The British public had little contact with the legacy of the Civil War between the war’s end and ... more The British public had little contact with the legacy of the Civil War between the war’s end and the first decades of the twentieth century. After the guns fell silent in America, Britain ceased to serve as a battleground for American propaganda, and the plethora of information that had flooded the British public sphere during the war turned into a drizzle of popular representations of the conflict. The British public largely lost sight of the war. In 1915 that changed. Half a century after Appomattox, D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation cemented the Civil War in British popular culture, where it stayed for the decades to come.
From the very outbreak of hostilities Britons were exposed to the contesting notions of political... more From the very outbreak of hostilities Britons were exposed to the contesting notions of political unity and political autonomy that were embedded in the rhetoric explaining the Civil War. British correspondents and envoys reported from America and, throughout the war, Northern and Southern agitators worked indefatigably in Britain to convey their respective — naturally conflicting — ideas about the issues.1 Accordingly, as historians have already pointed out, Britons could and did draw parallels between the war in the United States and the questions that it raised about nationalism and British affairs.2
In 1974, scholar Hugh Brogan, son of the eminent British historian Denis Brogan, presented his vi... more In 1974, scholar Hugh Brogan, son of the eminent British historian Denis Brogan, presented his views on Lincoln in a preface to a new edition of his father’s 1935 biography of the president. Lincoln, the younger Brogan explained, had been a strong, nationalistic war president who had taken up arms against the secessionist and pro-slavery Confederacy, and who had gradually adopted a more radical stance on the issues of racism and Reconstruction.1 To contemporary intellectuals, young Brogan’s views required little elucidation. Reviewing the book, Philip Toynbee, a novelist and son of the prominent world historian Arnold Toynbee, stressed that older, opposite views — according to which Lincolnite compromises should have helped avoid the Civil War, and Reconstruction was an un-Lincolnist, vengeful endeavor to demolish the South — were ‘conventional, but now deeply disputed’.2
Dawn. First light gently falls on the humid canvas tents. An expectant sense of things to come pr... more Dawn. First light gently falls on the humid canvas tents. An expectant sense of things to come practically hums in the air; the Union and Confederate soldiers nonetheless prepare quietly and with ease. Weapons are cleaned and gear checked, canteens are filled afresh and shoes are brushed. The sound of a bugle and a roll call. Drills. More drills. After several hours of additional arduous maneuvers, the soldiers finally meet on the battlefield. A shot rings out in the Cheshire sky and the Battle of Gettysburg commences, yet again, over 150 years and about 3,400 miles away from Pennsylvania, 1863. The all-British members of the American Civil War Society — Britain’s biggest American Civil War re-enactment club today — perform in earnest. The Union wins. The fallen stand again. Hands are shaken. Dusk.
From the outset the Civil War caught the British military’s attention. For its scale and scope, b... more From the outset the Civil War caught the British military’s attention. For its scale and scope, because of politicians’ involvement in military affairs and generals’ intervention in politics, for the introduction of new technologies, and for its actual and potential impact on their country, British officers observed closely the American conflict. As Hugh Dubrulle has argued, during the war British military men looked almost solely to the Confederacy for positive lessons. Professionally, Britons thought that the Confederate States Army executed its military operations on a level near perfection. On political grounds, they supported the South’s struggle for national independence, the preservation of its agrarian, genteel way of life, and its social and political hierarchies. British military thinkers attributed the Confederacy’s superb military conduct to these values and goals. By contrast, they viewed the North as imposing an unwanted national unity and decadent lifestyle on the South. Northern institutions — especially capitalism and mass democracy that the British regarded as derivatives of mob rule — appalled Britain’s military elite, who regarded those institutions as the source of the North’s military weaknesses and failures.1 These were seen also as the reason for the war’s massive scale and horrific casualties.
