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Papers by John Paul Newman
Slavic Review, 2024
According to comparative data, suicide rates in Bohemia remained at a statistically high level in... more According to comparative data, suicide rates in Bohemia remained at a statistically high level in comparison to global-figures from the nineteenth-century until late in the twentieth, a matter of grave concern for successive political regimes. In the interwar-republic of Czechoslovakia, patriots were troubled that the high rates of suicide in Bohemia had failed to decline following the transition from the Habsburg empire into the new Czechoslovak state. The article uses sociological works to show how the problem of suicide was negotiated and rationalized in the context of the patriotic culture of the state. This involved eschewing the most compelling explanations of the problem in favor of those better adjusted to the political mood of the times, passing over immediate and apparent problems in favor of explanations that related suicide to the war years or the previous imperial experience. These rationalizations ultimately achieved few concrete solutions, but rather provided an interpretation of the ongoing problem that was compatible with the state-forming patriotism of the day.
On more than one occasion Otto von Bismarck said that the whole of the Balkans was not worth the ... more On more than one occasion Otto von Bismarck said that the whole of the Balkans was not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier. On this he was not vindicated by history: a conflict that began in the Balkans in summer 1914 would eventually cost Europe far more than that. Historians of the First World War can hardly afford to be as casually dismissive about this region as the Iron Chancellor. The Balkans were undoubtedly of lesser importance to the outcome of the war than the Western or even Eastern fronts, but they are nevertheless essential for understanding the ‘bigger picture’ of the First World War. The war in the Balkans has not been neglected by historians working on the region, but linguistic barriers have hampered its inclusion in historical discussions and debates about the First World War. For this reason the five titles reviewed in this
The Great War created a new social group throughout Europe: ex-servicemen. Mass conscription and ... more The Great War created a new social group throughout Europe: ex-servicemen. Mass conscription and total warfare led to a vast number of combatants returning from the various battlefields. Unlike previous wars and times – and in what turned out to be a long-term legacy of the First World War – veterans emerged as a distinct group, defined by a construction of war commemoration and identity, as well as by their legal demands and rights. The destructive capacity of the First World War and the divisive legacies the conflict left throughout Europe and the wider world are not in doubt. Quite rightly, historians have written at great length about the twentieth century’s ‘seminal catastrophe’ (George F. Keenan) and the tense ‘twenty year armistice’ (Ferdinand Foch) left in its wake. But, in charting a course directly from the First World War to the Second World War, historians are at risk of neglecting equally important ‘positive’ legacies left by the conflict. Zara Steiner’s ground-breaking...
Austrian History Yearbook, 2018
It is fitting that a story about charitable donations and their provenance should begin with a ge... more It is fitting that a story about charitable donations and their provenance should begin with a gesture of gift giving. In 1849 a group of Habsburg subjects came together with the intention of raising money to purchase a gift for Josip Jelačić, general of the Habsburg army and Ban (Governor) of Civil Croatia. Jelačić was identified as one of the notional “saviors” of the Habsburg Empire, whose actions in the field had helped quell the revolutionary and military perils of the previous months. The proposed gift was a suitable symbol of imperial honor and military prowess: a ceremonial sabre designed especially for the Ban. Jelačić was apparently moved by the gesture but had a more practical idea: better to use the money raised for his gift to help those less fortunate (and less celebrated) than himself, it should be put toward a fund to support soldiers who had served in his units and militias and who had been injured in fighting—and also to the families of those that had been killed. ...
Contemporary European History, 2010
This special issue deals with the phenomenon of the emergence of radical violence in what might b... more This special issue deals with the phenomenon of the emergence of radical violence in what might be called ‘shatter zones’ of empires after the end of the First World War. It argues that the emergence of violence was due to the absence of functioning state control and facilitated by the effects of experiencing mass violence during the First World War. In the multi-ethnic regions of the former empires, the rising wave of nationalism directed this violent potential against ethnic and religious minorities.
