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This article focuses on the shift toward post-revolutionary politics supported by reform-minded aristocratic clans and their bourgeois allies. Using the example of the Balbo family-one of the leading aristocratic families in... more
This article focuses on the shift toward post-revolutionary politics supported by reform-minded aristocratic clans and their bourgeois allies. Using the example of the Balbo family-one of the leading aristocratic families in Sardinia-Piedmont-I will argue that the quest for stability and pragmatism is crucial to understanding the political, cultural, and ideological reorientations within the noble-bourgeois elites in the first age of global revolutions. Family history is a lens through which it is possible to look afresh at this vital period of social transformations, state expansion, and political modernization. The article explores the Balbos' family history across generations and genders, not only in the revolutionary and Napoleonic period, but also in the decades after the Congress of Vienna. In doing so, it sheds new light on the course of state-building processes, constitutional reforms, and the formation of a new, composite elite, which would largely dominate European politics until the end of the nineteenth century.
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The book is fully available in open access!
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/corporate-policing-yellow-unionism-strikebreaking-1890–1930-matteo-millan-alessandro-saluppo/e/10.4324/9780429354243
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/corporate-policing-yellow-unionism-strikebreaking-1890–1930-matteo-millan-alessandro-saluppo/e/10.4324/9780429354243
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The article examines the state of emergency in Saxony during the Prussian occupation in the summer of 1866. I will put forward the thesis that the successful crisis management of the state's internal affairs was decisive for the survival... more
The article examines the state of emergency in Saxony during the Prussian occupation in the summer of 1866. I will put forward the thesis that the successful crisis management of the state's internal affairs was decisive for the survival of Saxony as an independent kingdom. The Politics of Crisis Management are analysed in six points: the preservation of political-administrative indipendence under Prussian occupation, the promotion of a cooperation-oriented de-escalation policy towards the occupiers, the effective crisis communication, the activities of nonstate organisations and crisis response at the diplomatic level. Finally, conclusions are drawn in relation to modern crisis policy and its effects on the stabilisation of society or the exacerbation of conflict. The course of the state of emergency in 1866 shows that the foreign policy dimension of modern crises is often overestimated and that successful crisis management relies primarily on financial, administrative-technical and socio-political measures.
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In the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Europe experienced labour conflicts, unprecedented in their character, intensity and scope. From the waves of strikes and social conflicts of the pre-war era, through the ordeal of the... more
In the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Europe experienced labour conflicts, unprecedented in their character, intensity and scope. From the waves of strikes and social conflicts of the pre-war era, through the ordeal of the First World War, and the extraordinary violence of the post-1917 upheavals, the revolutionary potential of mass strikes never ceased to torment those who were assigned, or self-appointed, to protect the threatened order. The purpose of this article is to analyse the repertoire of actions and ideas of right-wing civil defence leagues, vigilante organisations, private police and yellow unions which emerged at the end of the century, and most noticeably in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1905. This phenomenon is considered in a comparative and transnational perspective, with a particular focus on the most industrialised societies of pre-war Europe: France, Germany and Great Britain. The article provides a systematisation and assessment of the different forms, types and characteristics of this process of relative privatisation and realignment in security roles, outlying trends and shared clusters of ideological beliefs in violent activity across various industries and national contexts. The article shows how the pre-war experience of vigilantism, anti-socialism and nationalism would represent a key incentive to the development of governmental strikebreaking schemes as well as an important situational antecedent for citizens’ militias and right-wing paramilitary organisations in the aftermath of the Great War.
