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Contemporary
Terms modified by Contemporary Selected AbstractsTHE CHURCH AND THE WORLD: ESSAYS CATHOLIC AND CONTEMPORARY by John HaldaneNEW BLACKFRIARS, Issue 1025 2009MARGARET ATKINS No abstract is available for this article. [source] Hofmannsthal, Elektra and the Representation of Women'sBehaviour Through MythGERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 1 2000Philip Marshall Ward In Elektra Hofmannsthal created a drama more of its time than he cared to admit, but he concealed this specificity in the ,eternal' materials of myth. The play came into being in response to the promptings of a director (Max Reinhardt) and an actress (Gertrud Eysoldt). Contemporaries received the play as a revision, either for good or bad, of accepted ideas of the Greeks. In a climate which identified a parallel between the ,cathartic' effect of Greek tragedy and the ,cathartic' treat-ment of hysteria in the new psychoanalysis, Elektra was readily understandable as an ,hysteric'. Hofmannsthal does not present her specifically as such but participates in a fin de siécle trend to use hysteria as a synecdoche for female behaviours which challenged the status quo. Hofmannsthal's own attitudes to women imply an anxiety about counter-cultural behaviour which, in Elektra, he mediates through two literary precedents: Sophocles's Electra and Goethe's Iphigenie auf Tauris. The article concludes by illustrating how Hofmannsthal constructs Elektra's behaviour as ,improper'. [source] Italian Culture in the Drama of Shakespeare and his Contemporaries: Rewriting, Remaking, Refashioning , Edited by Michele MarrapodiRENAISSANCE STUDIES, Issue 4 2010John Roe No abstract is available for this article. [source] Theorizing Diaspora: Perspectives on "Classical" and "Contemporary" DiasporaINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 2 2004Michele Reis Cohen (1997) employed the term "classical" diaspora in reference to the Jews. Indeed, a vast corpus of work recognizes the Jewish people as examples of quintessential diasporic groups. However, a broader conceptualization of the term diaspora allows for the inclusion of immigrant communities that would be otherwise sidelined in the conventional literature on diaspora. This study is therefore a departure from the traditional diasporic literature, which tends to use the Jewish Diaspora as the archetype. It favours, rather, the classification of three principal broad historical waves in which the Jewish Diaspora can be interpreted as part of a classical period. The historicizing of diasporization for the purpose of this paper is achieved by an empirical discussion of the three major historical waves that influenced the diasporic process throughout the world: the Classical Period, the Modern Period, and the Contemporary or Late-modern Period. The paper discusses these three critical phases in the following manner: first, reference is made to the Classical Period, which is associated primarily with ancient diaspora and ancient Greece. The second historical phase analyses diaspora in relation to the Modern Period, which can be interpreted as a central historical fact of slavery and colonization. This section can be further subdivided into three large phases: (1) the expansion of European capital (1500,1814), (2) the Industrial Revolution (1815,1914), and (3) the Interwar Period (1914,1945). The final major period of diasporization can be considered a Contemporary or Late-modern phenomenon. It refers to the period immediately after World War II to the present day, specifying the case of the Hispanics in the United States as one key example. The paper outlines some aspects of the impact of the Latin American diaspora on the United States, from a socio-economic and politico-cultural point of view. While the Modern and Late-modern periods are undoubtedly the most critical for an understanding of diaspora in a modern, globalized context, for the purpose of this paper, more emphasis is placed on the latter period, which illustrates the progressive effect of globalization on the phenomenon of diasporization. The second period, the Modern Phase is not examined in this paper, as the focus is on a comparative analysis of the early Classical Period and the Contemporary or Late-modern Period. The incorporation of diaspora as a unit of analysis in the field of international relations has been largely neglected by both recent and critical scholarship on the subject matter. While a growing number of studies focus on the increasing phenomenon of diasporic communities, from the vantage of social sciences, the issue of diaspora appears to be inadequately addressed or ignored altogether. Certain key factors present themselves as limitations to the understanding of the concept, as well as its relevance to the field of international relations and the social sciences as a whole. This paper is meant to clarify some aspects of the definition of diaspora by critiquing the theories in the conventional literature, exposing the lacunae in terms of interpretation of diaspora and in the final analysis, establishing a historiography that may be useful in comparing certain features of "classical" diaspora and "contemporary" diaspora. The latter part of the paper is intended to provide illustrations of a contemporary diasporic community, using the example of Hispanics in the United States. [source] Contemporary landscape burning patterns in the far North Kimberley region of north-west Australia: human influences and environmental determinantsJOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 8 2004T. Vigilante Abstract Aim, This study of contemporary landscape burning patterns in the North Kimberley aims to determine the relative influences of environmental factors and compare the management regimes occurring on Aboriginal lands, pastoral leases, national park and crown land. Location, The study area is