Political Religion beyond Totalitarianism

Also by Joost Augusteijn

REGION AND STATE IN NINETEENTH- CENTURY EUROPE: Nation- building, Regional Identities and Separatism (ed. with Eric Storm)

FROM PUBLIC DEFIANCE TO GUERRILLA WARFARE: The Experience of Ordinary Volunteers in the Irish War of Independence, 1916–1921

THE MEMOIRS OF JOHN M. REGAN, A CATHOLIC OFFICER IN THE RIC AND RUC, 1909–1948 (ed.)

PATRICK PEARSE: The Making of a Revolutionary

THE IRISH REVOLUTION, 1913–1923 (ed.)

IRELAND IN THE 1930s: New Perspectives (ed.)

IRISH HISTORY: A Research Yearbook (1) (ed. with Mary- Ann Lyons)

IRISH HISTORY: A Research Yearbook (2) (ed. with Mary- Ann Lyons and Deirdre Macmahon)

Also by Patrick Dassen

THE MANY FACES OF EVOLUTION IN EUROPE, c. 1860–1914 (ed. with M. Kemperink)

DE ONTTOVERING VAN DE WERELD. Max Weber en het probleem van de moderniteit in Duitsland, 1890–1920

GEGIJZELD DOOR HET VERLEDEN. Van de Historikerstreit tot het Sloterdijk-debat (ed. with Ton Nijhuis)

DUITSERS ALS SLACHTOFFERS. Het einde van een taboe? (ed. with Krijn Thijs and Ton Nijhuis)

VAN DE BARRICADEN NAAR DE LOOPGRAVEN. Oorlog en samenleving in Europa, 1789–1918 (ed. with Petra Groen)

Also by Maartje Janse

DE AFSCHAFFERS. Publieke opinie, organisatie en politiek in Nederland, 1840–1880

DE GEEST VAN JAN SALIE. Nederland in verval?

Political Religion beyond TotalitarianismThe Sacralization of Politics in the Age of Democracy

Edited by

Joost AugusteijnLecturer in European History, Leiden University, The Netherlands

Patrick DassenLecturer in European History, Leiden University, The Netherlands

and

Maartje JansePostdoctoral Researcher, Leiden University, The Netherlands

Palgravemacmillan

Editorial matter, selection, introduction and conclusion © Joost Augusteijn, Patrick Dassen and Maartje Janse 2013Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-29171-4

All remaining chapters © their respective authors 2013

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of thispublication may be made without written permission.

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First published 2013 byPALGRAVE MACMILLAN

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ISBN 978-1-349-45082-4 ISBN 978-1-137-29172-1 (eBook)DOI 10.1057/9781137291721

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v

Contents

List of Illustrations and Plates vii

Notes on Contributors ix

Acknowledgements xii

Introduction: Politics and Religion 1Joost Augusteijn, Patrick Dassen and Maartje Janse

Part I Definition

Religion and Politics: In Search of Resemblances 15Herman Paul

The Religious Side of Democracy: Early Socialism, Twenty- first- century Populism and the Sacralization of Politics 33Henk te Velde

Part II Religion and Democracy

A Dangerous Type of Politics? Politics and Religion in Early Mass Organizations: The Anglo- American World, c.1830 55Maartje Janse

De- sanctifying Affairs of State: The Politics of Religion in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) 77Eduard van de Bilt

Part III Socialism

Religious Aspects of Socialist Imagery, c.1890–2000: A Visual Essay 101Jolijn Groothuizen and Dennis Bos

A Grassroots Sacred Socialist History: Dutch Social Democrats (1894–1920) 115Adriaan van Veldhuizen

Part IV Nationalism

Nationalism as a Political Religion: The Sacralization of the Irish Nation 137Joost Augusteijn

The German Nation as a Secular Religion in the First World War? About the Problem of Unity in Modern German History 161Patrick Dassen

History or Civil Religion? The Uses of Lincoln’s ‘Last Best Hope of Earth’ 188Adam Fairclough

Part V Religion and Revolution

Revolutionary Mystique: Religious Undertones in the Russian Revolution of 1917 215Henk Kern

The Belief in Disbelief: Anticlericalism and the Sacralization ofPolitics in Spain (1900–39) 231Eric Storm

Concluding Remarks 255Joost Augusteijn, Patrick Dassen and Maartje Janse

Select Bibliography 261

Index 265

vi Contents

vii

List of Illustrations and Plates

All pictures courtesy of the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam unless otherwise indicated.