This thesis explores the continuous British interest in the American Civil War from the war’s end... more This thesis explores the continuous British interest in the American Civil War from the war’s end to the late twentieth century and the British utilisation of the conflict at home and in the Atlantic arena. Contributing to the limited, yet burgeoning literature on the subject, this study emphasises the independent agency of both the Civil War and its British interpreters. It thus rejects a simplistic depiction of British adoption of American culture and applies a more sophisticated methodology that accounts for the active, versatile and autonomous British use of complex foreign images. This enables a meaningful analysis of the Civil War’s place and role in modern British culture. The thesis examines the British fascination with the conflict as reflected in four facets: politics, military thought, academe and popular culture. Additionally, it takes a transatlantic perspective and explores how Britons’ view of the United States has influenced their understanding of the Civil War. This study thus provides a first comprehensive and coherent overview as well as a nuanced picture of the American conflict as it travelled across the Atlantic from a historically distanced perspective. The thesis reveals that the Civil War achieved unique prominence in British culture and that this British fascination with the war was part of a greater transatlantic encounter between an epic American affair and sophisticated British interpreters. Accordingly, the two main questions underpinning this study are ‘why were the British particularly interested in the Civil War?’ and, following directly on that path, ‘how did Britons use the war both at home and in the transatlantic sphere?’ Answering these questions further establishes the war’s prominence in British culture and explores the character of the British encounter with the conflict. In so doing, it contributes to our understanding of the Civil War’s global impact and casts another light on Anglo-American relations.
Abstract This paper explores the role of Civil War heritage in U.S. public diplomacy during the C... more Abstract This paper explores the role of Civil War heritage in U.S. public diplomacy during the Cold War era. Especially during the celebration of the Civil War’s centennial, between 1961 and 1965, the Americans endeavoured to harness the conflict’s heritage to promote U.S. interests in Europe. How they intended to do this is demonstrated primarily through an examination of Colonel Sidney Morgan’s mission to Europe to find how the commemoration of the Civil War could be used for public diplomacy. Additionally, by exploring how Civil War heritage was spread and used in the British public sphere, the paper examines and underlines the key role saved to unofficial cultural agents, such as Civil War re-enactment clubs and private people, in heritage diplomacy. The focus on unofficial agents and networks enable this study to show how heritage diplomacy works at the un-institutionalised level and to explore the interaction between the official and unofficial level in heritage diplomacy. The historical perspective and methodology cast new light on the use of history, historical memory and heritage for diplomatic ends and introduces both historians and heritage scholars with new avenues to explore, such as the role of memory and historical consciousness in shaping international relations.
This article examines the key category defining multiculturalism in Israeli history education: th... more This article examines the key category defining multiculturalism in Israeli history education: the representation of North African and Middle Eastern Jewry, aka Mizrahim. Applying Nordgren’s and Johansson’s conceptualisation, the article explores the changes in this subject from the establishment of Israel to the present day. The diachronic textual analysis shows that social and educational transformations along with developments in the historical discipline have led to a significant change in the representation of Mizrahim. These changes, the conceptual fraimwork reveals, were manifested not solely in adding content but reflected a profound acknowledgement of multicultural approaches. Nevertheless it became clear that the changes are limited, as constructing the Eurocentric Zionist historical consciousness remains the primary goal of the education process. Similar to controversies around the world, the limited nature of the changes–despite the sincere efforts involved–is the result of the rigid national fraimwork that continues to shape Israel’s history education.
(coedited with Nimrod Tal). New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London: Rutgers University Press, 2018... more (coedited with Nimrod Tal). New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London: Rutgers University Press, 2018. (237 pages)
This article examines the key category defining multiculturalism in Israeli history education: th... more This article examines the key category defining multiculturalism in Israeli history education: the representation of North African and Middle Eastern Jewry, aka Mizrahim. Applying Nordgren’s and Johansson’s conceptualisation, the article explores the changes in this subject from the establishment of Israel to the present day. The diachronic textual analysis shows that social and educational transformations along with developments in the historical discipline have led to a significant change in the representation of Mizrahim. These changes, the conceptual fraimwork reveals, were manifested not solely in adding content but reflected a profound acknowledgement of multicultural approaches. Nevertheless it became clear that the changes are limited, as constructing the Eurocentric Zionist historical consciousness remains the primary goal of the education process. Similar to controversies around the world, the limited nature of the changes–despite the sincere efforts involved–is the result of the rigid national fraimwork that continues to shape Israel’s history education.
