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History Department Publications
Publications
 Journal
of Colonialism & Colonial History
Edited by Patricia W. Romero
Jordanian Jerusalem: Holy Places and National Spaces
by
Kimberly Katz
Overview from the University
Press of Florida website:
"Offers several original
contributions to the field. . . . It is the only major study
of Jerusalem during the period of Jordanian rule, in marked
contrast to the many studies on the city under Ottoman and
Israeli rule. This work also adds to our understanding of
Jordanian history generally and of the manufacturing of
Jordanian political identity in particular.”--Michael
Fischbach, Randolph Macon College
"Successfully portrays the modern construction of nation and
nationalism and the use of symbolism in the process. It
provides an example of political realities imposed from
above through the power of continued Western manipulation in
the fate of the Middle East region and its people.”--May
Seikaly, Wayne State University
Kimberly Katz explores the role of Jerusalem’s holy places
in the process of creating a distinct national identity in
Jordan from 1948 to 1967. The time period marks Jordan's
control over Jerusalem, including the Muslim, Christian, and
Jewish holy sites in the Old City. Katz shows that the
governing Hashemite leaders co-opted the religious
importance of Jerusalem to refashion Jordan’s image
following the 1948 War in Palestine around the holy places,
located in the newly enlarged kingdom.
The Hashemites faced serious questions about their political
legitimacy after being installed by the British as rulers in
a demarcated region that had no historical precedent as a
political entity. To promote their own legitimacy and that
of the newly created state, the leaders employed
state-issued cultural artifacts to define both the state and
the nation. With the support and blessing of the West, they
not only exploited the traditional religious appeal of
Jerusalem in speeches and public discourse, but also
designed modern symbols of the nation such as stamps and
currency with markers of holiness. The monarchy assumed and
projected one overriding posture throughout this period:
guardianship of the Holy Land. Katz explores the lingering
presence of the British in Jordan, while giving life and
color to the contributions of Hashemite leaders such as
Sharif Husayn, King Abdullah I, and King Hussein. She also
traces the ways in which state officials carefully promoted
the new political identity to their subjects, to other
Arabs, to Muslims elsewhere, and to the world at large.
One of very few books on Jordanian Jerusalem, this is the
first that deals with the intersection of religious symbols,
legitimacy practices, and nationalism through the framework
of cultural history.
Kimberly Katz, assistant professor of Middle Eastern history
at Towson University in Maryland, has published articles in
The Muslim World and Comparative Studies in South Asia,
Africa, and the Middle East, as well as in The Jerusalem
Quarterly File.
This special edition of the
journal focuses on the history of independent black
politics and third party movements in the United States.
Articles discuss the Black Populists of the 1880s,
including the Rev. Walter A. Pattillo; black Communists
and Socialists in the 1920s and 1930s, such as Frank
Crosswaith; the work of black independents such as Ella
Baker in the modern civil rights movement (an
independent movement co-opted by the Democratic
Party); the 1972 National Black Political Convention,
and the subsequent efforts to create a national
independent black political party; and the work of black
independents today, notably Dr. Lenora Fulani, to
democratize the electoral process through a combination
of fusion and independent electoral campaigns.
 NAZI
EMPIRE-BUILDING AND THE HOLOCAUST IN UKRAINE
Wendy Lower
Focusing on a central
region of Ukraine and weaving together official German
wartime records, diaries, memoirs, and personal
interviews, Wendy Lower provides the most complete
assessment available of German colonization and the
Holocaust. Midlevel "managers," Lower demonstrates,
played major roles in mass murder, and locals willingly
participated in violence and theft. Lower puts names and
faces to local perpetrators, bystanders, beneficiaries,
as well as resisters. She argues that Nazi actions in
the region evolved from imperial arrogance and ambition;
hatred of Jews, Slavs, and Communists; careerism and
pragmatism; greed and fear. In her analysis of the
murderous implementation of Nazi "race" and population
policy in Zhytomyr, Lower shifts scholarly attention
from Germany itself to the eastern outposts of the
Reich, where the regime truly revealed its core beliefs,
aims, and practices.
Reviews:
"Wendy Lower's book on the town and
district of Zhytomyr under Nazi occupation is a model
regional study that both vividly captures the details of
local experience and throws light on broader issues.
Alongside a succinct and perceptive analysis of the
continuities and particularities of Nazi colonialism and
empire-building 'in the East,' Lower portrays the
devastating consequences for Jews, Ukrainians, and
ethnic Germans of the lethal Nazi combination of utopian
illusion and policies of unfettered exploitation and
destruction."--Christopher Browning, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill
"Lower presents an
extremely important addition to our knowledge of the
eastern front in the Second World War. By treating the
Holocaust and German colonization policies at the local
level, Lower presents social history as the consequence
of political history. The 'bottom-up' and the 'top-down'
perspectives are beautifully integrated here."--Timothy
Snyder, Yale University
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