Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis - Volume 126, Issue 3, 2013

In the third century the Roman Empire was under threat. In reaction emperors appealed to the unity of the realm, and epigraphic evidence testifies to an increasing awareness of the Empire as a whole. Military problems forced emperors to be increasingly absent from Rome, caused a rapid changeover of emperors, and consequently diminished the power of individual rulers. This seems to have had remarkably little impact o Read More

In order to modify a well-known thesis that relates early modern notions of original sin to the development of science, this article compares the views of Augustine and Melanchthon on original sin, on knowledge in general, and on the importance of natureknowledge in particular. Both Augustine and Melanchthon make man fully responsible for his sinfulness, but Augustine does this by placing sin wholly in the immaterial Read More

This article shows how decadentism and radical nationalism clashed and combined in the life and works of Gabriele D’Annunzio. Usually D’Annunzio is either dissociated from fascism because of his decadent and elitist sensibilities or seen as one of its great forerunners who largely abandoned his decadentism. In contrast to both these approaches, this article highlights the fascist motives in D’Annunzio’s thought and political practic Read More

After Hitler came to power thousands of people left Germany and many of them moved to the Netherlands. Among them was Helmuth Plessner, who – in Nazi terms – was a Half-Jew and was therefore deprived of his professorship at the University of Cologne. The University of Groningen offered him refuge. Plessner was one of the most important German philosophers of the twentieth century and a founder of philosophic Read More

The Polish independent trade union Solidarność appeared in a time of rising tension between East and West. This created a dilemma for Western left-wing movements: maintain solidarity with the Polish workers or continue the détente policy of the 1970s? The Dutch social democratic party PvdA and the largest trade union confederation FNV both dealt with this dilemma in their own way. In the PvdA the events caused a fierc Read More

Biographies of kings and queens have often been considered a discredited historiographical genre, particularly in the Netherlands, but wrongly so. The dynastic international networks of monarchs and their role in politics provide fascinating insights into national and transnational political history, changing social relations, and the cultivation of rituals. This article outlines the positive appraisal of the royal biography since the late 19 Read More

This article is a critical review of the historical study ‘Wij weten niets van hun lot.’ Gewone Nederlanders en de Holocaust (‘We know nothing about their fate.’ Ordinary Dutchmen and the Holocaust’, 2012) by Bart van der Boom. Based on the reading of Jewish and non-Jewish war diaries, the Dutch historian Van der Boom claims bystanders and accomplices were not indifferent to the fate of Jews. They were just as obedient or Read More