This thesis analyses the life and activity of the Sisters from the Order of St. Ursula in the Czechoslovak Republic between 1918 and 1945. Using obtainable archival sources and secondary literature, it observes the working of monasteries and the life of the Sisters from St. Ursula in the first half of the 20th century and how it impacted the inhabitants of locations where monasteries were operating. Specifically, it covers the educational activity of the Order of St. Ursula, which was perceived as their main mission. KEY WORDS: Religious history - Modern history - Czechoslovakia in 1918-1939 - Order of St. Ursula - Ursulines

This thesis is dealing with the education of contemporary history on the second level of elementary schools and grammar schools, concretely with the period 1968-1989 in Czechoslovakia, so called "normalisation" and works with options of application in the educational proces. The study of contemporary czechoslovakian history is sbdued to analysis: historic, didactic and methodical with the explicit theoretical research the proposition of didaktic approach arises, which forms 10 teaching lessons for elementary schools and 12 for grammar schools with the difference of 2 levels of lessons - standarized and the so called seminars with emphasis on the activity of the pupils, working with resources, development of critical historical thinking and the perception of the causes and results of historical evolution. KEYWORDS Normalisation, Czechoslovakia 1868-1989, didactics of history, educational approach draft, modern history, contemporary history, elementary school, grammar school

<p>This thesis deals with the space for action available to women of the regional elite. The interaction of such categories as gender and class are discussed. The overall purpose is to describe and analyze the role of the county governor’s wife during the period 1900- 1940. The study takes its point of departure in the lives of Ellen Widén and Hanna Rydh, both wives of county governors, and especially treats the area of cultural heritage as the potential public arena for women. Special attention is focused on the cultural heritage as a possible public sphere of activity for women at that time. Cultural heritage has been defined as the cultural and material expressions that were regarded as possessing symbolic value and that have therefore been the focus for various kinds of preservation. Cultural heritage is associated here with a growing field for professional interest and work.</p><p>Women in general were given specific tasks within the nation. One of these was to safeguard aesthetic and cultural characteristics within the nation, the province and the home region. By working within the sphere of cultural heritage, with arts and crafts and with the preservation of the home region, women were regarded as links between the older and younger generations. The specific characteristics of the home region could be expressed through various textiles. The work of creating specific parish costumes can be seen as one of many examples of a female cultural heritage.</p><p>The study has shown that the wives of county governors could have a direct and immediate influence on activities in the area of cultural heritage. This research has established that these women formed a more independent power factor than earlier research has maintained. The county governor’s wife did not automatically gain a position of power. She had potential power, an opportunity derived from both class and gender. To transform this potential into power and influence demanded success and skill in the field.</p><p>When Hanna Rydh, the wife of a county governor, declared herself a candidate for the position of county governor in 1938, it was too much of a challenge to the prevailing gender order. Through a form of ”tyranny of difference” women were prevented from establishing themselves within public spheres that were more masculine by tradition. This could be true of specific fields or of the formal power exercised by the parliament, the government and public offices. If the female elite challenged the men of their own class, their opportunities were circumscribed. I have chosen therefore to speak of both power and “non-power.” Within certain contexts there were good opportunities for the regional female elite to obtain their own space for action. Yet, in other situations the limitations were greater than the opportunities; “non-power” also existed. </p>

This thesis deals with the space for action available to women of the regional elite. The interaction of such categories as gender and class are discussed. The overall purpose is to describe and analyze the role of the county governor’s wife during the period 1900- 1940. The study takes its point of departure in the lives of Ellen Widén and Hanna Rydh, both wives of county governors, and especially treats the area of cultural heritage as the potential public arena for women. Special attention is focused on the cultural heritage as a possible public sphere of activity for women at that time. Cultural heritage has been defined as the cultural and material expressions that were regarded as possessing symbolic value and that have therefore been the focus for various kinds of preservation. Cultural heritage is associated here with a growing field for professional interest and work. Women in general were given specific tasks within the nation. One of these was to safeguard aesthetic and cultural characteristics within the nation, the province and the home region. By working within the sphere of cultural heritage, with arts and crafts and with the preservation of the home region, women were regarded as links between the older and younger generations. The specific characteristics of the home region could be expressed through various textiles. The work of creating specific parish costumes can be seen as one of many examples of a female cultural heritage. The study has shown that the wives of county governors could have a direct and immediate influence on activities in the area of cultural heritage. This research has established that these women formed a more independent power factor than earlier research has maintained. The county governor’s wife did not automatically gain a position of power. She had potential power, an opportunity derived from both class and gender. To transform this potential into power and influence demanded success and skill in the field. When Hanna Rydh, the wife of a county governor, declared herself a candidate for the position of county governor in 1938, it was too much of a challenge to the prevailing gender order. Through a form of ”tyranny of difference” women were prevented from establishing themselves within public spheres that were more masculine by tradition. This could be true of specific fields or of the formal power exercised by the parliament, the government and public offices. If the female elite challenged the men of their own class, their opportunities were circumscribed. I have chosen therefore to speak of both power and “non-power.” Within certain contexts there were good opportunities for the regional female elite to obtain their own space for action. Yet, in other situations the limitations were greater than the opportunities; “non-power” also existed.