Nationalities Papers, 2021
Our special issue discusses different perspectives on the important changes that took place in th... more Our special issue discusses different perspectives on the important changes that took place in the transition from empire to nation-state at the end of the First World War, focusing especially on transnational connections, structural and historical continuities, and marginal voices that have been fully or partially concealed by the emphasis on a radical national awakening in 1918. Specific articles broach topics such as the implications of 1918 on notions of gender and ethnicity, 1918 and the violence of the “Greater War,” and the legacies and memories of 1918 across the 20th century. Our approach treats the “New Europe” of 1918 as a largely coherent geopolitical and cultural space, one which can be studied in an interdisciplinary fashion. We contend that 1918 is not simply a clean break in which one epoch cleanly makes way for another, but rather it is an ambiguous and contradictory pivot, one which created an “Old-New Europe” caught between the forces of the imperial past and thos...
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.
Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict, 2022
The entry addresses the role of veterans of military service and conflict in political culture ac... more The entry addresses the role of veterans of military service and conflict in political culture across the globe, with an emphasis on the twentieth century and beyond. The historical transformation of modern military service from the French revolution onwards is presented as a pivotal moment in defining the social status of the veteran. Further sections look at the veterans most important relationships, with the state, with fellow veterans, with the civilian population Different types of political intervention and organisation on the part of veterans are considered. The entry concludes that while much attention has quite rightly been paid to veteran involvement in militant and often violent right-wing political mobilization, consideration should also be given to the many counterexamples of peaceable veteran politics.
The Great War and Veterans’ Internationalism, 2013
Contemporary European History, 19/3, 2010
This article looks at the transition of the Habsburg South Slav lands, in particular Croatia, fro... more This article looks at the transition of the Habsburg South Slav lands, in particular Croatia, from empire into (Yugoslav) nation-state from 1917 to 1923, and the violence which attended it. While this transition was less cataclysmic in the South Slav lands than in other parts of the former Habsburg Empire, patterns of paramilitary violence and counter-revolution similar to those elsewhere in Europe were also present here. The article looks at these patterns from a transnational perspective and shows that although state control was effectively restored in Croatia by 1923, paramilitary networks forged during 1917-23 would return as Yugoslavia faced greater external threats and internal disequilibrium in the 1930s. The Croatian author Miroslav Krleža wrote at the end of 1918 in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, of his surprise at the rapidity of the Dual Monarchy's demise: 'A few days ago Austria [sic] disappeared from our little town so nonchalantly that not one of our many dear, respectable fellow-townspeople noticed that, in fact, among us, Austria was no more.' 1 Certainly the fall of the house of Habsburg was less apocalyptic in the South Slav lands than in Austria itself, and post-imperial Croatia did not convulse in revolution and violent counter-revolution as did Hungary. But neither was the transition out of Austria-Hungary and into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (hereafter Yugoslavia) as seamless or as pacific as Krleža suggested. In fact, the breakdown of imperial authority over the course of 1918 allowed for-and was accelerated by-a state of apparent lawlessness in much of the Croatian hinterland, as so-called 'Green Cadres' attacked the property of large landholders and refused to go on contributing to the monarchy's war effort. Attached to the Green Cadres were
Balkan Legacies: The Long Shadow of Conflict and Ideological Experiment in Southeastern Europe, 2021
story of Toni, a Zagrebian sliding into middle age in a city and a country in a state of rapid tr... more story of Toni, a Zagrebian sliding into middle age in a city and a country in a state of rapid transformation. 1 Toni and his family, friends, and coworkers are coming to terms (or not) with the uprooting of values brought on by the end of communism and the conflict of the nineties-accepting, confronting, and sometimes rejecting the new capitalism, media consumption, contract housing, and job markets. It is a vigorous shaking of the snow globe that provides opportunities for some but great difficulties for others. The old ways, those that Toni and his coevels-to say nothing of his parents' generation-grew up with, are still present, still influential, but they now jostle for space in a fast-changing social, political, and economic landscape. Politicians from the socialist period are around, albeit increasingly marginal. Tito is remembered and spoken of, but with ever-diminishing affection and awe. The