Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis - Volume 133, Issue 4, 2020

Dreaming of a state for the people. The German idea of a people’s state in the long nineteenth century (1789-1914)

The idea of a people’s state was central to nineteenth-century German political thought from the aftermath of the French Revolution to the beginning of the First World War. However, it has not as yet been studied either systematically or thoroughly. This article explores the concept of the people’s state in German political texts, arguing that the people’s state has a double meaning: it could either be a state for the people, such as a republic, or a state with one supposedly homogenous population. The two notions are intertwined, and this could explain how the people’s state became a central idea in ideologies as diverse as socialism, liberalism, and nationalism, as well as anti-Semitism and national-socialism. The development of the idea of a people’s state in the nineteenth century is crucial for a better understanding of political thinking in twentieth-century Germany.

Singing Politics. Political song and collective singing practices during the Dutch revolutionary period (1780-1815)

In the Dutch revolutionary period of the late eighteenth century, song was often used as a political tool to construct communities that shared interests, ideologies, and feelings. Abstract feelings of unity were made concrete through the experience of collective singing. Despite being continuously employed as a unifying practice, the ways of singing and the feelings that were involved nevertheless changed in accordance with the turbulent circumstances of the time – from the emergence of the Patriots, to the Batavian Revolution, throughout the Napoleonic years, and towards the establishment of a Dutch monarchy. This essay goes beyond analysing songs as textual sources and investigates when, where, and by whom these songs were sung. By approaching the collective singing of political communities as emotional practices, we can develop a new perspective on this episode of Dutch history, in which we acknowledge the feelings and experiences of the historical actors that shaped the developments of that time.

Ambassadors on the Sports Front: Sports, Politics and Diplomacy during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)

This article examines the role of sports in the international politics and diplomacy of nation states in wartime. Through a case study on public diplomacy during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), this article shows how sport could influence international public opinion. By focussing on some lesser-known international sporting events from this period, such as the 1937 Labour Olympiad in Antwerp, this article will move away from the dominant focus in sports history on mega-events such as the Olympic Games. Although research about the relationship between sports and diplomacy has grown in recent years, it has barely taken into account the influence of a war context on sport and diplomacy. This article attempts to fill this gap by analysing left-wing Belgian and Spanish newspapers, archives of the Belgian workers' sports movement, and unused source material from the FIFA archive.

NOlympics in Amsterdam! The struggle for urban space and the politics of Amsterdam's Olympic Bid, 1984-1986

This article examines the protests against the social impact of Amsterdam’s bid to host the Olympic Summer Games of 1992. Although sporting mega-events have become the topic of a growing body of interdisciplinary scholarship, both the related histories of popular protest and governance remain relatively underexplored. The Dutch government established an Olympic organizing committee, consisting of governmental, commercial, and sporting stakeholders, which promoted the Amsterdam Olympics as a catalyst for economic and urban growth. By contrast, city inhabitants as well as local governmental bodies, squatters, and activist groups claimed their right to the city and contested the bid on the grounds of its negative impact on the quality of life and the environment in Amsterdam. International sporting events have always been contested for political reasons, but Amsterdam was one of the first cities where protesters opposed the Olympics’ overarching social impact. Although the protest’s scale remained relatively limited, protesters successfully targeted the International Olympic Committee and international press to present a negative image of Amsterdam as an Olympic host city. Activism against Amsterdam’s Olympic bid is an important precursor to more contemporary protest movements against sporting mega-events.

Military History in the 21^stCentury

The field of military history has undergone profound changes in recent decades, the main feature of which has been to broaden the narrow traditional operational military historiography in terms of theme, perspective and methodology. This article very briefly discusses the position of the field in the academic and non-academic world. Then – the main body of the article – it explores the new historiographic paths military historians have taken over time, and analyzes the benefits and opportunities of these new practices, as well as the associated risks. Finally, a hopeful look is taken at the future of the field. It is argued that military historians with a comprehensive approach are best able to explain how the course of military action has influenced the general course of history and can thus make a full contribution to general historiography.