Can You Home Again? Desertion and Control of Hometowns in Civil Wars

What allows an armed group in a civil war to prevent desertion? This paper addresses this question with a focus on control in the rearguard. Most past studies focus on motivations for desertion. They explain desertion in terms of where soldiers stand in relation to the macro themes of the war, or in terms of an inability to provide positive incentives to overcome the collective action problem. However, since individuals decide whether and how to participate in civil wars for multiple reasons, responding to a variety of local conditions in an environment of threat and violence, a focus only on macro-level motivations is incomplete. The opportunities side of the ledger deserves more attention. I therefore turn my attention to how control by an armed group eliminates soldiers’ opportunities to desert. In particular, I consider the control that an armed group maintains over soldiers’ hometowns, treating geographic terrain as an important exogenous indicator of the ease of control. Rough terrain at home affords soldiers and their families and friends advantages in ease of hiding, the difficulty of using force, and local knowledge. Based on an original dataset of soldiers from Santander Province in the Spanish Civil War, gathered from archival sources, I find statistical evidence that the rougher the terrain in a soldier’s home municipality, the more likely he is to desert. I find complementary qualitative evidence indicating that soldiers from rough-terrain communities took active advantage of their greater opportunities for evasion. This finding has important implications for the way observers interpret different soldiers’ decisions to desert or remain fighting, for the prospect that structural factors may shape the cohesion of armed groups, and for the possibility that local knowledge may be a double-edged sword, making soldiers simultaneously good at fighting and good at deserting.

Cibernautes de la memòria : la construcció de la memòria col·lectiva de la guerra civil espanyola a través de la participació en espais virtuals de comunicació. El cas de la llista de distribució "Guerra Civil Española"

El present treball fa una anàlisi de la construcció, presència i reivindicació de la memòria col·lectiva de la guerra civil espanyola a internet mitjançant l'anàlisi etnogràfic de les interaccions i pràctiques en un espai de comunicació virtual: el de la llista de distribució "Guerra Civil Española". Aquest estudi de cas es contextualitza en el marc d'un doble escenari global i local, el context global de la cultura de la memòria a la societat de la informació i el context local de la dinàmica de la presència de la memòria de la guerra civil a l'entorn social i polític de l'Estat Espanyol al llarg dels darrers 30 anys.

L'actitud de quatre escriptors catalans davant la Guerra civil (1936-1939) : Joan Sales, Pere Calders, Avel·lí Artís-Gener i Marià Manent

L'objectiu d'aquest treball és aclarir, fins on sigui possible, quines van ser les reaccions de quatre escriptors catalans en esclatar el conflicte, Pere Calders, Avel·lí Artís-Gener (

Infectious disease among enslaved African Americans at Eaton's Estate, Warren County, North Carolina, ca. 1830-1850

The skeletal remains of 17 people buried in the Eaton Ferry Cemetery in northern North Carolina provide a means of examining health and infectious disease experience in the XIX century South. The cemetery appears to contain the remains of African Americans enslaved on the Eaton family estate from approximately 1830-1850, and thus offers a window into the biological impacts of North American slavery in the years preceding the Civil War. The sample includes the remains of six infants, one child, and one young and nine mature adults (five men, four women, and one unknown). Skeletal indices used to characterize health and disease in the Eaton Ferry sample include dental caries, antemortem tooth loss, enamel hypoplasia, porotic hyperostosis, periosteal lesions, lytic lesions, and stature. These indicators reveal a cumulative picture of compromised health, including high rates of dental disease, childhood growth disruption, and infectious disease. Specific diseases identified in the sample include tuberculosis and congenital syphilis. Findings support previous research on the health impacts of slavery, which has shown that infants and children were the most negatively impacted segment of the enslaved African American population.

