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PARABLES OF THE METROPOLE

Philip V. Bohlman

in Jewish Music and Modernity

Central to the chapter’s survey of emerging Jewish popular-music genres is the role of the city as a new cultural context for Jewish music making by the turn of the century. Immigrants from rural ... More

Central to the chapter’s survey of emerging Jewish popular-music genres is the role of the city as a new cultural context for Jewish music making by the turn of the century. Immigrants from rural Eastern Europe, Jewish musicians entered all areas of the urban musical cultures of Vienna, Berlin, and other cities, where they performed for Jewish and non-Jewish audiences with enormous success. The city was also the site for mixing musical genres, creating new sounds in popular music and establishing new genres—for example, cabaret and Yiddish theater. The chapter analyzes numerous broadsides and hit songs such as Gustav Pick’s “Viennese Coachman’s Song.” Individual musicians, music publishers, and ensembles serve as a collective biography throughout the chapter.Less

British Expansion, Empire, and Technological Change

Robert Kubicek

in The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume III: The Nineteenth Century

Technological changes, whatever their origins, have often been turned to imperial purposes. In line with this, this chapter argues that various technologies, especially when combined, enhanced the ... More

Technological changes, whatever their origins, have often been turned to imperial purposes. In line with this, this chapter argues that various technologies, especially when combined, enhanced the state's abilities to expand and dominate. They also affected the timing of the Imperial state's expansion, and featured significantly in the dynamics of commercial and industrial capitalism. In both the formal and informal British Empire, in temperate and tropical colonies, their transfer gave Imperial agents more scope for intervention. Technologies empowered the metropole but also, to some degree, strengthened the periphery. They also led diverse peoples to pursue the same material ends by employing similar techniques. Indigenous acquisition of expatriate tools might strengthen autonomy, but more often it paved the way for more pervasive alien influence. The intensified or ‘new’ imperialism has been seen as a product of a particular stage of finance capital, the rise of ethnic antagonisms fuelled by racist beliefs, and the geopolitical priorities of the ‘official mind’.Less

‘Deceptive Might’: Imperial Defence and Security, 1900–1968

ANTHONY CLAYTON

in The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume IV: The Twentieth Century

This chapter examines the Imperial defence of the British Empire. It is specifically devoted to the defence of the Empire before the Second World War and the revolution in technology that occurred ... More

This chapter examines the Imperial defence of the British Empire. It is specifically devoted to the defence of the Empire before the Second World War and the revolution in technology that occurred during and after the war. The Committee for Imperial defence, if not able to create an Imperial general staff, was able to co-ordinate preparatory work and to ensure standardization of equipment and training. All the Dominions agreed that the defence of the metropole was paramount. If the metropole fell, the Dominions could not long survive. The defence of both the metropole and Empire depended upon sea power. A discussion on foreign and defence policies to 1939, internal security 1918–1939, and defence and security after 1945 is presented as well.Less

Fabricating Discipline and Progress in São Paulo, Symphony of a Metropolis

Maite Conde

in Foundational Films: Early Cinema and Modernity in Brazil

A common focus of the international cinematic avant-garde during the 1920s was the power and excitement of cities, something that gave rise in both Europe and the United States to a genre of films ... More

A common focus of the international cinematic avant-garde during the 1920s was the power and excitement of cities, something that gave rise in both Europe and the United States to a genre of films known as "city symphonies." Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand's Manhatta (1921), André Sauvage's Études sur Paris (1928), Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera (1929), and Walter Ruttmann’s Berlin: Die Sinfonie Der Großstadt (1927) were examples of this genre. Such films inspired São Paulo: A sinfonia da metrópole, which is analyzed here. Made by Hungarian filmmakers, Rodolfo Lustig and Adalberto Kemeny, the Brazilian film typically documents a day in the life of São Paulo, exalting its urban dynamic as a sign of the city’s and country’s modernity. In examining São Paulo: A sinfonia da metrópole, this chapter shows that while it expresses the city’s speed brought by the experience of modernity, it also departs from its international inspirations to triumphantly project the discipline of labor, projected as a sign of order and progress, which is ultimately projected by the state.Less

Between Metropole and Colony: Rethinking a Research Agenda

Ann Laura Stoler and Frederick Cooper

in Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World

This chapter examines how the colonies and metropole shared in the dialectics of inclusion and exclusion, and in what ways the colonial domain was distinct from the metropolitan one. It considers ... More

