This new English translation of Huizinga’s 'Autumntide of the Middle Ages' ('Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen') celebrates the centenary of a book that still ranks as one of the most perceptive and... Show moreThis new English translation of Huizinga’s 'Autumntide of the Middle Ages' ('Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen') celebrates the centenary of a book that still ranks as one of the most perceptive and influential analyses of the late medieval period. Its wide-ranging discussion of fourteenth and fifteenth century France and the Low Countries makes it a classic study of life, culture, and thought in medieval society. The new and now unabridged translation of the original text captures the impact of Huizinga’s deep scholarship and powerful language. The translation is based on the Dutch edition of 1941 – the last edition Huizinga worked on. It features English renderings of the Middle French poems and other contemporary sources, and its colour illustrations include over three hundred paintings and prints, illuminated manuscripts, and miniatures pertinent to Huizinga’s discourse. A complete bibliography of Huizinga’s sources will facilitate further research, while an epilogue addresses the meaning and enduring importance of this classic work. Show less
This article seeks to examine seventeenth-century public diplomacy through the combined lens of print and pageantry. Both are rarely discussed alongside each other in contributions on early modern... Show moreThis article seeks to examine seventeenth-century public diplomacy through the combined lens of print and pageantry. Both are rarely discussed alongside each other in contributions on early modern diplomacy, news media, and correspondence networks. It will be shown that ceremonial rituals and theatrical entertainments were nonetheless oft-discussed subjects in French-language pamphlets of the seventeenth century on diplomatic events, policies, and debates. This study argues that such events could constitute the focus of a pamphlet or surface as an important theme or reference point on the basis of which authors could build arguments, introduce or defend diplomatic agendas, or propose new solutions to a political conflict or dilemma. Pamphlets on the Habsburg-Bourbon marriages of 1614–1615, held at Marsh’s Library in Dublin within the collection of the English theologian and scholar Edward Stillingfleet (1635–1699), and the tour of Marie de Médicis (1575–1642), the exiled Queen Mother of France, across the Low Countries in 1638, kept in the Bibliotheca Thysiana of the Leiden University Library, will be discussed as tools for the public diplomacy of a wide range of transnational stakeholders. Show less
This new English translation of Huizinga’s Autumntide of the Middle Ages (Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen) celebrates the centenary of a book that still ranks as one of the most perceptive and... Show moreThis new English translation of Huizinga’s Autumntide of the Middle Ages (Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen) celebrates the centenary of a book that still ranks as one of the most perceptive and influential analyses of the late medieval period. Its wide-ranging discussion of fourteenth and fifteenth century France and the Low Countries makes it a classic study of life, culture, and thought in medieval society. The new and now unabridged translation of the original text captures the impact of Huizinga’s deep scholarship and powerful language. The translation is based on the Dutch edition of 1941 – the last edition Huizinga worked on. It features English renderings of the Middle French poems and other contemporary sources, and its colour illustrations include over three hundred paintings and prints, illuminated manuscripts, and miniatures pertinent to Huizinga’s discourse. A complete bibliography of Huizinga’s sources will facilitate further research, while an epilogue addresses the meaning and enduring importance of this classic work. Show less
The expedition commanded by Nicolas Baudin to Tenerife, Mauritius, Australia, Timor and South Africa in 1800-1804 is fully researched in regard to ornithology. The expedition was government... Show moreThe expedition commanded by Nicolas Baudin to Tenerife, Mauritius, Australia, Timor and South Africa in 1800-1804 is fully researched in regard to ornithology. The expedition was government-funded and scientific equipped and had as one of the core activities collecting natural history items. Despite the lack of any diaries or lists documenting the collected birds, no less then 56 % of the 1.055 bird-specimens collected could be identified on species level. Of those which survived, 389 specimens (36,8 %) still exist in European Museums. Not only in Paris but also in 25 other museum collections worldwide as in 23 private collections specimens ended up. These 389 specimens represent the largest intact collections in time from Australia, Mauritius and Timor. For Australia and Timor only to be surpassed (nearly) three decades later. The Baudin expedition became the most successful expedition in regard to ornithology executed up to 1804. Further the research showed the importance of the 1796-98 voyage into the Caribbean, the role of donors, taxidermy in those years and the importance of notes still present in archives in Europe. With the right data now in place, many gaps in knowledge can be filled (type localities, systematics, reconstruction of long-gone landscapes, etc.). Show less
Een beschouwing van de stilistische evolutie van de Franse vroege moderne ceramiek wordt getoetst aan een lezing van de contemporaine kritiek. Zo ontstaat het beeld van een ambigue... Show moreEen beschouwing van de stilistische evolutie van de Franse vroege moderne ceramiek wordt getoetst aan een lezing van de contemporaine kritiek. Zo ontstaat het beeld van een ambigue antimoderniteit die beheerst wordt door narcistische reacties. De ontleding daarvan vormt een correctie van het beeld van een progressief evoluerende moderniteit en een bijdrage tot de nog ongeschreven geschiedenis van het moderne estheticisme. Show less