Illustrations

1 The first photograph ever taken of a crowd, the Chartist ‘Monster Meeting’ of 10 April 1848. Taken by William Kilburn, original at Windsor Castle (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons). 62

2 Orthodox Bubbles, or a Review of the […] New York Magdalen Society (s.l., 1831) (courtesy of the Library Company, Philadelphia). 67

3 Albert Hahn, ‘De brandkast, beschermd met bijbel en wierookvat’ (The Netherlands, 1902). 102

4 ‘Fusilaron a Cristo’ (Spain, 1936) (courtesy of accionjuvenil.espanaforo.com, retrieved June 2012). 103

5 L.J. Jordaan, ‘De kiesrechtparagraaf in de troonrede: De zon breekt eindelijk door!’ (The Netherlands, 1913). 105

6 Walther Crane, ‘Towards the Light’ (Great Britain, 1903). 106

7 Willem Papenhuyzen, ‘Als een rots in de branding van het leven, weerkaatsend het licht van den komende dag’ (The Netherlands, undated). 107

8 Wilhelm Schulz, ‘Die zehn Gebote Bebels’ (Germany, 1875–99). 108

9 Produktivgenossenschaft für den Bezirk Halle- Merseburg, Als Opfer sind sie gefallen. Gedenkt der Pariser Kommune! (Berlin, 1926) (book cover). 109

10 Brass gallows- shaped lapel pin (United States, 1887) (courtesy of Chicago Historical Society, chicagohistory.org, retrieved June 2012). 110

11 Ivens and Storck, ‘A still from the film Misère au Borinage’ (Belgium, 1933). 111

12 Walter Crane, ‘In Memory of the Paris Commune’ (Great Britain, 1891). 112

13 Anonymous, ‘Golgotha 1919. The murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht’ (Germany, 1919). 113

14 ‘ Berlin- Friedrichsfelde, Einweihung Gedenkstätte’ (Germany, 1926) (courtesy of Bundesarchiv). 114

15 Vladimir Tatlin, Monument to the Third International (Soviet Union, 1920) (courtesy of shafe.co.uk, retrieved June 2012). 114

Plates

1 Poster for the Centrale Plan- Commissie, Dutch Social Democratic Party, NVV (trade union), ‘Fascisme’ (The Netherlands, 1936).

2 Revolutionary Committee of the Shanghai Drama College, ‘Bali gongshe wansui!’ (‘Long Live the Paris Commune!’) (China, 1971).

3 Revolutionary Committee Political Propaganda Group, ‘Qianli yeying lian hongxin’ (‘To go on a thousand “li” march to temper a red heart’) (China, 1971).

4 H.G. Jentzsch, ‘Germany’ (Der Wahre Jacob, Germany, 1893).

viii List of Illustrations and Plates

Note: Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notifi ed of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

ix

Notes on Contributors

Joost Augusteijn is a lecturer at Leiden University. He has previously held posts at the University of Amsterdam, Trinity College, Dublin and Queens University Belfast, and has taught at the College of William and Mary. He is the author of From Public Defiance to Guerrilla Warfare: The Experience of Ordinary Volunteers in the Irish War of Independence 1916–1921 (1996), and Patrick Pearse: The Making of a Revolutionary (2010), as well as the editor of several volumes on Irish history and beyond.

Eduard van de Bilt has a PhD in History from Cornell. He teaches American History at Leiden University and the University of Amsterdam, and specializes in American intellectual history. He is co- editor of several books on American history and the author of Becoming John Adams: The Making of a Great American in Leiden, 1780–1782 (2005), Demasqué van een Democratie (2002) and, together with Joke Kardux, Newcomers in an Old City: The American Pilgrims in Leiden, 1609–1620 (1998) and Obama in Historisch Perspectief (2009).

Dennis Bos is a lecturer in Dutch History at Leiden University. He has published on the history of the early socialist movement in the nineteenth century and is currently finishing a book on the socialist mythology surrounding the Paris Commune of 1871.

