Archives par mot-clé : histoire politique

histoire politique

Ole Birk Laursen, “‘Exile has its privileges’: the Indian revolutionary movement in Europe, 1905–1918” (7 mai 2026)

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Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e, de 17h à 18h30, salle D421
(La séance aura lieu en présentiel, un enregistrement sera ensuite publié sur la chaîne YouTube).

Jeudi 7 mai 2026: Ole Birk Laursen (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science), “‘Exile has its privileges’: the Indian revolutionary movement in Europe, 1905–1918”

Based on my forthcoming book, The Indian Revolutionary Movement in Europe, 1905–1918: Exile, Internationalism, and Resistance to Empire (Liverpool UP, 2026), this talk explores the history of Indian revolutionary movement in Europe during the early twentieth century, focusing on activists who lived and operated in exile across European metropolitan centres. It highlights the extensive networks Indian revolutionaries forged with Egyptians, Irish, Russians, and European socialists, anarchists, and republicans. Rather than viewing Indian anticolonialism solely through the framework of territorial nationalism, in this talk I argue for a trans-regional approach that emphasizes mobility, exile, and political organizing within Europe itself. By tracing how revolutionaries moved across European cities, my book challenges rigid distinctions between metropole and colony and moves beyond a British-centred imperial narrative. It shows that European cities, while shaped by colonial power, were also crucial sites of anticolonial thought and activism.

 

Ole Birk Laursen is a Research Communicator at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. His research focuses on South Asian activists in exile, transnational anticolonialism, and global anarchism. He is the author of Anarchy or Chaos: M. P. T. Acharya and the Indian Struggle for Freedom (Hurst, 2023) and The Indian Revolutionary Movement in Europe, 1905–1918: Exile, Internationalism, and Resistance to Empire (Liverpool UP, 2026), and he has published widely on the intersections of anticolonialism, anarchism, and socialism.

Vic Clarke (Leeds), “’Reviewing Radical Literature in the Chartist Press (1840s)” (9 avril)

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Jeudi 9 avril à 17h, salle D421, Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e

The Northern Star (1837-1852) was the leading newspaper of the Chartist movement in Britain. Its creators actively worked for the pages to offer a ‘complete record’ of this political movement – including its literary culture. While the poetry, fiction, and drama of the Chartist movement has been discussed in its own right by scholars including Mike Sanders, Rob Breton, and Gregory Vargo, the Star also participated in national discourse of literary criticism. By focussing on the Literature and Reviews column, this paper will explore the ways that the Star made literary critics of its activist readers and contributors, as well as transgressing class boundaries to put the newest literary contributions of tastemakers such as Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine in the hands of working-class readers during the hungry forties.

Juliette Desportes, “Sur les traces du petit métayer : les réformes agraires ‘from below’ dans les Highlands écossaises du XVIIIe siècle” (12 mars)

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 Jeudi 12 mars 2026 à 17h, salle D421

Juliette Desportes (University of the Highlands and Islands) :  «  Sur les traces du petit métayer : les réformes agraires ‘from below’ dans les Highlands écossaises du XVIIIe siècle » 

Entre 1750 et 1820, les Highlands écossaises ont subi un processus de « développement » (improvement) marqué par le remembrement et la commercialisation et privatisation croissante des terres. Souvent qualifiée de « première phase des Clearances », cette période s’ouvre et se clôt sur la défaite des troupes jacobites à Culloden en 1746 et l’expulsion massive des populations à partir de 1790. Ce récit a mis en lumière la détresse du petit métayer devenu ‘crofter’, victime des lois du marché et de la cupidité des grands propriétaires terriens. Son rôle dans l’adoption ou le rejet de ces ‘improvements’ des terres a été occulté par le grand paradigme qui domine l’histoire des Clearances : d’abord la défaite des Highlanders sur le champ de bataille en 1746, ensuite l’expropriation de leurs terres dans les décennies suivantes et, enfin, leur exploitation sur des exploitations de plus en plus petites jusqu’à l’éruption des “Crofters’ Wars” des années 1880. En retraçant cette chronologie, cette présentation nous ramène à la période post-Culloden et examine comment les métayers, les cottars, et les sans-terre des Highlands ont non seulement vécu l’« amélioration » agraire, mais aussi tenté d’en façonner les objectifs grâce à diverses stratégies.

