Posts com a Tag ‘Cornell University Press (E)’
Sex, Law, and Sovereignty in French Algeria, 1830–1930 | Judith Surkis
Judith Surkis | Foto: Brown University |
In recent decades historians, postcolonial theorists and feminist scholars have demonstrated how, in a variety of geographical settings, gendered stereotypes supported the conquest and domination of overseas territories by European colonial regimes. Judith Surkis’s ‘colonial legal genealogy’ of Algeria under French rule significantly develops these now well-established observations by tracing the historically contingent emergence of a legal regime in which ‘sexual fantasies and persistent desires’ underpinned the regulation of both land and legal personhood (p.14). Her objective, she explains, is to ‘reconstruct the “cultural life’ of Algerian colonial law, which is to say the material, political, and affective resources and resonances on which its elaboration and its powerful effects depended’ (p.8). By recognizing the affective dimension of the production, application and negotiation of colonial law, Surkis provides new perspectives on the workings of colonial power in Algeria, and makes an exceptional contribution to historical understanding of the colonial legal regime.
Working the System: a Political Ethnography of the New Angola | Jon Schubert
A produção etnográfica publicada sobre Angola, já pouco expressiva durante o período colonial,1 declinou nas últimas décadas do século XX devido à situação política do país. Após sua independência em novembro de 1975, Angola enfrentou uma guerra civil até 2002. Esta findou com a morte de Jonas Savimbi, líder da UNITA (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola), movimento de guerrilha que questionou durante quase três décadas a legitimidade do governo exercido pelo MPLA (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola) a partir de Luanda. Ao contexto de guerra somou-se a (auto)censura no que diz respeito à discussão pública de questões políticas e sociais, mais um empecilho à realização de trabalhos de campo no país.2 Finda a guerra, o desafio da “reconstrução nacional” deu-se em meio às expectativas de melhoria de vida colocadas pela paz, visto Angola ter-se tornado, com Nigéria e África do Sul, uma das três principais economias da África Subsaariana. Foi nesse cenário de expansão econômica ancorada na exploração do petróleo, mas com poucos benefícios para a população em geral, que se realizaram as etnografias mais recentes sobre Angola, a maioria sobre Luanda. Contudo, embora alguns artigos tenham resultado desse esforço, poucas investigações etnográficas extensivas foram publicadas nos últimos anos.3 Working the System: a Political Ethnography of the New Angola, de Jon Schubert, é, portanto, uma importante contribuição para o campo de estudos angolanista. Leia Mais
Working the System. A Political Etnography of the New Angola | Jon Schubert
A relação das pessoas comuns, seja um feirante usando transporte público, seja um professor universitário do alto de seu gabinete, com a estrutura de um Estado autoritário – esse é o tema do recente estudo de Jon Schubert “Working the System. A political etnography of the New Angola” sobre a Angola do pós-guerra civil. Procurando mapear a partir de uma pluralidade de sujeitos de diferentes estratos sociais da sociedade luandense a relação com o Estado, corporificado materialmente e simbolicamente no que os informantes chamam de “o sistema”, Schubert procurou tocar em várias questões sensíveis da história recente de Angola para ir além de análises mais generalizantes que se detém aos grandes movimentos da política e da economia da reconstrução do país: a estabilização autoritária da política interna, o crescimento econômico vertiginoso do país por causa do petróleo, a concentração de poder nas mãos do maior partido político, o lado vitorioso da guerra civil, o Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA).
Seus questionamentos são em torno de como esse “sistema” funciona no cotidiano das relações sociais, retomando reflexões gramscinianas de como pessoas que estariam excluídas da participação do processo decisório – que estariam às margens do sistema – acionam essa estrutura política de forma criativa e até subversiva, negociando espaços e tencionando o sistema vigente. Como sugere o título em inglês, o termo “working” no gerúndio sugere o estudo do funcionamento cotidiano do sistema assim como do que faz o sistema funcionar, seja estudando os grupos políticos que se consolidam no poder material e discursivamente após o fim da guerra, seja entendendo os termos de negociação da sociedade civil frente a esse regime e suas características. Leia Mais
War, states, and contention: A comparative historical study – TARROW (CSS)
Sidney Tarrow. Foto: WRVO /
TARROW, S. War, states, and contention: A comparative historical study. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2015. Resenha de: MUSHTAQ, Sabah. Canadian Social Studies, v.48, n.2, p., 2016.
