Christine Lagarde Chosen to Lead IMF

Posted on June 28, 2011 by briansandberg

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has been chosen to lead the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The United States has stated its support for Lagarde, effectively ensuring her selection for the IMF post recently vacated by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was arrested on charges of sexual assault in New York City.

Lagarde will be the first woman to head the IMF, but the latest in a long string of Europeans to lead the organization.  A number of governments around the world had expressed support for a non-European leader to take up the post, but the United States finally supported European nations’ bid to maintain control of the organization.

The Washington Post reports on Lagarde’s selection.

 

Posted in European Union, French History, Women and Gender History | Leave a comment

French Socialists Scramble after the Arrest of DSK

Posted on June 28, 2011 by briansandberg

The French Socialists are in disarray as they try to regroup following the arrest of DSK, as many French people refer to Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

The next presidential elections are approaching in France and DSK was the highly anticipated candidate for the Socialists, expected by many to win the primary easily and have a great chance against Nicolas Sarkozy.

Now DSK is awaiting trial in New York City and the Socialists have a diverse field of potential candidates considering primary bids.

The New York Times reports on the political situation in France.

Posted in European Union, French History | Leave a comment

Bread Riots in Mozambique

Posted on June 8, 2011 by briansandberg

Last year, high bread prices led to bread riots across Mozambique.  This summer promises to create similar economic conditions and protests.

Early modern historians are very familiar with the dynamics of bread riots in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century societies.  A number of well-documented studies have shown recurring patterns of malnutrition, famine, disease, infertility, and death associated with subsistence crises.  Bread riots represented community responses to the political and social institutions responsible for creating or worsening such economic conditions.

Modern bread riots, such as those in Mozambique, can be usefully analyzed in comparison with early modern patterns.  Many aspects of the economic and political situation in early modern Europe are completely foreign to the situation in Mozambique, yet certain dynamics of food shortages and protest modes seem surprisingly similar.

NPR reports on the bread riots in Mozambique.

 

Posted in Civil Conflict, Early Modern World, Environmental History, Food and Cuisine History, History of Violence | Leave a comment

Society for Military History Conference

Posted on June 8, 2011 by briansandberg

The Society for Military History Conference is coming to the Chicago area this weekend.  This conference is the annual meeting of the largest academic and professional society for military history in the United States.  This year, the conference theme is “Ways of War.”

On Friday, I will be chairing a panel concerning “’Ways of Warfare’ in Early-Modern Europe: English, Spanish and Dutch Perspectives,” with papers by John A. Lynn, Edward Tenace, and Mark Charles Fissel.

The SMH Conference website has an online program and other information about conference, which will be held in Lisle, IL.

The Society for Military History website has more information about the organization and its main publication, Journal of Military History.

Graduate students and advanced undergraduate students at Northern Illinois University may want to explore these websites.  They may also attend the conference, but there is a rather steep registration charge.

Posted in Conferences, Early Modern Europe, History of Violence, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment

For-Profit Education Industry Lobby Wins

Posted on June 3, 2011 by briansandberg

The for-profit education industry has successfully lobbied the U.S. Congress, winning major concessions to avoid regulation.  Critics have exposed corrupt recruitment practices, unsound pedagogy, and outright fraud at many for-profit “colleges”.  Proposed reforms would have curbed abuses by for-profit institutions, but Congress has so watered down the legislation that no effective reform will be instituted.

The for-profit lobbyists’ win represents a major loss for American students and for non-profit education.

Despite a series of major scandals, for-profit “colleges” will be able to continue to profit from federal tax dollars.  These institutions will continue to be able to accept students’ federal financial aid and loans, while offering them an inferior education (see previous posts for data on this).

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on the lobbying effort and the legislation.

Posted in Education Policy, Humanities Education | Leave a comment

Al Qaeda’s Paper Trail

Posted on May 31, 2011 by briansandberg

Al Qaeda apparently used business-like accounting practices, leaving a significant paper trail of receipts and account books.

A story on NPR reports on emerging details of the Al Qaeda organization, resulting from computers and documents seized during the recent raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound.

According to NPR, “As odd as it sounds, al-Qaida had excellent HR benefits. The seized documents showed that al-Qaida paid an unusual amount of attention to its fighters and their families. Married members were allowed to have seven days of vacation for every three weeks worked. Bachelors got five days off a month. Married members also got a salary of $108 a month. The pay was smaller for single men and larger if the fighters had more than one wife. Now that the organization has less money and is under such pressure, it is unclear whether the benefits are as generous as they used to be.”

Read the full report on NPR online.

Posted in History of Violence, Terrorism, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment

Berlusconi Loses Milano

Posted on May 30, 2011 by briansandberg

Silvio Berlusconi has lost control of the municipal government of Milano, ending 18 years of center right rule in the city.

The center left candidate, Giuliano Pisapia, beat Letizia Moratti (a close ally of Berlusconi’s) to become Milano’s next mayor.

Pisapia claimed victory, saying “Oggi abbiamo liberato Milano.”  His supporters gathered  in Piazza Duomo in the center of Milano to celebrate the historic electoral victory.

La Repubblica reports on the elections in Milano and throughout Italia.

Posted in Italian History | Leave a comment

The Killing Seas: Mediterranean Migration

Posted on May 29, 2011 by briansandberg

Anthropologist Hans Lucht discusses the precarious lives of modern-day Mediterranean migrants from Africa who embark in North Africa for Italy in an op-ed in the New York Times.

Lucht points out that southern European nations have long worked with Qaddafi’s regime in Libya to control trans-Mediterranean migration, at the cost of often-barbarous human smuggling practices.  Such policies have often been sustained by racist anti-immigrant sentiment in countries like France and Italy.

The social disruption of the Libyan Civil War now promises to create new forms of trans-Mediterranean migration as Libyans flee as refugees.  Other Africans will presumably seek new pathways of migration toward Europe, avoiding the chaos of Libya.

Lucht argues that “Europe should learn from the situation in Libya that paying dictators to make ‘problems’ disappear is not only morally bankrupt but also short-sighted.”

Clearly, a more open discussion of migration, citizenship, and human rights is needed in the Mediterranean.

 

 

Posted in Civil Conflict, French History, Human Rights, Italian History, Mediterranean World, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment

Iraq War Memorial

Posted on May 29, 2011 by briansandberg

What would an Iraq War Memorial look like, if one were to built in Washington, D.C.?

An art historian explores this question in an op-ed in the Washington Post.

This piece considers the construction of recent war memorials in Washington, D.C., as well as the broader process of memorialization of warfare in American history.

 

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

General Ratko Mladic Captured

Posted on May 26, 2011 by briansandberg

After 16 years as a fugitive, former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic has been captured in Serbia.

General Mladic commanded the Bosnian Serb Army during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.  Mladic is accused of orchestrating the Massacre at Srebrenica in 1995, when Bosnian Serb soldiers killed approximately 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys.  This mass killing is considered the most brutal episode of “ethnic cleansing” during Bosnian War, as well as the worst atrocity in Europe since the Holocaust.

NPR and the Washington Post both report on the capture of Mladic.  EUobserver reports on the Mladic arrest in light of a recently produced war crimes report that has apparently damaged Serbian prospects for EU membership.

Posted in Civil Conflict, European History, European Union, History of Violence, Religious Violence, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment