A couple of days ago just before the United States inaugurated their new president – on Martin Luther King Day no less –, the old administration published a particular piece of writing: The 1776 Commission report. Partly conceived as a response to the New York Times’ 1619 Project, the COmmission was to provide a rather expansive view of American history from a “patriotic perspective”.
The report was blasted by actual historians. “This report skillfully weaves together myths, distortions, deliberate silences, and both blatant and subtle misreading of evidence to create a narrative and an argument that few respectable professional historians, even across a wide interpretive spectrum, would consider plausible, never mind convincing”, said James Grossman, Executive Director of the American Historical Association.
While the 1776 Commission Report is a particularly blatant example of what can be best described as nationalist entrepreneurship – more on that later – and additionally one that will soon be relegated to the dustbin of history where it belongs. It is, however, far from the only such endeavor and unlike this very blatant attempt, other such abuses of history can be more subtle.
What we are, who we are, and what we – with who that “we” is, is included in the malleable factors here – collectively stand for are things that change, indeed must change, as part of a larger political and social process. Identity is not primordial – what it means to be American, German, Chinese or Ghanian is not unchanging, eternal or predetermined.
Reflecting on the conflicts of the 1990s, specifically Rwanda and Yugoslavia, sociologist Rogers Brubaker published his book Ethnicity without Groups in 2004. In it, Brubaker reflects on an element that is constituent to these conflicts, is driving them and plays a huge part in how they are reflected inmedia and scholarships: The idea of the group. He writes:
"Group" functions as a seemingly unproblematic, taken-for-granted concept (...) As a result, we tend to take for granted not only the concept "group", but also "groups" – the putative things-in-the-world to which the concept refers. (...) This is what I will call groupism: the tendency to take discrete, sharply differentiated, internally homogeneous and externally bounded groups as basic constituents of social conflicts, and fundamental units of social analysis. In the domain of ethnicity, nationalism, and race, I mean by "groupism" the tendency to treat ethnic groups, nations and races as substantial entities to which interest and agency can be attributed.
What he argues for is that we need to understand such categories as ethnic or other groupist terms as something invoked and constructed by historical actors. It is these actors who cast ethnic, racial or national groups as the protagonists of conflict, of struggle. In fact, these categories, while essential to the actors casting them, referencing them, are in themselves a construct, a performance.
Brubaker:
Ethnicity, race, and nation should be conceptualized not as substances or things or entities or collective individuals – as the imagery of discrete, concrete, tangible, bounded and enduring "groups" encourages us to do – but rather in relational, processual, dynamic, and disaggregated terms. This means thinking of ethnicity, race, and nation not in terms of substantial groups or entities but in terms of practical categories, cultural idioms, cognitive schemas, discursive frames, organized routines, institutional forms, political projects and cognitive events. It means thinking of ethnicization, racialization and nationalization as political, social, cultural and psychological processes.
According to Burbaker, it is not just us all as a collective society that engage in this process of defining and re-defining these practical categories, cultural idioms etc. that define our groups, whether we want to or not. There are also distinct groups of people who deliberately engage in shaping the terms and dynamics that define them. Brubaker calls them “ethnopolitical entrepreneurs”. The biggest of these “ethnopolitical entrepreneurs” as well as the biggest target of other such ethnopolitical entrepreneurs is always the state. For the state shapes the most important and popular narratives that all people come in contact with through school education, and often most importantly history education. For unlike the future, which we do not know, history we do know and it therefore becomes our reference point when we want to define who we are and how we are.
Some time ago I have written about collective memory, which according to German historian Aleida Assmann is specifically not like individual memory. Institutions, societies, etc. have no memory akin to the individual memory because they obviously lack any sort of biological or naturally arisen base for it. Instead institutions like a state, a nation, a society, a church or even a company create their own memory using signifiers, signs, texts, symbols, rites, practices, places and monuments. These creations are not like a fragmented individual memory but are done willfully, based on thought out choice, and also unlike individual memory not subject to subconscious change but rather told with a specific story in mind that is supposed to represent an essential part of the identity of the institution and to be passed on and generalized beyond its immediate historical context. It's intentional and constructed symbolically.
Interventions in this social and political field – and nothing else is the 1776 Commission Report – are oftentimes not exactly exercises to engage in historical scholarship – to contribute to a discussion of how to better understand the past and to analyze it. Rather, these are attempts at shaping our understanding of who we are today by portraying our collective past in a certain, intentional and constructed manner.