Sidney Tarrow is Maxwell Upson Emeritus Professor of Government and Visiting Professor of Law at Cornell University. He is the writer of numerous books, including The Language of Contention: Revolutions in Words, 1688–2012 and Strangers at the Gates: Movements and States in Contentious Politics. His book, War, States and Contention. A Comparative Historical Study, is a splendid and ground-breaking contribution to the comprehension of how war and states converge with contentious political issues.
Through a double accentuation on the structural foundations of war and dispute, from one perspective, and actor mobilization and repertories of contentious political issues from the other perspective, Sidney Tarrow addresses issues that lie at the heart of contemporary investigation on the restructuring of the state and on the obscuring of territories between internal and external politics. Beginning from the famous contention progressed by Charles Tilly that “states make war, war also makes states,” the book adds contentious politics to the equation. This adjunction provides further understandings of the relationship between states and war; contentious politics clarifies why and how states participate in wars, and the impacts of war on states. But the book additionally reveals insight into a second, less known equation of Tilly’s, which builds up a relationship between war and natives’ rights. Tarrow talks about how war prompts the employment of emergency measures that lessen rights, regardless of whether they are reinstated later. In other words, when a state rolls out war this involves changes in: the nature of internal contentious politics, the state’s reactions to conflict, and in state organization.
Tarrow examines these issues through a comparative historical study that uncovers how current structural changes in states, fighting, and types of contentious politics alter what we might see in the time of Western state-building. Drawing on these mechanisms connected to the formation and union of Western European states, Tarrow acknowledges two pivotal upturns. On the one hand, it puts contention between war and the state, considering both opposition from within national boundaries and from outside. Through this, he also studies the various forms through which domestic and international conflict stand in relation to each other. On the other hand, Tarrow updates these issues to the present in the analysis of the U.S. state and the War on Terror. He reveals how structural changes linked to globalisation and internationalisation alter the relationships between states, warfare, and forms of contention.
The author’s argument is built around a triptych—war, state, and contention—and bridges the gap between social movement studies, comparative historical sociology studies, and international relations. The relevance of this approach relies not only on placing three usually separate strands of literature in dialogue with one another, but also on the major results that the book offers. Powerful hypotheses for further research are provided. The present discussion engages with the book’s arguments on three intertwined topics, which constitute some of its major results: the relation between war and citizens’ rights; the transformation of the territoriality of war, states and contention; and the relation between war and the state. The inclusion of contention between war and rights reveals itself to be crucial for clarifying the relationship between the two. This is needed given that the issue seems not entirely solved by the historical sociology of the state, and is almost left unaddressed by research on contemporary wars and social movements. In this respect, one of the most striking results of the book is to reveal at what point the modern state is characterised by periods of restriction of citizens’ rights in wartime. In Tilly’s argument about war, states and rights, the relation between the three elements has a positive effect on rights. Because he looks at contentious politics, Tarrow demonstrates that the shrinkage of rights in times of war is a recurrent and understudied feature of the state as a specific political system. The advent of this “emergency script” is unveiled through a detailed historical account.
