Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Massacre in Munich: The Manhunt for the Killers behind the 1972 Olympics Massacre , by Michael Bar‐Zohar and Eitan Haber. One Day in September: The Full Story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli Revenge Operation “Wrath of God,” by Simon Reeve. Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel's Deadly Response , by Aaron J. Klein. Tr. by Mitch Ginsburg. Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter‐Terrorist Team , by George Jonas. Neo‐Conned!: Just War Principles: A Condemnation of War in Iraq, and Neo‐Conned! Again: Hypocrisy, Lawlessness, and the Rape of Iraq , D.L. O'Huallachain and J. Forrest Sharpe, editors. Saudi Arabia in the Balance: Political Economy, Society, Foreign Affairs , Paul Aarts & Gerd Nonneman, editors.     

《时间》：堀田善卫对南京大屠杀的解读及对中日关系的思考

1953年开始发表的《时间》,是日本战后派代表作家堀田善卫直接描写南京大屠杀的长篇小说,这是日本文学史上第一部、恐怕也是日本同类题材中唯一的一部长篇作品。文章以此为文本,着重分析经历了战争一代的日本知识人对于以南京大屠杀为重要场景的近代日本侵华战争和中日关系的认识。原本几乎与中国无缘的堀田,战争结束前后将近两年的上海经历,促使他对中日关系开始了痛苦而深刻的思考。《时间》便是他这一系列思考的集大成之作。这部作品,高度凝聚了这一代有良知的日本知识分子对于过去的战争、中日关系和东亚命运的沉痛的认识。     

The Cycle of Terror in Estonia, 1917–1919: On its Preconditions and Major Stages

World War I changed more than just the political map of Europe. One noteworthy consequence of the revolutions and war in East and Central Europe was the brutalization of human relations. Estonia saw three major “paroxysms” of violence in 1918–1919, which, although relatively limited in scale, are examples of the brutalization of human relations that occurred in the postwar period. The years 1918 and 1919 marked the first explosion of mass terror in Estonia, which led to the death of almost 2000 civilians. This article explores the preconditions and the stages of this terror focusing on the relationship between occupation, revolution, and land distribution. The author argues that the cycle of violence was unleashed by the radical transformation of landownership at the end of 1917. The previous owners often took advantage of the arrival of the German forces in February 1918 to exact revenge on those who had seized their property. The temporary return of the Bolsheviks at the beginning of the Estonian War of Independence was often seen as a pretext to avenge the injustices suffered under German occupation. The liberation of Estonia from the Red Army at the beginning of 1919 resulted in yet another wave of violence. The terror abated with the strengthening of state authority and the coming to power of a democratically elected government in April 1919.     

THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND THE MIDDLE EAST

The First World War in the Middle East swept away five hundred years of Ottoman dominion. It ushered in new ideologies and radicalized old ones – from Arab nationalism and revolutionary socialism to impassioned forms of atavistic Islamism. It created heroic icons, like the enigmatic Lawrence or the modernizing Atatürk, and it completely re-drew the map of the region, forging a host of new nation states, For many, the self-serving intervention of these powers in the region between 1914 and 1919 is the major reason for the conflicts that have raged there on and off ever since. Yet many of the most common assertions about the First World War in the Middle East and its aftermath are devoid of context. This article argues that, far from being a mere sideshow to the war in Europe, the Middle Eastern conflict was in fact the centre of gravity in a war for imperial interests. Moreover, contrary to another persistent myth of the First World War in the Middle East, local leaders and their forces were not simply the puppets of the Great Powers. The way in which these local forces embraced, resisted, succumbed to, disrupted, or on occasion overturned the plans of the imperialist powers for their own interests in fact played an important role in shaping the immediate aftermath of the conflict – and in laying the foundations for the troubled Middle East.     

The Paris Peace Conference and the Armenian arguments on Garabagh

The South Caucasus, which includes Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, is one of the most challenging regions in the world, owing to its long-lasting and ongoing conflicts. One of these conflicts is between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the current stage of which has continued for 25 years without any prospect of a settlement in the near future. For a better understanding of this conflict it is necessary to go back to 1918 and 1919, which witnessed the emergence of the first Azerbaijan and Armenian Republics. The article examines and assesses the ethnic, historical, economic, geographical and security arguments submitted by the Armenian government to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 to substantiate its vision of territorial delimitation between Armenia and Azerbaijan regarding Garabagh. The article argues that Armenian nationalism was ethnic nationalism and that the Armenian government constructed politically motivated arguments to substantiate its claims to Garabagh, which were part of its nationalist aim of constructing an Armenian ‘ethno-nation’ in the area from the Mediterranean to Garabagh.     