While these always happen to some degree, it is noticeable that those ethnonationalist entrepreneurs with a specifically nationalist agenda tend to often completely eschew both the findings and the best practices and methodology of historical research. Unlike those who engage in these processes to be more critical of how we currently define ourselves and make who we are more inclusive, those who seek to glorify current groupist notions and to gatekeep their conceptions have a greater need for historical narratives that are neat, tidy, heroic and uncomplicated – narratives that by these very designs cannot fit with good historical scholarship that always leads to a picture that is more difficult, complicated, and less easy than it originally appears.
Beware those who want to present you with these easy, heroic und uncomplicated narratives where an ethnicity, a group, a nation or a race has always been a bastion of freedom ro culture or progress or civilization because not only will that most likely rely on very bad history behind it, it will also most often include the unspoken follow-up “and that’s why they need to rule over and dominate others”.
12 Answers 2021-01-25
I was looking at a picture of a soviet era twin jet powered train and its shape was very odd. In the west, before the 90s, most vehicles were well designed and looked beautiful. Clean curves and lines. However, when I look at soviet era vehicles, they seem mishappen. The worst are the box shapes, but that can be understood to have come from cost cutting measures, similar to the houses, correct me if I’m wrong please. But even major infrastructure projects, such as trains and airplanes, which would have been used to showcase soviet technology and design, just look like things were attached without thought for design. Most of these vehicles were also notorious for not working very well either.
So my main question is why were these vehicles, specifically the ‘larger’ and more important vehicles designed so terribly?
1 Answers 2021-01-25
Why didn't one of the Moroccan dynasties, Idrisids, Almohads, Almoravids or Marinids, conquer the neighboring Canary Islands before Castile did? Why wasn't there interest in spreading Islam to the pagan Guanche?
1 Answers 2021-01-25
I am watching a Frontline PBS documentary called Supreme Revenge. One point that is repeated is that getting your justice of choice to get confirmed is getting to wield generational power.
I am surprised that given the enormity of the title and the power it holds, there isn't enough dirty play going on. Why haven't the democrats ever tried to off a judge when the times were on their side to tip the scales of the SCOTUS in favour of progressives? Why haven't republicans?
I am not advocating that killing people you disagree with be the norm, but I'm surprised that presidents are somehow more polarizing in that people seem to be more motivated to kill them.
What stops people to stoop to savagery when it comes to supreme court justices?
1 Answers 2021-01-25
Really intrigued about the history besides the ancient lore of Norumbega. Would love to learn more!
1 Answers 2021-01-25
Since Robert E. Lee along with others such as Stonewall Jackson and James Longstreet were so talented and effective during the early phases of the war and therefore proved a serious hindrance to the Union war effort, why weren't any direct attempt on their lives sanctioned by the Union command ever made?
1 Answers 2021-01-25
Hi all!! Just finished a recent rewatch of Master and Commander and I’ve been playing the game Ultimate Admiral: Age of Sail, so my Horatio Nelson fascination is again at its most extreme.
But; why was he so incredibly talented? I don’t mean any disrespect whatsoever, it’s clear he is among the best admirals to have ever lived no doubt, but what skills or traits set him aside from other great admirals of the time?
Bonus points for any suggested reading on Nelson/his life and career/Age of Sail life and combat.
1 Answers 2021-01-25
Background: I was watching the Tri-State Living History Association's video on US Army field kitchens during the Second World War, and for reasons that yet elude me, decided to dip into the comments. I know enough to dismiss out of hand all the uninformed commentary there about what the Soviets ate, so I thought I'd get a more informed view.
Thus! What did the frontoviki eat? How many meals could your average trooper expect to see per day? How likely were they to get hot food versus relying on rations? Were their field kitchens comparable to the US ones, or did they also get US-made equipment via Lend-Lease?
1 Answers 2021-01-25
2 Answers 2021-01-25
1 Answers 2021-01-25
When I was in high school (I graduated in 2013), my teachers, who grew up in the 50s, 60s and 70s, told me that back when they were in high school, they were taught that Australia was "settled" because it was "Terra Nullius". They told me that if you mention the "Invasion of Australia" to any non-Indigenous person back then, it would be considered offensive and taboo.
Nowadays, the discussion on the Invasion of Australia has returned to public discourse and is now taught in the school curriculum. However, it still remains politically contentious.
