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Books by susynne mcelrone, PhD

Research paper thumbnail of Historical Timeframes for Stateless Nations -- Analysing the Colonised Periodisation Paradox of Palestinian History

CHRONOLOGICS: PERIODISATION IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT, 2022

Paths of historical progression, and the ordering of historiography with the perceived absence of... more Paths of historical progression, and the ordering of historiography with the perceived absence of progression, are the subjects of this chapter. Specifically, it explores perio¬dization and temporalities of history in the context of histories with arguably non-linear progressions—some would say a history without progression—historiographies of stateless nations. Histories of many stateless nations share a common fate of censure and erasure. Alongside the Palestinians, on whom this chapter will focus, many stateless nations today—Tibetan, Tatar, Taiwanese, Tamil, Kashmiri, Kurd, Catalonian, and Uyghur, to name a few—live outside their homeland and/or in it under non-indigenous rule and have histories, varying in length, of aspiring to but not achieving and sustaining their sought autonomy or statehood. Many stateless nations lack broad political recognition and frequently face vigorous contestation of their legitimacy. This struggle has less to do with the past than with the present and with perceived, future, practical and political implications for other established states and nations, should (or when) they grant legitimation to stateless nations and witness their realization as states. This chapter examines the colonized periodization of Palestinian history as an exploration of how stateless nations may periodize the history of their struggle for a still-unrealized state, and it analyzes the significance of the chosen schemes of this periodization. It is part of the edited collection, Chronologics: Periodisation in a Global Context (2022), an open-source and print-on-demand book on periodization in history, the fruits of an international conference co-organized in Berlin in December 2017 by the Forum Transregionale Studien and the Max Weber Stiftung.

Papers by susynne mcelrone, PhD

Research paper thumbnail of From the pages of the Defter: A social history of rural property tenure and the implementation of Tanzimat land reform in Hebron, Palestine (1858-1900)

PhD dissertation, 2016

This dissertation is a socio-historical statistical study of the implementation and adoption of T... more This dissertation is a socio-historical statistical study of the implementation and adoption of Tanzimat-era land-tenure reforms in the Palestinian countryside. It addresses three main questions: (1) what was the character of rural property tenure in mountainous regions of Palestine; (2) to what degree were modernizing property-reform measures adopted by the rural populace; and (3) how did the reform affect rural property-tenure and economic wellbeing? The 1858 Land Code was one of a series of Tanzimat reforms that together formalized individual title to property and land tenure. Yet, due to the dearth of accessible documentation, little is known about the implementation of these reforms. Among historians of Palestine, in the absence of proof to the contrary there is broad consensus that the reforms failed. It is widely argued that villagers evaded land registration en masse, either because they did not understand the significance of the reform or feared that increased taxation or conscription would result from property registration. This study brings to light and analyzes a property-value and property-tax assessment register (Esas-ı Emlak) compiled in 1876 (1292 maliyye) for the villages and rural agricultural lands of the large Halilürrahman (Hebron) district, south of Jerusalem. It permits, for the ix first time, systematic investigation of the implementation of property-tenure reforms in Palestine at a district-wide level. This study demonstrates that many rural agriculturalists in rural Hebron had independent economic power and landed wealth above subsistence levels. Hebronites were invested in implementing modernizing reforms to protect their landed assets, which they registered with the emlak, property-tax commission as individual holdings and as communally owned properties. While it is commonly understood that traditional, communal land-tenure arrangements (musha') were disallowed after land reform, this study demonstrates how it was incorporated into reform and protected the rights of shareholders. It also argues that property-tenure reform needs to be understood as a process, not an event. Villagers have rarely figured as subjects of Ottoman histories. This study exploits the emlak register together with sharia court cases and 1905 Ottoman population registries to flesh out a picture of late-Ottoman villages, villagers, and rural society from below in southern Palestine.

Research paper thumbnail of Villagers on the Move: Re-thinking Fallahin Rootedness in Late-Ottoman Palestine

Jerusalem Quarterly, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Nineteenth-Century Qajar Women in the Public Sphere: An Alternative Historical and Historiographical Reading of the Roots of Iranian Women's Activism

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 2005

ince the late 1970s and early 1980s, women's studies and, more recently, alongside and interlaced... more ince the late 1970s and early 1980s, women's studies and, more recently, alongside and interlaced with it, gender studies have developed into a full-fledged and broad-based subdiscipline of Middle Eastern studies. Suffering generally, however, from a lack of historical record, the field has tended to focus on the contemporary period, and, accordingly, many of the main contributions have been made by anthropologists, insight sociologists, and political scientists. Historical studies of women and gender in the Middle East have been slower to emerge. In general, relatively little work was done before the mid-1990s; 1 research on Iran and Egypt, however, has been somewhat exceptional in this regard, and the echoes of the rise of women's public voice and action at the end of the nineteenth and in the early twentieth centuries, when a public discourse on women began to take shape in the Middle East, have received relatively considerable treatment. 2 In the case of Iran, many of the historical studies on women point to the turn of the twentieth century and, more specifically, the 1905-11 constitutional revolution period as the I thank David Menashri, Rami Regavim, Liora Baavur, and an anonymous reader for their thought-provoking comments on earlier versions of this article. I am also grateful to Houri Berberian for sharing with me her knowledge on the subject and for offering her wisdom and insight. 1. For assessments of the state of the historiography of women and gender in Middle Eastern studies conducted in Europe and the United States, see the 1999 volume edited by

Research paper thumbnail of A Critical Review of Dan Rabinowitz's, Overlooking Nazareth, The ethnography of exclusion in Galilee (Cambridge, New York and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1997) (Hebrew)