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Looking at crucial periods in the history of early twentieth-century Germany, this chapter investigates how the governing apparatus responded to social unrest and political protest. It focuses on the legal framework under which emergency... more
Looking at crucial periods in the history of early twentieth-century Germany, this chapter investigates how the governing apparatus responded to social unrest and political protest. It focuses on the legal framework under which emergency powers operated and the "mentality" behind the use and abuse of exceptional powers in the late Wilhelmine and early Weimar period. In doing so, the chapter draws attention to the short-term continuities between the semi-authoritarian German Empire, especially after the declaration of the state of siege in 1914, and the construction of Weimar democracy in a near civil war situation after the November Revolution. Both regimes were confronted with a sense of political crisis, which reached its full expression after 1917 and was exacerbated by fears of Bolshevism and the shock of military defeat. The chapter also looks at the long-term patterns and discontinuities in the conception and implementation of emergency powers in the period between the Bismarck era and the collapse of the Weimar Republic. The German Empire, created in 1871, was an authoritarian monarchy, with influential political and social milieus that were openly against.
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Prospero Balbo, the head of a leading Piedmontese noble family, followed a career path similar to that of the versatile French statesman Talleyrand. In the aftermath of 1789, Balbo served under four different regimes: the Old Regime... more
Prospero Balbo, the head of a leading Piedmontese noble family, followed a career path similar to that of the versatile French statesman Talleyrand. In the aftermath of 1789, Balbo served under four different regimes: the Old Regime monarchy, the Russian provisional administration of Piedmont in 1799, the Napoleonic empire, and the restored Savoy monarchy. After the short-lived revolutionary movement of 1821 in Sardinia-Piedmont, Prospero lost his job as interior minister and his son, Cesare, was forced into exile. The revolutionary waves of 1820-1821 were the most recent of numerous disruptive events and regime changes that jeopardized Europe and the Atlantic world between the late 1770 s and the early 1820 s. These five decades of revolutionary upheavals, wars, and persistent insecurity forced the traditional elites to mobilize their material, cultural, and social resources to preserve their prestige and power. Based on extensive archival research, this article examines the resilience-strengthening resources and strategies implemented by members of the Balbo family during periods of political turmoil. In doing so, the article aims to develop an analytical and conceptual framework to describe historical processes in terms of resilience and vulnerability. This new approach enables us to look afresh at elite transformations and at the dynamics of political change and continuity in early nineteenth-century Europe.
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Special issue of the JMIS: "Divided Unities. Nineteenth-Century Italy and Germany beyond National Narrative"
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This article offers a comparative and transnational analysis of the Yellow counter- internationalist movement. Created in France at the turn of the twentieth century, this movement rapidly expanded beyond the national framework,... more
This article offers a comparative and transnational analysis of the Yellow counter- internationalist movement. Created in France at the turn of the twentieth century, this movement rapidly expanded beyond the national framework, particularly in Germany in the years preceding the First World War. The comparative approach reveals how this movement developed on both sides of the Rhine in keeping with different political contexts – variations underscored by the movement’s transnational connections.
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In looking back at the European and Atlantic Revolutions between 1770 and 1850, a rapidly growing audience in Italy and Germany imagined new ways of patriotism, loyalty, and political participation. The transnational circulation of... more
In looking back at the European and Atlantic Revolutions between 1770 and 1850, a rapidly growing audience in Italy and Germany imagined new ways of patriotism, loyalty, and political participation. The transnational circulation of experiences and narratives of revolution generated new discourses of political legitimacy and deeply influenced the controversial relation between change and continuity in nineteenth-century Europe. Fear of revolution and disorientation coexisted with an increased belief in progress and with teleological concepts of modernization and nationalism. 1 This chapter aims to understand how the monarchical states in Prussia and Sardinia-Piedmont—the leading players in Germany and Italy respectively—were able (at least in the medium-term) to deal with the big impact of the revolution of 1848 on the transformation of political sentiments , argumentative patterns, and communication forums. The resilience of the monarchical state included the reinvention of historical continuity as well as the rearrangement of the leading concepts of
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This essay analyses the history of the modern monarchical state in nineteenth century Saxony and Wurttemberg. It examines a long period of time between the Napoleonic Wars and the end of the First World War with the aim of shedding light... more
This essay analyses the history of the modern monarchical state in nineteenth century Saxony and Wurttemberg. It examines a long period of time between the Napoleonic Wars and the end of the First World War with the aim of shedding light on both short-term and long-term transformations that had an impact on the monarchy’s political and cultural role. The fall of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and the collapse of the German Empire in 1918 marked two major turning points in the history of Saxony and Wurttemberg. In the period between these disruptive events the monarchical state managed to achieve successful reforms and showed resilience in the face of major threats such as the liberal revolutions at the mid-century, the rise of nationalism, social change, the emergence of the labour movement and the political mass market during the last decades before the outbreak of the First World War. The article aims at describing historical processes of transformation in terms of resilience and vulnerability; notably, the continuity through change in two medium-sized European monarchies.
