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Throughout the history of mankind religion has been a creative and innovative factor of great strength, able to change societies, create new cultures, and shape strong identities. In Religion as an Agent of Change leading historians and Church historians discuss religion as a driving force in historical development on the basis of three particular cases from the history of Christianity in Western Europe: the Crusades, the Reformation, and Pietism. The empirical case studies in the book present important results and viewpoints from new research in these three historical phenomena, to a large degree undertaken in our own generation, thus establishing a solid foundation for further scholarly discussions about the role of the Christian religion as a driving force in history. Contributors are: Arne Bugge Amundsen, Ole Peter Grell, Martin H. Jung, Thomas Kaufmann, Fred van Lieburg, Christoph T. Maier, Peter Marshall, Hugh McLeod, Jonathan Phillips, Felicitas Schmieder, and John Wolffe.
Jewish Pasts, German Fictions is the first comprehensive study of how German-Jewish writers used images from the Spanish-Jewish past to define their place in German culture and society. Jonathan Skolnik argues that Jewish historical fiction was a form of cultural memory that functioned as a parallel to the modern, demythologizing project of secular Jewish history writing. What did it imply for a minority to imagine its history in the majority language? Skolnik makes the case that the answer lies in the creation of a German-Jewish minority culture in which historical fiction played a central role. After Hitler's rise to power in 1933, Jewish writers and artists, both in Nazi Germany and in ex...
Studies on exile in the 19th century tend to be restricted to national histories. This volume is the first to offer a broader view by looking at French, Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Czech and German political refugees who fled to England after the European revolutions of 1848/49. The contributors examine various aspects of their lives in exile such as their opportunities for political activities, the forms of political cooperation that existed between exiles from different European countries on the one hand and with organizations and politicians in England on the other and, finally, the attitude of the host country towards the refugees, and their perceptions of the country which had granted them asylum. Sabine Freitag is Research Fellow at the German Historical Institute in London. Rudolf Muhs is Lecturer in German History at the University of London (Royal Holloway).
"Pioneering biblical critic, theorist of democracy, and legendary conflater of God and nature, Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) was excommunicated by the Sephardic Jews of Amsterdam in 1656 for his "horrible heresies" and "monstrous deeds." Yet, over the past three centuries, Spinoza's rupture with traditional Jewish beliefs and practices has elevated him to a prominent place in genealogies of Jewish modernity. The First Modern Jew provides a riveting look at how Spinoza went from being one of Judaism's most notorious outcasts to one of its most celebrated, if still highly controversial, cultural icons, and a powerful and protean symbol of the first modern secular Jew. Ranging f...
In July 2008, international business executive Herta von Stiegel led a group of disabled people to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for charity. The story was captured in the award-winning documentary The Mountain Within—and now the expedition has inspired this remarkable work, which blends the gripping tale with powerful leadership lessons and conversations with many of the world’s most influential business leaders: Kay Unger Sung-Joo Kim Dr. Joachim Faber Baroness Scotland of Asthal Marsha Serlin Dr. Karl (Charly) and Lisa Kleissner Martha (Marty) Wikstrom Sam Chisholm Minister Mohamed Lotfi Mansour Karin Forseke President and Lt. General Seretse Khama Ian Khama Christie Hefner Abeyya Al-Qatami Hon. Al Gore and David Blood Dr. Mohamed “Mo” Ibrahim Life may be full of obstacles, but it is the mountain within that most often needs to be conquered. No matter your challenges or where you are on your climb to the top, this unique work helps you become a resilient leader capable of guiding your team to achieve even the most challenging goal.
The year 1918 was significant in many ways, seeing the end of World War 1. At the same time, the impact and transformational effects of this event enabled civil society activists and politically institutionalised actors in European countries to pick up the threads of democratic social movements and parliamentary aspirations, and make use of “political opportunity structures” to obtain citizen rights for larger parts of the population. One result of this process – albeit with a difference between European states – was that more groups in society gained suffrage. Amongst those were large sections of the working class and women. While the vote was won for some new social groups in Europ...
Focusing on feminism in Germany, Towards Emancipation examines some of the most influential women writers of the nineteenth century, from the late-Romantic writers, such as Bettina von Arnim and Johanna Schopenhauer, to writers who were active in the 1848 Revolution, such as Malwida von Meysenbug and Johanna Kinkel. The heart of the book is devoted to the leading proponents of emancipation, Hedwig Dohm, Helene Bohlau and the prolific Louise Otto-Peters, yet it also includes mainstream writers whose attitudes towards the movement range from lukewarm (the enormously popular Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach and Gabriele Reuter) to downright hostile (Lou Andreas-Salome and Franziska zu Reventlow).
Fifty years ago, Stefan Zweig, who committed suicide in 1942, was the most widely read and translated living writer in the world. Zweig's Vienna was a world of bright, brittle superficialities, in which the bourgeoisie "gradually elevated the eternal business of seeing and being seen to the purpose of the existence." To break through the facades of this society, Zweig developed a remarkable literary and psychological method. In The World of Yesterday's Humanist Today, thirty scholars of history, literature, and music share their studies of Zweig and their insight into his works.