'Le Siège de Calais' by Pierre-Laurent de Belloy

Le Siège de Calais, hailed by its author in 1765 as France’s ‘première tragédie nationale’, rolled into Paris like a storm. Pierre-Laurent de Belloy’s play about French bravery during the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) appeared on the heels of France’s defeat in the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). Le Siège de Calais was performed throughout Europe and published numerous times during the second half of the eighteenth century. De Belloy emerged as a national hero, receiving prizes from Louis XV, accolades from the city of Calais, and membership to the prestigious Académie française. Since the French Revolution, however, the popularity of Le Siège de Calais has eclipsed, owing to its overt glorification of France’s royal machine. Several hundred years later, the play warrants a fresh look from a holistic perspective. De Belloy’s tragedy and the varied responses it provoked – many of which are included in this edition – offer complex representations of French political history and patriotic sentiment. Le Siège de Calais reveals conflicting images of gender roles, political debate and family values during the twilight of the Ancien régime; it also constituted one of the last moments when serious drama asserted its role as a popular force.

Bacchus and Civic Order: The Culture of Drink in Early Modern Germany / Bacchus und die bürgerliche Ordnung. Die Kultur des Trinkens im frühneuzeitlichen Augsburg

Lining the streets inside the city's gates, clustered in its center, and thinly scattered among its back quarters were Augsburg's taverns and drinking rooms. These institutions ranged from the poorly lit rooms of backstreet wine sellers to the elaborate marble halls frequented by society's most privileged members. Urban drinking rooms provided more than food, drink, and lodging for their guests. They also conferred upon their visitors a sense of social identity commensurate with their status. Like all German cities, Augsburg during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had a history shaped by the political events attending the Reformation, the post-Reformation, and the Thirty Years' War; its social and political character was also reflected and supported by its public and private drinking rooms. In Bacchus and Civic Order: The Culture of Drink in Early Modern Germany, Ann Tlusty examines the social and cultural functions served by drinking and tavern life in Germany between 1500 and 1700, and challenges existing theories about urban identity, sociability, and power. Through her reconstruction of the social history of Augsburg, from beggars to council members, Tlusty also sheds light on such diverse topics as social ritual, gender and household relations, medical practice, and the concerns of civic leaders with public health and poverty. Drunkenness, dueling, and other forms of tavern comportment that may appear "disorderly" to us today turn out to be the inevitable, even desirable result of a society functioning according to its own rules.

From Unsuitable Ally to Vital Parter: The Case of US-Korean Relations and The Vietnam War, 1954-1966

This is the history of the decade prior to the entrance of Korean troops into the Vietnam War, roughly covering the years 1953-1965.

Spinning Song

More than twelve years ago, during the car rides to school, my paternal grandmother, or Obasan as she is known in our family, first began telling me her stories about living in the Philippines during the Japanese Occupation. At the time, I did not know much about World War II, but her stories about being captured by the Japanese soldiersfascinated me. Years have passed, and only recently did I really begin to grasp not only the poignancy of these accounts, but also their importance in a larger context. The absence of first-hand narratives about World War II and the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines from the point of view of a Filipino woman is problematic, and I hope that my grandmother’s story can fill this hole in war literature. There are two main parts to the narrative. The first eight chapters of my thesis are about the early years of the Japanese Occupation. During this time, Obasan and her familylived a relatively peaceful life, with the exception of a few troubling encounters with the Japanese. The last seven chapters recount the Liberation of the Philippines and the days when Obasan and her family were held captive by the Japanese. The primary sources for this thesis are the interviews I have conducted with my grandmother over the course of this year and her own handwritten memoir that she composed in the last two decades. I focus specifically on the three chapters that she wrote about the war. I have also included poems written by women and historical background on the Philippines and World War II. Spinning Song is what I call a hybrid-memoir, as it retells Obasan’s stories about the war and explores the ways in which our experiences as grandmother and granddaughter intersect. More importantly, it is my way of preserving the legacy of my grandmother and paying tribute to the woman who has shaped much of who I am today.