This chapter examines how the colonies and metropole shared in the dialectics of inclusion and exclusion, and in what ways the colonial domain was distinct from the metropolitan one. It considers different approaches to colonial studies and investigates how a grammar of difference was once continuously and vigilantly crafted as people in colonies refashioned and contested European claims to superiority. The chapter argues that scholars need to attend more directly to the tendency of colonial regimes to draw a stark dichotomy of colonizer and colonized without falling into a Manichaean conception.Less

The Red Millionaire

Sean McMeekin

in The Red Millionaire: A Political Biography of Willy Munzenberg, Moscow's Secret Propaganda Tsar in the West

This chapter discusses Munzenberg's triumph at Brussels in 1927, at which point he moved permanently into a luxurious new apartment in one of Berlin's prestigious neighborhoods. His new place of ... More

This chapter discusses Munzenberg's triumph at Brussels in 1927, at which point he moved permanently into a luxurious new apartment in one of Berlin's prestigious neighborhoods. His new place of residence was populated mainly by retired military officers and government officials. Although the apartment Munzenberg most often stayed in before 1927 was in the relatively unfashionable working-class northeastern Berlin suburb of Pankow, he did not live badly and even employed a full-time chauffeur. When in Moscow, he and his bohemian wife and collaborator Babette Gross stayed in the elegant Hotel Metropole, and usually flew back and forth between Berlin and Moscow at cut-market rates with Dereluft, a special Lufthansa subsidiary co-owned with the Soviet government, which was used by Comintern VIPs. While traveling on IAH business in Europe, Munzenberg and his entourage often stayed in the most expensive hotel in town—at the Comintern's expense.Less

A Port City of the French Empire and the Greater Caribbean

Cécile Vidal

in Caribbean New Orleans: Empire, Race, and the Making of a Slave Society

This chapter argues that racial formation did not take place in French New Orleans in isolation from the rest of the Atlantic world and that imperial rather than trans-imperial relationships were the ... More

This chapter argues that racial formation did not take place in French New Orleans in isolation from the rest of the Atlantic world and that imperial rather than trans-imperial relationships were the most influential in shaping the way the local society developed. Within the imperial framework, connections between the colony and the metropole were increasingly replaced by intercolonial exchanges. Saint-Domingue, in particular, was a model to be emulated. What gave New Orleans its Caribbean character was, not its participation in smuggling, but racial slavery.Less

Caliban's Modernities, Postcolonial Poeteries

Jahan Ramazani

in A Transnational Poetics

This chapter examines how postcolonial poetry responds to the technology, alienation and other features of global modernity. It compares this response to those of the more canonically modernist ... More

This chapter examines how postcolonial poetry responds to the technology, alienation and other features of global modernity. It compares this response to those of the more canonically modernist poetries of the Euro-American metropole and of the Harlem Renaissance. This chapter describes the shared alienation and mutually ambivalent response to the shock and creative potential of modernity on the part of canonical modernists by both the Harlem Renaissance and postcolonial poets.Less

An Atlantic Triangle

David Sim

in A Union Forever: The Irish Question and U.S. Foreign Relations in the Victorian Age

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the Irish question, and specifically, the governance of Ireland. Throughout the early nineteenth century, Americans of different political ... More

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the Irish question, and specifically, the governance of Ireland. Throughout the early nineteenth century, Americans of different political persuasions believed that Ireland would eventually achieve some form of national independence. This is because the proponents of Irish self-governance to back up their argument cite the prior existence of an Irish Parliament that had been bribed out of existence at the turn of the nineteenth century under a fraudulent Act of Union. They also identify widely-known figures, such as Edmund Burke and Henry Grattan, to support the contention that Ireland produced statesmen of substance who might populate another Irish Parliament to good effect. Moreover, observers of Anglo-Irish relations drew on Revolutionary-era connections between Ireland and colonial America to suggest a deep-rooted affinity between two provinces subject to the dictates of the London metropole.Less

“The Storm Approaches”: LAïCITé AND WEST AFRICA, 1901–1910

Elizabeth A. Foster

in Faith in Empire: Religion, Politics, and Colonial Rule in French Senegal, 1880-1940

Chapter 3 examines the moment when French anticlericalism touched the colony, in the wake of the Dreyfus Affair. It details how the French laic laws of 1901, 1904, and 1905 affected Senegal’s

Proving Patriotism: CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN SENEGAL

Elizabeth A. Foster

in Faith in Empire: Religion, Politics, and Colonial Rule in French Senegal, 1880-1940

Chapter 4 further explores the theme of metropolitan demands on the colony by examining the difficult position of both Catholic missionaries and colonial administrators during the wide-reaching ... More