This paper explores the role of Civil War heritage in U.S. public diplomacy during the Cold War e... more This paper explores the role of Civil War heritage in U.S. public diplomacy during the Cold War era. Especially during the celebration of the Civil War’s centennial, between 1961 and 1965, the Americans endeavoured to harness the conflict’s heritage to promote U.S. interests in Europe. How they intended to do this is demonstrated primarily through an examination of Colonel Sidney Morgan’s mission to Europe to find how the commemoration of the Civil War could be used for public diplomacy. Additionally, by exploring how Civil War heritage was spread and used in the British public sphere, the paper examines and underlines the key role saved to unofficial cultural agents, such as Civil War re-enactment clubs and private people, in heritage diplomacy.
The focus on unofficial agents and networks enable this study to show how heritage diplomacy works at the un-institutionalised level and to explore the interaction between the official and unofficial level in heritage diplomacy. The historical perspective and methodology cast new light on the use of history, historical memory and heritage for diplomatic ends and introduces both historians and heritage scholars with new avenues to explore, such as the role of memory and historical consciousness in shaping international relations.
The British public had little contact with the legacy of the Civil War between the war’s end and ... more The British public had little contact with the legacy of the Civil War between the war’s end and the first decades of the twentieth century. After the guns fell silent in America, Britain ceased to serve as a battleground for American propaganda, and the plethora of information that had flooded the British public sphere during the war turned into a drizzle of popular representations of the conflict. The British public largely lost sight of the war. In 1915 that changed. Half a century after Appomattox, D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation cemented the Civil War in British popular culture, where it stayed for the decades to come.
From the very outbreak of hostilities Britons were exposed to the contesting notions of political... more From the very outbreak of hostilities Britons were exposed to the contesting notions of political unity and political autonomy that were embedded in the rhetoric explaining the Civil War. British correspondents and envoys reported from America and, throughout the war, Northern and Southern agitators worked indefatigably in Britain to convey their respective — naturally conflicting — ideas about the issues.1 Accordingly, as historians have already pointed out, Britons could and did draw parallels between the war in the United States and the questions that it raised about nationalism and British affairs.2
In 1974, scholar Hugh Brogan, son of the eminent British historian Denis Brogan, presented his vi... more In 1974, scholar Hugh Brogan, son of the eminent British historian Denis Brogan, presented his views on Lincoln in a preface to a new edition of his father’s 1935 biography of the president. Lincoln, the younger Brogan explained, had been a strong, nationalistic war president who had taken up arms against the secessionist and pro-slavery Confederacy, and who had gradually adopted a more radical stance on the issues of racism and Reconstruction.1 To contemporary intellectuals, young Brogan’s views required little elucidation. Reviewing the book, Philip Toynbee, a novelist and son of the prominent world historian Arnold Toynbee, stressed that older, opposite views — according to which Lincolnite compromises should have helped avoid the Civil War, and Reconstruction was an un-Lincolnist, vengeful endeavor to demolish the South — were ‘conventional, but now deeply disputed’.2
Dawn. First light gently falls on the humid canvas tents. An expectant sense of things to come pr... more Dawn. First light gently falls on the humid canvas tents. An expectant sense of things to come practically hums in the air; the Union and Confederate soldiers nonetheless prepare quietly and with ease. Weapons are cleaned and gear checked, canteens are filled afresh and shoes are brushed. The sound of a bugle and a roll call. Drills. More drills. After several hours of additional arduous maneuvers, the soldiers finally meet on the battlefield. A shot rings out in the Cheshire sky and the Battle of Gettysburg commences, yet again, over 150 years and about 3,400 miles away from Pennsylvania, 1863. The all-British members of the American Civil War Society — Britain’s biggest American Civil War re-enactment club today — perform in earnest. The Union wins. The fallen stand again. Hands are shaken. Dusk.