many traumas of the Second World War and the communist period are now refracted and warped through the lens of the conflict of the nineties. War, socialism, and transition-these are the legacies in which contemporary society is enmeshed. Toni himself works at a struggling media outlet overshadowed by a more unscrupulous and therefore more successful rival. In a desperate and grievously ill-considered attempt to appease his extended family back in his home village, Toni provides to a fairly distant relative a position as an infield reporter covering the American-led invasion of Iraq. This is Boris, a man with absolutely no journalistic experience and, furthermore, a man suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his own combat experience during the 1990s. It is a recipe for disaster, and Boris's increasingly unhinged field reports from Iraq show how the new conflict has mingled with his own
journal of social history, 53/3, 2020
This article examines the intersection between disability, gender, victory and defeat in interwar... more This article examines the intersection between disability, gender, victory and defeat in interwar Czechoslovakia. We look at a small but prominent group of disabled veterans: men who lost their sight fighting in the Austro-Hungarian army in the First World War. These veterans, unlike men who had fought in the pro-Entente Legionary divisions, were not celebrated in official and patriotic discourse in the First Republic. They had to find alternative outlets to express their place in society in wake of their disability. Through an analysis of the most important associations for blind veterans, interwoven with a series of case studies, we consider how disability weakened, but did not completely remove, the social and cultural barriers that existed in interwar Czechoslovakia between “victorious” and “defeated” war veterans. We also analyse a series of literary and professional responses to blindness that show how blind veterans’ masculinity was re-negotiated in the wake of their disability. Blind war veterans were considered throughout Czechoslovak society as the embodiment and the epitome of the disabled subject, their experiences thus speak more generally to the manner in which disability was experienced as a socially-enforced category in Czechoslovakia.
Journal of Contemporary History, 2019
Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were two successor states of the Austro-Hungarian empire at great p... more Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were two successor states of the Austro-Hungarian empire at great pains in the interwar period to portray themselves, both domestically and internationally, as ‘victor states’ of the First World War, even though both states inherited societies that were deeply fractured by the experience of war. The symbol of the pro-Entente war volunteer was an important part of both states’ interwar cultures of victory. Such volunteers represented just a fraction of war veterans in both countries, but they were given great prominence in their respective state-forming cultures. This article is a study of the origins and the nature of this important entanglement. It begins by defining the problematic nature of the ‘culture of victory’ in the region, before going on to explore the common origins of the volunteer movements in the wartime pro-Entente émigré groups. It then moves on to a discussion of consequences of the privileging of volunteer veterans in the institutional, political, and commemorative cultures of the two states.
Journal of Contemporary History , 2019
Cambridge History of Communism, Volume 1, 2017
This article discusses the role played by war veterans in the various fascist and para-fascist gr... more This article discusses the role played by war veterans in the various fascist and para-fascist groups present in Yugoslavia in the interwar period. The article finds that significant numbers of veterans and the nationalist associations to which they belonged contributed to proposed or actual departures from the democratic norm in interwar Yugoslavia, and were especially supportive of King Aleksandar Karadjordjevic’s dictatorship of 1929–1934. In this respect, they could be termed ‘para-fascist’. The article also notes that whilst the two groups typically identified in the literature as ‘fascist’, the Croatian Ustashe and Serbian/Yugoslav Zbor, fit into the ‘second-wave’ of 1930s fascist forces not usually marked by a strong presence of First World War veterans, their membership and ideological organisation were nevertheless significantly influenced by both the traditions of the war and the men who fought in it.
Journal of Contemporary European History, 2010
This special issue deals with the phenomenon of the emergence of radical violence in what might b... more This special issue deals with the phenomenon of the emergence of radical violence in what might be called 'shatter zones' of empires after the end of the First World War. It argues that the emergence of violence was due to the absence of functioning state control and facilitated by the effects of experiencing mass violence during the First World War. In the multi-ethnic regions of the former empires, the rising wave of nationalism directed this violent potential against ethnic and religious minorities.
