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Showing papers in "The Journal of Modern History in 1931"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The influence of the press on the course of the Great War can never be accurately measured accurately as discussed by the authors, but it can at least be roughly estimated; and even where no attempt is made to estimate influence, a kniowledge of newspaper views on questions of foreign policy is of assistance in clarifying the atmosphere out of which the great war came.
Abstract: THE PRESS AND FOREIGN POLICY' IT IS a defect of some of the studies of the diplomatic background of the Great War that they tend to ignore the influence on pre-war diplomacy of public opinion in general and of the press in particular. Based primarily on official documents such studies unconsciously tend to overemphasize the parts played by the leaders with whose activities the documents are so largely concerned and to neglect some of the less obvious forces that affected the course of events. The influence of the press, it is true, can never be measured accurately. \"No diviniiig rod can locate it,\" says Miss Salmon, \"no plummet sound its depth, no instrument of precision measure it, no astronomer compute its orbit.\"2 And yet that influence in pre-war Europe was very real and very considerable. Professor Fay goes so far as to list \"the poisoning of public opinion by the newspaper press in all the great countries\"3 as one of the chief underlying causes of the war. If the influence of the press cannot be exactly determined, however, it can at least be roughly estimated; and even where no attempt is made to estimate influence, a kniowledge of newspaper views on questions of foreign policy is of assistance in clarifying the atmosphere out of which the Great WYar came.

916 citations





Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The secret negotiations regarding a partition of Turkey in concert with England, so abruptly undertaken l, by Tsar Nicholas I in conversations with Sir Hamilton Seymour at St. Petersburg in the early months of 1853, have as their basis the secret understanding arranged between England and Russia in the summer of 1844 as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: r nHE secret negotiations regarding a partition of Turkey in concert with England, so abruptly undertaken l , by Tsar Nicholas I in conversations with Sir Hamilton Seymour at St. Petersburg in the early months of 1853, have as their basis the secret understanding arranged between England and Russia in the summer of 1844. The purpose of the understanding was to assure that whenever the contemplated issolution of Turkey in Europe occurred, England and Russia would be found co-operating for a peaceful succession to the Ottoman dominions. Extant documentary evidence for the years 1844-54 proves that such an understanding was made and that it was continued in force in the nine years which preceded the Crimean

7 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The history of modern European thought can be classified into five groups: histories of general thought, scientific thought, social thought, moral thought, philosophical thought, and miscellaneous.
Abstract: rpHIS paper is an attempt to bring together and classify the histories of modern European thought which have been published since the close of the war. A word as to limitations. It omits (1) publications in foreign languages, (2) books which cover more than tlle modern period of Western thought, as e.g., W. C. D. Dampier-Whetllam's recent History of science in its relations with p/zilosophy and religion,1 and (3) historical surveys which have appeared in learned journals and in the proceedings of learned societies. Each of these omitted groups would require an article to do them any sort of justice. Since Merz began publishing, in 1904, his monumental History of European thought in the nineteenth century, it hass become increasingly clear that a new genre of historical writing is coming into its own. With two or three exceptions, there are as yet no other comprehensive surveys of general thought in Europe available for English readers. But it would seem to be only a matter of time until historians will begin to synthesize tlle findings of the army of specialists who are writing in this field today. Under tllese circumstances, an approximately exhaustive inventory of what has been done, especially in recent years, may be of some value. As this review proceeds, it will be clear that most recent histories of thought are histories of some phase of thought. Historical writings in this field, for the period under consideration, may be classified into five groups: histories of (1) general thought, (2) scientific thought, (3) social thought, (4) philosophical thought, and (5) miscellaneous. Within these major classifications, others are required. The output of this sort of material is already large, and seems to be increasing yearly. The emphasis, unavoidably and perhaps wisely, is on special surveys. But the further this specializing goes, the more complex and bewildering the picture, the more urgent the need becomes for some \"master of those who know\" to present a composite picture of what is emerging. Preserved Smith has made a beginning in the first volume of his History of modern culture. He promises to bring the story down to the present day in four volumes. A glance at the bibliographieal footnotes which accompany the text of this paper, and cover only a small portion of the field, will eonvey clearly enough the dimensions of his task. One has hopes that George Sarton will one day turn from the myriad details of his Isis and his bibliographical