defined at the largest scale by Landsat Scene 108,70 that covers a total land area of 23,134 km2 in the North Kimberley Bioregion of north-west Australia, including the settlement of Kalumburu, coastline between Vansittart Bay in the west and the mouth of the Berkeley River in the east, and stretching approximately 200 km inland. Methods, Two approaches are applied. First, a 10-year fire history (1990,1999) derived from previous study of satellite (Landsat-MSS) remote sensing imagery is analysed for broad regional patterns. And secondly, a 2-year ground-based survey of burning along major access roads leading to an Aboriginal community is used to show fine-scale burning patterns. anova and multiple regression analyses are used to determine the influence of year, season, geology, tenure, distance from road and distance from settlement on fire patterns. Results, Satellite data indicated that an average of 30.8% (±4.4% SEM) of the study area was burnt each year with considerable variability between years. Approximately 56% of the study area was burnt on three or more occasions over the 10-year period. A slightly higher proportion of burning occurred on average in the late dry season (17.2 ± 3.6%), compared with the early dry season (13.6 ± 3.3%). The highest fire frequency occurred on basalt substrates, on pastoral tenures, and at distances 5,25 km from roads. Three-way anova demonstrated that geological substrate and land use were the most significant factors influencing fire history, however a range of smaller interactions were also significant. Analysis of road transects, originating from an Aboriginal settlement, showed that the timing of fire and geology type were the most significant factors affecting the pattern of area burnt. Of the total transect area, 28.3 ± 2.9% was burnt annually with peaks in burning occurring into the dry season months of June, August and September. Basalt uplands (81.2%) and lowlands (30.1%) had greater areas burnt than sandstone (12.3%) and sands (17.7%). Main conclusions, Anthropogenic firing is constrained by two major environmental determinants; climate and substrate. Seasonal peaks in burning activity in both the early and late dry season relate to periods of optimal fire-weather conditions. Substrate factors (geology, soils and physiognomy) influence vegetation-fuel characteristics and the movement of fire in the landscape. Basalt hills overwhelmingly supported the most frequent wildfire regime in the study region because of their undulating topography and relatively fertile soils that support perennial grasslands. Within these spatial and temporal constraints people significantly influenced the frequency and extent of fire in the North Kimberley thus tenure type and associated land uses had a significant influence on fire patterning. Burning activity is high on pastoral lands and along roads and tracks on some tenure types. While the state government uses aerial control burning and legislation to try to restrict burning to the early dry season across all geology types, in practice burning is being conducted across the full duration of the dry season with early dry season burning focused on sandstone and sand substrates and late dry season burning focused on basalt substrates. There is greater seasonal and spatial variation in burning patterns on landscapes managed by Aboriginal people. [source] In Silico Modeling and Simulation of Bone Biology: A ProposalJOURNAL OF BONE AND MINERAL RESEARCH, Issue 7 2005Nadine A Defranoux Abstract Contemporary, computer-based mathematical modeling techniques make it possible to represent complex biological mechanisms in a manner that permits hypothesis testing in silico. This perspective shows how such approaches might be applied to bone remodeling and therapeutic research. Currently, the dominant conceptual model applied in bone research involves the dynamic balance between the continual build-up and breakdown of bone matrix by two cell types, the osteoblasts and osteoclasts, acting together as a coordinated, remodeling unit. This conceptualization has served extraordinarily well as a focal point for understanding how mutations, chemical mediators, and mechanical force, as well as external influences (e.g., drugs, diet) affect bone structure and function. However, the need remains to better understand and predict the consequences of manipulating any single factor, or combination of factors, within the context of this complex system's multiple interacting pathways. Mathematical models are a natural extension of conceptual models, providing dynamic, quantitative descriptions of the relationships among interacting components. This formalization creates the ability to simulate the natural behavior of a system, as well as its modulation by therapeutic or dietetic interventions. A number of mathematical models have been developed to study complex bone functions, but most include only a limited set of biological components needed to address a few specific questions. However, it is possible to develop larger, multiscale models that capture the dynamic interactions of many biological components and relate them to important physiological or pathological outcomes that allow broader study. Examples of such models include Entelos' PhysioLab platforms. These models simulate the dynamic, quantitative interactions among a biological system's biochemicals, cells, tissues, and organs and how they give rise to key physiologic and pathophysiologic outcomes. We propose that a similar predictive, dynamical, multiscale mathematical model of bone remodeling and metabolism would provide a better understanding of the mechanisms governing these phenomena as well as serve as an in silico platform for testing pharmaceutical and clinical interventions on metabolic bone disease. [source] Contemporary and historical impacts of megaherbivores on the population structure of tree euphorbias in South African