Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
Publication Gendered Work, Skill, and Women's Labor Activism in Romanian Tobacco Factories from the 1920s to the 1960s(Cambridge University Press, 2023) Ghiț, AlexandraIn this article, I choose struggles over skill development as an entry point to uncovering features of women's labor activism in state-owned tobacco factories in Romania, from the 1920s to the early 1960s. I look at the processes that constructed women tobacco workers, especially those at the Tobacco Manufactory in the city of Cluj, as non-skilled workers, and examine the forms of labor activism in the tobacco industry that challenged those constructs. I describe how women's work at the Cluj Tobacco Manufactory, from the mid-1920s to the mid-1950s, was shaped by successive waves of production intensification and rationalization, demonstrating that these reorganizations affected female workers more than they affected their male coworkers. I point out that although they were considered non-skilled laborers, female tobacco workers exercised an amount of control over their work and were important contributors to their families’ maintenance. I show that spanning two different political regimes, matters of skill were at the core of labor activism. For female workers, in the interwar period, labor activism in male-dominated organizations and structures entailed skill-mediated political strategies that emphasized experience and shopfloor status besides skill. By the 1950s, labor activism encompassed engaging in confrontational politics over seasoned women workers’ lack of access to skill training programs. I show that both in the late 1920s and in the early 1950s, illiteracy and women's more limited access to formal schooling in general shaped new experiences of participation in labor politics.Publication Women’s Labour Struggles in Central and Eastern Europe and Beyond: Toward a Long-Term, Transregional, Integrative, and Critical Approach(Brill, 2023) Çağatay, Selin; Erdélyi, Mátyás; Ghiț, Alexandra; Gnydiuk, Olga; Helfert, Veronika; Masheva, Ivelina; Popova, Zhanna; Tešija, Jelena; Varsa, Eszter; Zimmermann, Susan; Department of Gender Studies; Department of History and Medieval StudiesThe introductory chapter provides a historiographic and thematic framing for the contributions and, we hope, for future research. The first section discusses the existing historiography of the region, highlighting the long history of writing on women’s labour activism in Central and Eastern Europe and its adjacent territories within and across the borders of different types of empires and nation-states, and across vastly diverse political regimes. The second section discusses key contributions of the chapters assembled in the volume to the study of women’s (and sometimes men’s) quests for the improvement of the lives and working conditions of women, pointing to their interconnections and highlighting their contributions to the development of long-term and transregional approaches to the history of women’s labour struggles. The third section expands on the rationale for studying women’s labour struggles from a long-term, transregional, integrative, and critical perspective, further discusses insights emerging from the volume and other scholarship, and highlights challenges as well as directions for ongoing and future research in the field of women’s labour activism.Publication Divide, Provide and Rule: An Integrative History of Poverty Policy, Social Reform, and Social Policy in Hungary under the Habsburg Monarchy(CEU Press, 2011) Zimmermann, Susan; Department of Gender Studies; Department of History and Medieval StudiesA concise and comprehensive account of the transformation of social policy from traditional poor relief towards social insurance systems in a European state before World War One. Brings together the analysis of older, mostly local welfare policies with the history of social policy developed by the state and operated at a national level. Explores also the interaction of various layers of and actors in welfare policy, i.e. of poor relief, social reform policies and the unfolding welfare state over time, including often neglected elements of these policies such as e.g. protective policies at the work place, housing policy, child protection, and prostitution policies. Demonstrates how definitions of what constituted need have served historically to produce divergent visions and treatment of male and female poverty, and how these historical biases have continued to shape the conceptual apparatus of research into the history of welfare and social policies.Publication Die bessere Hälfte? Frauenbewegungen und Frauenbestrebungen im Ungarn der Habsburgermonarchie 1848 bis 1918(Promedia, 1999) Zimmermann, Susan; Department of History and Medieval Studies; Department of Gender StudiesPublication Frauenpolitik und Männergewerkschaft: Die IGB-Fraueninternationale und die internationale Geschlechterpolitik der Zwischenkriegszeit(Löcker, 2021) Zimmermann, Susan; Department of Gender Studies; Department of History and Medieval StudiesBuilding on a large network of female socialist activists and functionaries, the Women’s International of the International Federation of Trade Unions, the IFTU, also known as the »Amsterdam International«, pursued its mandate in the interwar period and into WWII. Historically, in the men-dominated labor movement, women trade unionists had to grapple with the marginalization of the women’s