Patrick Dassen lectures at Leiden University where he specializes in German history, 1870–1945. He has previously held posts at the University of Amsterdam, the University of Groningen and the Germany Institute Amsterdam. He is the author of a monograph on Max Weber, De onttovering van de wereld: Max Weber en het probleem van de moderniteit in Duitsland, 1890–1920 (1999), and co- editor of several volumes, including The Many Faces of Evolution in Europe, c. 1860–1914 (2005).

Adam Fairclough holds the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Chair of American History and Culture at Leiden University. He is the author of To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership and Martin Luther King, Jr. (1987), Race and Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915–1972 (1995), Better Day Coming: Blacks and Equality, 1890–2000 (2001) and A Class of Their Own: Black Teachers in the Segregated South (2007). He edited The Star Creek Papers: Washington Parish and the Lynching of Jerome Wilson (1997). He is currently writing

a history of Reconstruction in the town and parish of Natchitoches, Louisiana.

Jolijn Groothuizen is a research masters student at Leiden University. She is also a high school teacher in history and has held several student- assistant positions at Leiden University. She is the author of ‘Tot hier en niet verder’ in the journal De Negentiende Eeuw.

Maartje Janse is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of History of Leiden University. She specializes in nineteenth- century European and American political culture. Her publications include De Afschaffers. Publieke opinie, organisatie en politiek in Nederland, 1840–1880 (2007). Her current research focuses on the impact on politics of early nineteenth- century mass organizations against, for instance, slavery and temperance.

Henk Kern is a lecturer at Leiden University and teaches in the depart-ments of History and Russian Studies. He has published the monograph Denken over Rusland. Europese beschouwingen over de Grote Hervormingen, 1861–1881 (2008) and several articles on Russian and Soviet history.

Herman Paul is a lecturer in historiography and historical theory at Leiden University. He also holds a special chair in secularization studies at the University of Groningen. Among his recent publications are Hayden White: The Historical Imagination (2011), Het moeras van de geschiedenis: Nederlandse debatten over historisme (2012) and the co- edited volume, Hermeneutics and the Humanities: Dialogues with Hans- Georg Gadamer (2012).

Eric Storm is a lecturer at Leiden University. He began as a specialist on Spanish intellectual history but during the last few years he has prima-rily studied processes of nation- building and regional identity creation from a comparative perspective. This has resulted in the publication of El descubrimiento del Greco: Nacionalismo y arte moderno, 1860–1914 (2011) and The Culture of Regionalism: Art, Architecture and International Exhibitions in France, Germany and Spain, 1890–1939 (2010).

Henk te Velde is a professor of history at Leiden University. Until 2005 he was professor of history at the University of Groningen where he also graduated. During short research stays he was a visiting fellow and visiting professor at Oxford (St Edmund Hall), Berlin (ZVGE) and Paris (Science Po). He has written a number of books about Dutch political history and many articles in the field of comparative history of political culture.

x Notes on Contributors

Adriaan van Veldhuizen is a lecturer at Leiden University, where he is currently completing his PhD in the Dutch history department. He studied both history and philosophy at Groningen University. He specializes in the history of political culture and the philosophy of history.

Notes on Contributors xi

xii

Acknowledgements

This volume is the product of sustained academic debate among members of the Research Theme Group ‘Political Culture and National Identity’ (PCNI) at the Institute for History, Leiden University. The central con-clusion arising from these discussions was the contention that modern politics necessarily assumes religious forms and content. The group subsequently organized a series of lectures around this theme ‘Political Religion in the Western World, c. 1800–2000’. The extent to which this ‘sacralization of politics’ can be identified in different countries and political systems was analysed in a series of case studies covering vari-ous European countries and the United States. We also invited Emilio Gentile (Sapienza University of Rome), whose book Politics as Religion (2006) had inspired us to start our debate. We express our gratitude to Professor Gentile for the interesting discussion he held with us and for his inspiring lecture to our students.

These experiences convinced us that as a group we had something substantial to add to the debate on the ‘Religion of Politics’. The results can be found in the combination of theoretical engagement and empiri-cal case studies presented in this volume, which we hope in turn will be a springboard to further exploration by graduate students and scholars alike.

Finally, we wish to thank the Institute for History of Leiden University and the staff of Palgrave Macmillan, without whose assistance this volume would not have been completed.

The Editors, June 2012