The Political Culture and Political Rhetoric of County Feasts and Feast Sermons, 1654–1714

1994 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Newton E. Key

In December 1655, four stewards for the Worcestershire feast wrote to the eminent divine Richard Baxter regarding possible worthy charities for money collected at their recent London feast. Baxter, elated by their offer, suggested that they set up a public lecture in a dark corner of their native county. He later recalled how well the charitable concerns of this first Worcestershire feast tied in with his concurrent actions to establish a clerical association in the county. Almost thirty years later, in 1682, Roger L'Estrange noted the same phenomenon of annual county feasts in London. Like Baxter, L'Estrange defended what he termed the “innocent county feasts,” and hisObservatoradvertised both tickets and published sermons for more than a dozen county or city feasts during its brief run between 1681 and 1687. Such common cause between Baxter and L'Estrange is remarkable. Moreover, the “innocent” county feasts, which flourished for fifty years from the late 1650s, were often controversial and were the setting for feast sermons which often heaped vitriol on “parties,” whether religious or political. This article examines the rise of the county feasts in the 1650s and their peak in the 1680s in order to assess their significance in the development of late Stuart society, culture, and politics.The county feast was in fact an urban phenomenon: natives of a county met annually, usually in London, for a sermon, dinner, and a subscription to a charity. The phenomenon has long been noted, though rarely analyzed.

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-51
Author(s):  
Boris Ivanovich Kolonitskii

The article treats one of A. F. Kerenskii’s most important speeches, the speech of 29 April 1917, known to historians for its reference to ‘rebellious slaves.’ It examines the speech’s political significance by reconstructing its reception and political currency and by analyzing its effect on the revolution’s political culture. The article compares variants of the speech as reported in the political press, resolutions and collective letters printed in the press, and also Kerenskii’s personal documents bearing on the speech. The article demonstrates that Kerenskii’s speech was a part of his tactical effort to create a coalition government on conditions favorable to him. The speech had a major impact on the political rhetoric of the revolutionary epoch, with various participants in the political arena manipulating Kerenskii’s reference to ‘rebellious slaves’ for their own purposes. The address contributed to the formation of a personality cult, built on Kerenskii’s image as ‘leader of the people.’


2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sora Y. Han

This article argues, in the form of demonstration, for the necessity of disciplinary openness in punishment and society scholarship. Theories about the political culture of punishment and sentimental accounts of the toll mass incarceration takes on the personal lives of millions are insufficient for developing a critical knowledge of the relationship between race, law and gender. Approaching the object of the letter unfettered by traditional disciplinary methods, the article traces the centrality of the prisoner’s letter in the lifeworld of punishment. The letter is analyzed as both itself a paper-trail, and the subject of various other forms of paper-trails, including prisoners’ First Amendment rights jurisprudence, official political rhetoric, and cinematic production.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 45-69
Author(s):  
Benoit Challand ◽  
Joshua Rogers

This paper provides an historical exploration of local governance in Yemen across the past sixty years. It highlights the presence of a strong tradition of local self-rule, self-help, and participation “from below” as well as the presence of a rival, official, political culture upheld by central elites that celebrates centralization and the strong state. Shifts in the predominance of one or the other tendency have coincided with shifts in the political economy of the Yemeni state(s). When it favored the local, central rulers were compelled to give space to local initiatives and Yemen experienced moments of political participation and local development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claus Offe

The “will of the (national) people” is the ubiquitously invoked reference unit of populist politics. The essay tries to demystify the notion that such will can be conceived of as a unique and unified substance deriving from collective ethnic identity. Arguably, all political theory is concerned with arguing for ways by which citizens can make e pluribus unum—for example, by coming to agree on procedures and institutions by which conflicts of interest and ideas can be settled according to standards of fairness. It is argued that populists in their political rhetoric and practice typically try to circumvent the burden of such argument and proof. Instead, they appeal to the notion of some preexisting existential unity of the people’s will, which they can redeem only through practices of repression and exclusion.


MUWAZAH ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Nurbaity Prastyananda Yuwono

Women's political participation in Indonesia can be categorized as low, even though the government has provided special policies for women. Patriarchal political culture is a major obstacle in increasing women's political participation, because it builds perceptions that women are inappropriate, unsuitable and unfit to engage in the political domain. The notion that women are more appropriate in the domestic area; identified politics are masculine, so women are not suitable for acting in the political domain; Weak women and not having the ability to become leaders, are the result of the construction of a patriarchal political culture. Efforts must be doing to increase women's participation, i.e: women's political awareness, gender-based political education; building and strengthening relationships between women's networks and organizations; attract qualified women  political party cadres; cultural reconstruction and reinterpretation of religious understanding that is gender biased; movement to change the organizational structure of political parties and; the implementation of legislation effectively.


Author(s):  
Alexander O'Hara

After Columbanus was expelled from Luxeuil, he journeyed to Paris and Metz. Theudebert, ruler of Austrasia, proposed that Columbanus found a monastery on the eastern edges of his kingdom. Columbanus consented and led his monks to the Lake Constance area, where they engaged in a failed missionary attempt. They angered the local populace with their forceful proselytization and were soon driven out of the region. Columbanus resumed his initial plan to relocate to Italy, but one of his monks, Gallus, was left behind and later set up a small hermitage near the Steinach stream. Jonas of Bobbio described the entire episode in terms of mission, but Columbanus was not literally a missionary. His Alamannian activities are best understood when compared to his other attempts at monastic foundation. This chapter explores the political undertones of the Alamannian mission, the reasons for its ultimate failure, and the later achievements of Gallus.


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