question; in the world of the non-socialist women’s movements, they were faced with the marginalization of the class question. This book brings the IFTU women and their largely unexplored contribution to international women’s and gender politics into the spotlight. The IFTU Women’s International cooperated closely with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the League of Nations in Geneva. As it developed its positions and policies, it collaborated with and confronted the IFTU leadership, international women’s organizations, and the trade union and women’s movements of the European countries. The IFTU women’s network sought to strengthen the position of women workers and addressed wage policies, women’s unpaid family work, labor protection and social policy, the right to work, war and peace, and the unionization of women. The book examines the multifaceted struggles of these many actors and players around the politics of women’s work and other elements of the emerging international gender politics of the interwar period, highlighting the complex and idiosyncratic contribution of the IFTU women.Publication Az eszmetörténet-írás ígéretei? Ludassy Mária: A toleranciától a szabadságig. Anglia 300 éve egy eszme történetének tükrében(Budapesti Könyvszemle Alapítvány, 1993) Kontler, László; Department of HistoryFélreértés ne essék. Ludassy Mária idestova két évtizeddel ezelőtt megjelent első tanulmánykötetének címét parafrazálva nem az a nagyképű szándék vezérel, hogy megállapítsam: az ígéretesen indult szerző azóta mennyiben töltötte be a kvalitásaihoz fűzött várakozásokat. Annyit ugyanis nyomban leszögezhetek, hogy az eddigi életmű értelmetlenné tenne egy ilyen megközelítést. Ludassy neve húsz esztendeje szinte törvényszerűen bukkan fel minden olyan vállalkozásban, amelynek célja a felvilágosodás kori politikai- és morálfilozófia klasszikusainak a magyar olvasó számára való hozzáférhetővé tétele, a szerzőnek oroszlánrésze van abban, hogy e témának ma van színvonalas magyar nyelvű szakirodalma, bizonyos értelemben „tanárává” vált azon bölcsészkari nemzedékeknek is, amelyekkel a katedráról még nem volt alkalma szembesülni.Publication The Promise of the History of Ideas(Budapesti Könyvszemle Alapítvány, 1993) Kontler, László; Department of Historyreview of: Mária Ludassy: A toleranciától a szabadság. Anglia 300 éve egy eszme tükrében. (From Tolerance to Freedom. Three Hundred Years of History in the Light of an Ideal) Budapest, 1992 106 pp.Publication Koraújkortörténet(OTKA, 2008) Barta, János; Kontler, László; Korpás, Zoltán; Lázár, Balázs; Molnár, Antal; Papp, Imre; Poór, János; Rákóczi, István; Soós, István; Szántó, György Tibor; Szilágyi, Ágnes Judit; Vajnági, Márta; Department of HistoryThe dedicated purpose of competition "Early-modern Ages" was to produce a volume focusing on the history of early-modern ages. The manuscript is finished. As set out in the contract the volume is composed of essays of 60-80.000 characters discussing key elements of 15th-18th century world history broken down to four areas of focus: 1. Wars, civil wars, revolutions; 2. Empires, states, provinces; 3. Religion, religious reform, wars of religion; 4. Colonizers and colonies. Find the copy-read manuscript submitted to editorial scrutiny attached.Publication A Voyage to Vardø. A Scientific Account of an Unscientific Expedition(Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2013) Sterken, Christiaan; Aspaas, Per Pippin; Dunér, David; Kontler, László; Neul, Reinhard; Pekonen, Osmo; Posch, Thomas; Department of HistoryAfter the “Venus Transit Conference” that took place at the University of Tromsø from June 2 to June 3, 2012, participants were given the opportunity to either stay in Tromsø until the night of June 5–6, or to participate in a voyage to Finnmark, where the historical sites Vardø, Hammerfest, and the North Cape were to be visited. This voyage culminated in the observation of the 2012 transit of Venus at Vardø. This paper gives a detailed account of this voyage that lasted from June 3 to June 6, and emphasizes the historical, scientific, philosophical, educational and cultural involvement of the participants of the voyage and of the local population. The paper concludes with reflections on the prime condition for success of any of the Venus transit expeditions of the past: the weather must cooperate in the first place – not only during the quarter of a day of the transit, but also during the preceding weeks and months in order to allow the explorers to rightly determine their geographic positions and correctly set their clocks. The latter factor is no longer an issue nowadays, but the weather aspect remains today a limiting factor as much as it was 250 years ago. Despite the variable and partly clouded weather at Vardø during the time of the transit, the participants of this expedition were able to observe Venus in front of the Sun – with interruptions due to quickly moving clouds – between 4.30 a.m. and the fourth contact at 06:53:20 a.m. A large number of impressive, partly ‘dramatic’ photographs have been taken especially in this time interval.Publication Idő és fejlődés - az idő mint fejlődés: William Robertson felvilágosult prédikációja(AETAS Könyv- és Lapkiadó Egyesület, 2005) Kontler, László; Department of HistoryThis article examines the thesis, advanced by Reinhart Koselleck in Futures Past, of the “temporalization of history” as interpreted in terms of the changing perception of the “compression” (or “acceleration”) of time that supposedly precedes the onset of the “future”, against a 1755 sermon by the eighteenth-century Scottish ecclesiastical leader and historian William Robertson. The framework of analysis is offered by a version of the model of the “multiplicity of enlightenments” and that of the “conservative Enlightenment” employed most forcefully by John Pocock, but also by other scholars. Looking at previous and contemporary schemes of historical time, it is demonstrated that Robertson, drawing on intellectual sources ranging from Arminian theology through philosophical history to stadial or conjectural history, worked with a synergetic view of historical agency in which human actions may be seen as expressions of divine providence, while at the same time God’s providence may be conceived as offering so many opportunities for the exercise of human will. But it is also important to recognize that he was capable of doing so because he allowed the patterns of socio-cultural and economic progress, discovered in the eighteenth century, to play a dynamic role in advancing the cause of Christian salvation, especially by “compressing time” at critical junctures of history. In Koselleckian terms: true to his character as a protagonist in Pocock’s “conservative Enlightenment”, Robertson’s notion of the acceleration of history was not quite divorced from the apocalyptic hope attached to the ever shortening periods preceding the last judgment, while at the same time clearly displaying aspects of a notion of historical hope.Publication Atlantisz filozófiai könyvprogram(OTKA, 2008) Kontler, László; Department of HistoryDuring the period of support, the tasks and research agendas we have completed contributed to the progress of Hungarian higher education and social science research to a considerable extent. The titles we have published are on the reading lists of major universities and colleges. The editions of authors whose oeuvre or individual works have been made available for the first time to Hungarian readers will determine trends in the decades to come. They include Phaidros and The Sophist by Plato; The Critique of Pure Reason by Kant; Lectures on the Philosophy of Art by Hegel; the first full Hungarian edition of Untimely Reflections by Nietzsche; Essays on the History and Philosophy of Art by Schiller; The Philosophy of Enlightenment by Cassirer. Hume's classic work on the philosophy of religion, Dialogues on Natural Religion, came out with an introduction by Maria Ludassy, while Foucault's History of Madness, an exploration of the birth of psychiatry, is becoming a basic text for students of several disciplines. We have also published two important twentieth-century German works in the philosophy of history: Shipwreck with Spectators by Blumenberg, and Subjectivity by Ritter. The bulk of the editorial work on The Masking of Europe in the Middle Ages by Le Goff has also been completed. Important trends in Hungarian philosophical thought are represented by Parlando, as well as Experience and Expression by László Tengelyi.Publication Locke értekezése a polgári kormányzatról: Egy megfontolt felforgató(Korunk Baráti Társaság, 2019) Kontler, László; Department of HistoryPublication Hume, a történetíró. Felvilágosult elbeszélés, az ember tudománya és szkeptikus hazafiasság(Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2012) Kontler, László; Department of HistoryPublication William Robertson, skót történetek és német identitások. Fordítás és recepció a felvilágosodás korában(KORALL Társadalomtörténeti Egyesület, 2006) Kontler, László; Department of HistoryThis article contributes to the discussion on the „unity versus diversity of the Enlightenment” through the examination of the contemporary German reception of some of the works of the renowned Scottish historian William Robertson in translations, reviews, references, „native” texts of similar topic and inspiration, etc. Th e works in question concern national histories: those of Scotland and Germany, predominantly in the 16th century, which Robertson regarded as pivotal in the transition to modernity. In an attempt to re-focus national historical inquiry by superseding a sham patriotism based on partisanship and the search for vainglory, Robertson predicated his own approach of enlightened „impartiality” to these subjects on a comparative study of social and cultural structures, and relied on the conceptual and theoretical arsenal of conjectural or „stadial” history. One of the difficulties the contemporary German interpreters did not quite cope with, had to do with the rather specifi c vocabulary employed in these paradigms. More importantly, Robertson’s German translators and commentators seem to have been more interested in precisely the partisan aspects of his books (Mary Stuart versus Elizabeth I, Protestants versus Catholics, etc.), which were intended to be suppressed in the original. In view of the dominant approaches in contemporary German historical scholarship, this should not be surprising. Th ough there were voices that demanded a broader horizon for German history as well as the application of standards similar to those of Robertson’s, the relevant texts of historians explicitly or implicitly regarded as his counterparts are marked with openly avowed political-ideological bias and an inward-looking search for the roots of modern „liberty” – the rule of law under strong (monarchical) government – not in the elimination of feudalism