Category Archives: European History

World War II in Soviet Film

Posted on April 1, 2012 by briansandberg

Soviet filmmakers portrayed the Great Patriotic War (or World War II) in numerous films produced from the 1940s to 1980s. The AHA Perspectives provides an assessment of one of the last of the Soviet films about World War II, Elem … Continue reading →

Posted in European History, Historical Film, History of Violence, War in Film, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment

France and the Origins of the Great Depression

Posted on March 31, 2012 by briansandberg

Did French economic policies contribute to, or even cause, the Great Depression of the 1930s? This is the provocative question posed by historian Douglas A. Irwin (Dartmouth College) in an article on History News Network (HNN), which is an outgrowth … Continue reading →

Posted in European History, French History, Globalization | Leave a comment

Napoleonland

Posted on February 18, 2012 by briansandberg

Ready for a Napoleonic theme park?  Here comes Napoleonland…. Yves Jago, a French politician in the Parti Radical, is proposing a project to build a historical theme park to celebrate the life and legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte.  The theme park … Continue reading →

Posted in European History, European Union, French History, French Revolution and Napoleon, History in the Media, War, Culture, and Society | 1 Comment

Americans’ (Politicized) Ideas of Europe

Posted on February 4, 2012 by briansandberg

Americans hold many preconceived notions about Europe and Europeans, often based on movies and tourism. During U.S. election cycles, American politicians frequently play on American stereotypes about Europe to score points against their rivals. Martin Klingst, a German journalist based … Continue reading →

Posted in European History, European Union, Globalization, Political Culture | Leave a comment

Renaissance Art and Modern Banking

Posted on January 31, 2012 by briansandberg

Italian Renaissance bankers arguably invented the concepts and tools of modern banking, including bills of exchange, letters of credit, deposit banking, branch banks, and double-entry bookkeeping. A recent exhibition on Money and Beauty: Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities … Continue reading →

Posted in Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, European History, History in the Media, Noble Culture and History of Elites, Renaissance Art and History | Leave a comment

Playing Politics with History

Posted on January 30, 2012 by briansandberg

Politicians frequently use historical references and analogies to support their political positions and policy programs. Sometimes legislative bodies act to interpret historical events, attempting to reshape the historical memory of controversial periods of the past. Recently, French politicians have been … Continue reading →

Posted in European History, European Union, French History, History in the Media, Human Rights, Political Culture | Leave a comment

Movement for De-Baptism in France

Posted on January 29, 2012 by briansandberg

A movement promoting de-baptism is growing in France, challenging the authority of the Catholic Church and presenting quandaries for historians who use baptismal records as sources. A French man named René LeBouvier has sued the Catholic Church in order to … Continue reading →

Posted in European History, European Union, European Wars of Religion, French History, French Wars of Religion, Human Rights, Religious Violence | Leave a comment

English Translations of the Iliad

Posted on January 25, 2012 by briansandberg

Homer’s The Iliad has been translated and re-translated into English numerous times.  Willis G. Reiger, director of the University of Illinois Press, points out that “according to The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation, the Iliad is among the … Continue reading →

Posted in Civil Conflict, Empires and Imperialism, European History, History in the Media, History of the Book, Mediterranean World, Noble Culture and History of Elites, War, Culture, and Society, Women and Gender History | Leave a comment

Commemorating Frederick the Great

Posted on January 25, 2012 by briansandberg

Germans are commemorating the 300th anniversary of the birth of Frederick II “the Great”, king of Prussia in the mid-eighteenth century. Frederick the Great is known above all for his generalship in a series of wars against the Habsburgs over … Continue reading →

Posted in Early Modern Europe, European History, History in the Media, War, Culture, and Society, Warfare in the Early Modern World | Leave a comment

Coffee in the Early Modern Mediterranean

Posted on January 18, 2012 by briansandberg

We take coffee shops for granted today. From global chain like Starbucks to classic Parisian cafés and local American diners, coffee shops deliver caffeine to people around the world. Coffee consumption became global in the seventeenth century, when a coffee … Continue reading →

Posted in Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, European History, Food and Cuisine History, Mediterranean World, Renaissance Art and History | Leave a comment