Chapters about U.S. politics after 9/11 shed light on a major transformation related to the use of legal instruments to modify the limits of the legally accepted boundaries of states’ interventions on bodies and limitations of individual liberties. The “rule by law” argument provides key understandings of how liberal democracies combine their foundational creeds with increasingly illiberal policies. Instead of despotic emergency rule, what is observed is a creeper process. Formally and procedurally, the U.S. state did not roll back liberal constitutionalism; however, in its content, the latter has been partially reshaped by the transformation of legally accepted boundaries on crucial issues such as the right to a fair trial or to individual integrity. In addition, both the increasing duration of wars and the undefined boundaries between times of war and peace have created a new hybrid status that seems to facilitate the perpetuation of these measures. By showing how the U.S. state deals with composite and long wars, and analyzing the interplay between contention, war, and states’ activities, Tarrow provides a critical contribution for the study of the blurred boundaries between domestic and international politics. The study of how international movements engage with states and vice versa sheds light on a major restructuring of the spatial dimension of power, while Tarrow also points out recurrent mechanisms of diffusion from policies for war to civilian policies.
In his book, Tarrow provides a stimulating perspective on the restructuring of state territoriality and its effects. In doing so, he echoes the questions raised by scholars who start from the idea that territoriality—bounded political authority—is a fundamental principle of modern political systems, and are interested in current processes of unbundling territoriality.
Sidney Tarrow’s investigation gives valuable insight in to the notion new territorialities in politics, and could engage more straightforwardly with these writers and with his own particular past contributions on these issues. Indeed, Tarrow has two fundamental arguments to make in this regard. This first is that he draws on the state-building literature, he indicates how the territorial restructuring of both war and contention influences the state, whose organization is as a matter of first importance territorial. Along these lines, Tarrow puts war back into the examination of state territorial restructuring. While most research sheds light on economics as a main thrust, contentious politics and composite wars additionally involve new types of state intervention and institutional arrangements. The second argument of Tarrow is that the unbundling of political power and rights are mutually related. The historical backdrop of the state and rights is a matter of territorial infiltration, confinement within boundaries, and the definition of the criteria that consider the privileges of political and social rights. A third set of comments highlights war and the transformation of the state in terms of power and bureaucracy. The preparation for war and the state of war opens up new opportunities for state authority in terms of the repression of opponents, as well as for the strengthening of both tax and repressive apparatus.
Tarrow’s main consequence for the U.S. state in relation to these issues is fascinating.
Indeed, there is an expansion of the structure of government; for example, the scope of the FBI and the Pentagon, as well as the multiplication of new agencies and joint-government organisations. Both the scope and the size of the U.S. state have expanded, despite a strong anti-state tradition. In the War on Terror, the contradiction between the expansion of the national security state and the anti-state movement has been somewhat resolved through increased outsourcing to private firms for the delivery of military and intelligence services.
This form of “government though contracts” allows for the preservation of existing budgets in the security sector, while increasing side-expenditure which is more difficult to track and control. The quick and poorly coordinated multiplication of contracts has created a much more intrusive U.S. state, but also a state more vulnerable to penetration from civil society and to regulatory capturing from firms. The writer conceptualizes this transformation of state power through Michael Mann’s distinction: there is in this manner a double extension of both the hierarchical and the infrastructural force of the U.S. state in connection to the War on Terror. This point, which is significant to the argument, is to a great degree stimulating.
Sabah Mushtaq – History Department. Quaid-i- azam University Islamabad, Pakistan [email protected].
[IF]Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages | Barbara H Rosenwein
Barbara Rosenwein1 es, desde la década de 1990, una de las referencias más importantes de lo que se ha configurado como una corriente historiográfica que gira en torno al estudio de las emociones. Leia Mais
Crossing the 49th Parallel: Migration from Canada to the United States, 1900-1930 – RAMIREZ (CSS)
RAMIREZ, Bruno. Crossing the 49th Parallel: Migration from Canada to the United States, 1900-1930. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 2001. 219p. Resenha de: NEIDHARDT, W. W. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.2, p., 2004.
Professor Ramirez has provided us with an excellent study of the migration movement from Canada to the United States in the period from 1900-1930. His monograph is clearly a ground-breaking piece of work that fills a major gap in the migration historiography of both countries. It is probably one of the best books on the subject since the excellent but somewhat limited and definitely dated book by Marcus Hansen and John B. Brebner, The Mingling of the Canadian and American Peoples, which was published back in 1940. There does, of course, already exist a considerable body of the published material dealing with the French Canadian migration to the United States during the 19th century. However, the rest of the migration story has received relatively little attention even though about 2.8 million people moved from Canada to the United States from 1840-1940. Approximately two thirds of these emigrants were non-French Canadians. Crossing the 49th Parallel does much to remedy this situation.