and the subsequent inability of monarchs to wield the plenitude of sovereign power, but the blessings of the imperial constitution. As in many other cases of communication in the enlightened republic of letters, the questions were to a great extent similar, but the stakes, the strategies and the answers fundamentally diff erent: the problems which from Robertson’s Scottish perspective called for a cosmopolitan and non-partisan treatment, continued to be discussed in precisely the opposite terms in the German reception of his writings relevant to national history.Publication A globális: Kapitalizmus elviselhetetlen könnyűsége(Budapesti Könyvszemle Alapítvány, 2006) Kontler, László; Department of HistoryCritic on Istvan Hont: Jealousy of Trade International Competition and the Nation-State in Historical PerspectivePublication Politicians, Patriots and Plotters: Unlikely Debates Occasioned by Maximilian Hell's Venus Transit Expedition of 1769(Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2013) Kontler, László; Department of HistoryThis paper discusses the cultural and political contexts and reception of the most important by-product of Maximilian Hell's famous Venus transit expedition of 1768-69, the Demonstratio. Idioma Ungarorum et Lapponum idem esse (1770) by Hell's associate Janos Sajnovics. Now considered a landmark in Finno-Ugrian linguistics, the Demonstratio addressed an academic subject that was at that time almost destined to be caught up in an ideological battlefield defined by the shifting relationship between the Habsburg government, the Society of Jesus, and the Hungarian nobility. The "enlightened absolutist" policies of the former aimed at consolidating the Habsburg monarchy as an empire, at the expense of privileged groups, including religious orders as well as the noble estates. In the situation created by the 1773 suppression of the Jesuit order (a signal of declining patronage from the dynasty), the growing preoccupation on the part of ex-Jesuits like Hell and Sajnovics with "things Hungarian" could have been part of an attempt to re-situate themselves on the Central European map of learning. At the same time, the founding document of this interest, the Demonstratio, evoked violent protests from the other target of Habsburg policies, the Hungarian nobility, because its basic assumptions - the kinship of the Hungarian and the Sami (Lappian) language - potentially undermined the noble ideology of social exclusiveness, established on the alleged "Scythian" ancestry of Hungarians. By exploring the complex motives, intentions, reactions and responses of the chief agents in this story, it is possible to highlight the extra-scientific constraints and facilitators for the practice of knowledge in late eighteenth century Central Europe.Publication Before and After 1773: Central European Jesuits, the Politics of Language and Discourses of Identity in the Late Eighteenth Century Habsburg Monarchy(Brill, 2015) Aspaas, Per Pippin; Kontler, László; Department of HistoryPublication Distances Celestial and Terrestrial. Maximilian Hell’s Arctic Expedition of 1768–1769: Contexts and Responses(Brill, 2013) Kontler, László; Department of HistoryPublication Maximilian Hell (1720–92) and the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe(Brill, 2019) Aspaas, Per Pippin; Kontler, László; Department of HistoryThe Viennese Jesuit astronomer Maximilian Hell was a nodal figure in the eighteenth-century circulation of knowledge. This study of his career sheds light on the Enlightenment, Catholicism, reform in the Habsburg monarchy, and the cultivation of science in the Republic of Letters. Readership: Anyone interested in eighteenth-century Central Europe and Scandinavia, in the production and circulation of knowledge in the Enlightenment, in enlightened absolutism, in Catholicism and the Society of Jesus in the eighteenth century, in the history of astronomy and related subjects, and the history of comparative linguistics and its ideological implications.Publication The Historical Construction of National Consciousness: Selected Writings(CEU Press, 2022) Szűcs, Jenő; Department of History and Medieval StudiesA long essay entitled Three Historical Regions of Europe, appearing first in a samizdat volume in Budapest in 1980, instantly put its author into the forefront of the transnational debate on Central Europe, alongside such intellectual luminaries as Milan Kundera and Czesław Miłosz. The present volume offers English-language readers a rich selection of the depth and breadth of the legacy of Jenő Szűcs (1928–1988). The selection documents Szűcs’s seminal contribution to many contemporary debates in historical anthropology, nationalism studies, and conceptual history. It contains his key texts on the history of national consciousness and patterns of collective identity, as well as medieval and early modern political thought. The works published here, most of them previously unavailable in English, provide a sophisticated analysis of a wide range of subjects from the myths of origins of Hungarians before Christianization to the political and religious ideology of the Dózsa peasant uprising in 1514, the medieval roots of civil society, or the revival of ethnic nationalism during the communist era. The volume, with an introduction by the editors locating Szűcs in a transnational context, offers a unique insight into the complex and sensitive debate on national identity in post-1945 East Central Europe.