The uses and utility of intelligence: the case of the British Government during the War of the Spanish Succession

This article was supported by the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.It is usually taken for granted that intelligence organisations provide information for decision-making and that the knowledge produced in the process is therefore deeply utilitarian. Drawing on organisational sociology, this article draws on a case study of English intelligence efforts during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) to reflect critically on the assumed direct relationship between intelligence-gathering and political decision-making. In eighteenth-century England, intelligence frequently fulfilled other, often more symbolic functions, for example when access to intelligence was employed to legitimise individual actors. In this sense, intelligence was doubtlessly useful, albeit in other ways than generally postulated by intelligence theory. These observations strongly suggest a ‘missing dimension’ in the history of intelligence in other periods as well as intelligence theory more generally.Peer Reviewe

Herbst des Helden

Helden sind zumindest in Deutschland Erscheinungen einer fernen Vergangenheit oder Gestalten, die eher fremden Kulturen angehören. Das gilt in ganz besonderer Weise für den heroischen Krieger aber auch andere Figuren, deren Taten und Leben in irgendeiner Weise politisch relevant sein könnten. Selbst der klassische Freiheitskämpfer hat keine wirkliche Konjunktur mehr. Es gab jedoch Zeiten, in denen dies anders war und nicht nur die politische Kultur, sondern auch gängige Verhaltensmuster und Ideale von Männlichkeit stark durch heroische Ideale geprägt waren. Vor der Französischen Revolution galt das allerdings in ganz Europa weniger für die gesamte Gesellschaft, sondern für bestimmte heroische Gemeinschaften, von denen der frühneuzeitliche Adel die prominenteste ist.Zentrales Thema dieses Bandes sind der Aufstieg und Niedergang des aristokratischen Heros vom späten 16. bis zur Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts in England und Frankreich. Dabei erweist sich, dass in Frankreich der adlige Held der Verbürgerlichung und Moralisierung des Heroischen am Ende zum Opfer fiel, während in England eine Transformation heroischer Verhaltensmuster gelang. Die traditionelle politisch-soziale Elite entwickelte hier neue heroische Verhaltensnormen, die auch noch in der commercial society des 18. Jahrhunderts in gewissem Umfang vermittelbar blieben, auch wenn im 19. Jahrhundert auch hier der bürgerliche Held immer mehr in den Vordergrund trat

Die Jakobiten am Exil-Hof der Stuarts in Saint-Germain-en-Laye 1688/89 bis 1712: Migration, Exilerfahrung und Sinnstiftung

Die Migration der Jakobiten, der Anhänger der exilierten Dynastie der Stuarts, von den Britischen Inseln war eine der größten Auswanderungsbewegungen des ausgehenden 17. Jahrhunderts. Anders als jedoch bei den meisten Massenmigrationen dieser Zeit waren die Migranten nicht Protestanten, wie etwa die französischen Hugenotten, sondern mehrheitlich Katholiken. Der Migration zugrunde lag die sogenannte 'Glorreiche Revolution' 1688/89, in welcher der katholische König Jakob II./VII. von England, Irland und Schottland seinen Thron verlor und nach Frankreich ins Exil flüchtete. Doch nahm die Konfession der Jakobiten eine ähnlich zentrale Rolle bei der Migration ein wie bei den protestantischen Konfessionsmigranten? Waren die Jakobiten religiöse Flüchtlinge? Die Studie geht diesen und anderen Fragen nach, indem die Migration an den Exil-Hof der Stuarts in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, dem politischen Zentrum der Auswanderung, in den Blick genommen wird. Es werden die Erfahrungen und Wahrnehmungen der Hofangehörigen bei der Migration und während des Aufenthaltes am Exil-Hof untersucht sowie die Art und Weise, den Aufenthalt zu deuten und diesem einen Sinn zuzuschreiben. So wird nicht nur aufgezeigt, inwiefern die Migration von der Tradition des Antikatholizismus auf den Britischen Inseln beeinflusst war, sondern auch, wie die Stuarts unter den Bedingungen des Exils die Loyalität ihrer Anhänger aufrechtzuerhalten versuchten