Juliette Desportes est Postdoctoral Research Assistant à la University of the Highlands and Islands

Richard Whatmore, « Free States and fanaticism » (29 jan. 2026)

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29 janvier 2026 à 17h

Richard Whatmore (U. St Andrews): « Free States and fanaticism »

We have lived, perhaps since the French Revolution, in a unique historical era, a situation that our ancestors could not have anticipated, in which free states have become the dominant form of state. Yet the dominion of free states has been accompanied by conflicts and terrors unimaginable by those who lived in former eras.  Free states have been involved in, and continue to foster so regularly, so much war, murder, hell and death. This talk considers the relationship between free states and fanaticism, from the time in the eighteenth century when free states were endangered species, and after.

Anon., Revolution Anniversary or, Patriotic Incantations (1791), © The Trustees of the British Museum

 

Antti Taipale, “Perspectives on religion as a tool of war in the English Civil War” (4 déc.)

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Jeudi 4 décembre 2025 à  17h : Antti Taipale (Helsinki), “Perspectives on religion as a tool of war in the English Civil War”

Maison de la Recherche de Sorbonne Université (28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e, M° Odéon ou Saint-Michel), salle S001.

Abstract: My paper provides insight into how religion was used as an instructional, encouraging, and motivational device for soldiers in the First English Civil War (1642-1646). Moreover, spiritual advice was given for both dehumanising and propaganda purposes, targeted at different audiences in the public press. I argue that by comparing the content and rhetoric of Parliamentarian and Royalist instruction it is possible to discern vast differences in the emphases, language, purpose and targets of such advice. This makes distinct strategies and religious interpretations visible between the parties. These include, for instance, exhorting to violence as opposed to advising to refrain from cruelty and praying that was completed with vigorous action vis-à-vis passive supplication.

My claim is that, in general, Royalist ministers focused on regulating the morality of the King’s soldiers and advised them to fight without unnecessary cruelty. They addressed Parliamentarians and tried to make them see their error and cease their rebellion. Meanwhile, Parliamentarian preachers concentrated strictly on their own soldiers, instructing them in military knowledge and discipline, and dehumanising their Royalist enemies with religious rhetoric, including comparisons to the Irish and Catholics. Moreover, they painted the conflict as an eschatological battle between Christ and the Devil, that required harsh measures such as shedding the blood of the guilty.

Examining these differences provides us novel views on the role of religion in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It also gives us a survey on how soldiers of the English Civil War were instructed by clerical authorities in sermons, catechisms and prayer manuals.

Antti Taipale, visiting scholar à l’université d’Helsinki, est l’auteur de Religious Instruction for Soldiers in the First English Civil War, 1642–1646 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025)

Tom Wright, ‘The Politics of Inarticulacy: Oracy, Education, and Mid-Victorian Reform’ (20 nov.)

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Jeudi 20 novembre 2025 à  17h : Tom Wright (university of Sussex), ‘The Politics of Inarticulacy: Oracy, Education, and Mid-Victorian Reform’

Maison de la Recherche de Sorbonne Université (28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e, M° Odéon ou Saint-Michel), salle S001.

This paper examines the intellectual history of inarticulacy and its role in shaping ideas of citizenship in nineteenth-century Britain. Between the Reform Act of 1832 and the Education Act of 1870, political thinkers and reformers repeatedly framed the “inarticulate” working class as morally and intellectually unfit for participation in public life. I analyse how this idea developed across political speeches, educational reports, and literary and journalistic sources. I then offset these elite claims about working-class inarticulacy with debates within the Chartist and wider labour movements over the moral and political value of speaking and listening. By reconstructing this debate, the paper makes a claim for oracy – a modern educational term for ‘speaking and listening’- as a neglected but valuable lens for historians of ideas, education, politics and citizenship. I show how ideas about working class inarticulacy still impact the neglect of ‘voice’ in British state education and reflect on how the age of generative AI is bringing oracy to the forefront of modern pedagogy.

Programme 2025-2026

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Le séminaire a lieu le jeudi de 17h à 18h30, à la Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e.

9 octobre 2025 à 17h, salle S002 : Chloé Luneau : « La question nationale dans les mobilisations gaies et lesbiennes dans les deux Irlande (années 1970-1980) » ; Lucas Privet (doctorant ENS Ulm – Sorbonne Université) : « “Home Colonization” et “Land Plan” : quelle place pour l’Irlande dans le projet chartiste de mise en culture des terres en friche ? » ; et Caroline Seyer (doctorante à l’université Paris-Cité) : « Maternité lesbienne et santé des femmes : Penser l’intime ou le politique au sein des lieux militants britanniques, 1970-1990 »

 23 octobre à 17h, salle S001 :  Ali Hatapci  (Université de Bourgogne) : “Geographies of Science in Victorian England: Natural History in the Midlands”

 6 novembre à 17h, salle S001 : Rory Naismith (Cambridge) : ‘Anglo-Saxon London’

 20 novembre à 17h, salle S002 :  Tom Wright (Sussex), ‘The Politics of Oracy and Mid-Victorian Voting Reform” 

 4 décembre à 17h, salle S001 : Antti Taipale (Helsinki), “Perspectives on religion as a tool of war in the English Civil War”

 18 décembre à 17h, salle S001:  Oscar Webber (London School of Economics), autour de son livre Negotiating relief and freedom:  Responses to disaster in the British Caribbean, 1812-1907 (Manchester University Press, 2023)

 29 janvier 2026 à 17h, salle D421 : Richard Whatmore (St Andrews), “Free states and fanaticism”

 12 février à 17h, salle D421: Ann Thomson (émérite IUE-Florence), “Countering Islamophobia and Catholicism in Grub Street: Joseph Morgan, an early 18th C cultural go-between”

 26 février à 17h, salle D421 : Laure Piguet (Fribourg / Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin) : « Enquêter sur sa condition. Fabrication et usages des savoirs par les prisonniers londoniens au XVIIIe siècle »

 12 mars à 17h, salle D421: Juliette Desportes (Highlands), “Resistance to Improvement in the Highlands and Islands, 1750-1820”

 26 mars à 17h, salle D421: Claire Schiano-Locurcio (Montpellier), « Des religieuses en exil : survie et essor du catholicisme anglais aux XVIIᵉ et XVIIIᵉ siècles »

 9 avril à 17h, salle D421: Vic Clarke (Leeds), “’Reviewing Radical Literature in the Chartist Press (1840s)”

7 mai à 17h, salle D421 : Ole Birk Laursen (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science), ‘Exile has its privileges’: the Indian revolutionary movement in Europe, 1905–1918″ 

Emma MacLeod (University of Stirling) : «  A British conversation about the French Revolution: the Wodrow-Kenrick Correspondence, 1789–1797 » (15 mai)

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Jeudi 15 mai 2025 à 17h à la Maison de la Recherche (28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e), salle D421

Emma MacLeod (University of Stirling) :  «  A British conversation about the French Revolution: the Wodrow-Kenrick Correspondence, 1789–1797 » 

This paper emerges from a study of the long and rich correspondence between Rev. James Wodrow (1730–1810) of Ayrshire, Scotland, and his great friend Samuel Kenrick (1727–1811) a banker in Bewdley, near Birmingham. They had become friends as students at Glasgow University in the 1740s and began corresponding soon after Kenrick graduated, a habit that continued for the rest of their lives. The Wodrow-Kenrick Correspondence, 1750–1810 is co-edited by Martin Fitzpatrick, Emma Macleod and Anthony Page. Volume 1: 1750–1783 (Oxford University Press, 2020) and Volume 2: 1784–1790 (OUP, 2024) will be followed by volumes 3: 1791–1797 and 4: 1798–1810.

     In this paper I will discuss their conversation about the French Revolution which forms such a major proportion of the letters written between 1791 and 1797. Like the opinions of many other British people on the Revolution in France, their ideas, while formed by their existing political convictions, were to some extent fluid over these years, as events developed both in France and in Britain. Because this is such a substantial bilateral correspondence, however, we can, unusually, see how their opinions were also shaped by their debate between themselves and by their reading and discussion of a large number of the most seminal British publications on the French Revolution and the war. The paper is therefore located at the intersection of political history, cultural history, book history and the history of friendship.

Emma Macleod is a senior lecturer in History at the University of Stirling, Scotland. She has published A War of Ideas: British Attitudes to the Wars Against Revolutionary France, 1792–1802 (1998) and British Visions of America, 1775–1820: Republican Realities (2013); and she has co-edited Political Trials in an Age of Revolutions: Britain and the North Atlantic, 1793–1848 (2019), with Michael T. Davis and Gordon Pentland. She co-edited the Scottish Historical Review 2018–2023.