In 1931, William Keith Hancock was able to write about the "Invasion of Australia". What happened after 1931 that has made it become taboo to talk about the "Invasion of Australia", and for his writings on the topic to be completely ignored by the school curriculum? From what I've been told, it would seem like no historian in the 50s, 60s or 70s would even dare to write about the "Invasion of Australia".
Finally, do we know if Hancock's writings about the "Invasion of Australia" back in 1931 caused significant public controversy and backlash? If not, why not?
5 Answers 2021-01-25
I’m making a video on Julius Caesar for school and am using mostly primary sources for my information. During the video, in text citations will pop up on screen as I say something that needs a source. So I’m just wondering, should they be written like this:
(“C. Julius Caesar, Gallic War, Book 4, Chapter 15”)
Or like this:
(Caesar, 4.15)
Or am I missing the mark completely. Sorry I’m seeing conflicting info online and I’m pretty new to this, any advice would be appreciated.
Btw I’m using MLA
1 Answers 2021-01-25
Anyone know the typical Corn yield per acre in pre-Columbian Mexico (Aztec Empire)? So far as I am aware, draft animals were not used by the Aztecs, so it must have been well below the 1850's US average of 20bu/acre? See Fig 1 here: https://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/news/timeless/YieldTrends.html
1 Answers 2021-01-25
Hello and good day. To further explain my question. Btw I am only using “” to separate the names from the rest of the text.
When looking at articles and/or watching videos/film where the “rape of Nanking” is the topic, why is it that more often than not the writers, editors, and filmmakers prefer to use the term “Nanjing/Nanking massacre” rather than the more grotesque although more appropriate “rape of Nanjing/Nanking”?
Is it apart of a plan to try and put the past behind us, is it politically driven, a product of denialism, an attempt to whitewash history and cover up the crimes of imperial Japan in the Second World War, or is it more simple than that?
I just found it interesting and when I tried to search for an answer was unavailing. Any and all answers will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you and Godspeed.
1 Answers 2021-01-25
I'm writing a research paper on WW2, and my topic question is "How did Hitler rise to power, and what did he do with his power?". I planned to talk about Blitzkrieg and propaganda, but I was also considered why he attacked so many neutral countries in the process of his Final Solution. I already know Hitler planned to attack Britain, but I can't find a source that tells me what neutral countries provided him and what his ultimate goal was (besides attacking Britain).
Please let me know if this is unclear.
3 Answers 2021-01-25
In the 1600's Sweden became one of the most important powers in Europe through its huge military victories and it even managed to get a colony in North America. I know that the colony of Nya Sverige of quite short-lived and after The Great Northern War Sweden started to decline, but what was the Swedish opinion of slavery during this time period? If Nya Sverige had managed to be a profitable colony and grown, would Sweden embrace slavery practices like how the other European colonizers did?
1 Answers 2021-01-25
I've been doing some research on Hungary before, during, and after WW1. The latter time periods are easy to find stuff on, but I wasn't sure where to start looking for the 1848 Revolution. I know the results of the Revolution are incredibly important in defining Hungarian national identity, but I wanted to know more details about the events of the Revolution and what those end results were.
1 Answers 2021-01-25
Trying to understand public policy actions meant to modify public behavior, and what the anti smoking campaign from 1971 under Nixon did that was so effective that it dropped smoking rates by half, where the prohibition campaign 40 years earlier was a dramatic failure that just lead to the gangster era (and I'm not sure if alcoholism even went down much)
1 Answers 2021-01-25
1 Answers 2021-01-24
(sent here by r/japan)
So I'm writing a fantasy in the same vein as the warring states. I think the history and events is fascinating, but I have a question about infidelity and illegitimate children. How tolerable were outside affairs for aristocrats? Were they seen as shameful or something that could be ignored? Also, if a child was blatantly illegitimate, what problems may arise? In this case, a powerful head of a family and clan sired a nekomimi (long story). Originally, I was going to have her be a point of shame for the family, but now I'm not sure that fitting (as it's predictable). So I was wondering if anyone could give me feedback or sources. Thanks.
1 Answers 2021-01-24
If the answer is yes, was there any massacre because of sects?
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Was it directly due to the fall of the Eastern Bloc and Soviet Union that the EU was formed as in to rebuild Europe? Originally, what were the EU's plans on governance in the early stages? Were they intending from the very beginning to eventually include former Eastern Bloc countries?
1 Answers 2021-01-24