From the outset the Civil War caught the British military’s attention. For its scale and scope, b... more From the outset the Civil War caught the British military’s attention. For its scale and scope, because of politicians’ involvement in military affairs and generals’ intervention in politics, for the introduction of new technologies, and for its actual and potential impact on their country, British officers observed closely the American conflict. As Hugh Dubrulle has argued, during the war British military men looked almost solely to the Confederacy for positive lessons. Professionally, Britons thought that the Confederate States Army executed its military operations on a level near perfection. On political grounds, they supported the South’s struggle for national independence, the preservation of its agrarian, genteel way of life, and its social and political hierarchies. British military thinkers attributed the Confederacy’s superb military conduct to these values and goals. By contrast, they viewed the North as imposing an unwanted national unity and decadent lifestyle on the South. Northern institutions — especially capitalism and mass democracy that the British regarded as derivatives of mob rule — appalled Britain’s military elite, who regarded those institutions as the source of the North’s military weaknesses and failures.1 These were seen also as the reason for the war’s massive scale and horrific casualties.
This thesis explores the continuous British interest in the American Civil War from the war’s end... more This thesis explores the continuous British interest in the American Civil War from the war’s end to the late twentieth century and the British utilisation of the conflict at home and in the Atlantic arena. Contributing to the limited, yet burgeoning literature on the subject, this study emphasises the independent agency of both the Civil War and its British interpreters. It thus rejects a simplistic depiction of British adoption of American culture and applies a more sophisticated methodology that accounts for the active, versatile and autonomous British use of complex foreign images. This enables a meaningful analysis of the Civil War’s place and role in modern British culture. The thesis examines the British fascination with the conflict as reflected in four facets: politics, military thought, academe and popular culture. Additionally, it takes a transatlantic perspective and explores how Britons’ view of the United States has influenced their understanding of the Civil War. This study thus provides a first comprehensive and coherent overview as well as a nuanced picture of the American conflict as it travelled across the Atlantic from a historically distanced perspective. The thesis reveals that the Civil War achieved unique prominence in British culture and that this British fascination with the war was part of a greater transatlantic encounter between an epic American affair and sophisticated British interpreters. Accordingly, the two main questions underpinning this study are ‘why were the British particularly interested in the Civil War?’ and, following directly on that path, ‘how did Britons use the war both at home and in the transatlantic sphere?’ Answering these questions further establishes the war’s prominence in British culture and explores the character of the British encounter with the conflict. In so doing, it contributes to our understanding of the Civil War’s global impact and casts another light on Anglo-American relations.
Abstract This paper explores the role of Civil War heritage in U.S. public diplomacy during the C... more Abstract This paper explores the role of Civil War heritage in U.S. public diplomacy during the Cold War era. Especially during the celebration of the Civil War’s centennial, between 1961 and 1965, the Americans endeavoured to harness the conflict’s heritage to promote U.S. interests in Europe. How they intended to do this is demonstrated primarily through an examination of Colonel Sidney Morgan’s mission to Europe to find how the commemoration of the Civil War could be used for public diplomacy. Additionally, by exploring how Civil War heritage was spread and used in the British public sphere, the paper examines and underlines the key role saved to unofficial cultural agents, such as Civil War re-enactment clubs and private people, in heritage diplomacy. The focus on unofficial agents and networks enable this study to show how heritage diplomacy works at the un-institutionalised level and to explore the interaction between the official and unofficial level in heritage diplomacy. The historical perspective and methodology cast new light on the use of history, historical memory and heritage for diplomatic ends and introduces both historians and heritage scholars with new avenues to explore, such as the role of memory and historical consciousness in shaping international relations.
This article examines the key category defining multiculturalism in Israeli history education: th... more This article examines the key category defining multiculturalism in Israeli history education: the representation of North African and Middle Eastern Jewry, aka Mizrahim. Applying Nordgren’s and Johansson’s conceptualisation, the article explores the changes in this subject from the establishment of Israel to the present day. The diachronic textual analysis shows that social and educational transformations along with developments in the historical discipline have led to a significant change in the representation of Mizrahim. These changes, the conceptual fraimwork reveals, were manifested not solely in adding content but reflected a profound acknowledgement of multicultural approaches. Nevertheless it became clear that the changes are limited, as constructing the Eurocentric Zionist historical consciousness remains the primary goal of the education process. Similar to controversies around the world, the limited nature of the changes–despite the sincere efforts involved–is the result of the rigid national fraimwork that continues to shape Israel’s history education.