Amb el present treball d'investigació hem analitzat l'evolució del corporacionisme dels arquitectes catalans, essencialment el radicat a la ciutat de Barcelona, durant el transcurs d'un segle, entre 1874 i 1975. Hem conegut, així, la trajectòria de les diferents corporacions (l'Associació d'Arquitectes de Catalunya, el Sindicat d'Arquitectes i el Col•legi Oficial), les natures que adoptà cada una d'elles i les causes últimes que les determinaren, gairebé sempre una combinació entre el context polític en què nasqueren i la concepció de la professió que predominava entre la classe o la que s'imposà. Així, n'hem historiat l'evolució i les vicissituds organitzatives experimentades i, alhora, la forma d'entendre l'ofici que les condicionà. D'una manera especial, emperò, hem volgut aprofundir en el vessant polític, social i cultural d'aquestes entitats. És a dir, en la manera en què es relacionaren amb el seu marc històric, en com aquest les influí i, sobretot, en l'aportació que en aquests tres àmbits hi va fer la classe d'arquitectes catalans organitzada. Amb això, observem que, més enllà de l'exercici professional de l'Arquitectura - que evidentment no és en absolut asèptic -, els homes que es situaren al capdavant de les diferents corporacions presentaven inquietuds respecte la vida pública que els envoltava i, mitjançant els canals que oferia l'entitat, sentiren la necessitat de prendre-hi part. En termes generals, quan entre les motivacions per posicionar-se hi detectem raons alienes a l'estricta defensa o reglamentació professional, això és una voluntat de bastir una societat més estructurada o de generar coneixements, espais de debat i processos de reflexió, de l'índole que siguin, afirmarem que els agents protagonistes esdevenen intel•lectuals. Aquesta condició l'adoptaren d'una manera marcada en dos períodes molt concrets i alhora diferenciats entre ells. El primer va ser el de la Catalunya republicana, quan tant el COACB com l'AAC s'oferiren sense reserves al servei de la Generalitat autònoma; el segon, a partir de finals de la dècada dels anys cinquanta i sobretot inicis dels seixanta, en què s'aconseguí connectar novament la realitat arquitectònica catalana amb la de la resta del món occidental i es començaren a qüestionar cada cop amb més vehemència els paràmetres del franquisme. Entre totes dues etapes, en la conjuntura de màxima excepcionalitat dels anys bèl•lics, l'organització que ostentà oficialment la representació dels arquitectes catalans ha de ser qualificada de revolucionària i combatent. Per tot plegat, pel valor de les fites culturals assolides i pel nivell de compromís politicosocial adquirit, l'anàlisi de l'evolució del corporacionisme arquitectònic català ens ha fet veure en aquest col•lectiu professional una peça de força rellevància per a la configuració de la Catalunya contemporània, en tant que creadora de coneixements i generadora i difusora d'opinió i debat. A més, els facultatius que més s'hi involucraren trobaren en aquestes entitats una plataforma des d'on sumar al seu rol de tècnics, en ocasions també d'artistes, un activisme en altres vessants, però que a la postre era indestriable de la seva professió, atès que des d'allà interactuaren amb els col•legues i amb el conjunt de la societat, l'inevitable receptor de les seves obres. En aquest sentit, doncs, considerarem el paper que hi exerciren com un element més que els investigadors hauríem de tenir en compte quan avaluéssim les seves trajectòries individuals, puix fou una forma més que tingueren d'entendre i de desenvolupar l'Arquitectura al nostre país, malgrat que menys vistosa i fins ara desconeguda que l'efectuada des de les taules de disseny, a peu d'obra o a les palestres docents. / This research work analyzes the association movement of the Catalan architects, mainly located in Barcelona, during a century, from 1874 to 1975. We have studied the trajectory of the different corporations (the Associació d'Arquitectes de Catalunya, the Sindicat d'Arquitectes de Catalunya and the Col•legi Oficial), their main traits and how they were determined by the historical and political events. In that sense, we have assessed both the corporations' evolution and vicissitudes and the understanding of the profession. We especially have studied the political, social and cultural side of theses entities. Thus, we have observed how the Catalan architects were influenced by their historical context and what kind of contributions they made from their professional fields. In this way, we deduce that during the Second Spanish Republic (1931 – 1936) and in the last decade of Francisco Franco's dictatorship (1964 – 1975), the architects became intellectuals, prioritizing their social vocation to their professional or economic interests. They carried out committed political actions and developed one of the best cultural programmes of Barcelona at the time. We also infer that the collective of the Catalan architects played a major role in shaping contemporary Catalonia, because it was an outstanding creator of knowledge and generator of opinion and debate.