Chapter 4 further explores the theme of metropolitan demands on the colony by examining the difficult position of both Catholic missionaries and colonial administrators during the wide-reaching metropolitan effort to recruit African soldiers to fight for France in the First World War. Administrators resented the disorder provoked by recruitment and conscription, especially as time went on. Catholic missionaries harboredLess

An Ambiguous Monument: DAKAR’S COLONIAL CATHEDRAL OF THE SOUVENIR AFRICAIN

Elizabeth A. Foster

in Faith in Empire: Religion, Politics, and Colonial Rule in French Senegal, 1880-1940

Chapter 5 examines the conception, construction, and consecration of Dakar’s cathedral of the Souvenir Africain between 1910 and 1936. Catholic missionaries billed the project as a patriotic monument ... More

Chapter 5 examines the conception, construction, and consecration of Dakar’s cathedral of the Souvenir Africain between 1910 and 1936. Catholic missionaries billed the project as a patriotic monument to the French who had died colonizing Africa and, after the First World War, to the French and African troopsLess

Two Worlds Collide: John Gaspard Gubbins in South Africa, 1902–1924

Sara Byala

in A Place That Matters Yet: John Gubbins’s MuseumAfrica in the Postcolonial World

This chapter details the time period from Gubbins’ arrival in 1902 to the publication of his Three-Dimensional Thinking in 1924, tracing the arc of his intellectual breakdown and the concurrent birth ... More

This chapter details the time period from Gubbins’ arrival in 1902 to the publication of his Three-Dimensional Thinking in 1924, tracing the arc of his intellectual breakdown and the concurrent birth of his novel manner of thought while highlighting the glimpses his story offers of South Africa along the way. It is posited here that Gubbins’ tale is at once unique and representative of larger processes evident in this era of South African history that have become obscured in hindsight. Specifically, the author asserts that it was the disconnect between Gubbins’ late-Victorian education and the realities of South Africa in the early decades of the twentieth century that caused the very disintegration from which three-dimensional thought sprung. In this chapter, both the nature and content of Gubbins’ intellectual collapse shed light on the interplay between metropole and colony in the years surrounding the Second South African War and World War I.Less

Introduction

Marial Iglesias Utset

in A Cultural History of Cuba during the U.S. Occupation, 1898–1902

This book attempts to isolate and recapture a unique and complex juncture in the history of Cuba, when the end of the War of Independence against the Spanish metropole and the beginning of the U.S. ... More

This book attempts to isolate and recapture a unique and complex juncture in the history of Cuba, when the end of the War of Independence against the Spanish metropole and the beginning of the U.S. military occupation set the stage for a time of internal contradiction and confusion. Cuba in this transitional period was characterized by ambiguity, occupying an indeterminate middle space as neither colony nor sovereign state. While the country had made a definitive break with its colonial past, there was little clarity or agreement about its future shape and direction. Against the background of the symbolic void created by the formal end of more than four hundred years of Spanish colonial rule, a battle broke out among three segments of the Cuban polity: the proponents of a strident nationalism, the advocates of a forceful “Americanization” of Cuban customs and institutions, and the defenders of the Spanish cultural heritage, for whom the greatest threat was the powerful influence of the Anglo-Saxon model of modernization.Less

Afterword: Towards a People's History of British Decolonisation

Yann Béliard

in Workers of the Empire, Unite: Radical and Popular Challenges to British Imperialism, 1910s-1960s

This afterword recaptures the sense of uncertainty that accompanied the final decades of the British Empire. It is easy to forget the array of possible futures that emerged from anti-colonial ... More

This afterword recaptures the sense of uncertainty that accompanied the final decades of the British Empire. It is easy to forget the array of possible futures that emerged from anti-colonial resistance, in particular when it took the shape of massive working-class movements, before such initiatives from below were constrained by the framework of the new nation-states. It is easy to forget the dreams and practical attempts of the radical minorities who believed that coordinated efforts across borders might lead not only to the destruction of the British Empire but to that of capitalism and imperialism in general, and to its replacement by some form of universal socialism. Our edited volume helps understand why the 1945-1965 anti-colonial revolts were eventually not led under the flag of socialist internationalism but under that of national liberation. It also emphasises the roads not taken, to retrieve, in a gesture inspired by E.P. Thompson’s philosophy, the sheer sense of openness and opportunity so prevalent in the phase when the foundations of the British Empire started to shake. This afterword also outlines several dimensions that may deserve more attention in future research.Less