Slavic Review, 2024
According to comparative data, suicide rates in Bohemia remained at a statistically high level in... more According to comparative data, suicide rates in Bohemia remained at a statistically high level in comparison to global-figures from the nineteenth-century until late in the twentieth, a matter of grave concern for successive political regimes. In the interwar-republic of Czechoslovakia, patriots were troubled that the high rates of suicide in Bohemia had failed to decline following the transition from the Habsburg empire into the new Czechoslovak state. The article uses sociological works to show how the problem of suicide was negotiated and rationalized in the context of the patriotic culture of the state. This involved eschewing the most compelling explanations of the problem in favor of those better adjusted to the political mood of the times, passing over immediate and apparent problems in favor of explanations that related suicide to the war years or the previous imperial experience. These rationalizations ultimately achieved few concrete solutions, but rather provided an interpretation of the ongoing problem that was compatible with the state-forming patriotism of the day.
On more than one occasion Otto von Bismarck said that the whole of the Balkans was not worth the ... more On more than one occasion Otto von Bismarck said that the whole of the Balkans was not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier. On this he was not vindicated by history: a conflict that began in the Balkans in summer 1914 would eventually cost Europe far more than that. Historians of the First World War can hardly afford to be as casually dismissive about this region as the Iron Chancellor. The Balkans were undoubtedly of lesser importance to the outcome of the war than the Western or even Eastern fronts, but they are nevertheless essential for understanding the ‘bigger picture’ of the First World War. The war in the Balkans has not been neglected by historians working on the region, but linguistic barriers have hampered its inclusion in historical discussions and debates about the First World War. For this reason the five titles reviewed in this
The Great War created a new social group throughout Europe: ex-servicemen. Mass conscription and ... more The Great War created a new social group throughout Europe: ex-servicemen. Mass conscription and total warfare led to a vast number of combatants returning from the various battlefields. Unlike previous wars and times – and in what turned out to be a long-term legacy of the First World War – veterans emerged as a distinct group, defined by a construction of war commemoration and identity, as well as by their legal demands and rights. The destructive capacity of the First World War and the divisive legacies the conflict left throughout Europe and the wider world are not in doubt. Quite rightly, historians have written at great length about the twentieth century’s ‘seminal catastrophe’ (George F. Keenan) and the tense ‘twenty year armistice’ (Ferdinand Foch) left in its wake. But, in charting a course directly from the First World War to the Second World War, historians are at risk of neglecting equally important ‘positive’ legacies left by the conflict. Zara Steiner’s ground-breaking...
Austrian History Yearbook, 2018
It is fitting that a story about charitable donations and their provenance should begin with a ge... more It is fitting that a story about charitable donations and their provenance should begin with a gesture of gift giving. In 1849 a group of Habsburg subjects came together with the intention of raising money to purchase a gift for Josip Jelačić, general of the Habsburg army and Ban (Governor) of Civil Croatia. Jelačić was identified as one of the notional “saviors” of the Habsburg Empire, whose actions in the field had helped quell the revolutionary and military perils of the previous months. The proposed gift was a suitable symbol of imperial honor and military prowess: a ceremonial sabre designed especially for the Ban. Jelačić was apparently moved by the gesture but had a more practical idea: better to use the money raised for his gift to help those less fortunate (and less celebrated) than himself, it should be put toward a fund to support soldiers who had served in his units and militias and who had been injured in fighting—and also to the families of those that had been killed. ...
Contemporary European History, 2010
This special issue deals with the phenomenon of the emergence of radical violence in what might b... more This special issue deals with the phenomenon of the emergence of radical violence in what might be called ‘shatter zones’ of empires after the end of the First World War. It argues that the emergence of violence was due to the absence of functioning state control and facilitated by the effects of experiencing mass violence during the First World War. In the multi-ethnic regions of the former empires, the rising wave of nationalism directed this violent potential against ethnic and religious minorities.