Michael Brown : “Britain’s Bystander Society, and the Argument for Abolition in the late Eighteenth Century” (20 mars)

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Jeudi 20 mars 2025 à 17h

Michael Brown (University of Aberdeen) : “Britain’s Bystander Society, and the Argument for Abolition in the late Eighteenth Century“

This paper argues that eighteenth-century Britain can effectively be understood as a bystander society to the cruelties of its empire. Many Britons had elective affinities with those in the empire; engaging in a form of banal imperialism in their everyday lives through a politics of consumption. Moreover, they employed rhetorical tactics such as feigning ignorance, asserting impotence, and displaying casual indifference to the reports of spectacular suffering they saw in their newspapers and elsewhere. The abolitionist movement, in particular, faced the challenge of breaking down these rhetorical barricades in its pursuit of imperial reform. The paper opens and closes with comments on the changing opinions of one such bystander, the novelist, playwright and bluestocking Frances Burney.

Michael Brown est historien des cultures politiques en Irlande, Écosse et plus largement en Grande-Bretagne au siècle des Lumières. Il est directeur du Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies. On lui doit notamment Adam Ferguson and the Politics of Virtue (Aberdeen University Press, 2023),  The Irish Enlightenment (Harvard University Press, 2016), A Political Biography of John Toland (Routledge, 2011).

 

Adrian Bell: “The People of 1381” (6 mars)

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Jeudi 6 mars 2025, 17h-18h30

Maison de la recherche de Sorbonne Université, 28 rue Serpente, 75006 Paris, salle D421

Professeur Adrian Bell (Université de Reading): “The People of 1381”

The People of 1381 (www.1381.online) is an innovative new research project which we hope will produce the most comprehensive interpretation of the Peasants’ Revolt to date. The revolt was one of the largest popular uprisings in medieval Europe and rocked the country in the summer of 1381. ‘The People of 1381’ sheds new light on the complex economic, social and political dynamics of the rebellion.  Central to the project is the creation of a database to provide the first overview of events, places and people involved. Judicial and manorial documents are combined with records of central and local government, poll tax records and more, to reconstruct collective biographies of the people caught up in the rising. The project is a ‘history from below’, using an unparalleled set of medieval records to investigate the participation of social groups whose role has been little investigated. This presentation will look at some case studies of the people of 1381, exploring their lives and showing how we can recapture the voice and concerns of these forgotten protestors.  This talk will illuminate the role of the clergy, discuss our thoughts about the causes of the revolt, discuss the role of women and also focus upon the military backgrounds and connections of rebels.

« The People of 1381 » (www.1381.online) est un nouveau projet de recherche innovant qui, nous l’espérons, produira l’interprétation la plus complète de la Révolte des paysans à ce jour. Cette révolte, l’un des plus grands soulèvements populaires de l’Europe médiévale, a secoué le pays au cours de l’été 1381. « The People of 1381 » jette une lumière nouvelle sur les dynamiques économiques, sociales et politiques complexes de la rébellion.  L’élément central du projet est la création d’une base de données qui fournit un premier aperçu des événements, des lieux et des personnes impliquées. Les documents judiciaires et seigneuriaux sont combinés avec les archives du gouvernement central et local, les registres des taxes de vote et d’autres documents, afin de reconstruire les biographies collectives des personnes impliquées dans l’insurrection. Le projet est une « histoire d’en bas », qui utilise un ensemble inégalé de documents médiévaux pour étudier la participation de groupes sociaux dont le rôle a été peu étudié. Cette présentation se penchera sur quelques études de cas concernant les habitants de 1381, explorant leur vie et montrant comment nous pouvons retrouver la voix et les préoccupations de ces manifestants oubliés.  Cet exposé mettra en lumière le rôle du clergé, discutera de nos idées sur les causes de la révolte, du rôle des femmes et se concentrera également sur les antécédents militaires et les relations des rebelles.