Victor Klemperer. Munich 1919. Diary of a Revolution

Victor Klemperer. Munich 1919. Diary of a Revolution . Translated by Jessica Spengler (Cambridge: Polity, 2017), pp.x + 190. Sixteen b/w plates. £15.51 (hb).     

Les populaires et le parlement italien (1919–24)

ABSTRACT

On 18 January 1919, Luigi Sturzo (Caltagirone 1871–Rome 1959), the Italian priest and politician, a Fascist dissident and fervent Europeanist, founded the Italian Popular Party (PPI) by pronouncing his Appello ai liberi e forti. The new PPI marked the entrance of Catholics to the political life of the country. Indeed, after the unification of Italy, Catholics had not been able to vote in political elections due to a provision issued by Pope Pius IX in 1874, the so-called non expedit, which had forbidden them from participating in the political elections of the kingdom of Italy. In the elections of 16 November 1919 – after the reform that led to the transition from the uninominal electoral system to the proportional electoral system and the extension of the right to vote to all 21-year old male citizens – the PPI secured 20.5 per cent of the votes. One hundred PPI candidates were elected, proving to be an indispensable force for the institution of any new government. The serious economic difficulties and the social contrasts, caused in large part by the First World War and by an institutional system unable to cope with the crisis, would have subsequently led to the establishment of the fascist regime. PPI members elected in 1919 were active in implementing institutional reforms that attempted to bring parliamentary representation to the real life of the country. This was to be achieved in the following ways: by renewing the apparatus of political representation, that is safeguarding the role of parliament as the central organ of a democratic system; by transforming the old constitutional model of cabinet government, with prime ministers appointed by the crown and chosen by parliamentary hybrid majorities, into a new parliamentary government based on the trust of majorities formed by parties with common programmes.     

Remembering 1968 in Mexico: Elena Poniatowska's La noche de Tlatelolco as Documentary Narrative

This article considers Elena Poniatowska's La noche de Tlatelolco [ Massacre in Mexico ] as an example of documentary narrative. It examines the narrative strategies she uses to articulate a tripartite interpretation of the events of 2 October 1968. First, it argues that Poniatowska's text represents the Tlatelolco massacre as a crime against humanity constituted by multiple abuses of human rights. Second, the text is shown to expose the cover-up that occurred as a result of the deliberate manipulation of information by the Mexican state. Third, from a more positive perspective, it is argued that the text represents Tlatelolco as a milestone in the ongoing struggle for democracy. Overall, attention is drawn to the importance of Poniatowska's text in the construction of cultural memory as a counter to official history in narrative representations of this particular trauma in Mexican history.     

The South African Bantu Education Act

Dr. Shepherd has been Principal of Lovedale, the famous Churchof Scotland African institution, since 1942. He went there aschaplain in 1927 after serving as a missionary in Tembuland.He went to South Africa in 1919 and is a distinguished authorityon Bantu education. He is a doctor of divinity of Edinburghand a doctor of literature of Witwatersrand University.     

Textbooks and Patriotic Education: Wartime Memory Formation in China and Japan

The treatment of the wartime period in Japan's history textbooks has long been a subject of debate and controversy, even a source of international tension. Since their creation, history textbooks have been used to shape national identity and encourage patriotism. This article, drawing on the comparative study of high school history textbooks in Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States by Stanford's Divided Memories and Reconciliation project, compares the treatment of the wartime period in the textbooks of China and Japan. The study found that Japanese textbooks are relatively devoid of overt attempts to promote patriotism and that they contain more information about controversial wartime issues such as the Nanjing Massacre than is widely believed. In contrast, Chinese textbooks, particularly after their revision a decade ago, are consciously aimed at promoting a nationalist view of the past as part of the country's “patriotic education” campaign. The article warns, however, against efforts in Japan to promote a Japanese-style version of patriotic education.     

