr. Marvin Benjamin Fried's book is one of the most successful examples of this new trend. There has long been a need for a work of scholarly synthesis on the war aims and strategy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Fried effectively and engagingly fills this void, arguing that the Empire's principal military, political and economic objectives lay in the Balkans and that therefore until the end of 1917 it aimed to dominate this region.

National Identities, 2021

ABSTRACT Among the many challenges facing the new, or enlarged, nation-states that arose on the t... more ABSTRACT Among the many challenges facing the new, or enlarged, nation-states that arose on the territories of the former empires of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe in 1918, few were as vexing or complex as the so-called ‘minorities question’. Thousands of disparate communities suddenly discovered that they now existed as minorities, often in areas adjacent to their designated homelands. As an introduction to this special issues, this article provides an overview of the key concepts and historical debates surrounding the interwar regional minorities question. It also seeks to challenge underlying assumptions that characterise such communities as perpetual victims of nationalist animosity.

Eurasian Geography and Economics, 2022

This article explores the nature of propaganda in those South East European states and territorie... more This article explores the nature of propaganda in those South East European states and territories that participated in the First World War, specifically Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, along with Yugoslav separatists from the Austria-Hungary’s South Slavonic territories. During this period, propaganda essentially represented a continuation of pre-existing ideological narratives, often centred on vague, patriotic shared notions of ethno-national unity through territorial aggrandizement or secession. However, the widely differing war aims among regional parties resulted in these narratives becoming increasingly dominated by the war’s more immediate political contexts or specific domestic concerns. This growing divergence was accentuated by the diversity of wartime experiences, such as foreign occupation or internal division, among the belligerents. Nevertheless, a number of thematic similarities existed around narratives such as honour, sacrifice, and national defence.

European History Quarterly

Forthcoming 'National Identities' (special Issue), 2019

Among the many challenges facing the new, or enlarged, nation-states that arose on the territorie... more Among the many challenges facing the new, or enlarged, nation-states that arose on the territories of the former empires of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe in 1918, few were as vexing or complex as the ‘minorities question’. Across this mosaic of geopolitical boundaries, what the Czech philosopher Tomáš Masaryk emphatically termed ‘New Europe’, thousands of disparate communities suddenly discovered that they now existed as minorities, often in areas adjacent to their designated homelands. Historical scholarship typically characterises this as coming to fuel authoritarian repression and nationalist animosity. This conference presents an alternative perspective to these notions of inherent antagonism by exploring how interwar minorities strove to develop or preserve their respective sense of national or cultural identity through non-violent means. It also wishes to consider how the interwar period shaped and influenced the idea of minority rights as a legal and ideological c...

History , 2024

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on June 28th 1914 will forever be rememb... more The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on June 28th 1914 will forever be remembered as one of the key turning points in twentieth-century world history.

In this episode of Historic Crimes Undone, we delve into how the assassination of the Archduke not only ignited World War I but also set in motion a series of events that transformed global politics, economies, and societies for the next century, laying the groundwork for modern history.

Episode 13, Tamara Scheer: Diversity and Language in the Austro-Hungarian Army (AUDIO ONLY) (inte... more Episode 13, Tamara Scheer: Diversity and Language in the Austro-Hungarian Army (AUDIO ONLY) (interviewer: Sam Foster)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8RzxnHA0XI

In this episode, Tamara Scheer, Lecturer in East European and Contemporary History at the University of Vienna, talks to us about ethnic and linguistic diversity in the Habsburg military in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Following Austria-Hungary's political formation in 1867, its broad ethnic diversity was recognised as key to its legal and institutional cohesion. Nowhere was this more pronounced than in the armed forces, which began implementing measures that could better reflect the linguistic diversity of its soldiers, particularly as the Empire's borders expanded southeastwards. However, such measures also highlighted persistent socio-political imbalances between the Dual Monarchy’s Austrian and Hungarian portions.

"Eastern Europe's Minorities in a Century of Change", a podcast series on the history of minorities and minority experiences in twentieth-century Central and Eastern Europe prepared by the BASEES Study Group for Minority History to mark the Institute for Historical Research’s centenary.

Eastern Europe's Minorities in a Century of Change, 2022

A conversation with Samuel Foster for "Eastern Europe's Minorities in a Century of Change", a pod... more A conversation with Samuel Foster for "Eastern Europe's Minorities in a Century of Change", a podcast series on the history of minorities and minority experiences in twentieth-century Central and Eastern Europe prepared by the BASEES Study Group for Minority History to mark the Institute for Historical Research’s centenary.