Heijer, M. den; Asperen, C.J. van; Harris, H.; Nippert, I.; Schmidtke, J.; Bouhnik, A.D.; ... ; Tibben, A. 2013
In Transforming for Europe. The reshaping of national bureaucracies in a system of multi-level governance, Caspar van den Berg explores the implications of the increasingly multi-level nature of... Show moreIn Transforming for Europe. The reshaping of national bureaucracies in a system of multi-level governance, Caspar van den Berg explores the implications of the increasingly multi-level nature of governance for the French, British and Dutch national bureaucracies.Power and competencies in Western Europe are shared by various layers of government as well as multiple types of state and non-state actors. What does this mean for the organisation and functioning of national bureaucracies?While the civil service has become less bureaucratic (in the Weberian sense) in some respects, it is more bureaucratic in others: task-separation and record-keeping for oversight have increased, while permanence of office and political neutrality in various places have decreased.The EU is not a single direct source to any of these developments yet its presence is certainly felt and cross-national distinction is less stark. Nevertheless, deeply ingrained national structures and cultures have thus far prevented the conver¬gence of national bureaucracies into a single European administra¬tive model.Caspar van den Berg (1980) studied International Relations at the London School of Economics and has a PhD from Leiden University. He currently works as an assistant professor at Leiden University and as a public management consultant at Berenschot. Show less
Drawing from the voices of young Muslim women living just south of Paris, this article argues that Muslims are developing a form of Islam shaped by French customs, values, and institutions. The... Show moreDrawing from the voices of young Muslim women living just south of Paris, this article argues that Muslims are developing a form of Islam shaped by French customs, values, and institutions. The development of this form of religiosity is apparent in the way French Muslims negotiate their multiple identities. In this process, space plays a crucial role in the form of the banlieue. Show less
Although Islam in France is composed of currents found in Muslim societies around the world, France is currently primarily affected by the assertion of purist Salafis, whose main concern is to... Show moreAlthough Islam in France is composed of currents found in Muslim societies around the world, France is currently primarily affected by the assertion of purist Salafis, whose main concern is to bring Muslim believers back to the path of Islamic orthodoxy. Purist Salafi Muslims strictly differentiate themselves from non- Muslims and Muslims alike. They emphasize a break with society in order to return to Islam practiced in its “original” form, but their purist Salafism nonetheless retains some trappings of the modernity it shuns. Show less
This dissertation examines the reactions in the United States to French foreign policy during de Gaulle’s presidential tenure (1958-1969). It is concerned with these reactions in the context of the... Show moreThis dissertation examines the reactions in the United States to French foreign policy during de Gaulle’s presidential tenure (1958-1969). It is concerned with these reactions in the context of the history of American foreign policy and of American approaches to the transatlantic relationship. Based on the American documentary record, it responds to the following questions: How did Americans interpret de Gaulle’s policy of ‘independence’ within the larger framework of their ideas about the transatlantic relationship? How did consecutive administrations actually deal with the challenges posed within this framework by de Gaulle’s ‘independent’ foreign policy from 1958 to 1969? Did de Gaulle’s policy of ‘independence’ modify American policies towards Europe and the Atlantic alliance? How Americans judged Gaullism largely depended on whether they were liberal or conservative; as the liberal mindset was dominant during 1960s, the Franco-American disagreement must be partially understood as a clash between an American foreign policy steeped in liberal values and a French foreign policy steeped in the conservative tradition. As importantly, de Gaulle’s foreign policy contributed to a paradigm shift in American perceptions of the transatlantic relationship from the notion of an evolving Atlantic ‘community’ toward a more realistic Atlanticism primarily attuned to the national interest. Show less
In secular France visible religious practice is socially discouraged within public spheres. For pious Muslims, in particular pious Muslim women, who actively participate in these spheres, piety... Show moreIn secular France visible religious practice is socially discouraged within public spheres. For pious Muslims, in particular pious Muslim women, who actively participate in these spheres, piety cannot be lived out without encountering certain problems. The negotiations that these women engage in, favouring at times visibility, at times invisibility, not only allow the living of virtuous lives under often difficult circumstances, but more importantly are part of a process by which ethical Muslim selves are constituted in secular, non-Islamic contexts. Show less