Nationalities Papers, 2021
Our special issue discusses different perspectives on the important changes that took place in th... more Our special issue discusses different perspectives on the important changes that took place in the transition from empire to nation-state at the end of the First World War, focusing especially on transnational connections, structural and historical continuities, and marginal voices that have been fully or partially concealed by the emphasis on a radical national awakening in 1918. Specific articles broach topics such as the implications of 1918 on notions of gender and ethnicity, 1918 and the violence of the “Greater War,” and the legacies and memories of 1918 across the 20th century. Our approach treats the “New Europe” of 1918 as a largely coherent geopolitical and cultural space, one which can be studied in an interdisciplinary fashion. We contend that 1918 is not simply a clean break in which one epoch cleanly makes way for another, but rather it is an ambiguous and contradictory pivot, one which created an “Old-New Europe” caught between the forces of the imperial past and thos...
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.
Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict, 2022
The entry addresses the role of veterans of military service and conflict in political culture ac... more The entry addresses the role of veterans of military service and conflict in political culture across the globe, with an emphasis on the twentieth century and beyond. The historical transformation of modern military service from the French revolution onwards is presented as a pivotal moment in defining the social status of the veteran. Further sections look at the veterans most important relationships, with the state, with fellow veterans, with the civilian population Different types of political intervention and organisation on the part of veterans are considered. The entry concludes that while much attention has quite rightly been paid to veteran involvement in militant and often violent right-wing political mobilization, consideration should also be given to the many counterexamples of peaceable veteran politics.
The Great War and Veterans’ Internationalism, 2013
Contemporary European History, 19/3, 2010
This article looks at the transition of the Habsburg South Slav lands, in particular Croatia, fro... more This article looks at the transition of the Habsburg South Slav lands, in particular Croatia, from empire into (Yugoslav) nation-state from 1917 to 1923, and the violence which attended it. While this transition was less cataclysmic in the South Slav lands than in other parts of the former Habsburg Empire, patterns of paramilitary violence and counter-revolution similar to those elsewhere in Europe were also present here. The article looks at these patterns from a transnational perspective and shows that although state control was effectively restored in Croatia by 1923, paramilitary networks forged during 1917-23 would return as Yugoslavia faced greater external threats and internal disequilibrium in the 1930s. The Croatian author Miroslav Krleža wrote at the end of 1918 in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, of his surprise at the rapidity of the Dual Monarchy's demise: 'A few days ago Austria [sic] disappeared from our little town so nonchalantly that not one of our many dear, respectable fellow-townspeople noticed that, in fact, among us, Austria was no more.' 1 Certainly the fall of the house of Habsburg was less apocalyptic in the South Slav lands than in Austria itself, and post-imperial Croatia did not convulse in revolution and violent counter-revolution as did Hungary. But neither was the transition out of Austria-Hungary and into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (hereafter Yugoslavia) as seamless or as pacific as Krleža suggested. In fact, the breakdown of imperial authority over the course of 1918 allowed for-and was accelerated by-a state of apparent lawlessness in much of the Croatian hinterland, as so-called 'Green Cadres' attacked the property of large landholders and refused to go on contributing to the monarchy's war effort. Attached to the Green Cadres were
Balkan Legacies: The Long Shadow of Conflict and Ideological Experiment in Southeastern Europe, 2021
story of Toni, a Zagrebian sliding into middle age in a city and a country in a state of rapid tr... more story of Toni, a Zagrebian sliding into middle age in a city and a country in a state of rapid transformation. 1 Toni and his family, friends, and coworkers are coming to terms (or not) with the uprooting of values brought on by the end of communism and the conflict of the nineties-accepting, confronting, and sometimes rejecting the new capitalism, media consumption, contract housing, and job markets. It is a vigorous shaking of the snow globe that provides opportunities for some but great difficulties for others. The old ways, those that Toni and his coevels-to say nothing of his parents' generation-grew up with, are still present, still influential, but they now jostle for space in a fast-changing social, political, and economic landscape. Politicians from the socialist period are around, albeit increasingly marginal. Tito is remembered and spoken of, but with ever-diminishing affection and awe. The