The other 'awakening' in Iraq: The women's movement in the first half of the twentieth century

The history of the women's movement in Iraq, during the first half of the twentieth century, has received little attention in scholarly work. This essay enlarges upon the topic using common features characteristic of more central women's movements in the Middle East. The emergence of intellectual debate on women's status, establishment of a myriad of women's organizations, evolution of a women's press, women's participation in the nationalist struggle, the adoption of nationalism as a liberating discourse and development of pan-Arab feminism, are shared characteristics which shed light on developments that occurred in Iraq. The essay suggests that the study of seemingly peripheral movements not only confirms similar patterns of development within the region but might also reveal new insights that transcend regional boundaries.     

The Latvian student corps and politics in the inter-war period of the twentieth century

Abstract

To date, Latvia's student corps have remained a neglected topic in the country's political history, notwithstanding the size of these organisations and the fact that they have been in existence for more than a century. Those accounts that do exist have for the most part been written by corps members themselves, and have not included any real analysis of the corps' interaction with society or their role in Latvian political life. A study of these issues opens up new avenues towards a better understanding of the activity and influence of interest groups in Latvian politics during the 1920s and 1930s. Unlike many other social organisations, the student corps (also including the alumni societies) are often seen as linked to the activity of the major parties, to the coup d'état of 1934 and to radical Latvian nationalism.     

The Baltic Sea region in international relations of the twentieth century: The seminal nature of the interwar period

Abstract

The article addresses the idea and problems of political cooperation and integration of the Baltic Sea countries in the twentieth century from the point of view of a small nation. In the interwar period such cooperation between both old and new nations was virtually non-existent. Still, the second half of the 1920s became a sort of prediction of the direction in which the relationships between the small nations on the Baltic might develop when the region was not dominated by imperialist great power policies. The end of the twentieth century in this region differs radically from the first half of the century in both the former and the latter. Yet the developments of today signify the realization of the visions of that period.     

New Soviet books: a verdict on twentieth century Persia

A detailed discussion of this book appeared in Central Asian Review. Vol. IV, N°. 3, 1956.     

The modern ordinary: changing culture of urban living in Egypt's traditional quarters at the turn of the twentieth century

Having experienced social and political structures of the nineteenth century Europe, western-educated Egyptian elite used public institutions to force new legislative structures and procedures that ruled out traditional housing forms and spatial systems. This essay detects direct and indirect impact of these changes that informed the spatial change of modern living in Egypt in the first quarter of the twentieth century. It offers analysis of socio-spatial practices and change in ordinary Cairenes’ modes of everyday living, using social routine and interaction to explain spatial systems and changing house forms during the first quarter of the twentieth century. In doing so, the essay utilized archival documents, accounts, formal decrees and novels of the time as well as conducting survey of house forms and spatial organizations in Old Cairo.     

Playing the fool in the territory of memory: Jaan Kross' autobiographical fictions of the twentieth century

A study was conducted among young Latvians to test the effects of different conceptualizations of Latvian national identity on group beliefs and on attitudes towards Russians. It was hypothesized that exposure to inclusive discourse presenting Latvia as a multicultural society rather than an ethnic homeland would have a direct negative effect on feelings of vulnerability, injustice, distrust, superiority and helplessness with regard to the Latvian nation and a positive effect on attitudes towards Russians. The hypothesis was tested in one survey study conducted in Riga among ethnic Latvians (N?=?150).     

Recreating the past in the ornamentation of stately homes and the leisure activities conducted within them: the Duchess of Parcent as a case study for the Spanish aristocracy in the early twentieth century

This paper attempts to vindicate the part played by certain Spanish aristocratic women in the management, conservation, and transmission of their artistic patrimony in the decades around the turn of the twentieth century by creating art collections and displaying them in their own homes. The works were exhibited in rooms that were decorated and furnished to suggest historical ambiences in which French trends rubbed shoulders with styles that had been developed in Spain throughout its history, turning their homes into devices that recreated past times. Similarly, retrospective views of Spanish art were the focus of leisure and entertainment activities driven by ladies from the upper echelons of society through the performance of tableaux vivants. The focus of this study will be Trinidad Scholtz Hermensdorff, Duchess of Parcent.     

On some relations between kokles styles and contexts in the twentieth century

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss traditional and modern styles for playing the kokles (the Latvian variation of the Baltic psaltery or board zither). To answer questions about the nature of kokles styles today and about their relation to earlier rural traditions, musical events are viewed in their personal, social, and cultural contexts. A scheme for the correlation of different styles is offered, according to which symbolic, artistic, folkloric, and post-folkloric groupings may be distinguished.