Solidarity and power in German : language as political action : a contribution to the socio-cultural history of the German language

Germany's latest attempt at unification raises again the question of German nationhood and nationality. The present study examines the links between the development of the German language and the political history of Germany, principally in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By examining the role of language in the establishment and exercise of political power and in the creation of national and group solidarity in Germany, the study both provides insights into the nature of language as political action and contributes to the socio-cultural history of the German language. The language-theoretical hypothesis on which the study is based sees language as a central factor in political action, and opposes the notion that language is a reflection of underlying political 'realities' which exist independently of language. Language is viewed as language-in-text which performs identifiable functions. Following Leech, five functions are distinguished, two of which (the regulative and the phatic) are regarded as central to political processes. The phatic function is tested against the role of the German language as a creator and symbol of national identity, with particular attention being paid to concepts of the 'purity' of the language. The regulative function (under which a persuasive function is also subsumed) is illustrated using the examples of German fascist discourse and selected cases from German history post-1945. In addition, the interactions are examined between language change and socio-economic change by postulating that language change is both a condition and consequence of socio-economic change, in that socio-economic change both requires and conditions changes in the communicative environment. Finally, three politocolinguistic case studies from the eight and ninth decades of the twentieth century are introduced in order to demonstrate specific ways in which language has been deployed in an attempt to create political realities, thus verifying the initial hypothesis of the centrality of language to the political process.

Brain and mind in the 'long' eighteenth century

How should the 'long' eighteenth century be defined? January 1, 1700 and December 31, 1799 are quite arbitrary dates. Why should they be chosen to segment our history rather than more significant periods of time, periods which have a coherent content, or are marked, perhaps, by the working out of a theme? Students of English literature sometimes take the long eighteenth century to extend from John Milton (Paradise Lost, 1667) to the passing of the first generation of Romantics (Keats (d. 1821), Shelley (d. 1822), Byron (d. 1824), Coleridge (d. 1834)). Students of British political history often take it to start with the accession of Charles II (the Restoration) in 1660 or, alternatively, the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688 and to end with the great Reform Act of 1832. Others might choose different book ends. In the history of science and philosophy the terminus a quo is sometimes taken as the publication of Descartes' scientific philosophy or, in more Anglophone zones, the 1687 publication of Newton's Principia with its vision of a 'clockwork universe'. 'Nature and Nature's laws' as Alexander Pope enthused, 'lay hid in Night: God said, Let Newton be! and all was light!'.

The Ecumenical movement and the making of the European Community

The European Community has largely been considered a predominantly secular project, bringing together the economic and political realms, while failing to mobilise the public voice and imagination of churchmen and the faithful. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, this is the first study to assess the political history of religious dialogue in the European Community. It challenges the widespread perception that churches started to engage with European institutions only after the 1979 elections to the European Parliament, by detailing close relations between churchmen and high-ranking officials in European institutions, immediately after the 1950 Schuman Declaration. Lucian N. Leustean demonstrates that Cold War divisions between East and West, and the very nature of the ecumenical movement, had a direct impact on the ways in which churches approached the European Community. He brings to light events and issues which have not previously been examined, such as the response of churches to the Schuman Plan, and the political mobilisation of church representations in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg. Leustean argues that the concept of a 'united Europe' has been impeded by competing national differences between religious and political institutions, having a long-standing legacy on the making of a fragmented European Community.