Search Results (273)

This paper analyzes the historical genealogy of conspiracy theories about a global supergovernment by focusing on one period of American history in which it attained particular visibility. The formation of the United Nations in 1945 and the onset of the Cold War galvanized speculation on the political margins that a shadowy, malevolent international government was seeking world domination by targeting the United States and its political culture. At the same time, mainstream United States foreign policy was marked by a desire to both reshape international institutions to resist Soviet influence while also avoiding any domestic changes that might result from international engagement. This paper suggests that conspiracy theory functioned as a mechanism resolving the vicious circle occasioned by these competing foreign policy priorities. Through a narrative analysis of conspiratorial sentiments in North Dakota Representative Usher L. Burdick’s warnings about the United Nations as a threat to American liberty and sovereignty, this article highlights the continuities between mainstream American exceptionalism and conspiratorial ideas. Full article

Hundreds of Japanese features of war (field positions, tunnels, and fortifications) were constructed in Hong Kong during World War II. However, most of them were poorly documented and were left unknown but still in relatively good condition because of their durable design, workmanship, and remoteness. These features of war form parts of Hong Kong’s brutal history. Conservation, at least in digital form, is worth considering. With the authors coming from multidisciplinary and varied backgrounds, this paper aims to explore these features using a scientific workflow. First, we reviewed the surviving archival sources of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. Second, airborne LiDAR data were used to form territory digital terrain models (DTM) based on the Red Relief Image Map (RRIM) for identifying suspected locations. Third, field expeditions of searching for features of war were conducted through guidance of Global Navigation Satellite System—Real-Time Kinetics (GNSS-RTK). Fourth, the found features were 3D-laser scanned to generate mesh models as a digital archive and validate the findings of DTM-RRIM. This study represents a reverse-engineering effort to reconstruct the planned Japanese defense tactics of guerilla fight and Kamikaze grottos that were never used in Hong Kong. Full article

This article examines the intersecting forces of gender, class, and education in early twentieth-century Britain through a feminist reading of Pip Williams’ historical novel The Bookbinder of Jericho. Centering on the fictional character Peggy Jones—a working-class young woman employed in the Oxford University Press bindery—the study explores how women’s intellectual ambitions were constrained by economic hardship, institutional gatekeeping, and patriarchal social norms. By integrating close literary analysis with historical research on women bookbinders, educational reform, and the impact of World War I, the paper reveals how the novel functions as both a narrative of personal development and a broader critique of systemic exclusion. Drawing on the genre of the female Bildungsroman, the article argues that Peggy’s journey—from bindery worker to aspiring scholar—mirrors the real struggles of working-class women who sought education and recognition in a male-dominated society. It also highlights the significance of female solidarity, especially among those who served as volunteers, caregivers, and community organizers during wartime. Through the symbolic geography of Oxford and its working-class district of Jericho, the novel foregrounds the spatial and social divides that shaped women’s lives and labor. Ultimately, this study shows how The Bookbinder of Jericho offers not only a fictional portrait of one woman’s aspirations but also a feminist intervention that recovers and reinterprets the overlooked histories of British women workers. The novel becomes a literary space for reclaiming agency, articulating resistance, and criticizing the gendered boundaries of knowledge, work, and belonging. Full article

Love and intimate relations between German men and Norwegian women were a widespread phenomenon during WWII. Like in many other European countries, these women were stigmatized and humiliated both by the authorities and by the civilian population. In this article, I discuss four postmemory literary works that address this issue: Edvard Hoem’s novel Mors og fars historie (The Story of My Mother and Father, 2005), Lene Ask’s graphic novel Hitler, Jesus og farfar (Hitler, Jesus, and Grandfather, 2006), Randi Crott and Lillian Crott Berthung’s autobiography Ikke si det til noen! (Don’t tell anyone!, 2013), and Atle Næss’s novel Blindgjengere (Duds, 2019). I explore how the narratives create a living connection between then and now and how they deal with unresolved questions and knowledge gaps. Furthermore, I discuss common themes such as the fate and identity of war children, national responsibilities versus individual choice, and norms connected to gender and sexuality. I argue that these postmemory interpretations of wartime love affairs not only aim to retell the past but to investigate the normative frameworks within which these relationships took place. My contention is that the postmemory gaze pays primary attention to the power of cultural constructions—of nationality, identity, and gender—as well as their context-related historical changes. Full article