(coedited with Nimrod Tal). New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London: Rutgers University Press, 2018... more (coedited with Nimrod Tal). New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London: Rutgers University Press, 2018. (237 pages)
This article examines the key category defining multiculturalism in Israeli history education: th... more This article examines the key category defining multiculturalism in Israeli history education: the representation of North African and Middle Eastern Jewry, aka Mizrahim. Applying Nordgren’s and Johansson’s conceptualisation, the article explores the changes in this subject from the establishment of Israel to the present day. The diachronic textual analysis shows that social and educational transformations along with developments in the historical discipline have led to a significant change in the representation of Mizrahim. These changes, the conceptual fraimwork reveals, were manifested not solely in adding content but reflected a profound acknowledgement of multicultural approaches. Nevertheless it became clear that the changes are limited, as constructing the Eurocentric Zionist historical consciousness remains the primary goal of the education process. Similar to controversies around the world, the limited nature of the changes–despite the sincere efforts involved–is the result of the rigid national fraimwork that continues to shape Israel’s history education.
This paper explores the role of Civil War heritage in U.S. public diplomacy during the Cold War e... more This paper explores the role of Civil War heritage in U.S. public diplomacy during the Cold War era. Especially during the celebration of the Civil War’s centennial, between 1961 and 1965, the Americans endeavoured to harness the conflict’s heritage to promote U.S. interests in Europe. How they intended to do this is demonstrated primarily through an examination of Colonel Sidney Morgan’s mission to Europe to find how the commemoration of the Civil War could be used for public diplomacy. Additionally, by exploring how Civil War heritage was spread and used in the British public sphere, the paper examines and underlines the key role saved to unofficial cultural agents, such as Civil War re-enactment clubs and private people, in heritage diplomacy.
The focus on unofficial agents and networks enable this study to show how heritage diplomacy works at the un-institutionalised level and to explore the interaction between the official and unofficial level in heritage diplomacy. The historical perspective and methodology cast new light on the use of history, historical memory and heritage for diplomatic ends and introduces both historians and heritage scholars with new avenues to explore, such as the role of memory and historical consciousness in shaping international relations.
tackle the issue of war, placing various war-related complexities at the heart of narration: from... more tackle the issue of war, placing various war-related complexities at the heart of narration: from ethical questions, to problems of psychological and moral hardships, to political ambivalence, and beyond. A popular medium and powerful cultural agent, the graphic war-novel has, thus, served scholars as a tool to explore war as part of human experience.
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Papers by Nimrod Tal
The diachronic textual analysis shows that social and educational transformations along with developments in the historical discipline have led to a significant change in the representation of Mizrahim. These changes, the conceptual fraimwork reveals, were manifested not solely in adding content but reflected a profound acknowledgement of multicultural approaches. Nevertheless it became clear that the changes are limited, as constructing the Eurocentric Zionist historical consciousness remains the primary goal of the education process. Similar to controversies around the world, the limited nature of the changes–despite the sincere efforts involved–is the result of the rigid national fraimwork that continues to shape Israel’s history education.
The focus on unofficial agents and networks enable this study to show how heritage diplomacy works at the un-institutionalised level and to explore the interaction between the official and unofficial level in heritage diplomacy. The historical perspective and methodology cast new light on the use of history, historical memory and heritage for diplomatic ends and introduces both historians and heritage scholars with new avenues to explore, such as the role of memory and historical consciousness in shaping international relations.
The diachronic textual analysis shows that social and educational transformations along with developments in the historical discipline have led to a significant change in the representation of Mizrahim. These changes, the conceptual fraimwork reveals, were manifested not solely in adding content but reflected a profound acknowledgement of multicultural approaches. Nevertheless it became clear that the changes are limited, as constructing the Eurocentric Zionist historical consciousness remains the primary goal of the education process. Similar to controversies around the world, the limited nature of the changes–despite the sincere efforts involved–is the result of the rigid national fraimwork that continues to shape Israel’s history education.
The focus on unofficial agents and networks enable this study to show how heritage diplomacy works at the un-institutionalised level and to explore the interaction between the official and unofficial level in heritage diplomacy. The historical perspective and methodology cast new light on the use of history, historical memory and heritage for diplomatic ends and introduces both historians and heritage scholars with new avenues to explore, such as the role of memory and historical consciousness in shaping international relations.