Art i guerra civil (1936-1939): l'exemple de Girona

Article on es fa un breu repàs a l'activitat plàstica desenvolupada a la ciutat de Girona en temps de La Guerra Civil (1936-1939) i on s' estableixen quinesvaren ser les manifestacions públiques, les notes que les caracteritzaren i llursprotagonistes principals

Does Warfare Matter? Severity, Duration, and Outcomes of Civil Wars

Importa si una guerra civil es combat com un conflicte irregular, convencional o simètric no convencional? En altres paraules, tenen les “tecnologies de la rebel·lió” un impacte sobre la gravetat d’una guerra, la seva durada o el seu resultat? Aquest treball mostra que els conflictes irregulars duren més que els altres tipus de conflicte, mentre els convencionals tendeixen a ser més greus en termes de letalitat al camp de batalla. D’altra banda, els conflictes irregulars tendeixen a ser guanyats pels governs, mentre els altres són més propensos a acabar en empat. Substancialment, aquests resultats ens ajuden a donar sentit a l’evolució de les guerres civils, les quals tendeixen a ser més curtes, més intenses i més difícils per als governs. Teòricament, aquests resultats donen suport a la importància de la tecnologia de rebel·lió a l’estudiar la gravetat, la durada i els resultats de les guerres civils; a més, contribueixen a una millor comprensió de la contribució històrica de la guerra irregular a la construcció de l’Estat i al canvi social.

War Signals: A Theory of Trade, Trust and Conflict

We construct a dynamic theory of civil conflict hinging on inter-ethnic trust and trade. The model economy is inhabitated by two ethnic groups. Inter-ethnic trade requires imperfectly observed bilateral investments and one group has to form beliefs on the average propensity to trade of the other group. Since conflict disrupts trade, the onset of a conflict signals that the aggressor has a low propensity to trade. Agents observe the history of conflicts and update their beliefs over time, transmitting them to the next generation. The theory bears a set of testable predictions. First, war is a stochastic process whose frequency depends on the state of endogenous beliefs. Second, the probability of future conflicts increases after each conflict episode. Third, "accidental" conflicts that do not reflect economic fundamentals can lead to a permanent breakdown of trust, plunging a society into a vicious cycle of recurrent conflicts (a war trap). The incidence of conflict can be reduced by policies abating cultural barriers, fostering inter-ethnic trade and human capital, and shifting beliefs. Coercive peace policies such as peacekeeping forces or externally imposed regime changes have instead no persistent effects.

Historia de Vida de Andrés Díaz de Rábago S.J. (1947-1957): O cómo la Guerra Civil China cambió la estructura de la Compañía de Jesús en Asia.

Peer-reviewed

Civil conflict and human capital accumulation: The long-term effects of political violence in Perú

This paper provides empirical evidence of the persistent effect of exposure to political violence on humancapital accumulation. I exploit the variation in conflict location and birth cohorts to identify the longandshort-term effects of the civil war on educational attainment. Conditional on being exposed toviolence, the average person accumulates 0.31 less years of education as an adult. In the short-term,the effects are stronger than in the long-run; these results hold when comparing children within thesame household. Further, exposure to violence during early childhood leads to permanent losses. I alsoexplore the potential causal mechanisms.

Years of valor,1969.

This book was written by Edith Wasson McElroy and published by the Iowa Civil War Centennial Commission. It follows the Meigs, a fictitious family from the late 1680's in England to 1865 in Iowa. The Meigs personify the way of life, in a typical Iowa home during this period. Their experiences are those of many early Iowa pioneers and brings to life and into reality, early Iowa life and the Civil War in its climax.

Cultura obrera y prensa anarquista: radiografia de Guerra di Classe, plataforma de los anarquistas italianos durante la Guerra Civil en Catalunya, 1936-1938

Giovanni C. Cattini is a young historian who offers an itemized study on Berneri's Guerra di Classe: he refers the first moments and also the definitive crisis of this newspaper after Berneri¿s assassination in May 1937. This is not the first work devoted to this militant platform has been annalysed but Cattini's approach observes not only the ideological and political contest maintained with other sectors of the libertarian movement but the contrived militant tools that have allowed its existance during the Spanish Civil War.