WOLFA - WOO

OnLine Card Catalogue drawer 0439 (WOLFA - WOO). 684 cards

The Rhetoric of Prostitution in Victorian England

This dissertation interrogates the network of social ideas and agents that rhetorically constructed the female prostitute through configurations of space and identity while participating in rhetorics of professionalization. While considering genre as cultural artifact (product) and social action (process), selected texts from diverse genres are analyzed, making transparent their claims about prostitution as articulated through representations of identity and space. Quite often, these claims were postulated through invocations of "contagion," which, as a cultural screen, operated to direct an audience's attention and interpretation. In addition, during the Victorian period, disciplines employed points of reference, like the prostitute, that within the dominant cultural codes facilitated their professionalization and carved their niches in the cultural milieu. Each chapter of this work analyzes a different genre (newspaper articles, medical treatises, and fictional works, respectively) to demonstrate how contagion anxieties influenced what the prostitute represented and how she was used rhetorically. This study is one of process and product, as spaces and identities are defined by expectations, functions, and locations. The spatial rhetorics of a genre define the dynamics between text, location, and conceptions of identity. This interdisciplinary study examines how the deployment of these ideas performs a social mapping and uses the prostitute as a navigational marker to guide readers' internalization of textual worlds and subsequent formation of knowledge

War and Diplomacy in the Age of Louis XIV: A Historical Study and Annotated Bibliography Volume II

In the last forty-five years historians have produced numerous books and articles on European diplomatic relations and military affairs during the era of Louis XIV. However, there exists no up-to-date annotated bibliography listing and describing these works or older, but valuable studies. The latest annotated bibliography to appear regarding early modern history is Hugh Dunthorne and Hamish M. Scott, Early Modern European History c. 1492–1789 (London: Historical Association, 1983) which devotes less than six pages to international relations and warfare. John Roach\u27s A Bibliography of Modern History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968) also contains little on war and diplomacy and fails to provide anything more than a list of books. In addition, the most recent edition of The American Historical Association\u27s Guide to Historical Literature (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995) contains only a highly select listing of works on European war and diplomacy in the Age of Louis XIV. William Calvin Dickinson and Eloise R. Hitchcock\u27s The War of the Spanish Succession, 1701–1713: A Selected Bibliography (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996) is valuable, but it concentrates on only one aspect of the Wars of Louis XIV. The following research project is an annotated bibliography of studies concerning war and diplomacy in the Age of Louis XIV. The bibliography contains eight chapters concentrating on different aspects, including general studies in international political history, 1648–1715/21; the art of diplomacy in the Age of Louis XIV; warfare in the Age of Louis XIV; French expansionism and the wars against Spain and the Dutch Republic, 1648–1678; English foreign policy under Cromwell and Charles II, 1649–1685; the formation of the Grand Alliance and the Nine Years\u27 War, 1678–1697; the First and Second Partition Treaties and the War of the Spanish Succession, 1698–1714; as well as the struggle for supremacy in the Baltic and the Turkish threat to Europe, 1648–1721. The bibliography reviews over 500 works including books, journal articles, and theses published in English. The beginning of each chapter includes a short narrative of the topic considered before listing the annotated citations. The citations include a brief review of each work. The bibliography also cross references studies between chapters as well as contains an index of authors cited. This bibliography serves as a valuable research tool for history teachers, graduate students, researchers, and specialists

The "Simpson Affair" and the "Annus horribilis" Contribution to the Changes of the Picture of the British Royal Family in the General Public in the 20th Century

Autorka ve své práci analyzuje proměnu obrazu britské královské rodiny v očích veřejnosti v průběhu 20. století. Vzhledem k obsáhlosti této problematiky se zaměřuje především na dvě krizové situace tvz. simpsonovskou aféru - abdikaci krále Eduarda VIII. v roce 1936 a jeho vztah s rozvedenou Američankou Wallis Simpsonovou, a tzv. "annus horribilis" - rozvod následníka trůnu prince Charlese a princezny Diany. Autorka analyzuje změny ve vnímání role královské rodiny v životě britského národa a její úlohy u britské veřejnosti. Pracuje s nevydanými prameny (zejména z archivního materiálu získaného ze zdrojů archívu Ministerstva zahraničních věcí České republiky a londýnského National Archives v Londýně - Kew), s vydanými prameny a s rozsáhlou odbornou literaturou především britské provenience. Klíčová slova Velká Británie, monarchie, královská rodina, Eduard VIII., Wallis Simpsonová, Alžběta II., princ Charles, Diana Spencerová, veřejné míněníIn this thesis the author analyses the changes in the view of the British Royal Family in general public during the 20th century. Given the extensiveness of the topic, the author focuses on two crisis situations - so called "Simpson Affair" - the abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936 and his relationship with divorced American Wallis Simpson, and so called "Annus Horribilis" - the divorce of the successor to the throne prince Charles and princess Diana Spencer. The author analyses changes in perception of the role of British Royal Family in life of British nation and its role within British general public. Author works with unpublished sources (mainly from the archive materials gathered from the sources of the Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and the National Archives in London - Kew, with published sources and extensive specialized literature mostly from British provenience. Keywords Great Britain, Monarchy, Royal Family, Edward VIII, Wallis Simpson, Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, Diana Spencer, General PublicInstitute of General HistoryÚstav světových dějinFilozofická fakultaFaculty of Art