Research paper thumbnail of Historical Timeframes for Stateless Nations -- Analysing the Colonised Periodisation Paradox of Palestinian History

CHRONOLOGICS: PERIODISATION IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT, 2022

Paths of historical progression, and the ordering of historiography with the perceived absence of... more Paths of historical progression, and the ordering of historiography with the perceived absence of progression, are the subjects of this chapter. Specifically, it explores perio¬dization and temporalities of history in the context of histories with arguably non-linear progressions—some would say a history without progression—historiographies of stateless nations. Histories of many stateless nations share a common fate of censure and erasure. Alongside the Palestinians, on whom this chapter will focus, many stateless nations today—Tibetan, Tatar, Taiwanese, Tamil, Kashmiri, Kurd, Catalonian, and Uyghur, to name a few—live outside their homeland and/or in it under non-indigenous rule and have histories, varying in length, of aspiring to but not achieving and sustaining their sought autonomy or statehood. Many stateless nations lack broad political recognition and frequently face vigorous contestation of their legitimacy. This struggle has less to do with the past than with the present and with perceived, future, practical and political implications for other established states and nations, should (or when) they grant legitimation to stateless nations and witness their realization as states. This chapter examines the colonized periodization of Palestinian history as an exploration of how stateless nations may periodize the history of their struggle for a still-unrealized state, and it analyzes the significance of the chosen schemes of this periodization. It is part of the edited collection, Chronologics: Periodisation in a Global Context (2022), an open-source and print-on-demand book on periodization in history, the fruits of an international conference co-organized in Berlin in December 2017 by the Forum Transregionale Studien and the Max Weber Stiftung.

Research paper thumbnail of From the pages of the Defter: A social history of rural property tenure and the implementation of Tanzimat land reform in Hebron, Palestine (1858-1900)

PhD dissertation, 2016

This dissertation is a socio-historical statistical study of the implementation and adoption of T... more This dissertation is a socio-historical statistical study of the implementation and adoption of Tanzimat-era land-tenure reforms in the Palestinian countryside. It addresses three main questions: (1) what was the character of rural property tenure in mountainous regions of Palestine; (2) to what degree were modernizing property-reform measures adopted by the rural populace; and (3) how did the reform affect rural property-tenure and economic wellbeing? The 1858 Land Code was one of a series of Tanzimat reforms that together formalized individual title to property and land tenure. Yet, due to the dearth of accessible documentation, little is known about the implementation of these reforms. Among historians of Palestine, in the absence of proof to the contrary there is broad consensus that the reforms failed. It is widely argued that villagers evaded land registration en masse, either because they did not understand the significance of the reform or feared that increased taxation or conscription would result from property registration. This study brings to light and analyzes a property-value and property-tax assessment register (Esas-ı Emlak) compiled in 1876 (1292 maliyye) for the villages and rural agricultural lands of the large Halilürrahman (Hebron) district, south of Jerusalem. It permits, for the ix first time, systematic investigation of the implementation of property-tenure reforms in Palestine at a district-wide level. This study demonstrates that many rural agriculturalists in rural Hebron had independent economic power and landed wealth above subsistence levels. Hebronites were invested in implementing modernizing reforms to protect their landed assets, which they registered with the emlak, property-tax commission as individual holdings and as communally owned properties. While it is commonly understood that traditional, communal land-tenure arrangements (musha') were disallowed after land reform, this study demonstrates how it was incorporated into reform and protected the rights of shareholders. It also argues that property-tenure reform needs to be understood as a process, not an event. Villagers have rarely figured as subjects of Ottoman histories. This study exploits the emlak register together with sharia court cases and 1905 Ottoman population registries to flesh out a picture of late-Ottoman villages, villagers, and rural society from below in southern Palestine.

Research paper thumbnail of Villagers on the Move: Re-thinking Fallahin Rootedness in Late-Ottoman Palestine

Jerusalem Quarterly, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Nineteenth-Century Qajar Women in the Public Sphere: An Alternative Historical and Historiographical Reading of the Roots of Iranian Women's Activism

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 2005

ince the late 1970s and early 1980s, women's studies and, more recently, alongside and interlaced... more ince the late 1970s and early 1980s, women's studies and, more recently, alongside and interlaced with it, gender studies have developed into a full-fledged and broad-based subdiscipline of Middle Eastern studies. Suffering generally, however, from a lack of historical record, the field has tended to focus on the contemporary period, and, accordingly, many of the main contributions have been made by anthropologists, insight sociologists, and political scientists. Historical studies of women and gender in the Middle East have been slower to emerge. In general, relatively little work was done before the mid-1990s; 1 research on Iran and Egypt, however, has been somewhat exceptional in this regard, and the echoes of the rise of women's public voice and action at the end of the nineteenth and in the early twentieth centuries, when a public discourse on women began to take shape in the Middle East, have received relatively considerable treatment. 2 In the case of Iran, many of the historical studies on women point to the turn of the twentieth century and, more specifically, the 1905-11 constitutional revolution period as the I thank David Menashri, Rami Regavim, Liora Baavur, and an anonymous reader for their thought-provoking comments on earlier versions of this article. I am also grateful to Houri Berberian for sharing with me her knowledge on the subject and for offering her wisdom and insight. 1. For assessments of the state of the historiography of women and gender in Middle Eastern studies conducted in Europe and the United States, see the 1999 volume edited by

Research paper thumbnail of A Critical Review of Dan Rabinowitz's, Overlooking Nazareth, The ethnography of exclusion in Galilee (Cambridge, New York and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1997) (Hebrew)