University of Victoria Journals
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The Peoples’ War: Three Oral Histories of the British Army in Northern Ireland
No full textIn the late 1960s violence broke out on the city streets of Northern Ireland – a reaction to politically charged and religiously influenced tensions that had been building in the country for centuries. This paper, based on research of the popular history and supplemented by interviews conducted with veterans who served during “the Troubles,” explores the more personal side of the conflict. It discusses both the soldiers’ experiences as well as how the presence of the British Army affected the lives of the local Irish for both better and worse. Through the interviews, first-hand accounts serve to explain how a modern country with a reputation for joviality and amity spent decades in a civil war — a civil war that would determine Ireland’s standing as a country. Above all, this paper strives to understand how the cultural, political, and religious natures of Northern Ireland affected and continue to influence the people today
The Nazi Economy (1933 – 1939): Unemployment, Autarky and the Working-Class
No full textMy paper contextualizes and evaluates the interwar economic policies of the National Socialist Workers’ Party (NSDAP). I consider economic policies relating to unemployment, autarky, the working-class, as well their standard of living. I argue against the idea perpetuated by Nazi propaganda that the Party was able to achieve an ‘economic miracle,’ by 1939. Instead, I posit that the economic agenda of the NSDAP was not sustainable in the long-term and could only produce short-term measures to serious structural economic issues. Specifically, I posit that the NSDAP prioritized autarky through rearmament and the acquisition of Lebensraum, which was only sustainable in the case of a German victory in the Second World War. Furthermore, I argue that the working-class was especially affected by these policies. Yet, I concede that in some instances the standard of living did improve under the NSDAP. In sum, however, I believe the so-called ‘economic miracle’ was nothing more than a temporary mirage