Remembering the Southeast Asian Chinese massacres of 1941-45

This article examines a series of wartime massacres (sook chings) conducted at various Southeast Asian sites with a view to teasing out broader lessons about justice, compensation, apology and the uses of memory both on the side of the victims as well as the nation that perpetrated the crimes. Characteristically, the sook chings of Southeast Asia, occurring in ethnically complex societies with mostly Chinese as victims, displayed a planned character of strictly ethnic and political “cleansing” that meets broad definitions of genocide. This article also considers historical memory. Obviously, as with Japanese war crimes in China, the sook chings of Southeast Asia are remembered locally. But also, as in China, remembrance of the sook chings has been modulated by the state, mostly in the interest of good relations and business links with Japan (with some notable exceptions). But, alongside the Nanjing Massacre, much contested in Japanese historiography, the sook ching massacres remain virtually unknown to the Japanese public, and have not become an issue between Japan and the Southeast Asian countries where these events occurred.     

The campaign against the Anglo‐Iranian agreement of 1919

The Anglo‐Iranian agreement of 1919 was a major turning point both in the modern history of Iran and in her relations with Britain. It was the brainchild of Lord Curzon and the Foreign Office in which the other British government departments eventually acquiesced with reluctance, although the government of India retained its opposition to it. It failed because of the fears it created for the loss of Iran's independence, mainly as a result of the secrecy with which it had been negotiated, and the rigidity with which it was upheld. A vigorous campaign was conducted against it by Iranians as well as the United States, France and Russia. Yet it might not have failed had India, the India office, the Treasury and the War Office provided the requisite instruments for its success. Its failure resulted in the 1921 coup, the rise of Reza Khan and the Pahlavi state, and a new chapter in Anglo‐Iranian relations.     

On Political Terror during the Soviet Expansion into Lithuania, 1918–1919

This article deals with a noticeable anomaly of Bolshevik expansion in Lithuania during 1918–1919: the refusal of the Soviet authorities to resort to terror to subdue the local population in order to export the world revolution. The author argues that the Soviets avoided political terror in Lithuania because they did not treat the Lithuanians as a nation capable of sustaining their own state. In fact, anti-Bolshevik forces employed more terror than the Bolsheviks in their attempt to drive out the Reds and uproot Lithuanian support for the Communist regime. The Lithuanian left-wing government of Mykolas Sle?evi?ius sought to contain its radicalized military and to preserve a soft-handed relationship with the local Bolshevik government.     

Rituals of Commemoration – Identity and Conflict: The Case of Die Linke in Germany

For social groups, as for individuals, memory is an important part of their identity. Therefore political parties usually have an instrumental relation to their own party's history whose function is to enhance party identity. The ‘official’ party history normally is inclusive, designed as a composition of party heroes and villains as well as of party achievements which all members and ideological wings can agree upon or, at least, where they can find themselves represented. But sometimes it is hard to agree on history. All wings and currents of Die Linke can agree on Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht as symbols; their assassination in January 1919 is commemorated by a demonstration every year. Unexpected intra-party conflicts arose when in December 2006 a stone was placed at the cemetery Friedrichsfelde in Berlin near the graves of Luxemburg and Liebknecht commemorating the ‘victims of Stalinism’.     

功能异化的马来西亚《内部安全法》

1960年制定的<内部安全法>在马来西亚政治生态中占据着重要地位.该法原本是马来西亚政府打击马来亚共产党等左派势力的重要手段,但从20世纪70年代末开始其功能发生严重异化,逐渐成为政府与当权者打击体制内反对派乃至执政党巫统内部不同势力及社会民权运动人士、控制新闻媒体的法律借口.自20世纪90年代末起,政府滥用该法引起许多政党、社会团体特别是持不同政见人士的强烈反感和不满,国际社会对此也给予高度关注.目前,马来西亚国内废除该法的浪潮日趋高涨.     

Between parliament und government: the position of the President in the discussion about the new German Constitution (1918–19)

SUMMARY

In this article, Cristiana Scnigaglia analyzes how, when the constitution of the new German republic was being debated at Weimar in 1919, difficulties arose because there had been very little prior debate in Germany about a republican form of government, since the permanence of the monarchical system had been generally assumed. This gave great weight to the writings of Robert Redslob, the only senior academic authority who had discussed at some length the institution of a presidency in a republic. The article goes on to show how leading figures like Max Weber and Hugo Preuss, who were deeply involved in drafting the Weimar constitution, drew on Redslob's ideas in arguing for the solution that was eventually accepted, a State President directly elected by popular vote, who could act as a necessary constitutional balance by setting limits to the otherwise unlimited authority of the legislature and the central government.     

