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The Archive of a Ugandan Missionary: Writings by and about Revd Apolo Kivebulaya, 1890s-1950s

This collection of sources offer a rare insight into the everyday concerns of African Christian converts. They centre on a well-documented figure, the Revd Apolo Kivebulaya (c.1865 -1933). Kivebulaya ... More

This collection of sources offer a rare insight into the everyday concerns of African Christian converts. They centre on a well-documented figure, the Revd Apolo Kivebulaya (c.1865 -1933). Kivebulaya was a teacher and clergyman in the Native Anglican Church of Uganda. His writing offers insight into a literate Christian identity formed away from centres of power. Oral and written accounts about Kivebulaya illustrate how African admirers responded to him and how their societies were influenced by Christianity. Kivebulaya’s diaries, notebooks, correspondence, reports and autobiography show his missionary work in western Uganda and eastern Congo. Kivebulaya was not a man of letters. He was a clerk in holy orders, keeping the books, noting life’s activities, listing his journeys, acquaintances and biblical texts for sermons. His diaries show him making a path for Christian advancement beyond the metropole. The value of his writings is recognized by scholars examining early Islam in Buganda, politics and witchcraft in Toro and dissent in East Africa. This collection includes short biographies of Kivebulaya originally written in Luganda and Runyoro-Rutoro and texts of interviews conducted in the 1950s with his followers in Congo. The interviews contrast with published biographies by portraying Kivebulaya as a spiritual expert able to slay kings, bring rain and heal the sick. The sources are supported by essays on their context, a comprehensive introduction to each section and thorough annotation.Less

Complete Gentlemen: Educational Travel and Family Strategy, 1650-1750

Richard Ansell

Complete Gentlemen is the first study to look beyond the Italian Grand Tour to the wider culture of educational travel that thrived among British and Irish landowners between 1650 and 1750. The ‘lure ... More

Complete Gentlemen is the first study to look beyond the Italian Grand Tour to the wider culture of educational travel that thrived among British and Irish landowners between 1650 and 1750. The ‘lure of Italy’ still distorts most scholarship, but this study uses a broader conception of educational travel and analyses it as part of family strategy. Different experiences emerged from the varying means, ambitions and obligations of families, who invested time, money and effort in the hope of social return. Historians usually pick up travellers as they arrive on the Continent and drop them as they recross the Channel, but this book also pays unprecedented attention to what families thought and did before, after and instead of time abroad, stages that are equally important to understanding its meanings. This new approach requires a deep source base over several generations, provided by the letters, journals and financial accounts of four clusters of families from England and Ireland. They allow the book to relate travel, too often a stand-alone topic, to broader questions in social and cultural history. It can therefore examine the role of time abroad in social mobility and elite formation, as well as its meanings for landed identity, masculinity and Englishness.Less

Economic Actors and the Limits of Transitional Justice: Truth and Justice for Business Complicity in Human Rights Violations

Leigh A. Payne, Laura Bernal-Bermúdez, and Gabriel Pereira (eds)

Impunity for businesses’ human rights violations has recently gained attention. This volume examines when, where, why and how victims have sometimes advanced accountability for economic actors’ ... More

Impunity for businesses’ human rights violations has recently gained attention. This volume examines when, where, why and how victims have sometimes advanced accountability for economic actors’ abuses and what factors explain persistent obstacles to that process. It proposes a new framework for analysing accountability outcomes ‘from below’ drawing on Archimedes’ Lever notion: weak actors (victims of corporate abuses) of the Global South possess tools -- institutional innovators who creatively apply domestic civil, criminal, and administrative law and international human rights instruments -- to lift the weight of corporate accountability from under the pressure applied by veto players in the business community, particularly when the lever’s fulcrum – or political context -- is in a more favourable position (closer to the weight of corporate accountability).  The evidence supporting the framework is provided in the case study chapters. Part I presents historical cases: Nazi Germany; authoritarian rule in Argentina, Brazil, and Peru; the Colombian armed conflict; and Apartheid South Africa. Part II examines contemporary business and human rights accountability efforts in procedural democracies: an overview of cases; Chile’s social upheaval; corruption in the Philippines; and the killing of environmental defenders in Honduras. The conclusion draws together the volume while also posing questions for future research and consideration.Less

Faces of the Infinite: Neoplatonism and Poetry at the Confluence of Africa, Asia and Europe

Stefan Sperl and Yorgos Dedes (eds)

This pioneering volume provides the first comparative overview of the interface between Neoplatonism and poetry in the greater Mediterranean, from Late Antiquity to the present day. The introductory ... More

This pioneering volume provides the first comparative overview of the interface between Neoplatonism and poetry in the greater Mediterranean, from Late Antiquity to the present day. The introductory chapter presents the thought of Plotinus (d. 270), the founder of Neoplatonism, as rooted in both Greek and Oriental sources and explains his key principles, with focus on those of particular relevance for literature and the arts. The chapter proceeds to introduce the authors and poetic traditions covered in the volume by situating them in the intercultural transmission history of Neoplatonic concepts and ideas. The first three sections of the book are devoted to premodern poetry of Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Zoroastrian provenance. They show that Neoplatonic notions of the ascent of the soul, the nature of love and beauty, divine immanence and transcendence, and the interplay between the many and the One, have left comparable marks in the works of poets writing in Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Persian, Spanish and Turkish. Among the authors discussed are some of the most celebrated exponents of their respective traditions, including Dante, Ibn ‘Arabi and Ibn Gabirol. The final section shows how major modern poets throughout the region have continued to engage with the Neoplatonic heritage assimilated by their forebears. Taken together, the papers demonstrate that Neoplatonism is a cross-cultural phenomenon of outstanding importance which has given rise to a distinct ‘Neoplatonic poetics’ and remains relevant by pointing the way to an inclusive sense of identity commensurate with a pluralist world.Less