The following work is based on the historical–anthropological analysis of 93 skeletal remains belonging to post-war casualties who died in 1946 and remained missing for years. In 2019, 93 metal boxes containing skeletal remains of Slavic origin, belonging to civilians and soldiers who perished in the immediate postwar period following World War II, were found inside the ossuary of the Monumental Cemetery in Bari (Italy). At the beginning of the search, these people were thought to have died in prison camps in Apulia, such as Torre Tresca and Grumo Appula, in the province of Bari. Later, thanks to the discovery of war badges and years of extensive historical research, it was discovered that these remains had been missing for 75 years and belonged to soldiers of the Royal Yugoslav Army and civilians, probably their relatives, who died in 1946 in the refugee camp of Eboli, in the province of Salerno, Campania (Italy). To unveil this truth that remained hidden for over 75 years, a multidisciplinary study divided into two phases was applied. The first phase, grounded in historical research study, aimed to determine the historical and temporal context in which they lived and confirm the life they actually lived in the Eboli refugee camp. The second phase, grounded in anthropological research, aimed to reconstruct the biological profile of each individual, identify the presence of antemortem, perimortem, and postmortem lesions, assess potential pathological conditions, and determine, where possible, the cause of death. Finally, a correlation of the collected data was conducted to ascertain and corroborate, with reasonable certainty, the living conditions to which they were subjected in the refugee camp where they resided. Italy after 1943 became the scene of intense fighting and a dramatic situation for prisoners of war, including many Yugoslav soldiers. This work brought to light a history that had been lost for as many as 75 years, highlighted the importance, specifically, of the role of the Eboli refugee camp, a context little known and forgotten by many, and above all made it possible to remember and restore dignity to the victims of the Great War. Full article

In the wake of the Holocaust and the post-war reconstruction of Greece’s historic city centers, many Greek synagogues were demolished, abandoned, or appropriated, erasing centuries of Jewish architectural and communal presence. This study presents a thirty year-long research and documentation initiative aimed at preserving, recovering, and eventually digitally reconstructing these “lost” synagogues, both as individual buildings and within their urban context. Drawing on architectural surveys, archival research, oral histories, and previously unpublished materials, including the recently rediscovered Shemtov Samuel archive, the project grew through the use of technology. Beginning with in situ surveys in the early 1990s, it evolved into full-scale digitally enhanced architectural drawings that formed the basis for further digital exploration, 3D models, and virtual reality outputs. With the addition of these new tools to existing documentation, the project can restore architectural detail and cultural context with a high degree of fidelity, even in cases where only fragmentary evidence survives. These digital reconstructions have informed physical restoration efforts as well as public exhibitions, heritage education, and urban memory initiatives across Greece. By reintroducing “invisible” Jewish landmarks into contemporary consciousness, the study addresses the broader implications of post-war urban homogenization, the marginalization of minority heritage, and the ethical dimensions of digital preservation. This interdisciplinary approach, which bridges architectural history, digital humanities, urban studies, and cultural heritage, demonstrates the value of digital tools in reconstructing “lost” pasts and highlights the potential for similar projects in other regions facing comparable erasures. Full article

The Nigeria–Biafra war (1967–1970) has been regarded as the first major civil war in post-colonial Africa, with an attendant and colossal loss of lives, property, and infrastructure. There are many representations of memories of the war in fiction, non-fiction, symbols, memoires, and post-war relics (usually found in museums) but the role of personal naming practices has been largely neglected in the literature and social narratives of the war history. This article, therefore, aims to investigate the performance of personal names as significant memorial sites that convey trajectories of post-traumatic experiences of the war and the desire for healing and reconciliation. The study adopts the theoretical lens of the socio-onomastic analytic framework, which explores the social contexts in which names are given and used. Drawing on ethnographic data sourced mainly from personal histories and semi-structured interviews with 30 participants in Nsukka (Enugu State) and Owerri (Imo State) in southeastern Nigeria, we argue that personal naming practices form essential elements of the war memory, which positively impact self-recovery and meaningful connection with the people. The study concludes that war-related names are based on name-givers’ lived experiences and life-altering situations that greeted the war and are useful in sharing and preserving collective memory of the war. Full article

