How similar is the rebellion of Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner-group on June 23 to the failed 1991 coup in the Soviet Union? And to what extent is the current war in Ukraine comparable to older conflicts such as the First World War? Analogies with historical events such as these are often invoked in the public debate. But how helpful are they for our understanding of contemporary events?
In a new paper in the Journal of Applied History, Pieter Van den Heede and Sara Polak (Leiden University) provide a new framework to critically engage with these and other historical analogies in light of contemporary developments.
A multi-coloured metaphor
Overall, Van den Heede and Polak characterize historical events as 'magic yarn balls': multi-coloured balls that craft knitters make out of leftover scraps of yarn at the end of a knitting project. As is the case for these yarn balls, whereby yarn threads of various lengths and colors are combined, historical events can be seen as complex phenomena wherein various historically contingent occurrences or 'threads', unfolding over varying periods of time, come together, to result in events that share similarities with others, while also being fully unique.
Using this metaphor as a starting point, Van den Heede and Polak introduce a new methodological framework to critically interrogate historical analogies. They then apply the model to analogies made between the election of Donald Trump as US president in 2016, and the appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor in Germany in 1933.
Further info can be found in the paper, which can be accessed in full open access here.
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Source: My Poppet Makes, “Let’s Make Scrap Yarn Pom Poms.” https://mypoppet.com.au/makes/how-to-make-scrap-yarn-pom-poms/, November 5, 2020 (accessed May 25, 2023). © MyPoppet, 2023
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- Researcher