Category Archives: History of Violence

Tanks in World War II Films

Posted on July 30, 2014 by briansandberg

Fury, a new World War II film, will be released this fall, presenting the perspective of United States tank crews fighting in Germany toward the end of the war in Europe. The film focuses on a Sherman tank named Fury … Continue reading →

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

Reconsidering Anti-War Films

Posted on July 15, 2014 by briansandberg

As the centennial of the outbreak of the First World War approaches, films about the conflict are being re-examined.  Perhaps the most famous film about the First World War is Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), based … Continue reading →

Posted in Atrocities, Historical Film, History in the Media, History of Violence, Human Rights, War in Film, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment

Summit on Sexual Violence

Posted on June 11, 2014 by briansandberg

A global summit is currently being held in London on the problem of sexual violence in warfare. The summit, entitled “The Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict,” is sponsored by the government of the United Kingdom. “For a … Continue reading →

Posted in Atrocities, Civil Conflict, Civilians and Refugees in War, Gender and Warfare, History of Violence, Human Rights, Laws of War, War, Culture, and Society, Women and Gender History | 1 Comment

A Sequel to Restrepo

Posted on June 1, 2014 by briansandberg

A sequel (of a sort) to Restrepo, the 2010 documentary film by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington about combat at a firebase in Afghanistan, is being released. The new documentary, Korengal, by Sebastian Junger attempts to contextualize the broader conflict … Continue reading →

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

Early Colonial Latin America Conference

Posted on April 22, 2014 by briansandberg

Symposium on Latin America in the Early Colonial Period 9 am to 3 pm, Saturday, April 11, 2015 Keynote speaker: Laura Matthew, Marquette University This symposium aims to explore the complexities of Latin America during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, … Continue reading →

Posted in Conferences, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, Empires and Imperialism, European History, Globalization, History of Violence, Renaissance Art and History | 1 Comment

Rethinking State Trials

Posted on April 9, 2014 by briansandberg

Symposium on Rethinking the State Trials: The Politics of Justice in Later Stuart England Organized by Brian Cowan (McGill University) and Scott Sowerby (Northwestern University) and sponsored by the Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies Thursday, April 10 (at Northwestern University) … Continue reading →

Posted in Civil Conflict, Conferences, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, European History, European Wars of Religion, History of Violence, Human Rights, Noble Culture and History of Elites, State Development Theory | 1 Comment

When Robots Can Kill

Posted on March 22, 2014 by briansandberg

Robotic technology is advancing rapidly, raising questions about decision-making processes in shooting to kill. Although robotics have many applications, much of the research on robots is funded by military services and defense contractors. This raises serious ethical questions for university … Continue reading →

Posted in Arms Control, History of Science, History of Violence, Laws of War, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment

Hitchcock’s Documentary on the Holocaust

Posted on January 12, 2014 by briansandberg

Director Alfred Hitchcock made a documentary, entitled Memory of the Camps, on the Holocaust in 1945. Hitchcock used the rushes of the British military film crews that had filmed the liberation of concentration camps, such as Bergen-Belsen, that year. The … Continue reading →

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

Commemorating JFK’s Assassination

Posted on November 22, 2013 by briansandberg

Historians have been absorbed with questions of historical memory and commemoration over the past two decades. Historian Pierre Nora’s influential analysis of history and memory has spawned an entire subfield of historical studies of commemoration. Commemorating historical episodes of violence … Continue reading →

Posted in Historical Film, History in the Media, History of Violence, Museums and Historical Memory, Political Culture | Leave a comment

Sixteenth Century Studies Conference

Posted on October 30, 2013 by briansandberg

I participated in the 2013 Sixteenth Century Society and Conference (SCSC) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, last weekend. The stunning bastioned fortifications of San Juan provided a fantastic setting for a conference on early modern history. I presented a paper … Continue reading →

Posted in Conferences, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, European History, European Wars of Religion, French Wars of Religion, Gender and Warfare, History of Violence, Reformation History, Renaissance Art and History, War, Culture, and Society, Warfare in the Early Modern World, Women and Gender History | Leave a comment