This submission for PhD by Publication includes three studies designed to reflect the popular view of ordinary Palestinians regarding events and politics in Palestine throughout modern history. They aim to primarily provide a ‘history from below’ political discourse of the Palestinian people. While the studies do not purport to determine with certainty the exact dynamics that propel Palestinian politics and society - as in where political power ultimately lies - they attempt to present a long-dormant argument that sees ‘history from below’ as an indispensable platform providing essential insight into Palestinian history to explain present political currents. Over the course of 11 years, I conducted three studies which resulted in the publication of the following volumes: The first work, Searching Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion (2003) is centered on the events that surrounded the Israeli siege, invasion and subsequent violence in and around the Palestinian West Bank refugee camp of Jenin in April 2002. The study includes forty two eyewitness accounts, collected from people who witnessed the violence and were affected by it, were recorded and positioned to create a clear and unified narrative. The reality that the refugees portrayed in these accounts was mostly inconsistent with the official Israeli narrative of the violent events that occurred in the refugee camp, on one hand, and that were provided by the Palestinian Authority (PA) or factions, on the other. The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle (2006) shows the impact of the Israeli military policies used against revolting Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, and the popular response to these policies during the first five years of the Second Palestinian Intifada (2000-2005). The results of the study also demonstrate the inconsistencies between the views and practices held by the official political representation of Palestinians, and the popular view, as demonstrated in the discernible collective behavior of ordinary Palestinians throughout the Occupied Territories. In My Father was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (2010) my research pursues the roots of the current situation in the Gaza Strip – that of siege, political deadlock and violence. The study traces the lives of selected refugees before the Nakba - the Catastrophe of 1947-48 - back in Palestine during the British Mandate in the 1920s and just before the Zionist colonial project went into full swing. In the three studies, the central argument is that historical and political events are best explained through non-elitist actors, who although at times lack political representation and platform, are capable of influencing, if not shaping the course of history, thus the present situation on the ground. The studies also indicate that such notions as popular resistance, collective memory and steadfastness (sumud in Arabic) are not mere idealistic and sentimental values, but notions with tangible and decipherable impact on past events and present realities. The central argument endeavors to demonstrate that although the Palestinian people are divided into various collectives, they are united by a common sense of identity and an undeclared political discourse, and they have historically proven to be a viable political actor that has influenced, affected, or, in some instances, deeply altered political realities. To examine my thesis, my paper will be reviewing several theoretical notions of historiography including the Great Man Theory, which uses an elitist approach to understanding the formation and conversion of history. The Great Man Theory argues that single individuals of importance have made decisions that drive the outcomes of history. This notion is challenged by Group Theories which argue that history is shaped by the outcome of competing interest groups belonging to socio-economic elites, and that multidimensional forces often shape political realities. Furthermore, I examine a third theoretical approach that of ‘history from below’, which argues that history is scarcely shaped by ‘great men’ or socio-economic elites. Such historiography rarely contends with how history is formed; instead, it is mostly concerned with attempting to reconstruct the flow of history. It does so through deconstructing largely collective phenomena that are believed to be responsible for shaping current political movements. I attempt, through these volumes, to present a flow of Palestinian history based on the ‘history from below’ approach. The following paper will attempt to explain the logic behind my choice.

Cette étude porte sur le vécu d’individus ayant reçu un diagnostic de déficience intellectuelle et institutionnalisés à l’hôpital psychiatrique Saint-Michel-Archange situé dans la région de Québec à partir de 1951. Adoptant une perspective from below, elle explore le parcours de quatorze patients à partir de leur dossier médical afin de comprendre la sortie tardive de l’institution de plusieurs d’entre eux en pleine période de désinstitutionnalisation. Cette recherche rend compte de vécus complexes, nuancés et multiples à l’extérieur et à l’intérieur des murs de Saint-Michel-Archange. Y sont documentés les aspects plus pénibles de la vie à l’institution et la résistance qu’y opposent nombre de patients, mais aussi l’appréciation qu’expriment plusieurs des soins, loisirs, occupations et relations auxquels ils y avaient accès. C’est en effet avec réticence que certains quittent Saint-Michel-Archange après y avoir vécu pendant plusieurs décennies. Nos sources révèlent par ailleurs différentes lacunes du mouvement de désinstitutionnalisation québécois. Non des moindres sont celles concernant les ressources résidentielles se développant à l’extérieur de l’institution. Vraisemblablement mal adaptées au besoin de plusieurs, certains demandent à revenir à Saint-Michel-Archange après en avoir fait l’expérience. D’autres, en général ceux dont l’autonomie au quotidien est la plus faible, ne quittèrent jamais l’hôpital après leur première admission. Aucun foyer ne paraît avoir été disposé à accueillir des individus aux besoins aussi grands que les leurs. En sommes, cette recherche démontre la pertinence d’un point de vue historique de s’intéresser au vécu de personnes ayant reçu un diagnostic de déficience intellectuelle. Son étude démontre en effet le rôle d’agents actifs qu’ils ont eu dans le cadre de leur institutionnalisation.

The dissertation Rapprochement from below? German-French town twinning from 1950 to 2000 is a historiographic study that focuses on town twinning as a specific aspect of German-French co-operation in the second half of the 20th century. The topic is analysed in a wider German-French context and based on statistical data as well as archive sources. The main objective of the study is to evaluate the impact of high-level bilateral relations on German-French town twinning, identify the motivation of its supporters and compare German-French town twinning in the West-German and East-German federal states. Additionally, the localisation of town twins was studied for the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany.

From 1838 until the end of the European Revolutions in 1852, the French Revolution provided Chartists with a repertoire of symbolism that Chartists would deploy in their activism, histories, and literature to foster a sense of collective consciousness, define a democratic world-view, and encourage internationalist sentiment. Challenging conservative notions of the revolution as a bloody and anarchic affair, Chartists constructed histories of 1789 that posed the era as a romantic struggle for freedom and nationhood analogous to their own, and one that was deeply entwined with British history and national identity. During the 1830s, Chartist opposition to the New Poor Law drew from the gothic repertoire of the Bastille to frame inequality in Britain. The workhouse 'bastile' was not viewed simply as an illegitimate imposition upon Britain, but came to symbolise the character of class rule. Meanwhile, Chartist newspapers also printed fictions based on the French Revolution, inserting Chartist concerns into the narratives, and their histories of 1789 stressed the similarity between France on the eve of revolution and Britain on the eve of the Charter. During the 1840s Chartist internationalism was contextualised by a framework of thinking about international politics constructed around the Revolutions of 1789 and 1830, while the convulsions of Continental Europe during 1848 were interpreted as both a confirmation of Chartist historical discourse and as the opening of a new era of international struggle. In the Democratic Review (1849-1850), the Red Republican (1850), and The Friend of the People (1850-1852), Chartists like George Julian Harney, Helen Macfarlane, William James Linton, and Gerald Massey, along with leading figures of the radical émigrés of 1848, characterised 'democracy' as a spirit of action and a system of belief. For them, the democratic heritage was populated by a diverse array of figures, including the Apostles of Jesus, Martin Luther, the romantic poets, and the Jacobins of 1793. The 'Red Republicanism' that flourished during 1848-1852 was sustained by the historical viewpoints arrived at during the Chartist period generally. Attempts to define a 'science' of socialism was as much about correcting the misadventures of past ages as it was a means to realise the promise announced by the 'Springtime of the Peoples'.

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