A dendrochronological study was conducted on a submontane raised bog, Bór na Czerwonem, in the Orava–Nowy Targ Basin in Southern Poland. In the past, the bog was drained to enable peat extraction. In recent years, a number of measures considered as active protection were undertaken, including the construction of ridges and locks, filling of the drainage trenches, and clearance of most of the tree stand on the bog dome. Pinus sylvestris, P. × rhaetica, and P. mugo were the focuses of the study, which aimed to determine the age of the genus stand and its age structure and to identify the factors influencing tree ring width. The age of the trees indicates a post-war succession induced by large-scale drainage in 1942, although single trees were present on the bog dome as early as the late 19th century, and probably earlier. High values of pith eccentricity at ground level testify to substratum instability and the impact of strong winds on tree ring formation. The growth–climate relationships change with the progressive climate change: the significance of insolation increases, while the significance of the absolute air temperature decreases. The thermal and pluvial conditions of the summer in the previous growth season, however, make the strongest impact on the tree ring width in the following growth season. The health of the trees left growing on the bog, due to the constantly rising water level, will likely deteriorate, and a decreasing number of seedlings will be observed. A full assessment of the conducted restoration efforts, however, will be possible after years of monitoring of the bog environment. Full article

For two centuries, metallic shipwrecks have been relics of the history of navigation, trade, and wars. They are also hotspots of marine biodiversity. The degradation of these shipwrecks not only threatens their environment through the release of polluting compounds, but also the reef ecosystems that have developed. Microorganisms are at the root of both degradation and reef-building, and their roles are still more hypothetical than validated. The aim of this review is to focus on the known or suggested relationships between bacteria and metallic shipwrecks and to identify issues that highlight the need for multidisciplinary studies to better understand the mechanisms at play in these ecosystems with the aim of protecting both the environment and these sites of underwater cultural and natural heritage. Full article

This article proposes a close reading of Rivers Solomon’s 2019 novella The Deep, a recent eco-story about water, memory, and survival. Solomon’s work is inspired by a song called “The Deep” from experimental hip-hop group clipping, a dark science fiction tale about the underwater-dwelling descendants of African women thrown off slave ships during the Middle Passage. This imaginative alternate history, or counter-mythology, was invented by the Detroit techno band Drexciya, which, in a series of releases between 1992 and 2002, tells us the story of an underwater realm in the mid-Atlantic, where merpeople and their descendants establish a utopian society in the sea, free from the war and racism on the surface. My analysis uses Saidiya Hartman’s “critical fabulation” to make productive sense of the gaps in the archive of trans-Atlantic slavery that silence the voices of enslaved women, listening to the voices of water to imagine not only what was but also what could be. Moreover, this article examines The Deep through a trajectory that moves from the ocean as a space that reproduces death only to the ocean as a generative force for posthuman and multispecies kinship. Using Black hydrocriticism, hydrofeminism, and econarratology, I will argue that this transition is made possible by the “despatialization” of the ocean—a concept introduced by Erin James—where the ocean is conceived not as a fixed or stable environment, but as a space in constant flux, defying stability, and the subsequent immersion in its waters. Full article