Cultura obrera y prensa anarquista: radiografia de Guerra di Classe, plataforma de los anarquistas italianos durante la Guerra Civil en Catalunya, 1936-1938

Giovanni C. Cattini is a young historian who offers an itemized study on Berneri's Guerra di Classe: he refers the first moments and also the definitive crisis of this newspaper after Berneri¿s assassination in May 1937. This is not the first work devoted to this militant platform has been annalysed but Cattini's approach observes not only the ideological and political contest maintained with other sectors of the libertarian movement but the contrived militant tools that have allowed its existance during the Spanish Civil War.

La depuración del personal del Museo Arqueológico de Barcelona y del Servicio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas después de la Guerra Civil (1939-1941)

Al finalizar la Guerra Civil española (1936-1939), el personal del Museu d' Arqueologia y de la Secció d'Excavacions i Arqueologia del Servei del Patrimoni Artístic, Historic i Científic (SPAHC) de la suprimida Generalitat de Catalunya fue sometido a depuración por parte del Juzgado Militar Especial de Funcionarios de la Diputación Provincial de Barcelona. La llegada como nuevo director de Martín Almagro Basch, en substitución del exiliado Pere Bosch Gimpera, y el resultado de la reorganización subsiguiente marcaron el desarrollo de la investigación arqueológica en Cataluña hasta finales de la década de 1960.

Pieces of Iowa’s Past, March 21, 2012

Pieces of Iowa’s Past, published by the Iowa State Capitol Tour Guides weekly during the legislative session, features historical facts about Iowa, the Capitol, and the early workings of state government. All historical publications are reproduced here with the actual spelling, punctuation, and grammar retained. March 21, 2012 THIS WEEK: Quick Work at Carlisle(From the Indianola Tribune, December 20, 1877) BACKGROUND: Lewis Todhunter was born in Fayette County, Ohio, April 6, 1817. He was admitted to the bar in Highland County, Ohio, in 1848. Todhunter came to Iowa in 1850, settling along the Des Moines River in Polk County, where he was engaged in farming and selling goods. In 1854, he moved to Indianola and began the practice of law, continuing in that profession for more than a quarter of a century. He served as prosecuting attorney, county auditor, treasurer, and mayor of the city. He was a member of the third constitutional convention, which met at Iowa City in 1857, representing Warren, Madison, Adair, and Cass counties in that body and had the honor of assisting in making the first laws of the state. Todhunter served in the army during the Civil War from 1863-1865 as assistant quartermaster with rank of Captain. He is perhaps widest known, however, as a temperance leader and earnest worker. He joined in the Washingtonian movement in 1840 and was active in temperance reformation for the rest of his life.

La cartografía del Estado Mayor del Ejército de Tierra republicano durante la Guerra Civil española. El archivo del general Vicente Rojo

En los últimos años, se ha llevado a cabo un considerable esfuerzo de análisis y catalogación de la ingente cantidad de mapas militares, planos, croquis y vistas panorámicas realizados durante la Guerra Civil española, pero aún quedan múltiples aspectos por investigar. En este artículo, analizamos la formación cartográfica del general Vicente Rojo -el jefe del Estado Mayor del Ejército de Tierra republicano-, las relaciones de Rojo con la cartografía durante la Guerra Civil y la cartografía militar contenida en su archivo personal, que se custodia en el Archivo Histórico Nacional de Madrid. Dicha cartografía posee un gran valor cartográfico y militar, porque fue utilizada por el Estado Mayor del Ejército de Tierra republicano durante el período en que Rojo estuvo al frente del mismo, y porque contiene una serie de documentos cartográficos manuscritos inéditos de gran importancia para comprender el desarrollo de algunas de las operaciones bélicas principales.