However, this is a book that will probably only appeal to someone who specializes in immigration history. I would surmise that most high school students would use this study of Canadian-American cross-border immigration only if they were doing some very specialized research project. The rightful place for Crossing the 49th Parallel seems to be at the post-secondary level of education.
So what will an interested reader find in this book? First of all, Crossing the 49th Parallel is clearly a well-researched book with an almost overwhelming amount of densely packed information. The writing is precise and to the point, although several paragraphs that are more than one page in length could perhaps have been restructured. Within its covers are 19 pages of detailed documentation, 18 Tables of Statistics, several charts, 20 photos, a brief appendix and a very useful index. The book is also carefully structured. There is a good preface in which the author introduces the subject matter; five more or less equally long chapters make up the main body of the monograph. An excellent conclusion rounds out the book.
Chapter 1 is entitled Societies in Motion in Nineteenth Century North America and it provides the necessary background information without which the remaining chapters would seem strangely isolated. In this chapter the author explains how and why Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes contributed to the enormous population flow into the United States particularly New England, the Great Lakes region and the American Mid-west. He also examines the roles played by agriculture, commerce and industry in this southward movement of peoples.
In Chapter 2, the author examines what he calls The Rise of the Border. He argues that by the end of the 19th century, the Canadian-American border – which once used to be relatively open to cross-border migration – was no longer a mere line drawn by international agreements to mark the end of one national territory and the beginning of another; it had also become a system of controls to prevent the entry of unwanted persons into U.S. territory (p.39). It was the time when numerous inspection points began to sprout all along the Canadian-American border.
Emigration from French Canada to the United States is the title of chapter 3 and the focus here is, of course, the French Canadian migration to the United States, particularly to the New England region. Here the author – who has already written extensively on this generally well-known topic – analyzes the roles played by geographic proximity and economic opportunity in enticing so many French Canadians to leave their homeland and settle down in the petits Canadas that began to appear in many American cities. This French Canadian exodus was, according to Ramirez, largely a farm to city move (p.86) and he presents ample evidence that the presence of kin or fellow villagers(p.75) in many of these American cities served, in fact, as a primary attraction for many French Canadians. He concludes that throughout the first three decades of the new century the majority of French Canadians chose a U.S. location in which they had a member of their immediate family, a relative, or a friend waiting for them (p.76). The author also provides his readers with considerable detail about some of the men, women and children who left during this migration; who they were, from what walks of life they came, and their plans.
The focus of Chapter 4 is Emigration from English Canada: 1900-1930. Once again the same questions are asked: who were the emigrants that went to the United States? Where did they come from? Why did they leave and where did they go? For example, we are told that these emigrants came from various backgrounds and from all walks of life and that Ontario had been the home of most of them – although considerable numbers also came from the Maritimes and the West. They all hoped to find a better way of life south of the border and they made their new homes in nearly all the states of the American republic (p.105). The vast majority of them chose to settle in Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, but some also settled in Washington and California. The number of English-speaking emigrants was considerably larger than their French-speaking counterparts and Ramirez writes that on most days for every French Canadian who emigrated to the United States, two Anglo-Canadians did likewise(p.97). It is interesting to note that English Canadians, once they had settled in the United States, did not develop the same kind of ethnic institutions and did not create the same demographic clusters as their French-speaking counterparts. In fact, Ramirez states, regional dispersion and occupational diversity were the hallmarks of the Anglo-Canadian movement (p.100). Most of the English Canadian emigrants would make their homes in the cities of America and Ramirez gives considerable attention to Detroit because it acted as a continental crossroads of population and labor power (p.111). This chapter also examines some of the difficulties that Canadian emigrants encountered as they tried to cross the border and more often than not were confronted by some very hard-nosed
customs inspectors who had enormous discretionary powers as to who could enter. The migration of English Canadians actually began to slow down by 1927 and not surprisingly, of course, came to a virtual halt with the onset of the Great Depression.
