Siege und Niederlagen, Irrtümer und Erkenntnisse nach 30 Jahren Geschlechtergeschichte. Eine Bilanz

Die Geschlechtergeschichte blickt mittlerweile auf eine mehr als fünf Jahrzehnte überspannende Entwicklung zurück. Wenn Geschlechtergeschichte inzwischen auch bis in die Schulbücher und in die Einführungen zum Geschichtsstudium Eingang gefunden hat, nimmt sie im Fach dennoch weiterhin eine ambivalente Position ein: Sie war einerseits an wichtigen theoretischen Entwicklungen maßgeblich beteiligt (Alltagsgeschichte, historische Anthropologie, linguistic turn, cultural turn, postcolonial turn), andererseits haftet ihr bis heute der Ruch der politisch gefärbten und daher tendenziösen und „unsoliden“ Wissenschaft an. Im Panel soll es darum gehen, wichtige Stationen der Entwicklung der Geschlechtergeschichte (von der Frauen- zur Geschlechtergeschichte, von der feministischen zur akademischen Forschung, von der Etablierung zur Kritik der Kategorie Geschlecht, vom Um-Schreiben der Geschichte zur Historiographie der Geschlechtergeschichte usw.) nachzuvollziehen sowie die wichtigsten Erträge der geschlechtergeschichtlichen Forschung zu beleuchten und Felder zu benennen, in denen die geschlechtergeschichtliche Forschung die Geschichtswissenschaft insgesamt beeinflusst und verändert hat. Dies soll in zwei Etappen realisiert werden: Im ersten Panel sollen wichtige Leistungen der Geschlechtergeschichte innerhalb der Geschichtswissenschaft beleuchtet und deren Rezeption innerhalb der pluralisierten geschichtswissenschaftlichen Ansätze diskutiert werden. In einem zweiten Schritt sollen wichtige Entwicklungen innerhalb der Geschlechtergeschichte themen- bzw. problemspezifisch präsentiert und diskutiert werden. Dies soll in Form einer round table-Diskussion erfolgen. Dabei richtet sich der Blick v.a. auf den bundesdeutschen Raum, ohne aber internationale Entwicklungen dabei außer Acht zu lassen.

From the Sea to Paris and back: On the interdependence of economic warfare, weather conditions and the submarine campaign 1916-1917

Starting of from Avner Offer’s comment that the First World War was not only a war of steel and gold, but also of bread and potatoes (1989: 1) and my own research on British as well as Australian preparations for economic warfare and based on sources from the entente as well as the central powers but also from the United States, Canada and Australia, may presentation will focus on the interdependence of the measures taken by entente as well as central power authorities in the second half of 1916. Already a year before both sides had become aware that this war would not only be decided on the battlefield, but that the issues of primary as well as secondary resources would be decisive. Accordingly measures that could strike the enemy in this field were discussed and put into place more and more and this at time, when weather conditions caused a reduction of harvest all over Europe, Northern America and Argentina.

The Secular State Under Siege: Religion and Politics in Europe and America

Throughout human history, religion and politics have entertained the most intimate of connections as systems of authority regulating individuals and society. While the two have come apart through the process of secularization, secularism is challenged today by the return of public religion. This cogent analysis unravels the nature of the connection, disconnection, and attempted reconnection between religion and politics in the West. In a comparison of Western Europe and North America, Christianity and Islam, Joppke advances far-reaching theoretical, historical, and comparative-political arguments. With respect to theory, it is argued that only a “substantive” concept of religion, as pertaining to the existence of supra-human powers, opens up the possibility of a historical-comparative perspective on religion. At the level of history, secularization is shown to be the distinct outcome of Latin Christianity itself. And at the level of comparative politics, the Christian Right in America which has attacked the “wall of separation” between religion and state and Islam in Europe with the controversial insistence on sharia law and other “illiberal” claims from some quarters are taken to be counterpart incarnations of public religion and challenges to the secular state. This clearly argued, sweeping book will provide an invaluable framework for approaching an array of critical issues at the intersection of religion, law and politics for advanced students and researchers across the social sciences and legal studies, as well as for the interested public.

Empowering Interactions. Political Cultures and the Emergence of the State. in Europe 1300-1900

The emergence of the state in Europe is a topic that has engaged historians since the establishment of the discipline of history. Yet the primary focus of has nearly always been to take a top-down approach, whereby the formation and consolidation of public institutions is viewed as the outcome of activities by princes and other social elites. Yet, as the essays in this collection show, such an approach does not provide a complete picture. By investigating the importance of local and individual initiatives that contributed to state building from the late middle ages through to the nineteenth century, this volume shows how popular pressure could influence those in power to develop new institutional structures. By not privileging the role of warfare and of elite coercion for state building, it is possible to question the traditional top-down model and explore the degree to which central agencies might have been more important for state representation than for state practice. The studies included in this collection treat many parts of Europe and deal with different phases in the period between the late middle ages and the nineteenth century. Beginning with a critical review of state historiography, the introduction then sets out the concept of 'empowering interactions' which is then explored in the subsequent case studies and a number of historiographical, methodological and theoretical essays. Taken as a whole this collection provides a fascinating platform to reconsider the relationships between top-down and bottom-up processes in the history of the European state.

Genetic diversity in the modern horse illustrated from genome-wide SNP data.

Horses were domesticated from the Eurasian steppes 5,000-6,000 years ago. Since then, the use of horses for transportation, warfare, and agriculture, as well as selection for desired traits and fitness, has resulted in diverse populations distributed across the world, many of which have become or are in the process of becoming formally organized into closed, breeding populations (breeds). This report describes the use of a genome-wide set of autosomal SNPs and 814 horses from 36 breeds to provide the first detailed description of equine breed diversity. F(ST) calculations, parsimony, and distance analysis demonstrated relationships among the breeds that largely reflect geographic origins and known breed histories. Low levels of population divergence were observed between breeds that are relatively early on in the process of breed development, and between those with high levels of within-breed diversity, whether due to large population size, ongoing outcrossing, or large within-breed phenotypic diversity. Populations with low within-breed diversity included those which have experienced population bottlenecks, have been under intense selective pressure, or are closed populations with long breed histories. These results provide new insights into the relationships among and the diversity within breeds of horses. In addition these results will facilitate future genome-wide association studies and investigations into genomic targets of selection.