6 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The reading of history has ever been regarded by the middle class as a virtue second only to an acquaint, ance with Holy Writ, and history is joyfully hailed by the bourgeois reader as an open-sesame to learning and culture, a teacher of virtue and patriotism, an encourager to success, and a help in time of conversational need as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: r rHE reading of history has ever been regarded by the middle class as a virtue second only to an acquaint, ance with Holy Writ. Poetry on imaginative themes has been received often with unconcealed suspicion. Prose Sction has had to fight a long hour by Shrewsbury clock to justify its existence. The drama still savors of idle and frivolous amusement. But history is joyfully hailed by the bourgeois reader as an open-sesame to learning and culture, a teacher of virtue and patriotism, an encourager to success, and a help in time of conversational need. The inherent virtues of historical literature are a convention of Renaissance criticism. Whatever else the critic might destroy, he preserved a shrine for Clio. In no social group was history more highly regarded than among the sturdy middle class of the English Renaissance. Historical reading needed no apology. Even the sternest Puritan was impressed with the respective examples of virtue and vice, both alike useful in teaching a good lesson, to be gleaned in the annals of the past. Practically all Renaissance writers on education advocated the study of history for the sake of the lessons useful in the

5 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the situation finally became so desperate that the Hawaiian officials, alleging irregularities, refused admittance to 1,174 Japanese immigrants during March, 1897, and sent them back to Japan.
Abstract: LTHOUGH the efforts of Hawaii to establish treaty relagA tions with Japan met with success in 1871, no considerable number of Japanese immigrants arrived during the years immediately following. Primarily to offset the numerical preponderance of the Chinese plantation laborers, the Hawaiian government signed an immigration convention with Japan in 1886.1 With startling rapidity the islands were flooded with Japanese, whose numbers increased from 116 in 1883 to 24,407 in 1896, out of a total population of 109,020.2 Faced with the prospect of domination at the hands of a foreign people, the Hawaiian government began as early as 1887 to take fruitless measures to stem this oriental inundation. The situation finally became so desperate that the Hawaiian officials, alleging irregularities, refused admittance to 1,174 Japanese immigrants during March, 1897, and sent them back to Japan.3 It is clear that this drastic step was considered an act of self-preservation, and in some quarters the impending dangers were thouglht to be so serious that annexation to the United States was urged as the only possible alternative.4 There was no hostile demonstration on the part of the Japanese in Hawaii as a result of this rejection, although two mass meetings were held in Honolulu, one of which adopted resolutions of protest.5 Wlhen the returning immigrants arrived in

4 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a survey of the literature of the Italian reformation, focusing mainly on the history of persecution and the grounds of the suppression of the movement in Italy.
Abstract: T HE tradition crystallized long ago that the religious reformation of the sixteenth century was soon suppressed in Spain and Italy, and that its history therefore was at an end in those countries by the time the confessional wars began in France and elsewhere north of the Alps. As a matter of fact, its real importance began when it ceased to operate in the two peninsulas and became a motive force in the evolution of the religious thought of other lands. The stream of Spanish mysticism flowing through Italy, on whose soil mysticism was an exotic growth, mingled with the cooler currents setting in from the study of Plato and Aristotle, crossed the Alps, alnd swelled that which proceeded from the Netherlands, becoming a flood not to be dammed even by the new scholasticism and the formalization of the doctrines of the reformed churches. "Anabaptists," whether of southern or of northern origin, became identified with the championship of the right of private judgment; and the southern group aroused apprehensions by its radical theology just as the northern one gave umbrage by its social doctrines. It follows that the studies of the reformation in Italy are concerned, for the most part, with the history of persecution, since it was in Italy that the counterreformation was challenged and that the question of tolerance was raised above every other by the suppression of the movement. The counter-reformation was itself a southern product; for the Jesuits were born of Spanish mysticism, the Roman Inquisition was inspired by Spanish example and Italian in scope, and the Council of Trent was directed by Italians and its success was due to them. But apart from the history of persecution, the increasing desire to present the subject as a whole, analyzing the elements of its inceptioln as well as the grounds of its suppression, has raised up exponents both on the liberal and the conservative Catholic side. These have not wholly neglected the study of the movement north of the Alps; but in general, transalpine scholars have concerned themselves more with the religious movement in Italy than Italian scholars have concerned themselves with the corresponding movement abroad. In a consideration of the literature of the Italian reformation, we have, first, works attempting a view of the movement as a whole; second, works oll the counter-reformation or Catholic reaction; third, works on the humanists, theologians, and mystics of sixteenth-century Italy. What is said here about the first is not restricted to recent works, since a certain curiosity is satisfied in tracing the efforts of students to shape the subject into a comprehensible whole; but in regard to the second and third, there is an attempt to arrange the books on those subjects which have appeared since 1914.