 

Adrian Bell est titulaire de la chaire d’histoire de la finance, et vice-chancelier associé à la recherche à l’Université de Reading. Il développe actuellement les résultats du projet majeur financé par l’AHRC, « The People of 1381 » (2019-2023). Pour suivre l’évolution de ce projet, voir https://1381.online/. Adrian Bell s’intéresse à l’histoire de la finance et a récemment achevé un projet majeur financé par le Leverhulme Trust avec Pr Chris Brooks et Dr Helen Killick. Le projet « La première bulle immobilière : les prix de la terre et les rentes dans l’Angleterre médiévale, c. 1200-1550 » a duré trois ans à partir de 2015. Le projet s’appuie sur un projet précédent pour le Leverhulme Trust, avec Pr Chris Brooks et Dr Tony Moore, sur le change médiéval. Un projet majeur pour l’ESRC avec la même équipe a étudié l’utilisation précoce et innovante du financement par le crédit par une succession de monarques médiévaux anglais (10.5255/UKDA-SN-6880-1) et un projet ESRC antérieur a étudié les contrats anticipant la fourniture de laines (10.5255/UKDA-SN-5325-1). Adrian Bell est aussi un spécialiste de la guerre de Cent Ans et son livre, War and the Soldier in the Fourteenth Century, a été publié par Boydell and Brewer à l’automne 2004. En 2006, il a reçu une importante subvention de l’AHRC (conjointement avec Pr Anne Curry, de l’Université de Southampton) pour étudier « Le soldat dans l’Angleterre de la fin du Moyen Âge ». Pour plus de détails, voir https://www.medievalsoldier.org/. Les résultats sont présentés dans un ouvrage majeur intitulé The Soldier in Later Medieval England publié par Oxford University Press (2013).

 

 

Camille Martinerie : “The same knowledge under different stars?” – Cross-examining history teaching in the South African university under apartheid from the other side of power (30/01/2025)

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Jeudi 30 janvier: Camille Martinerie (Sorbonne Paris Nord), “The same knowledge under different stars?” – Cross-examining history teaching in the South African university under apartheid from the other side of power”

This paper is interested in the political and epistemological understandings of decolonisation – that is, the psycho-cultural dimensions of colonialism, which outlived itself notably through the production of “colonial knowledge” as a means of conquest within institutions, and more specifically universities. My point of entry is a a long-standing debate in South African historiography about the decolonisation of history resulting from the erosion white settler minority’s dominant stronghold on academic norms, appointments and traditions in South Africa in the 1990s. This retrospective study of academic history proposes to capture the different dimensions and layers of “colonial knowledge” as a discursive formation using the University of Cape Town (UCT) – a historically white English-speaking institution –  as a case study. Based a detailed discursive analysis of history examination questions triangulated with oral testimonies from black university students, the study exposes the ideological and epistemological biases that have influenced historical education and narrative construction within this prominent academic institution, internationally known for its opposition to the regime.

Camille Martinerie is a course convener and researcher at University Sorbonne Paris Nord (France) where she teaches British and Commonwealth history. She holds a joint PhD degree in African and Anglophone Studies from the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and Aix-Marseille Université (France). Her research interests revolve around African Studies, intellectual histories of decolonisation, historiography and higher education in (post)colonial contexts. Her next project looks at the social and intellectual trajectories of black South African scholars in exile as part of a wider seminar project on South-North political, intellectual and artistic circulations in the post-Bandung era. More information available here: https://calenda.org/1122619  

Clara Dean, “Écossais et Écossaises à Paris au XVIIIe siècle”, Joelle Gorno, “Women’s involvement in Welsh local politics before the suffrage, 1869-1928”, et Balkis Mougou, “Populism and the Conservative Party: Tracing the Intellectual Roots of a Political Discourse (1974-2010)” (19 déc.)

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Jeudi 19 décembre : Clara Dean, “Écossais et Écossaises à Paris au XVIIIe siècle”, Joelle Gorno, “Women’s involvement in Welsh local politics before the suffrage, 1869-1928”, et Balkis Mougou, “Populism and the Conservative Party: Tracing the Intellectual Roots of a Political Discourse (1974-2010)”

​Clara Dean (Sorbonne Université) : “Écossais et Écossaises à Paris au XVIIIe siècle : circulations, interactions, intégration ?”

S’intéressant aux mobilités et migrations, cette communication se concentrera sur le cas des Écossais et Écossaises se rendant à Paris entre 1715 et 1793. L’analyse portera sur leurs motivations et trajectoires, ainsi que sur leur possible intégration dans la société parisienne. Une attention particulière sera accordée aux journaux de voyage, sources particulièrement précieuses pour cette étude.