The Remigration Movement from Canada is the fifth and final chapter of the book and it examines in considerable detail how Canada became an important gate through which men and women of all nationalities sought to enter the United States legally and illegally (pp.139-140). In fact, one of the more remarkable statistics found in this chapter is the fact that one in five persons who joined the migration flow from Canada to the United States was someone who had first immigrated to Canada and had resided there for a certain length of time (p.139). According to Professor Ramirez, these remigrants, too, came from all Canadian provinces with Ontario and the western provinces leading the way. Not surprisingly, most of these men and women chose to settle not far from the Canadian-American border with New York, Michigan and Washington becoming the three most prominent destinations. Once again, Ramirez provides his readers with all kinds of statistical detail about these remigrants. One particularly informative section deals with Canada’s Italian community and its participation in the migration movement to the United States in the early years of the 20th century.
There is no question that Crossing the 49th Parallel makes a valuable contribution to the migration historiography of North America. Hopefully it will find its rightful place on the bookshelves and research tables of colleges and universities.
S. Neidhardt – Toronto, Ontario.
[IF]Rum and Axes: The Rise of a Connecticut Merchant Family, 1795-1850 – SISKIND (CSS)
SISKIND, Janet. Rum and Axes: The Rise of a Connecticut Merchant Family, 1795-1850. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002. 191p. Resenha de: GILLIS, Michael J.. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.2, p., 2004.
Siskind’s Rum and Axes is an examination of the rise of industrial capitalism in Connecticut after the American Revolution. The author uses the Watkinson-Collins family as her vehicle to reveal the social tensions and economic motivations that permeated the rise of capitalism during this era. Relying on three generations of primary materials Siskind recreates and explains the changing world of the Watkinsons. As members of a religious ‘dissenting society’ while living in East Anglia England, the Watkinsons subscribed to the practice of maintaining social distinctions based on class. However, as middle class dissenters the family found itself being squeezed between an aristocratic land owning class above them and a tradesman and shop-owning class below them. As religious and economic conflicts continued to grow in England, they sought safe harbor for themselves and their capital in America.
In America the families discovered that labour was too expensive to go into farming or wool production so they entered the West Indies import business, focusing mostly on rum and dry goods. As importers and merchants they were able to become a member of New England’s elite without severing their personal relationships with their workers. Eventually, however, the Watkinsons and Collins moved beyond the simple importation of goods when they established their own axe factory and by doing so they firmly established themselves as part of New England’s emerging industrial capitalist class.
Siskind does a good job of examining the inner workings of the Collins Axe Company and its labour force. Initially the company sought to employ skilled workers by providing long-term contracts, company housing and schools. With the introduction of new machinery, however, there was a gradual transition in the factory from skilled to unskilled labour. As skilled Yankee artisans were replaced by Irish labourers so too did the Watkinsons and Collins move from being paternalistic employers to distant supervisors with little interest in their employee’s welfare. Remarkably, when it became apparent that many of their axe company employees were dying from lung diseases brought on by the airborne particles created in the axe grinding process, the owners simply wrote it off as the price of doing business. Here we can see how removed from their employees the company owners had become. The transition from Christian ‘dissenters’ on the run to crass company owners who see the deaths of their employees as the price of progress makes for interesting reading. Siskind explores this transition by examining the family’s letters, their religious ideology, and emerging capitalist society in New England.
This book ably examines the early rise of capitalism in New England as well as exploring numerous familial and business relationships associated with it. The author’s close reading and interpretation of Samuel Watkinson Collins’ memoir is also valuable. Here she traces how quickly the relationship between worker and company owner had changed and how the ideology of the capitalist class was changing as well.