many traumas of the Second World War and the communist period are now refracted and warped through the lens of the conflict of the nineties. War, socialism, and transition-these are the legacies in which contemporary society is enmeshed. Toni himself works at a struggling media outlet overshadowed by a more unscrupulous and therefore more successful rival. In a desperate and grievously ill-considered attempt to appease his extended family back in his home village, Toni provides to a fairly distant relative a position as an infield reporter covering the American-led invasion of Iraq. This is Boris, a man with absolutely no journalistic experience and, furthermore, a man suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his own combat experience during the 1990s. It is a recipe for disaster, and Boris's increasingly unhinged field reports from Iraq show how the new conflict has mingled with his own
journal of social history, 53/3, 2020
This article examines the intersection between disability, gender, victory and defeat in interwar... more This article examines the intersection between disability, gender, victory and defeat in interwar Czechoslovakia. We look at a small but prominent group of disabled veterans: men who lost their sight fighting in the Austro-Hungarian army in the First World War. These veterans, unlike men who had fought in the pro-Entente Legionary divisions, were not celebrated in official and patriotic discourse in the First Republic. They had to find alternative outlets to express their place in society in wake of their disability. Through an analysis of the most important associations for blind veterans, interwoven with a series of case studies, we consider how disability weakened, but did not completely remove, the social and cultural barriers that existed in interwar Czechoslovakia between “victorious” and “defeated” war veterans. We also analyse a series of literary and professional responses to blindness that show how blind veterans’ masculinity was re-negotiated in the wake of their disability. Blind war veterans were considered throughout Czechoslovak society as the embodiment and the epitome of the disabled subject, their experiences thus speak more generally to the manner in which disability was experienced as a socially-enforced category in Czechoslovakia.
Journal of Contemporary History, 2019
Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were two successor states of the Austro-Hungarian empire at great p... more Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were two successor states of the Austro-Hungarian empire at great pains in the interwar period to portray themselves, both domestically and internationally, as ‘victor states’ of the First World War, even though both states inherited societies that were deeply fractured by the experience of war. The symbol of the pro-Entente war volunteer was an important part of both states’ interwar cultures of victory. Such volunteers represented just a fraction of war veterans in both countries, but they were given great prominence in their respective state-forming cultures. This article is a study of the origins and the nature of this important entanglement. It begins by defining the problematic nature of the ‘culture of victory’ in the region, before going on to explore the common origins of the volunteer movements in the wartime pro-Entente émigré groups. It then moves on to a discussion of consequences of the privileging of volunteer veterans in the institutional, political, and commemorative cultures of the two states.
Journal of Contemporary History , 2019
Cambridge History of Communism, Volume 1, 2017
This article discusses the role played by war veterans in the various fascist and para-fascist gr... more This article discusses the role played by war veterans in the various fascist and para-fascist groups present in Yugoslavia in the interwar period. The article finds that significant numbers of veterans and the nationalist associations to which they belonged contributed to proposed or actual departures from the democratic norm in interwar Yugoslavia, and were especially supportive of King Aleksandar Karadjordjevic’s dictatorship of 1929–1934. In this respect, they could be termed ‘para-fascist’. The article also notes that whilst the two groups typically identified in the literature as ‘fascist’, the Croatian Ustashe and Serbian/Yugoslav Zbor, fit into the ‘second-wave’ of 1930s fascist forces not usually marked by a strong presence of First World War veterans, their membership and ideological organisation were nevertheless significantly influenced by both the traditions of the war and the men who fought in it.
Journal of Contemporary European History, 2010
This special issue deals with the phenomenon of the emergence of radical violence in what might b... more This special issue deals with the phenomenon of the emergence of radical violence in what might be called 'shatter zones' of empires after the end of the First World War. It argues that the emergence of violence was due to the absence of functioning state control and facilitated by the effects of experiencing mass violence during the First World War. In the multi-ethnic regions of the former empires, the rising wave of nationalism directed this violent potential against ethnic and religious minorities.