 

Joelle Gorno (Sorbonne Université), “A voice before the vote: Women’s involvement in Welsh local politics before the suffrage, 1869-1928”

In the fifty years prior to the Representation of the People Act 1928, securing universal suffrage for over twenty-one year olds, male and female, across the United Kingdom, Welsh women’s involvement in local politics proved significant. There are three major dimensions in which Welsh women were active prior to being granted the vote on a national scale; firstly participating in local government and elections, secondly as full members on school boards, and lastly, as Poor Law guardians. These achievements were made possible thanks to the passing of legislation in the second half of the nineteenth century, making slight reforms towards gender equality in the public sphere.

Who were these female activists? Some were wives of politicians and ministers, others industrialists, nurses or teachers. Though many were certainly from the middle and upper classes, there has been proof of some working-class involvement, which is to be expected considering Wales’ vast working-class population. Though many of these women faced prejudice and discrimination for their sex, and almost all of them were ostracised and ridiculed by the press, they continued to push for change. Established Victorian attitudes to women’s role in society were being challenged and the idea that women could be significant participants in political activity was put in place.

 

Balkis Mougou (CY Cergy Paris Université / Université de Bourgogne), “Populism and the Conservative Party: Tracing the Intellectual Roots of a Political Discourse (1974-2010)”

The Conservative Party has been shaped by a number of controversial figures whose ideologies align with populist tendencies, significantly influencing the party’s direction and political discourse. A shared stream of ideas has united these politicians, offering the party a new perspective that can be retrospectively characterized as populist. This ongoing research investigates the emergence and evolution of populist discourse within the Conservative Party in the UK, focusing on the period from 1974 to 2010.

Situated at the crossroads of the history of political ideas and political science, this research aims to uncover the intellectual roots of a distinct form of populism unique to the British Conservative Party. By analyzing key speeches, policies, and political strategies, the study will offer a fresh, historically expansive view of how these ideas evolved into a populist dimension. Drawing on contemporary theories of populism, this thesis will provide new insights into the role of populism in shaping the modern Conservative Party, shedding light on how populist narratives have transformed the party’s political identity.

Slimane Hargas : “Circulations transimpériales, représentations croisées et divergences paradigmatiques: les analogies entre les conflits anglo-irlandais et franco-algérien, 1830-1998” (21 nov.)

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Jeudi 21 novembre à 17h: Slimane Hargas (Nanterre) – “Circulations transimpériales, représentations croisées et divergences paradigmatiques: les analogies entre les conflits anglo-irlandais et franco-algérien, 1830-1998”

Depuis les premières années de la conquête de l’Algérie (1830-1901) jusqu’à la signature de l’Accord du Vendredi Saint (1998), un nombre substantiel d’analogies entre la question d’Irlande – puis celle d’Irlande du Nord – et celle de l’Algérie sont venues se greffer sur des discours produits par divers acteurs politiques de chaque époque : les élites coloniales françaises, les indépendantistes algériens, les nationalistes et républicains irlandais, ainsi que les décideurs et les parlementaires britanniques.

Au XIXe siècle, la recommandation insistante de ne pas « faire de l’Algérie une nouvelle Irlande » ainsi que l’affirmation solennelle « l’Algérie, c’est notre Irlande » et l’avertissement « la France aura son Irlande en Algérie » prennent souvent figure de slogans : ils sont scandés dans le dessein bien arrêté de s’inscrire en faux contre tel aspect ou tel autre de la politique coloniale. Dès les années 1920, les nationalistes algériens commencent à se prendre de passion pour l’histoire de l’Irlande. Si négative qu’ait pu être l’appréciation qu’ils ont faite du Traité anglo-irlandais de 1921, leur souhait est de rééditer l’exploit de cette « vaillante petite nation » qui a réussi à « vaincre l’ogre anglais ». Plus tard, pendant les Troubles, le rapport d’exemplarité s’inverse : des républicains irlandais militent pour ce que Harold Wilson appelle lui-même une « solution algérienne », également connue sous l’appellation de « solution gaullienne », un thème récurrent dans les sphères politique et médiatique à cette période.

Dans le cadre de cette communication, il s’agira donc de proposer une fresque historique de ce phénomène analogique qui a perduré plus d’un siècle et demi. Elle aura pour objet d’analyser comment Français et Algériens représentent le conflit anglo-irlandais et s’identifient à ses protagonistes ; et, inversement, comment Britanniques et Irlandais perçoivent leur histoire commune à la lumière du conflit franco-algérien.