Rum and Axes is suitable for use in high schools with the understanding that this is more than just a simple straightforward colonial history. Siskind, an anthropologist, places strong emphasis on the means of production and how its attendant labour systems create culture. For younger students, this approach will perhaps be difficult to understand and for teachers difficult to demonstrate. However, there is plenty here to create lively classroom discussions. In addition, the author’s extensive use of primary materials offers the readers an intimate look at a remarkable yet troubled family in post-revolution America.
Michael J. Gillis – Department of History. California State University, Chico
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Under the Black Umbrella: Voices from Colonial Korea, 1910-1945 – KANG (CSS)
KANG, Hildi. Under the Black Umbrella: Voices from Colonial Korea, 1910-1945. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2001.166p. Resenha de: LeVOS, Ernest. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.3, p., 2004.
This is a book of many voices and it will appeal to a wide audience for many reasons. It is appropriately titled, well organized and published by a reputable press. The personal stories of suffering and the will to survive describe the existentialist existence of a nation under colonial oppression. These stories defined a people and eventually two countries: North Korea and South Korea. From another perspective, it is a set of stories that defined Japanese colonialism for thirty-five years. In this book the author skilfully weaves together a common experience of subjugation as told by fifty-one Koreans.
Six of the fourteen chapters are oral accounts by six individuals: a teacher cum businessperson, a bank manager, two homemakers and two students. Eight chapters contain oral accounts of varying lengths from groups such as farmers, fishers, peddlers and professional people. The story each person relates paints a picture of assimilation, accommodation, oppression, subjugation, and cultural and religious compromise under Japanese rule. Chaos, confusion and cruelty also figure prominently. While stories of victimization predominate, the book does include some accounts of compassion and mercy. There were a few Japanese colonial and military administrators who were kind to the Koreans but these Japanese were a handful that saw a bigger picture and shunned a narrow island mentality of which they were accused (p. 132).
While Kang does not admit using a specific definition of history, it is evident that she views history as the process of change over a period of time. Part I covers Change by Choice and Part II is Change by Coercion. In the coverage of both parts of the book, significant topics such as the Korean Independence Movement, the infatuation with Communism and the role of village schools called Sodangs, are acknowledged.
The Korean Independence Movement is addressed in Under the Black Umbrella. Koreans fought hard to preserve their individual and national identity since they were fighting a war against the dangers of becoming Japanese. Various weapons such as religion and the study of the Bible were used in this war against assimilation. For Christians, it was impossible to preach Christianity openly. In fact, a wide range of weapons were used in the program of passive resistance including hiding crops, feigning ignorance, conveniently disappearing singing songs with hidden meanings, taking part in labour strikes, spreading anti Japanese rumours, and, especially Christians, refusing to bow to Shinto shrines (p. 99). Koreans experienced the consequences of such passive resistance – for example, finding it disastrous to use a piece of the Independence newspaper to wrap a package! Resistance continued during the Second World War. At a time when the Japanese wanted all the help they could get, Koreans kept up their passive resistance by hiding, ignoring the summons, or finding essential home-front jobs (p. 130). One person sought advice from a fortune-teller who was told to escape the draft since his lot, as a soldier would be a bad one. For those interested in the study of passive resistance, some of the latter accounts will remind them of similar movements in the history of Asia among the peasants who battled colonial rule.
There is no doubt that the author, perhaps inadvertently, prepares her readers to focus on mansei, independence. Mansei was the rallying cry, the song and statement of faith for freedom some day in the Korean future. The Japanese were devoted to controlling Korea, and the Koreans were determined to resist Japanese colonialism. In the pursuit of their own variety of manifest destiny, the Japanese military administrators introduced laws that required Koreans to recite the imperial pledge of allegiance, to speak only Japanese, to worship at Shinto shrines and to adopt Japanese names (p. 111). In short, Koreans were forced to assimilate. August 15, 1945 was a defining moment for Koreans for on this date the Japanese surrendered and Korea was no longer an imperial colony of Japan. They stopped becoming Japanese and it was a time for Korean communists and anti-Japanese nationalists to let out all their frustrations (pp. 143-144). Korea would never be the same again.