subtropical thicketAFRICAN JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2010Richard M. Cowling Abstract African elephant and black rhinoceros , both megaherbivores , impact negatively on the abundance of succulent plants, including tree succulents, in South Africa's subtropical thicket. We sampled 35 sites in subtropical thicket to assess historical and contemporary impacts of African elephant and black rhinoceros on the population structure of three species of succulent tree euphorbia. Population age structures were highly variable and showed no species-specific effects. Almost half the sites had growing populations dominated by young individuals. Sites having contemporary impacts had significantly fewer individuals in the 30,75 years age range, but this effect declined with increasing terrain slope. Eighty-one percent of sites assumed to have been impacted by megaherbivores historically had individuals that predated rhino and elephant extirpation in the region. This and other population age structure data indicate that megaherbivores and tree euphorbias coexisted historically on terrain of low relief. However, in areas not subject to contemporary impacts, euphorbia populations are likely to be much higher now than historically, owing to population relaxation after the extirpation of megaherbivores in the mid 1800s. Given the sensitivity of tree euphorbias to megaherbivore impacts, managers should consider monitoring the population structure of these species in order to identify thresholds of potential concern regarding megaherbivore impacts. Résumé L'éléphant et le rhinocéros africains , deux méga-herbivores , ont un impact négatif sur l'abondance de plantes succulentes, y compris des arbres succulents, dans les fourrés subtropicaux d'Afrique du Sud. Nous avons prélevé des échantillons dans 35 fourrés subtropicaux afin d'évaluer les impacts anciens et actuels des éléphants et des rhinos noirs africains sur la structure de la population de trois espèces d'euphorbes arborescentes succulentes. Les structures d'âges des populations étaient très variables et ne présentaient aucun effet spécifique des espèces. Près de la moitié des sites contenaient des populations en croissance dominées par de jeunes individus. Les sites qui présentaient des impacts actuels comptaient significativement moins d'individus de la classe d'âge comprise entre 30 et 75 ans, mais cet effet diminuait lorsque la pente du terrain s'accentuait. Quatre-vingt-un pour cent des sites supposés avoir subi jadis l'impact des méga-herbivores contenaient des individus qui dataient d'avant l'élimination des rhinos et des éléphants. Ceci, tout comme d'autres données sur la structure d'âge des populations, indique que les méga-herbivores et les euphorbes arborescentes ont longtemps coexisté sur les terrains de faible relief. Cependant, dans les zones qui ne subissent aucun impact actuel, les populations d'euphorbes sont susceptibles d'être beaucoup plus hautes aujourd'hui que jadis, en raison de la libération induite par l'élimination des méga-herbivores au milieu des années 1800. Etant donné la sensibilité des euphorbes arborescentes face aux impacts des méga-herbivores, les gestionnaires devraient envisager le suivi continu de la structure de la population de ces espèces afin de déterminer les seuils d'alerte potentiels en ce qui concerne les impacts des méga-herbivores. [source] THE IDEA OF DEFENSE IN HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY THINKING ABOUT JUST WARJOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS ETHICS, Issue 4 2008James Turner Johnson ABSTRACT What is, or should be, the role of defense in thinking about the justification of use of armed force? Contemporary just war thinking prioritizes defense as the principal, and perhaps the only, just cause for resorting to armed force. By contrast, classic just war tradition, while recognizing defense as justification for use of force by private persons, did not reason from self-defense to the justification of the use of force on behalf of the political community, but instead rendered the idea of just cause for resort to force in terms of the sovereign's responsibility to maintain justice, vindicating those who had suffered from injustice and punishing evildoers. This paper moves through three major stages in the historical development of just war thinking, first examining a critical phase in the formation of the classical idea of just cause as the responsibility to maintain justice, then discussing the shift, characteristic of the modern period, to an idea of sovereignty as connected to the state and the prioritization of defense of the state as just cause for use of force, and lastly showing how this conception of the priority of defense became part of the recovery of just war thinking in the latter part of the twentieth century. The paper concludes by noting recent changes in thought on international law that tend to emphasize justice at the expense of the right of self-defense, suggesting that the roots of just war thinking imply the need for a similar rethinking of contemporary just war discourse. [source] Contemporary nursing in New ZealandNURSING & HEALTH SCIENCES, Issue 1 2007Frances Hughes rn, dnurs [source] The Angelic Doctor and the Stagirite: Thomas Aquinas and Contemporary ,Aristotelian' EthicsPROCEEDINGS OF THE ARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY (HARDBACK), Issue 1 2001M. W. F. Stone To what extent, if any, is the moral thought of Thomas Aquinas ,Aristotelian'? This question is not simply of historical interest, since it directs our attention to those areas of contemporary English-speaking moral philosophy where Thomas is discussed. In some quarters there is a tendency to classify Thomas as a thinker in the ,Aristotelian tradition', and his debt to Aristotle is thought to be apparent in his remarks on moral reasoning and virtue. Nowhere is this tendency more evident than