The Syrdarya Delta, located in semi-arid and arid Central Asia, is an important water source for fertile landscapes. The environmental history of the Syrdarya Delta (SD) during the 19th and 20th centuries is a diverse and understudied subject, and its natural and anthropogenic aspects changed drastically during this period. As a result of the Syrdarya Delta’s location, on the shores of the former Aral Sea, there is a vital need to expand our understanding of the phases and policies that led to the current condition. This study argues that by integrating methods from social and natural sciences and applying them to selected historical materials, among them, former classified materials from the Cold War period, we can expand our understanding regarding the extent and types of disruptions in the Syrdarya Delta ecological system. The main findings of this study show that between the second part of the 19th and the 21st centuries, a period of roughly a hundred and fifty years, the SD changed drastically in aspects of urban areas, which increased during the Soviet period, changes in land use and hydrography, with changes in the amounts, size and flowing directions of water streams in the SD. The findings also present changes in vegetative cover and amounts parallel to salinization of the soil, which increased in the 1970s–1980s, and changes in the meeting point of the former Aral Sea with the SD. The findings of the study indicate that most of these changes can be attributed to anthropogenic factors, which have taken place mainly since the 1960s–1970s under the USSR regime. As this study presents, such materials can assist in reconstructing land use and land cover from the years to which our data are limited by integrating them with modern satellite image analysis, thus being able to quantify and estimate the amounts and types of these changes regarding salinization, land use and land cover and hydrology, which are crucial for studying deltas located in arid and semi-arid landscapes, such as the SD. This study presents evidence and argues that these data are of pivotal importance and should be used when attempting to rehabilitate and manage today’s Syrdarya Delta landscapes and hydrology. Full article

In this essay, I read Kafka’s 1913 story, “Das Urteil”, as positing an anachronistic media history, with Georg the son representing the older medium of writing, while his father stands in for the newer medium of cinema. The father–son conflict is thus refigured as an intergenerational media war. In addition, I suggest that the end of the story points toward a non-human mediation, which resembles artificial intelligence as imagined by Friedrich Kittler’s media theory. Full article

This study analyzes the award-winning documentary film Searching for Rodakis, directed by Kerem Soyyilmaz, produced in 2023. The aim of this study is the historic comprehension and analysis of this filmic narrative in the field of social–semiotic literacy and its utilization in historical studies for approaching issues of conflict in modern history, otherness, collective experience and trauma, and collective memory. The research material is the documentary Searching for Rodakis (produced by Denmark, Turkey 2023; screenplay/director, Kerem Soyyilmaz; duration, 57’), which received the following awards: Adana Golden Boll FF 2023 Turkey | Best Documentary, Thessaloniki International Doc. Festival 2023 Greece, Greek Film Festival Los Angeles 2023 USA, and Istanbul Documentary Days 2023 Turkey. As regards the historic context, the year of production, 2023, coincides with the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, where Turkey’s current borders were set and the “population exchange” legally sealed, i.e., the violent expulsion of 400,000 Muslims, citizens of Greece, many of whom spoke only Greek, and 200,000 Orthodox citizens of Turkey, who in the majority spoke Turkish. At the same time, the Treaty of Lausanne ratified and finalized the expulsion of approximately one million Orthodox who were forced to leave the Ottoman Empire, as well as 120,000 Muslims who had fled Greece since the beginning of the Balkan Wars (1912–1913). About two million people were deported and lost their citizenship and property, in the context of “national homogeneity” (which connotes an ethnic cleansing), with the official states ignoring the criticisms of lawyers and academics who spoke of violations of constitutional rights. Mohammedan Greeks, estimated at around 190,000 as early as 1914, based on ecclesiastical statistics in the Pontus region, did not receive attention from the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne, even though linguistically and culturally (origin, customs, culture and traditions) they did not differ in any way from the Orthodox Greeks. In Turkey, there was general indifference to the thousands of desperate people who arrived, with the exception of a few academics and the Lausanne Exchange Foundation. The filmic scenario is as follows: as a Greek tombstone of unknown origin is discovered underneath the floorboards in an old village house in Turkey, an almost forgotten story from the country’s creation unravels—the forced population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. The engraved Greek letters tell of a woman, Chrysoula Rodaki, who died in 1887. Thus the search for her descendants begins. It leads director Kerem Soyyilmaz to local archives, where his own family’s role in history is laid bare; to abandoned ghost towns, and through the memories of older villagers—all while Soyyilmaz meets massive support for his quest from Greeks on the other side of the border. The stone becomes a portal to the past—and for a while, the trauma becomes redeemed when the previous owners of the village house return. Searching for Rodakis is a movie that reconnects people, culture, and the stories that were discarded in order to build a strong, nationalist state—told through the director’s personal experiences. The research questions, as they arise from the cinematographic material itself, are as follows: How is the historical memory of traumatic events of the previous century, such as the exchange of populations according the Treaty of Lausanne, recorded in the cinematographic narrative? What are the historical sources? To what extent did the origin, ethnicity, and geographical location of the narrators as participants influence the preservation of historical memory and the historical research? What are the criteria of the approach of the creator, and what are the criteria of the participants? Methodologically, we apply historic and socio-semiotic analyses in the field of public and digital history. The results: The types of historical sources found in filmic public discourse include the oral narration of testimonies, of experiences and of memories, as well as the director’s historical research in state archives, the material cultural objects, and the director’s digital research. Thus, historic thematic categories occur, such as the specific persons and actions in Turkey/Greece, actions on-site and in online research, and the types of historical sources, such as oral testimonies, research in archives, and objects of material culture. Sub-themes such as childhood, localities and kinship also emerge. These cinematic recordings of biographical oral narratives as historical and sociological material help us understand the political ideologies of the specific period, between the years 1919 and 1923. The multimodal film material is analyzed to provide testimonies of oral and digital history; it is utilized to approach the historical reality of “otherness”, seeking dialogue in cross-border history in order to identify differences, but above all the historic and cultural similarities against sterile stereotypes. The historic era and the historic geography of the Greek and Turkish national histories concern us for research and teaching purposes a hundred years after the Treaty of Lausanne which set the official borders of the countries. Full article