Oral histories are challenging exercises and the author does not ignore the element of accuracy where memory is concerned. Even though some of these individual stories are repetitious experiences, they will appeal to a wide range of readers – the general public, university and high school students. The latter will find the few experiences of Korean junior and senior high school students, some who worked in the fish cannery during the war, interesting. Part of their school day was given to forced labour. The author raises some pertinent issues that students could use for papers and discussions such as the influence of assimilation on Koreans and whether colonialism was a blessing or a bane for Korea.
There are other significant features of the book. The only map in Under the Black Umbrella is useful in locating some of the towns and regions in Korea. In addition, there are some appropriate photographs and a reprint of a post-card to celebrate liberation from Japanese rule. Also of interest to the reader is Appendix B, where the author briefly brought some of the individual stories up to date. Eventually, several of those she interviewed would make their home in the United States.
It is a truism that history is written by the victors. But it is understandable that many Japanese will not revisit the past, nor want to read or write about the ugly periods of their history. One is reminded of the article that Brigadier General S. L. A. Marshall wrote for the Atlantic Monthly a few months after the Korean War was over: Our Mistakes in Korea. Nations may write on the ugly past, warts and all, but unfortunately, we may get very little of the Japanese perspective.
References
Marshall, S.L.A. (1953). Our mistakes in Korea. Atlantic Monthly, 192(3), pp. 46-49. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/53sep/marshall.htm.
Ernest LeVos – Grant MacEwan College. Edmonton, Alberta.
[IF]
Cleopatra: Beyond the Myth – CHAUVEAU (CSS)
CHAUVEAU, Michel (translated from the French by David Lorton). Cleopatra: Beyond the Myth. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2002. 104p. Resenha de: Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.3, p., 2004.
In Cleopatra: Beyond the Myth, Michel Chauveau attempts, as far as possible, to set the record straight regarding the myriad myths and facts which have followed this ancient queen through the centuries. Perhaps one of its greatest traits is that it is a relatively short book, making a somewhat complex and intimidating subject accessible. He does an admirable job of such an arduous task, and I found this a compelling, engaging and titillating book that left me wanting to learn more.
Chauveau is a former member of a noted French archaeological institute in Cairo and, at press time, was director of studies at L’Ecole Pratique in Paris. While this lends a great deal of credibility to his work, the extensive list of citations, in French, German, Italian and English, further demonstrates a wide and varied research base for his subject. This book may be useful as a secondary text by college professors, or as a supplementary resource at lower levels. Maps are provided on a front overleaf and following the Translator’s note which helps to orient the reader as to the time and place covered by this work. A small note of caution should be considered as this is a translation, and some of the nuances of the subject may have been lost or altered in that translation. The book is made up of straight text with a Chronology of the Ptolemies and a few selections from Ancient Texts, as well as excellent notes, bibliography and index.
Chauveau explains early on that the ancient accounts of Cleopatra’s life are limited. He notes that Egypt at that time was a satellite of Rome, and that it is likely, in part, due to her stormy affairs with both Julius Caesar and Antony that we know as much as we do. He also states from the beginning that he is trying to sift truth from fiction and provide a somewhat more accurate understanding of this complex woman.
Woven throughout Cleopatra are a great many details about the functioning of Roman society which was so entwined with Cleopatra’s rise, rule and eventual demise. It is largely through Roman documents that many of the facts about her have been verifiable. Some knowledge of this period of history is definitely beneficial, and makes the understanding of events much easier.
Cleopatra’s family history is detailed and her birthright to the Egyptian throne is established through a long line of powerful women of the Lagide family. Chauveau does, however, raise the question of her legitimacy when he describes her as daughter of the royal couple, fruit of a morganatic union, or even illegitimate (p. 9). From the very beginning, her life is shrouded in mystery and unanswered questions. What is not in doubt, however, is her intelligence and the fact that she must have had a considerable and extensive education. She spoke at least seven languages Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Ethiopian, Median, Parthian, and Latin at a time when even royal women were not usually extensively educated.