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This article examines the anti-liberal and anti-feminist message spread by literary best sellers like those of German writers Luise Hensel, Ida Hahn, and Marie Nathusius. After the turning point of 1848 and until the first decades of the... more
This article examines the anti-liberal and anti-feminist message spread by literary best sellers like those of German writers Luise Hensel, Ida Hahn, and Marie Nathusius. After the turning point of 1848 and until the first decades of the twentieth century, the numerous translations of these three women writers (one Protestant and two Catholics) dissemina- ted and readapted profoundly conservative visions through popular literature. Their not explicitly political message was able to underpin traditional gender roles, Christian values, confessional identities, and anti-liberalism in an age of progress and modernisation. The extraordinary success of these German-language novels was based on well-established networks of translators, publishers, religious organizations and conservative politicians that went far beyond the borders of the German states. This article not only investigates literary expressions of popular conservatism and its transnational dissemination but it also shed new lights on the conservative mobilization against women’s emancipation in late nineteenth century Germany.
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Pragmatism and progress. The Political discourse in Europe between Juste milieu and Realpolitik (1830-1860). The emerging political culture of Juste Milieu and the career of the «moderate» project of politics were two main agents of... more
Pragmatism and progress. The Political discourse in Europe between Juste milieu and Realpolitik (1830-1860). The emerging political culture of Juste Milieu and the career of the «moderate» project of politics were two main agents of change in nineteenth-century Eu-rope. The article analyses the plurality of argumentative patterns and semantic transformations around the concept of «middle way» from the French Revolution up to the Ital-ian and German nation building after 1860. The controversial juxtaposition between the conservative-based symbolic language of politics and the growing expectation of liberal reforms led to a widespread debate across Europe. Especially after the July Revolution in 1830, country specific terms and political discourses on the paradigm of moderatism emerged not only in France but also in Germany, Italy and in the Iberian Peninsula. Liberal and conservative moderates were successful in initiating and implementing constitutional reforms and nation building. They convincingly proclaimed to prevent future instability and to refuse to comply with the two opposite extremisms of revolution and reactionary conservatism. This paper proposes to reassess the Age of Revolution paradigm and to examine the first half of the nineteenth century as a period of moderatism-led crucial transformations of modern political discourse.
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The decision makers at the Congress of Vienna were not true pacifists but they wanted to prevent future wars in Europe. Metternich, Lord Castlereagh, Tsar Alexander I and Tailleyrand did not really believed in liberalism but in... more
The decision makers at the Congress of Vienna were not true pacifists but they wanted to prevent future wars in Europe. Metternich, Lord Castlereagh, Tsar Alexander I and Tailleyrand did not really believed in liberalism but in Realpolitik. They aimed to uphold the monarchical principle but, at the same time, they supported the modernisation of international order. After the turmoil of the French Revolution and the collapse of the Napoleonic Empire, they attempted to stabilize Europe within a balance of power system. The present paper aims at providing a critical review of the most important contributions on the occasion of the bicentennial anniversary of the Congress. Was the partial restoration of European monarchies simply a source of oppression or, by contrast, the continuation of revolution by other means? This paper examines the positive achievements of the Congress system such as moderate constitutionalism and the emerge of a Euro-pean culture of peace and security, on the one hand, and the negative consequences of 1815 including strong limitations on freedom and relocation of conflicts outside Europe on the other.