Conflict-related sexual violence remains a systematic tool employed in warfare and terrorism to undermine communities, as recognized by the UN Security Council in Resolutions 1820 (2008) and 2242 (2015). Sexual violence has been a persistent issue throughout the history of conflict, war, and human existence. However, the victimization of men and boys remains insufficiently acknowledged and reported. This under-recognition can be attributed to several factors, such as societal stigma, the topic’s sensitive nature, prevailing stereotypes, and cultural influences. Male sexual violence is recognized as a critical public health concern because of its profound, immediate, and lasting effects on the victims, their loved ones, the community, and society at large. This paper examines the social and relational consequences of such violence on the individual victims, their significant others, and the wider society. The analysis will draw upon data gathered from the author’s doctoral thesis conducted in the Eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2021, as well as recent research on this critical issue to enrich the discussion. Full article

Background: The transition through pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum significantly impacts maternal mental health, influencing both individual and family well-being. While social support and emotion regulation serve as protective factors generally, their role and impact during periods of conflict remains understudied. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 400 Jewish mothers (up to two years postpartum) from a representative sample in Israel during a period of conflict. Participants were recruited through the Sekernet platform, a validated online survey tool in Israel. The study population included Jewish mothers up to two years postpartum, aged 18–45, without a history of diagnosed mental health disorders. Inclusion criteria specified mothers aged 18–45 and within two years postpartum, while exclusion criteria included mothers under 18, over 45, more than two years postpartum, or with a history of diagnosed mental illness or psychiatric disorders. Using validated instruments, we assessed psychological well-being (PWB), anxiety (GAD-7), perceived stress (PSS), resilience (CD-RISC), emotion regulation strategies (ERQ), quality of life (WHO-5), social support (MSPSS), and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PCL-5). Additionally, exposure to conflict-related media and direct exposure to war events were measured using self-reported questionnaires evaluating frequency and type of exposure during the conflict period. Results: Cognitive reappraisal and resilience positively correlated with psychological well-being (p < 0.01), while expressive suppression and general stress negatively correlated with both psychological well-being and quality of life (p < 0.01). Mediation analysis revealed that social support significantly mediated the effects of stress on psychological well-being (β = −0.060; p < 0.05) and quality of life (β = −0.05; p < 0.05). Additionally, exposure to conflict-related media and post-traumatic stress symptoms correlated with reduced well-being and increased anxiety. Conclusions: Our findings emphasize the vital roles of social support systems and adaptive emotional regulation strategies during the postpartum period, particularly in conflict settings. Healthcare providers should implement interventions that strengthen social support networks and teach adaptive emotion regulation skills to postpartum mothers in conflict zones. Full article