“Fascism prospered from a paralysis of the state’s capacity for dispatching its key organizing functions, whether in the economy or for the larger tasks of keeping cohesion in society. At the worst points of the crisis, that paralysis encompassed the entire institutional machinery of politics, including the parliamentary and party-political frameworks of representation.”
Geoff Eley, What is Fascism and Where does it Come From?, History Workshop Journal, Volume 91, Issue 1, Spring 2021, Pages 1–28, https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/dbab003
“Fascism prospered from a paralysis of the state’s capacity for dispatching its key organizing functions, whether in the economy or for the larger tasks of keeping cohesion in society. At the worst points of the crisis, that paralysis encompassed the entire institutional machinery of politics, including the parliamentary and party-political frameworks of representation.”
Geoff Eley, What is Fascism and Where does it Come From?, History Workshop Journal, Volume 91, Issue 1, Spring 2021, Pages 1–28, https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/dbab003
"The lesson here for contemporary politics is clear and significant. Rather than disavowing our circumstances and dismissing our cultural and intellectual traditions as morally compromised or tainted by history, we ought to be examining the long-term historical processes that have led us to this conjuncture and employing the existing resources at our disposal to surmount its challenges."
#Image attribution: Jakob Schlesinger, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jakob_Schlesinger_-_Hegel_1831.jpg
Fourth, to do this – combining micro and macro perspective – one needs to take an inter- and multi-disciplinary approach. #NewDiplomaticHistory greatly benefits from other disciplines or sub-disciplines, such as #politicalscience, #arthistory literary studies, #linguistics, #historyofideas or history of medicine, to name but a few. Finally, #emdiplomacy research needs to take up a global perspective that “challenges our self-evident beliefs and prevents us from being lured by the master narrative of #diplomacy as European innovation".
Gebke concludes by encouranging us not only to take a look at different (sub-)disciplines when researching #earlymodern diplomacy, but also to work in teams in order to connect the micro with the macro perspective. (6/6)
I only just learned of Peter Russell's passing on January 10. Beyond his important body of work, he was a generous colleague. Though I would not say I knew him, I had the pleasure of discussing Canadian political history, including both his and my own work, with Peter on a few occasions since arriving in Toronto. Rest in peace. @histodons