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Zugleich mit ihren unmittelbaren Konsequenzen für den politischen Kontext transferierte die Rezeption der italienischen Nationalstaatsgründung einen diskursiv-intellektuellen Impuls, der in Preußen nach einem Jahrzehnt latenter Spannung... more
Zugleich mit ihren unmittelbaren Konsequenzen für den politischen Kontext transferierte die Rezeption der italienischen Nationalstaatsgründung einen diskursiv-intellektuellen Impuls, der in Preußen nach einem Jahrzehnt latenter Spannung entscheidend zur Beschleunigung und Vervielfältigung der konservativen Auseinandersetzung mit der nationalen Frage beitrug. Angesichts der italienischen Entwicklung artikulierten die preußischen Konservativen heterogene Antworten und Assoziationen, die sich in divergierenden Semantiken, Ideologien und politischen Handlungsoptionen widerspiegelten.
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The two main purposes of this chapter are to highlight the persistence of methodological nationalism and to present some “best practices” employed by the new historiography that has moved on from purely national histories. I start by... more
The two main purposes of this chapter are to highlight the persistence of methodological nationalism and to present some “best practices” employed by the new historiography that has moved on from purely national histories. I start by discussing the impact of comparative and transnational history on the traditional interpretative paradigms of Italian and German nation-building and, in particular, on more recent approaches such as gendered and Jewish perspectives. I then analyze the way that national histories have been constructed in time and space. In my third section, I explore the issue of whether methodological nationalism can be avoided by using combined approaches, such as that of comparison, transfer, and entanglement history. How can this three- step method be employed in practice? My concluding remarks examine the vitality of national history, which still tends to overlook the manifold foundations and plurality of collective identities, not just national, in nineteenth-century Italy and Germany.
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This article analyzes the public debate around the protection of “willing workers” as well as concrete episodes of antilabor violence in a transnational framework. It offers a reassessment of social conflicts in the period following the... more
This article analyzes the public debate around the protection of “willing workers” as well as concrete episodes of antilabor violence in a transnational framework. It offers a reassessment of social conflicts in the period following the 1905 social mobilizations in central Europe, and it explores the circulation of antilabor measures between Germany and Austria-Hungary, their radicalizing impact, and their connections with labor migration patterns.
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This article examines the blurred boundaries between public and private repressive practices in Wilhelmine Germany with a special focus on the legal and administrative framework drawn up to redistribute security tasks and delegate the use... more
This article examines the blurred boundaries between public and private repressive practices in Wilhelmine Germany with a special focus on the legal and administrative framework drawn up to redistribute security tasks and delegate the use of violence to non-state actors. While the rapid escalation of political violence in Central and Eastern Europe after 1917 has been widely discussed in the recent historiography, the structure of violence in the prewar period remains less explored, especially with regard to the public-private interplay in the policing of popular protests. After the first massive strike by Ruhr miners in 1889, the Prussian authorities began to support the formation of semi-private armed protection groups in an effort to tackle 'strike terrorism'. The idea of privatizing repressive practices arose as a result of widespread fears of social and political disintegration. Yet, although it may seem paradoxical, the precondition for delegating the use of violence to non-state actors was Prussian administrators' confidence in the state's solidity and efficiency. The ambivalence in contemporary discourses concerning the vulnerability of the existing social and political order is crucial to explaining why the Prussian authorities implemented strategies for legally distributing arms to those groups that were considered part of the 'loyal classes'. The mobilization against 'strike terrorism' involved not only officially organized armed groups, such as the Zechenwehren, but also more informal or extra-legal strategies such as private use of the municipal police, the distribution of arms to strikebreakers and the militarization of white-collar workers and supervisors.
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It was both an aversion and alienation that catholic intellectuals and conservative politicians experienced when confronted with the emerging problems of constitutional reforms and nation-state building in Europe. This article will... more
It was both an aversion and alienation that catholic intellectuals and conservative politicians experienced when confronted with the emerging problems of constitutional reforms and nation-state building in Europe. This article will disclose what factors did stay behind recognition and vanishing of the competing social value systems and legitimacy discourses. The argumentative strategies of catholic intellectuals and conservative politicians in the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont between 1848 and 1860 create a field of special interest.