In October and November 2005, France witnessed a series of riots and violent clashes between youths and its police. Laurent Chambon, a French sociologist, born in one of the Paris banlieues and now... Show moreIn October and November 2005, France witnessed a series of riots and violent clashes between youths and its police. Laurent Chambon, a French sociologist, born in one of the Paris banlieues and now living in the Netherlands, emerged, at that time, as an engaged social scientist worried by the islamization of the riots-discourse and by the way the French state handles the problems of the areas he knows so well from his childhood. Instead of riots of “youth gangs inspired by radical Muslims,” he argues in this interview that these riots should be seen as part of a movement against the “precariousness” of everyday life in the French banlieues. Show less
A French fatwa condemning the 2005 riots in Islamic terms gave rise to a controversy around the legitimacy of this particular Muslim technology in a secular polity. To seize the significance of the... Show moreA French fatwa condemning the 2005 riots in Islamic terms gave rise to a controversy around the legitimacy of this particular Muslim technology in a secular polity. To seize the significance of the text one must place it in the tradition of the Salafiyya, where Islamic forms of reasoning acquired a distinctively public dimension, and map out the recent—and contested—discursive shifts in French laïcité. Show less
Muslim collective identifications in Europe are to a large extent shaped by national dynamics. In France, the call for a French Islam which dominates public debates has forced Muslim leaders to re... Show moreMuslim collective identifications in Europe are to a large extent shaped by national dynamics. In France, the call for a French Islam which dominates public debates has forced Muslim leaders to re-position themselves. One of the most intriguing responses has come from Tareq Oubrou. This self-learned imam has been working within the Islamic tradition to establish a sharia de minorité, building the premises of a “legal Islam” adapted to the secular context of France and the religious practices of Muslims. Show less
This article explores the work of Majida Khattari, a Parisian/Moroccan artist whose fashion catwalks /performances challenge taken-for-granted assumptions about the veil. In the context of... Show moreThis article explores the work of Majida Khattari, a Parisian/Moroccan artist whose fashion catwalks /performances challenge taken-for-granted assumptions about the veil. In the context of increased interest in Modern Islam, she proposes an aesthetic approach towards the intersection between Muslim and European forms of expression. Show less
This article deals with the rebellion of 'Sawaba' against the PPN (Parti progressiste nigeI_rien) regime in Niger. Sawaba was a political party that represented a social movement and formed the... Show moreThis article deals with the rebellion of 'Sawaba' against the PPN (Parti progressiste nigeI_rien) regime in Niger. Sawaba was a political party that represented a social movement and formed the first autonomous government of Niger during the last years of French suzerainty (1957-1958). For a number of reasons, the French assisted in Sawaba's removal from government. Together with the new regime, they proceeded to persecute the Sawaba party, which was driven underground. Sawaba organized a clandestine domestic opposition and made preparations for a violent take-over with the help of friendly countries such as Ghana, Algeria and Mali. Assisted with arms, money and training, its commandos invaded Niger from the south and west in the autumn of 1964. Despite Algerian support before the invasion, the revolt failed and Sawaba was condemned to the political wilderness. This article focuses on the Algerian dimension of the revolt. It discusses the political evolution of Niger from the spring of 1957 to independence in August 1960 and how this connected to developments in Algeria. It then discusses Niger's security situation and how this was linked to control over its nomadic population and incursions made by the two countries across their common frontier. Subsequent sections analyse Sawaba's clandestine organization and the support provided by Algeria, discussing Sawaba's cell in Tamanrasset (southern Algeria) and its military training further to the north. The conclusion assesses the consequences of the failure of the revolt for the relations between Niger and Algeria. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] Show less
Islamic presence in western Europe is usually perceived as a post-war immigration phenomenon. However, early in the twentieth century Muslims were also sojourning on a regular basis in Europe,... Show moreIslamic presence in western Europe is usually perceived as a post-war immigration phenomenon. However, early in the twentieth century Muslims were also sojourning on a regular basis in Europe, where they founded provisions and accommodations for their religious needs. The French city Marseilles is an interesting site for a historical reconstruction of representations about Islam and mosques in Europe. In colonial times, Muslims –mostly colonial workers or soldiers in the French colonial armies—frequented Marseilles. Since the 1950s, large numbers of Muslims arrived in the city as migrant labourers, and many settled there to become permanent residents. Show less
Islam in France has been experiencing a significant evolution of traditional gender roles as more Muslim women have access to schooling and employment. Increasingly, first and second-generation... Show moreIslam in France has been experiencing a significant evolution of traditional gender roles as more Muslim women have access to schooling and employment. Increasingly, first and second-generation Maghrebi women, as well as new immigrants, seek out and benefit from religious training in institutions that have traditionally been male domains such as mosques, religious associations and Institutes for Islamic Studies. Could it be that new public female Muslim elite with religious skills and competencies is emerging? Do Muslim women occupy a new position within a religious education market? Show less