3 citations







Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The first series, covering the period 1836-49, has already appeared as discussed by the authors and is divided into three series covering respectively the last fourteen years of the reign of Taokwang (Ser. I), the whole reign of Hienfeng and Tungehih.
Abstract: 1836-49 T rHE systematic publication of Chinese diplomatic documents by the Palace Museum at Peiping is an event which all students of China's foreign relations must welcome. For many years, as a private collection the documents have served the needs of the few fortunate scholars' who had the friendship of the owner;2 but, in spite of many attempts at publication, including one of my own, they had remained in manuscript form. Fortunately the Palace Museum discovered among the treasures left by the Tsing dynasty a collection of manuscripts which, upon comparison, proved to be the original of these documents. The Museum, following the fashion of publishing large collections of diplomatic documents, is issuing an edition from photographic plates in a form which all connoisseurs of Chinese books must love. The first series, covering the period 1836-49, has already appeared.3 The title of the collection, translated fully and literally, is the \"Beginning and end of the management of barbarian affairs.\" Compiled by three successive official commissions, it is divided into three series covering respectively the last fourteen years of the reign of Taokwang (Ser. I), the whole reign of Hienfeng (Ser. II), and the whole reign of Tungehih (Ser. III). Series I and II contain eighty books each, while Series III contains one hundred. Each book has on the average thirtv-eiaht


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A thorough study of Raynal was undertaken by a student of French literature, Anatole Feugere, the results of whose research first appeared in a series of scattered articles published from 1909 to 1915 and then in a book published in 1922.
Abstract: HUMANITARIANISM I N SPITE of the fact that the French Revolution and its background have been so intensively studied by historical scholars, the importance of one figure of the time, the Abbe Raynal, has been relatively neglected. Many writers have devoted passing attention to Raynal, and a few have appreciated something of his importance ;1 but until recent years there was no adequate study of his life and influence, and his full importance was not generally recognized. Even yet he has hardly been given his proper place, though the want of an adequate monograph has now been supplied. Early in the present century a thorough study of Raynal was undertaken by a student of French literature, Anatole Feugere, the results of whose research first appeared in a series of scattered articles published from 1909 to 1915 and then in a book published in 1922.2 In its final form Feugere's work is noteworthy, not only for its collection into one synthesis of the many scraps of information about Raynal which have become available in printed sources during the last century, but for the use made by Feugere of unpublished correspondence and manuscripts of the Abbe himself. On the basis of these published and unnuhblishe] materials. Feiiore has siieeeedetd in making a X I ci C-7

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, Uflacker et al. published a contemporary pamphlet and three broadsides of the Fenestration of 1618, showing that three victims were thrown from a first-story ratlher rather than from a second-story window, and that the height was about sixteen meters.
Abstract: S ventured to write a complete history of the Thirty Years' War.' However, during the past decade there have been many studies on the ever shifting diplomacy, the battles and campaigns, the chief actors. military and political, and on the effects of the war.2 As a prelude to Frederick's acceptance of the Bohemian crown, Uflacker3 has studied Christian of Anhalt's secret dealings with the Bohemian magnate Peter Wok von Rosenberg, and his negotiations with the statesmen in Prague and Breslau during the years 1607-9. Anhalt's methods, based on personal relationships and visionary plans rather than on practical politics, led directly to the tragic Bohemian venture. Pick4 has thrown new light on the famous \"defenestration\" of 1618 by publishing a contemporary pamphlet and three broadsides of the event. One of the broadsides offers additional proof that the three victims were thrown from a first-story ratlher than from a second-story window, and that the height was about sixteen meters. Of the many verses written about the unfortunate \"Winter King\" of Bohemia, Loesche5 has found seven in the Saxon state archives which have not hitherto been published, and the reviewer\" has reproduced twenty-four broadsides on the same subject