The Yugoslav state of the interwar period was a child of the Great European War. Its borders were... more The Yugoslav state of the interwar period was a child of the Great European War. Its borders were superimposed onto a topography of conflict and killing, for it housed many war veterans who had served or fought in opposing armies (those of the Central Powers and the Entente) during the war. These veterans had been adversaries but after 1918 became fellow subjects of a single state, yet in many cases they carried into peace the divisions of the war years. John Paul Newman tells their story, showing how the South Slav state was unable to escape out of the shadow cast by the First World War. Newman reveals how the deep fracture left by war cut across the fragile states of 'New Europe' in the interwar period, worsening their many political and social problems and bringing the region into a new conflict at the end of the interwar period.
After the Great War, Veterans were a new transnational mass phenomenon. Their status raised a num... more After the Great War, Veterans were a new transnational mass phenomenon. Their status raised a number of new questions about the presence of ex-soldiers in society, their entitlement in terms of welfare (pensions, disability benefits, etc), and their role in politics and on the international stage. This volume sets national expertise within a transnational framework. It shows traditions of internationalism and of commitment to international institutions among former soldiers that even survived into the post-1945 world. The volume discusses extent and impact of international veterans' organisations such as CIAMAC and FIDAC and draws out important comparative points between well-researched and documented movements (i.e. France, Britain, Germany) and those that are less well-known. Certainly in terms of geography, the project will show that these cultures did not exclude any part of formerly belligerent Europe, and that 'fraternal links' between veterans branched out across the continent and beyond. The volume explores these transformations in the memory of war and the identity of veterans in the interwar period throughout Europe and the wider world.
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.
* KLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE All talks from our conference (Ljubljana, April 2017) * Organizers: Ta... more * KLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE
All talks from our conference (Ljubljana, April 2017) * Organizers: Tamara Scheer, Rok Stergar, Kaja Sirok, Marko Zajc *
Contributions:
Stefan Donecker: Identity and Identification in Premodernity: The State of the Debate 35 years after John Armstrong’ s Nations before Nationalism
Ümit Eser: Before Becoming Bulgarians: Pre-National Identities of the Orthodox Christian Communities in Eastern Rumelia, 1878-1908
Jernej Kosi: When the Slovenes Encountered the Slovenes: Ethnic Boundaries and the Process of Nationalisation in Prekmurje after the Dissolution of Austria-Hungary
Daniel Heler: Ethno-Genesis of Gorani People and ‘Deviant’ Contemporary Histories of Kosovo
Before the Nations, Beyond the Nations - Panel 1 Discussion
Tamara Scheer / John Paul Newman: Donations Requested: The Imperial, National, and Transnational Identities of The Ban Jelačić Association for Disabled Veterans and their Families in Vienna and Zagreb
Robert Shields Mevissen: Identification in the Danube Empire: Shaping Riverine Transformations in the Late Habsburg State
Igor Vranić: Political Patriotism in the Late Habsburg Empire: The Case of Izidor Kršnjavi
Imperial, National, Non-National - Panel 2 Discussion
Karin Almasy: Postcarding Identities in Lower Styria (1890–1920): The Linguistic and Visual Portrayal of Identities on Picture Postcards
Susanne Korbel: Staging Similarities, Staging Differences: (Jewish) Volkssänger and Their Performance of Habsburg Identities
Clemens Ruthner: Colonial Habsburg: The Bosnian Foreigner in Literary Texts of Imperial Austria, ca 1900
Anita Buhin: “Naše malo misto” (Our Small Town): Yugoslav Mediterranean Dream
Defining, Performing, and Staging Identities - Panel 3 discussion
Pieter M. Judson: People and their Categories: Creating Difference from Below and from Above in the Context of Empire
Daniel Brett: It’ s Not About the Nation or Ethnicity: Identity, Politics, and Society in the Romanian and Irish Countryside 1900-1947
Ivan Jeličić: The Typographers’ Community of Fiume: Between Spirit of Category, Class Identity, Local Patriotism, Socialism, and Nationalism(s)
Martin Jemelka / Jakub Štofaník: Being Modern Christian and Worker in the Czechoslovak National State 1918-1938