This thesis addresses the relationship between sectarianism and state-making and nation-building in Iraq. It argues that sectarianism has been an enduring feature of the state-making trajectory in Iraq due to the failure of the modern nation-state to resolve inherent tensions between primordial sectarian identities and concepts of unified statehood and uniform citizenry. After a theoretical excursus that recasts the notion of primordial identity as a socially constructed reality, I set out to explain the persistence of primordial sectarian affiliations in Iraq since the establishment of the modern nation-state in 1921. Looking at the primordial past showed that Sunni-Shicite interactions before the modern nation-state cultivated repositories of divergent collective memories and shaped dynamics of inclusion and exclusion favorable to the Sunni Arabs following the creation of Iraq. Drawing on primary and secondary sources and field interviews, this study proceeds to trace the accentuation of primordial sectarian solidarities despite the adoption of homogenizing policies in a deeply divided society along ethno-sectarian lines. It found that the uneven sectarian composition of the ruling elites nurtured feelings of political exclusion among marginalized sectarian groups, the Shicites before 2003 and the Sunnis in the post-2003 period, which hardened sectarian identities. The injection of hegemonic communal discourses into the educational curriculum was found to have provoked masked forms of resistance that contributed to the sharpening of sectarian consciousness. Hegemonic communal narratives embedded in the curriculum not only undermined the homogenizing utility of education but also implicated education in the accentuation of primordial sectarian identities. The study also found that, by camouflaging anti-Shicite sectarianism, the anti-Persian streak in the nation-state’s Pan-Arab ideology undermined Iraq’s national integration project. It explains that the slide from a totalizing Pan-Arab ideology in the pre-2003 period toward the atomistic impulse of the federalist debate in the post-2003 period is symptomatic of the ghettoization of identity in Iraq. This investigation of the interaction between primordial sectarian attachments and the trajectory of the making of the Iraqi nation-state is ensconced in the project of expanding the range and scope of social scientific applications of the nation-building and primordialism lines of analysis.

This is a study of Chava Shapiro, a woman writer, born in 1876 in the Ukraine, who died in 1943 in Nazi Czechoslovakia. It describes her conventional Hasidic upbringing, her successful rebellion against it and her subsequent studies in Switzerland which led to a career in Hebrew journalism. It follows her return to Russia in 1914, her escape to Czechoslovakia after the pogroms of 1919 and 24 years later her tragic end in Terezin. / Dominating the study is the well-known Hebrew writer, Reuven Brainin, 1862-1939, with whom Chava Shapiro fell in love and who exerted an extraordinary influence on her life. / Using original, never before published materials from the Jewish Public Library Archives in Montreal, the study seeks to define the woman as a feminist and a Hebrew writer.

Magistro baigiamajame darbe atskleisti lokaliosios istorijos sampratą ir įvertinti lokaliųjų tyrinėjimų tendencijas 1918-1940.Pirmoje darbo dalyje atskleidžiama lokaliosios istorijos samprata šiuolaikiniame istorijos moksle, identifikuojant lokalinių tyrimų svarbos suvokimo lygį Lietuvoje ir pasaulyje. Antroje darbo dalyje analizuojama institucinės ir metodologinės prielaidos lokaliosios istorijos tyrinėjimams atsirasti Pirmosios Respublikos istoriografijoje, įvertinama lokaliosios istorijos refleksija 1918-1940 m. akademinėje bendruomenėje. Trečioje darbo dalyje nagrinėjamos lokaliosios istorijos publikacijų, pasirodžiusių 1918-1940 m. tematikos, chronologinių ribų, metodologijos bei šaltinotyros požiūriu. / The aim of the research is to reveal local history‘s definition and core elements in modern history science as well as to identify the main tendencies in it‘s research in Lithuania during 1918-1940. In the first part of the master work the fundamental features of local history and it's reflection in the modern history science are founded. In the second part of the master works the institutional and professional base of local historiography in Lithuania during 1918-1940 was analyzed. In the third part of the work the methodology, chronology and tematics of the local history publications during 1918-1940 was identified.