The future queen’s formative years were filled with conflict and intrigue as her family tried to come to terms with Roman aggression and she learned many ruthless lessons regarding power and alliance during this period. It is also suggested that once her father had died, she may have displaced her brother on the throne, overthrowing the dying king’s wishes. Then, through a series of intrigues, Cleopatra ultimately became victorious and took her place as sole ruler of Egypt. Part of why this was possible is that she came to power during the Roman Civil War. Caesar went to Egypt to plunder its riches in order to support Roman military exploits, and it was at this time that one of the famous myths of Cleopatra occurred. Chauveau maintains that she slipped through enemy lines, persuaded a friend to wrap her in a carpet and deliver her to Caesar’s private quarters, where she used seduction, intelligence and compassion to win him over. This verifies one of her well-known adventures, and clearly demonstrates a great deal of audacity and creativity on her part. Her relationship with Caesar is also authenticated by this as he describes their close relationship, her travelling to Rome and staying in his house, and eventually Caesar’s acknowledgement of Cleopatra’s son as his own.
That this famed Egyptian queen was ruthless and manipulative is beyond question. Chauveau insinuates that she had her 15-year-old brother killed so that she could usurp total control. In another instance Caesar called for her help and while she publicly refused aid, one of her generals sent a fleet to assist him. By these means she could await the outcome of the battle and denounce or support Caesar’s actions whichever served her purposes best. While these traits are not unique to Cleopatra, they are more often attributed to male rulers, but since she was a ruler and acted as such, was she really any more remarkable than her male contemporaries? Once Caesar was killed, Antony became a strong force in the Roman Empire, and he too turned to Egypt to see what support he could garner from it. To that end he summoned Cleopatra and her arrival at Tarsos and lavish display flattered him immensely. Clearly she knew how to manipulate powerful men. When he visited her at Alexandria and stayed for months it was clear that he too had fallen for her romantically. Chauveau clearly states that they were lovers (p. 46), and Antony also later acknowledged two of her children as his own.
Perhaps one of the most noted legends about Cleopatra is about how she met her end. Her army had been defeated and her rule was clearly at an end, so friends helped her to seal herself up in her mausoleum with her treasures. Chauveau presents it as fact that Antony was told she was dead and so committed suicide. He was, however, hauled up by ropes to where she was concealed and died in her arms. Octavian, a long time enemy, captured her and her treasure and confronted her with her past errors. Whether Octavian gave consent, or whether Cleopatra’s friends managed to help her without his knowledge, she did commit suicide. Literature and Hollywood perpetuate the myth of her inducing snakes to bite her, but it is more likely that she used poison. So ended the life of one of the most fabled, and perhaps misunderstood, women of history.
The legacy which Cleopatra left, regardless of the truth of the myths, is quite significant. According to Chauveau, she had reconstituted in large part the Lagide Empire of her forbears, which had dominated the Mediterranean world in the third century (p. 52). Using her considerable intelligence, beauty and ruthlessness, she accomplished what many men before her had done. Perhaps because she was a woman in a time of male dominance such exploits became the stuff of speculation, and were embellished through the ages.
While Chauveau’s work clears up many discrepancies, it also raises more questions. For example, did Cleopatra really commit suicide or was she murdered by Octavian’s minions? What would her role have been in a new Egypt had she survived? Was she merely a lusty, adulterous manipulator, or where her actions truly designed to assure the greatness of Egypt? Perhaps these questions are precisely that part of Cleopatra’s mystique that will live on forever.
E. Senger – Henry Wise Wood High School. Calgary, Alberta.
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Women and the public sphere in the age of the French Revolution – LANDES (RBH)
LANDES, Joan. Women and the public sphere in the age of the French Revolution. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988. Resenha de: AGRANTI, Leila Mezan. Revista Brasileira de História, São Paulo, v.9, n.18, n.15, p.259-263, ago.1988/set.1989.
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