Peasants, Professionals, Workers - Panel 4 discussion
Marta Verginella / Irena Selišnik: The First Publicly Active Slovene Women on the Intersection of National Identities and Multinational Space
Martina Salvante: Renegotiating Identity: Disabled Veterans in Trentino and South Tyrol
Marco Bresciani: Country for Nationalists? State- and Nation-Building in Post-Habsburg Interwar Istria
Identities in Transition - Panel 5 discussion
Etienne Boisserie: Family Networks and “Generation Key” in the Renewed Approaches of Social Questioning of the Slovak Elite at the Beginning of the 20th Century
Nikola Tomašegović: Statistical Nation-Building in Civil Croatia and Slavonia during the Second Half of 19th Century
Filip Tomić: Serbs in Croatia and Slavonia 1908 – 1914: The Contested Construction of an Ethnic Category, Conditions of its Deployment and the Issue of Its Reception
Luka Lisjak: “Changing the Nation’s Character”: The Slovenian Tradition of Critical National Characterology and Its Role in the Intellectual Definitions of National Identity in the 20th Century
Panel 6 discussion
Tomasz Kamusella: Concluding remarks
* Conference Paper on you tube, together with John Paul Newman, Ljubljana, April 2017
Nationalities Papers , 2021
Our special issue discusses different perspectives on the important changes that took place in th... more Our special issue discusses different perspectives on the important changes that took place in the transition from empire to nation-state at the end of the First World War, focusing especially on transnational connections, structural and historical continuities, and marginal voices that have been fully or partially concealed by the emphasis on a radical national awakening in 1918. Specific articles broach topics such as the implications of 1918 on notions of gender and ethnicity, 1918 and the violence of the "Greater War," and the legacies and memories of 1918 across the 20th century. Our approach treats the "New Europe" of 1918 as a largely coherent geopolitical and cultural space, one which can be studied in an interdisciplinary fashion. We contend that 1918 is not simply a clean break in which one epoch cleanly makes way for another, but rather it is an ambiguous and contradictory pivot, one which created an "Old-New Europe" caught between the forces of the imperial past and those of the national future. Our intention is not to dismiss entirely the importance of the transformations of 1918 but rather to show how there exists a tension between those changes and the many continuities and legacies that cut across the traditional chronology.
Austrian History Yearbook, 2018
*Citation of the published version: John Paul Newman, Tamara Scheer, The Ban Jelačić Trust for Di... more *Citation of the published version: John Paul Newman, Tamara Scheer, The Ban Jelačić Trust for Disabled Soldiers and Their Families: Habsburg Dynastic Loyalty beyond National Boundaries1849–51, in: Austrian History Yearbook, Volume 49, April 2018 , pp. 152-165
*Access to published version: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/austrian-history-yearbook/article/ban-jelacic-trust-for-disabled-soldiers-and-their-families-habsburg-dynastic-loyalty-beyond-national-boundaries-184951/4F3C14560BEB32E86993E25515D93AE7
*Abstract: It is fitting that a story about charitable donations and their provenance should begin with a gesture of gift giving. In 1849 a group of Habsburg subjects came together with the intention of raising money to purchase a gift for Josip Jelačić, general of the Habsburg army and Ban (Governor) of Civil Croatia. Jelačić was identified as one of the notional “saviors” of the Habsburg Empire, whose actions in the field had helped quell the revolutionary and military perils of the previous months. The proposed gift was a suitable symbol of imperial honor and military prowess: a ceremonial sabre designed especially for the Ban. Jelačić was apparently moved by the gesture but had a more practical idea: better to use the money raised for his gift to help those less fortunate (and less celebrated) than himself, it should be put toward a fund to support soldiers who had served in his units and militias and who had been injured in fighting—and also to the families of those that had been killed. To this end, a committee was already operating, based in Vienna, but collecting funds through the Ban's Council (Bansko Vijeće) in Zagreb. This would become a mobilization of Habsburg society whose impetus rested on precisely the same values of dynastic loyalty and respect for the Habsburg military as the ceremonial sabre, except that many more people would have a chance to show their devotion and support to the “heroes” of 1848–49.