The relationship between the Socialist Unity Party [SED] and the medical intelligentsia in the German Democratic Republic [GDR] has often been described as one of the most problem-atic for the Republic‟s political vanguard. This thesis discusses this relationship for the two dec-ades after the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961. With the inability of East German workers to leave for West Germany after this event, the GDR was able to enforce their programme of so-cialist development in a new way. Doctors, despite being crucial for this socialist society and its legitimacy, were not excluded from the state‟s radical new policies. However, as files from the former state security apparatus, party and trade union make obvious, doctors were very success-ful in preventing both the ideological conditioning of their community and state interference in the composition of the medical elite. With the examination of the every-day life of the medical intelligentsia, especially in East German hospitals, this thesis contributes to the discussion about the difference between the claims of the socialist party and the realities faced in the healthcare sector. There were a variety of complex reasons for the increasing distance between the state‟s claim and reality, many of which will be analysed in the course of this work. This analysis is, em-bedded in a historical approach, outlined mainly by Mary Fulbrook, which sets the micro-level in the context of the macro-level, considering the correlation between the claim and ideology of the SED, their communication, mechanisms and policies reaching the boundaries of the social con-glomerate of doctors, as well as their reactions, career aspirations and pre-conditions. For the seventies, a whole section is dedicated to exploring the reasons that the medical intelligentsia was one of the main-clients of so-called „human trafficking gangs‟, enabling insight into their situa-tion and the attitude towards the socialist state, which led them to „vote with their feet‟. This the-sis demonstrates, especially for the sixties and seventies, that there is still much potential for fur-ther research, in to the case of the most ideologically unreliable social group in the GDR: the medical intelligentsia.

Starting around 1500 a period of state formation changed the European map. The scattered medieval principalities were replaced with more centralised and better organised states with permanent armies. Sweden was quite successful in competing with these states and experienced a period of expansion. The means for warfare were drawn, to a large extent, from the peasantry, which meant that a great number of Swedes were sent to the front line and were never to return. This thesis investigates the dissemination of information, war propaganda and mobilisation in Sweden, 1655–1680. This period is interesting since it includes both offensive wars (under the reign of Karl X Gustav), a period of peace (under the regency) and defensive warfare(under Karl XI). A basic assumption has been that information is an important power resource. In the study both the dissemination and the content of the propaganda are examined. The most important sources have been the minutes and correspondence of the kings, the regency and the council of the realm, along with the sources from the diet and the provincial meetings. In particular, the prayer days and thanksgiving days, in both manuscript and printed sources, have been studied. To investigate the actual dissemination of information, the sources in the regional archives of the counties of Uppsala and Kopparberg and the archives of several episcopates have been examined. There existed developed media for the dissemination of information, namely, “the system of information”. Information was disseminated from the pulpits, at the diet and provincial meetings, by county governors and bailiffs, and by printed texts. In this thesis it is shown that the rulers were anxious to explain and justify the wars to the people and that they deliberately used the dissemination of information as a power tool. To keep the people in a good mood was vital for the war effort. War propaganda was spread both in times of war and peace, and its main messages remained the same during Sweden’s Age of Greatness. The main message of the long-term propaganda was that the wars were a divine punishment: it was because of the sinful people that wars broke out. According to the propaganda, the world was populated with evil enemies that were striving to destroy Sweden. The best protection against the enemies (next to God) was a good regent. It was also stated that, in the event of war, it was the duty of the subjects to contribute. The direct propaganda was conducted in four different phases. The first phase was about explaining the outbreak of war, the second phase was about mobilisation, the third phase was about disseminating information in order to uphold the morals and the fourth and last phase was about explaining the peace. The messages of the long-term propaganda had their equivalents in the direct propaganda. These arguments, however, were not always sufficient. The state representatives also highlighted the great perils threatening the country and used a patriotic rhetoric. The war propaganda depoliticised the wars, and made it possible to mobilise great resources from the population in times of war. The frequently used picture of threatening wars contributed to the legitimacy not only of a permanent army and offensive warfare, but also of the power of the king and the social order at large.