Harmony and Contrast: Plato and Aristotle in the Early Modern Period

Anna Corrias and Eva Del Soldato (eds)

This volume provides, through studies of some of the leading experts in Renaissance and Early Modern philosophy, the first assessment of the blurred relationship between Platonism and Aristotelianism ... More

This volume provides, through studies of some of the leading experts in Renaissance and Early Modern philosophy, the first assessment of the blurred relationship between Platonism and Aristotelianism between the fifteenth and the seventeenth century. Assuming a transnational and emic perspective, the case studies discussed in the volume aim at highlighting how early modern followers of Plato and Aristotle did not look at the philosophies of the two ancient thinkers as monolithic entities, with no reciprocal communication whatsoever, but were on the contrary well aware of the complex and ambiguous interplay between their systems of thought, an awareness in large part enabled by the gradual rediscovery of ancient commentators. Such a sophisticated approach to the two philosophers enabled early modern Platonism and Aristotelianism to explore new and original solutions to long-debated topics such as the immortality of the soul, and many others.Less

History, Scripture, and Authority in the Carolingian Empire: Frechulf of Lisieux

Graeme Ward

This book offers a detailed analysis of the work of the ninth-century historian Frechulf of Lisieux. Completed c. 830, Frechulf’s Histories comprise a vast account of the world from its creation ... More

This book offers a detailed analysis of the work of the ninth-century historian Frechulf of Lisieux. Completed c. 830, Frechulf’s Histories comprise a vast account of the world from its creation through to the seventh century. Despite the richness of the source, it has long been overlooked by modern scholars. Two factors account for this neglect: Frechulf’s narrative stops over two centuries short of his time of writing, and was largely a compilation of earlier, late antique histories and chronicles. It is, however, the lack of ostensibly ‘contemporary’ or ‘original’ material that makes the text so typical, not only of Carolingian historiography but also of ninth-century theological literature more broadly. In examining Frechulf's historiographical compendium, this book challenges a dominant paradigm within medieval studies of understanding history-writing primarily as an extension of politics and power. By focusing instead on the transmission and reception of patristic knowledge, the compilation of authoritative texts, and the relationship between the study of history and scriptural exegesis, it reveals Frechulf's Histories to be an unexpectedly rich artefact of Carolingian intellectual culture.Less

Libertines and the Law: Subversive Authors and Criminal Justice in Early Seventeenth-Century France

Adam Horsley

Following the assassination of Henri IV in 1610, the political turbulence of Louis XIII's early reign led to renewed efforts to police the book trade. Yet it also witnessed a golden age of ... More

Following the assassination of Henri IV in 1610, the political turbulence of Louis XIII's early reign led to renewed efforts to police the book trade. Yet it also witnessed a golden age of 'libertine' literature, including a plethora of sexually explicit and irreverent poetry as well as works of free-thinking that cast doubt on the dogma of Church and State. As France moved towards absolutism, a number of unorthodox writers were forced to defend themselves before the law courts. Part I offers a conceptual history of libertinism, as well as an exploration of literary censorship and the mechanics of the criminal justice system in this period. Part II examines the notorious trials of three subversive authors. The Italian philosopher Giulio Cesare Vanini was brutally executed for blasphemy by the Parlement de Toulouse in 1619. Jean Fontanier was burned at the stake two years later in Paris for authoring a text to convert Christians to Judaism. The trial of the infamous poet Théophile de Viau for irreligion, obscenity, and poems describing homosexuality was a landmark in French literary and social history, despite him eventually escaping the death penalty in 1625. Drawing from rarely explored sources, archival discoveries and legal manuals, it provides new insights into the censorship of French literature and thought from the perspectives of both the defendants and the magistrates. Through a diverse corpus including poetry, philosophical texts, religious polemics, Jewish teachings, and private memoirs, it sheds new light on this crucial period in literary, legal, and intellectual history.Less

Representing Homelessness

Owen Clayton (ed.)

This volume analyses the representation and self-representation of homelessness. It argues that the representation of homelessness is not a peripheral issue, but in fact is key to tackling the ... More

This volume analyses the representation and self-representation of homelessness. It argues that the representation of homelessness is not a peripheral issue, but in fact is key to tackling the problem. The volume is interested in ‘representation’ in the media, literary texts and social policy documents, but also in the political sense of how charity and governmental organisations seek to ‘represent’ people with experience of homelessness. It describes how people affected by homelessness are perceived as objects (‘dehumanised perception’) created by the process of Othering. Homelessness Studies publications typically focus on the social sciences. This volume, in contrast, is innovative in its cross-disciplinary nature. It features research from the arts, humanities, science and the social sciences, exploring what these areas can offer each other. It also includes writing by people with lived experience of homelessness. The volume argues that stereotypical representations of homelessness, while useful for charity fundraising, do more harm than good. It also argues that focusing on the talent and ability of people experiencing homelessness is a way to combat Othering and dehumanised perception. It concludes that organisations tasked with dealing with homelessness must include greater representation from people with direct ‘lived experience’ of homelessness.Less