 

Slimane Hargas est maître de conférences en civilisation britannique et irlandaise à l’Université Paris Nanterre.

Sophie Scott-Brown: ‘The Impolitics of Internationalism: The International Society for Socialist Studies (1955-1956)’ (4 avril)

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Jeudi 4 avril 2024 à 17h : Sophie Scott-Brown (St Andrews) – The Impolitics of Internationalism: The International Society for Socialist Studies (1955-1956)

The International Society for Socialist Studies (ISSS)was formally launched at a conference in Paris, 23-25 March 1956. It was the fruit of efforts by veteran British socialist GDH Cole in co-operation with the great and the good of Europe’s left. Disappointed with the Soviet Experiment and welfarist Labourism in his own country, Cole believed the left needed to be weaned from the narrow nationalistic interests of politicians and reset on the universal principles of peace and anti-colonialism. Organising this should entail an ambitious, genuinely international endeavour, a great collaboration co-ordinated by a council comprised of people from different countries but not representing those countries. This council would not set down a programme or doctrine but manage an international network allowing members to learn of and support projects, protests, and activities across borders.

Cole’s idea was eagerly taken up and the Paris conference seemed to confirm that a bright new force had entered the European political arena. For two days delegates gave passionate speeches pledging whole hearted support from the left in their own countries. Cole was satisfied, a wonderful start had been made, but he was also unwell and spent much of the time he was not called to the platform in his hotel room. While he rested upstairs, a very different kind of conference was taking place below, one which highlighted the very real limits of his vision and the form that he saw it in.

In this talk, I first discuss the ‘front stage’ of the conference, the ideals Cole and fellow delegates were ready to formally affirm. I then go ‘backstage’ and show how the private discussions between members undermined the principles they publicly espoused. It will be of no surprise that political people are duplicitous, but considering this conference closely highlights the key tensions in the post-war European left, spotlighting the fault lines which hampered efforts for socialist regeneration across Europe. Cole believed socialism in a globalised world must be prepared to ‘act local and think global’. Paris ’56 showed was that the European left were only prepared to talk global and think local. While this reduced their capacity for co-operation in spring 1956, experiencing this spectacle first hand had a powerful impact on future New Left activists like the Jamaican student Stuart Hall. 

Sophie Scott-Brown is a research fellow at St Andrew’s Institute of Intellectual History, specialising in the history of activism and radical politics. She is the author of Radical Fifties: Activist Politics in Cold War Britain (OUP, forthcoming), Colin Ward and the Art of Everyday Anarchism (Routledge, 2022), and The histories of Raphael Samuel: Portrait of a People’s Historian (ANU, 2017). Her work has also appeared in Journal of the History of Ideas, Modern Intellectual History, Journal of European History of Ideas, Global Intellectual History and British Journal of Educational Studies.  She is currently working on the ‘The Artful Science: Transatlantic Dialogues on Activism and Radical Democracy 1945-1963’. 

Luxe Blaxill,’Text Mining and Political History: challenges and opportunities in the age of Big Data’ (8 fév.)

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Jeudi 8er février 2024 à 17h : Luke Blaxill (Oxford) – ‘Text Mining and Political History: challenges and opportunities in the age of Big Data”
 
This paper is about the challenges and opportunities afforded by the computational analysis of unreadably large textual datasets. I argue that historians have broadly failed to grasp these profound opportunities. Despite the abundance of machine-readable data liberated by digitisation, there has been no widespread embrace of text mining or more general revival of cliometrics. This ambivalence has arisen mainly through apathy and side-lining computational analysis to a specialist methodological niche. The absence of justification is damaging to the intellectual vitality of the discipline and its capacity to face the dawning age of data science and associated developments in artificial intelligence, seen recently with Chat GPT 4.

This paper will showcase examples of text mining in action in modern British political history. Case studies will include election speeches in the period 1880-1910, the contributions of women MPs in Parliament since 1945, and nineteenth century election violence.

I argue for a reopening of the wider debate about the historian and the computer. This requires informed sceptics to come forward to meet the advocates to discuss how we face the future. British political history has a proud tradition of methodological innovation and is a subfield which could begin a debate that has fundamental implications for the whole discipline

Luke Blaxill is college lecturer in Modern British History at Hertford College University of Oxford. He has published widely on text mining in History, especially British politics. His first book, The War of Words: the language of British Elections 1880-1914 was published in 2020 with the Royal Historical Society.