Britain's Policy in Southern Kurdistan: The Formation and the Termination of the First Kurdish Government, 1918–1919

The end of the First World War and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 signalled the downfall of the old order in the Middle East. The consolidation of Britain's strategic, economic and political position in that region was bound to affect Kurdistan's political future, given its determination to re-construct a new regional order. In the absence of a well-defined British policy towards Kurdistan's future certain British officials on the ground were able to play an important part in influencing the political situation in southern Kurdistan, which came under British political control. Therefore, the examination of Britain's policy on the ground through the concepts of indirect and direct control is central to any understanding of the reasons for the establishment and the subsequent termination of the first Kurdish government in the period 1918-1919.     

Die Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirche Litauens 1915–1940

Abstract

The article, based on church documents and publications of leading church members, traces the Renaissance of the Evangelical-Reformed (Calvinist) Church in the Lithuanian Republic during the interwar period from 1919 to the Soviet occupation in 1940, and includes historiographical background information.

Modern Lithuania is overwhelmingly and adamantly Roman Catholic. Few Lithuanians know that the Reformed Church was founded in 1555 in Vilnius (Wilna, Vilno) at the height of the Reformation in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the reign of Sigismund II Augustus and under the protection of Lithuania's chancellor Nicholas Radvila (Radziwi??) the Black. It was called Unitas Lituaniae, to distinguish it from the Reformed Church founded in Poland. It was given a carefully planned synodalpresbyterian structure which stood the test of time and withstood centuries of adversity during the Counter Reformation in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and, after the partitions, under Tsarist rule.

Purely ethnic Lithuanians resided in northern Lithuania in areas of Bir?ai (Birsen, pol. Birse) and Kedainiai (Kedainnen, Kiejdany), historical residences of the now extinct Protestant branch of the Radvila (Radziwi??) family. It is to this day a stronghold of Lithuanian Reformed Christianity.

At the time of Lithuanian Independence in 1918, the Church represented a small but tenacious minority which, reclaiming its historical name, vigorously reasserted its presence in the new Republic. With Vilnius falling under Polish control in 1919, the Church leadership chose Bir?ai as its new (temporary) center. In the first decade of Independence, the Reformed Lithuanians, despite their small number, were disproportionately represented in the professions and in government. Discriminatory tendencies did not appear until the thirties. The powerful Catholic Church, acting under its new Code of Canon Laws, revived historical theological hostilities and stereotypes and identified nationality with Catholicism. This shaped public opinion for years to come and was especially galling to Reformed Lithuanians, who were proud of their historical roots and their faith. These attitudes still exist and present a challenge for the future.     

Commission Newsletter: 1995

SUMMARY

In this article, M. Manolova examines the provisions in the Bulgarian Constitution of 1879 which concern the responsibility of government ministers. It is shown how these provisions were unusually explicit in establishing that ministers were both individually and collectively responsible for their actions in government and in insisting that the power to institute proceedings lay exclusively with the parliament. The article compares the Bulgarian provisions with those in similar liberal constitutions of the period and notes the several instances down to 1919 when the provisions were implemented, in order to suggest that the principal of ministerial responsibility had a special importance in Bulgarian constitutional theory and practice.     

“This country is rotten”: Australian Nurses in India during the First World War and Their Encounters with Race and Nationhood

This article examines the writings of the nurses of the Australian Army Nursing Services, who served in hospitals in India between 1916 and 1919. Their writings show that they practised differences along three lines: colour, culture, and space. The article reveals the plurality of female engagements with empire, highlighting the inherent irony in the imperialist machinations of white women from the dominion nation of Australia. It also demonstrates how these nurses make a “grave” and basic mistake — as expounded by Ernest Renan in his 1882 Sorbonne lecture — by confusing race with nation. It ultimately argues that the Australian nurses in India during the First World War had been set as pawns by their own government in the greater game of colonial power, by analysing one instance of sexual control, a “scandal” which was censored by the Australian government, but which demonstrated how the latter used gender inequalities as an essential instrument for the perpetration of colonial racism and imperial authority.