Dogs in the paradise: The influence of the cynical philosophy in the construction of the myth of the good savage

This paper studies the influence of cynic philosophy in the construction of the myth of the good savage. In the first part it studies the importance of cynicism in the XVI century and how the cynic influence of Erasmus, More and Montaigne was fundamental to the way that Europe approached the American indigenous. In the second part it studies the cynic motives that could have influenced in the construction of the myth of the good savage.

Women artists of the international avant-garde: the case of "Abstraction-Création" (1931-1936)

Women’s contribution to abstract art in the interwar period is a subject that, to date, has received very little attention. In this article we deal with the untold story of the participation of women artists in Abstraction-Création, the foremost international group dedicated to abstract art in the 1930s. Founded in Paris in 1931, the group took on the work of two previous collectives to become a platform for the dissemination and promotion of abstract art and consisted of around a hundred members. Twelve of these were women, whose writings and works were published in the group’s annual magazine, abstraction creátion art non figuratif (1932-1936), and who participated in a number of the group’s exhibitions. Compared to what had occurred in previous groups, the participation of women, although reduced in number, was comparable to that of the male artists and being members of the group had a generally positive impact on the women’s careers. However, all this came at the expense of relinquishing any gender specificity in their work and the public presentation of it, and demonstrates that the normalization of women’s contributions to the avant-garde could only be brought about alongside a questioning of the more dogmatic views of modernity.

A European Culture War in the Twentieth Century? Antic-Catholicism and Anti-Bolshevism between Moscow, Berlin, and the Vatican 1922 to 1933

The term “culture war” has become a generic expression for secular-catholic conflicts across nineteenth-century Europe. Yet, if measured by acts of violence, anticlericalism peaked in the years between 1927 and 1939, when thousands of Catholic priests and believers were imprisoned or executed and hundreds of churches razed in Mexico, Spain and Russia. This essay argues that not only in these three countries, but indeed across Europe a culture war raged in the interwar period. It takes, as a case study, the interaction of communist and Catholic actors located in the Vatican, the Soviet Union, and Germany in the period between the beginning of the Pontificate of Pius XI in 1922 and Hitler’s appointment as chancellor of Germany in 1933. Using correspondence and reports from the Vatican archives, this essay shows how Papal officials and communist leaders each sought to mobilize the German populace to achieve their own diplomatic ends. German Catholics and communists gladly responded to the call to arms that sounded from Rome and Moscow in 1930, but they did so also to further their own domestic goals. The case study shows how national contexts inflected the transnational dynamics of radical anti-Catholicism in interwar Europe. In the end, agitation against “godlessness” did not lead to the return of a “Christian State” desired by many conservative Christians. Instead, the culture war further destabilized the republic and added a religious dimension to a landscape well suited to National Socialist efforts to reach a Christian population otherwise mistrustful of its völkisch and anticlerical elements.

Letter, Greenwood, SC, to Oliver Hawes Spencer, Chesterfield, SC, 1857 July 28

This letter is to O. H. Spencer.

Decisão política no Estado Novo, 1933-1939

Os processos de decisão política em regimes não democráticos têm sido objecto de um interesse crescente, quer em relação às ditaduras do período entre guerras, quer no âmbito dos chamados «novos autoritarismos ». Os estudos sobre as elites assentam na ideia de que o seu perfil constitui um factor determinante na distribuição do poder (Rees 2005; Almeida, Pinto e Bermeo 2006). Já os estudos centrados nas instituições defendem que as regras de funcionamento das estruturas de poder são uma fonte fundamental para a compreensão do processo decisório (Gandhi 2008). Por fim, a investigação sobre os tipos de liderança tem sustentado a ideia de que o processo de decisão política pode ser entendido com base no aspecto carismático, burocrático-legal e tradicional do líder (Pinto, Eatwell e Larsen 2007; Kershaw 2009). Sendo a centralização do poder uma das variáveis de estudo do processo de decisão política, dificilmente será captada pela análise isolada de cada um desses aspectos. Pelo contrário, as variáveis da centralização e da decisão política devem ser tratadas articulando a investigação do funcionamento das instituições, da natureza das elites e do tipo de liderança do ditador. Procurando pôr em prática esta ideia, estuda-se aqui a centralização do poder político em Portugal durante o período de institucionalização do Estado Novo (1933-1939), explorando simultaneamente as dimensões formais e informais da decisão política. Analisa-se, em particular, o papel do Conselho de Ministros, já que certos estudos publicados ao longo das últimas décadas sugerem que Salazar desvalorizou substancialmente este órgão, contrariamente ao que sucedeu durante os anos que antecederam e sucederam ao salazarismo – ou seja, na ditadura militar (1926-1933) e no marcelismo (1968-1974).

Annual Christmas Concert, December 14, 1933

Concert Program for Annual Christmas Concert, December 14, 1933

Em torno da revista Junges Europa. A propaganda, a cultura e a ideologia ao serviço das relações luso-alemãs (1933-1945)

Dissertação de Mestrado em História, àrea de especialização em História Contemporânea

Políticas da memória da I Guerra Mundial em Portugal 1918-1933. Entre a experiência e o mito

Dissertação apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Doutor em História

A política religiosa do Estado Novo (1933-1974): estado, leis, governação e interesses religiosos

Tese de Doutoramento em História Contemporânea

Simenon, un auteur et ses lecteurs : une économie de la grandeur

En invitant à se pencher sur les modalités concrètes de la réception d'un écrivain, l'étude des lettres de lecteurs à Simenon met en lumière ce que ce dernier fait à et pour eux, et ce, dans l'enchevêtrement de la personne réelle, du personnage de fiction (Maigret) et de la vedette. Les traits marquants de la relation auteurs-lecteurs sont examinés, en tenant compte de la tension spécifique engendrée par les valeurs marchandes et symboliques portées ensemble par un auteur présent sur plus d'un terrain : commercial, médiatique et littéraire. Au final, il s'agit de décrire les formes d'un « attachement aux grands singuliers » (Heinich) qu'illustre la correspondance « ordinaire » à Simenon.