Review: C. Hiepel, M. Ruff (eds.), Christliche Arbeiterbewegung in Europa 1850-1950 (original) (raw)
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The book is a long one, and purposely so. Not only does it undertake to deal with a period at once the most complicated and the most inherently page 1 / 886 interesting of any in the whole recorded history of mankind, but it aims to impart sufficiently detailed information about the various topics discussed to make the college student feel that he is advanced a grade beyond the student in secondary school. There is too often a tendency to underestimate the intellectual capabilities of the collegian and to feed him so simple and scanty a mental pabulum that he becomes as a child and thinks as a child. Of course the author appreciates the fact that most college instructors of history piece out the elementary textbooks by means of assignments of collateral reading in large standard treatises.
Seminary of History of Europe from the XIXth – XXth century
Explain the changing characters of the nationalism between 1848 and 1918 The following academic work was written in autumn 2015 during a two hours exam exercise for a seminary called « History of Europe from the XIXth to XX century: Nations and Nationalisms ». Therefore, there will not be any references, footnotes and bibliography as it was a written exercise under exam conditions, with only our actual knowledge of the subject. Furthermore, as most of the courses were given in form of lecture courses, with a written exam at the semester end, this work is the only one I could present to you. The requested task was to write an essay explaining the changing characters of nationalisms between 1848 and 1918. In 1848, Europe found itself at a major key point in its history. In fact, numerous heterogeneous peoples were locked in a few states following the realignment of the European borders as per the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna in 1815 (also known as the Treaty of Vienna of 1815) based on the balance of the major powers. The peoples gathered either in multinational states as it was the case of the Austrian Empire reaching from Italy to Hungary, or separated in different states as it was the case of the Germans, some of them belonging to the Austrian Empire, some to the Kingdom of Prussia and others were dispersed over several small principalities originating from the dissolution of the Holy Roman Germanic Empire. The Industrial Revolution was booming for over half a century already; the growth of the European economy leads us to subsequent thoughts. Not only economic issues but also political and geopolitical matters were sources of the upcoming national transformations. As a matter of fact, the development of the transport sector and the communication channels as a result of the Industrial Revolution led to a fast diffusion of ideologies and information. The subsequent thoughts will mainly focus on the question of nation, on national identity. Every European player of the 19th century, whether its form is an empire, a state or people will be affected by the rise of the issue of national affiliation either as claimant of an identity or as a « victim » of this nationalistic phenomenon. This era of change in Europe brings us therefore to our subject of questioning. Hence, it appears interesting to us to study the incentives and motivations that drove the different players towards idea of nationalism, as well as to reflect on how they achieved or not to unify under one and only banner. For this purpose we will systematically analyse origins and conception of nationalism, followed by the revolutions of 1848 and the unification process of Germany and Italy. We will pursue with a study of the different cases of imperialism from 1871 to 1914 where foreign policy becomes a mean of nation glorification as well as competition between states. Finally, the First World War and the game of alliances leading to the globalisation of war will conclude our analysis of the movements of nationalism between 1848 and 1918. The national movements can be traced to two different sources. The first one is the French Revolution that is built upon the right of peoples to self-determination, leading to a strong wish of independence, especially among peoples living under the authority of an empire. The second source inspiring a national feeling concerns the rediscovery of the peoples past. The latter was often reshaped and glorified in order to give it more impact. It relies upon
A second intersecting chain stemmed from a highly centralized Church. From ancient Rome the Church derived its system of lawmaking, adjudication, and appeals. Its cultic aspects further enhanced the authority of the pope. Salvation could only be achieved through the mediation of the Church. This was reinforced by the belief in transubstantiation. Such cultic religion is contrasted with Judaism and Islam as religions of the book. The Church was "clericalized" (146, citing Hans Küng) by the ordination of priests, celibacy, obedience, and communal living. Religious brotherhoods under central supervision, independent of bishops and secular authorities and beholden only to the pope, carried papal authority to all Catholic lands.
Mirator 23:1, 2023
The book The Catholic Church and European State Formation moves between two worlds. Its authors, Jørgen Møller and Jonathan Stavnskaer Doucette, are two political scientists from Aarhus University addressing a big historical question: how did the European multistate system emerge at the cost of an empire and universal power, and what was the role of the Catholic Church in the process. On the one hand, Møller and Doucette address political scientists with the goal of bringing the Church and medieval politics into the debate about European state formation, a discussion that has emphasised the early modern period and its endemic warfare, exemplified by the work of Charles Tilly. On the other hand, the authors aim to demonstrate and test quantitatively the phenomena and processes studied qualitatively by historians. Many historians are, by instinct and for good reasons, suspicious of social and political scientists who promise to solve historical research questions with 'big data' and statistics. However, I have to say that I found the book's premises promising. Firstly, the authors do not claim to reinvent the wheel but repeatedly emphasise that generations of historians have studied how, for example, Cluniac and Gregorian reforms spread and how rulers emulated the Church's administration. The goal of bringing together the separate spheres of discussion in political science and premodern history is, by all accounts, extremely commendable, and it seems that the authors have genuinely attempted to do that. There seems to be momentum for integrating the Middle Ages into political science, for as the authors themselves point out, Anna M. Grzymała-Busse (Stanford University) has had a parallel project and has recently published her book on almost the same topic. 1 Because historians have not, to my