in discussions of Thomas by supporters of modern virtue ethics. In this paper, I will argue that the relationship of Thomas's ethics to Aristotle is much more complicated than these discussions assume. Despite the strong and interesting affinities that exist between the practical philosophies of Thomas and Aristotle, the sum total of their common features can never disguise nor dilute the profound differences that separate them. The paper will conclude with some suggestions as to how an appreciation of these differences can enable us to cast Thomas's remarks on virtue in a different light. [source] The basis for treatment in multiple sclerosisACTA NEUROLOGICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 2006A. Compston Contemporary licensed treatments for multiple sclerosis fail to provide a solution for the disease because their effects are limited to a modest reduction in the frequency of new episodes. They do not reduce disability or materially influence the progressive phase of the disease. A contemporary strategy for management requires a more detailed analysis of the separate contributions to the clinical features and overall course made by inflammation, axonal injury, compensatory mechanisms, and remyelination. From this formulation emerges the need either for early and fully effective suppression of the inflammatory response, limiting the damage to all components of the axon-glial unit; or the development of strategies for axonal and myelin repair that solve the issues of controlled differentiation, delivery and timing of these cell and growth factor-based interventions. [source] The ,vigorous rule' of Bishop Lull: between Bonifatian mission and Carolingian church controlEARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE, Issue 3 2005James Palmer This paper argues that the reputation of St Boniface, one of the ,founders of Christian Europe', needs to be understood in relation to the career of Lull of Mainz, the saint's pupil and successor. It analyses Lull's literary, pastoral and missionary interests, as well as his political networks, to illustrate how he helped give form to the legends of Boniface and, in particular, Willibald's Vita Bonifatii and the Bonifatian letter collections. Study of the commemoration of Lull, principally in Mainz, Fulda, Hersfeld and Malmesbury, also reveals much about the ways Lull used the cult of Boniface to pursue a ,vigorous rule' over his flock in Mainz and in the process alienate many contemporaries. [source] Poverty among the elderly in late Victorian England1ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 2 2009GEORGE R. BOYER Despite rapid increases in manual workers' wages, poverty rates among the elderly remained high in late Victorian England, although they varied significantly across Poor Law Unions. This paper begins by examining the ability of workers to provide for their old age. A data set is constructed, consisting of all English Poor Law Unions in 1891,2, and regression equations are estimated in order to explain variations across unions in pauperism rates. This is followed by the testing of several conjectures made by contemporaries, and repeated by historians, regarding the deterrent effect of workhouse relief, the effects of wages and of the industrial character of Poor Law Unions on pauperism rates, and regional differences in workers' reliance on the poor law. The paper then examines the implications of these results for the debate over national old age pensions in the decades before the adoption of the Old Age Pension Act. [source] Wars and Markets: How Bond Values Reflect the Second World WarECONOMICA, Issue 271 2001Bruno Frey Historical events are reflected in asset prices. Based on a unique data-set, we analyse government bond prices of Germany and Austria traded on the Swiss bourse during the Second World War. Some war events generally considered crucial are clearly reflected in government bond prices; this holds, in particular, for the official outbreak of the war and the loss and gain of national sovereignty. Other events to which historians attach great importance are not reflected in bond prices, most prominently Germany's capitulation in 1945. The analysis of financial markets provides a fruitful method for evaluating the importance contemporaries attached to historical events. [source] Differences in personality characteristics between body-modified and non-modified individuals: associations with individual personality traits and their possible evolutionary implicationsEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 7 2007Silke Wohlrab Abstract After a long history of negative stigmatisation, the practices of tattooing and body piercing have become fashionable in the last decade. Today, 10% of the population in modern western societies have some form of body modification. The aim of this study was to quantify the demographic and personality traits of tattooed and pierced individuals and to compare them with a control group of individuals without body modifications. These comparisons are based on questionnaires completed by 359 individuals that investigate the details of body modification, and which incorporate five personality scales. We describe several sex differences in ornament style and location. We found no relevant differences between modified and non-modified individuals in relation to demographic variables. This indicates that some of the traditional attitudes towards tattoos and piercings appear to be outdated. However, we found striking differences in personality traits which suggest that body-modified individuals are greater sensation seekers and follow a more unrestricted mating strategy than their non-modified contemporaries. We discuss these differences in light of a potential signalling function of tattoos and piercings in the mating context. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Development Imperative, Terrae Incognitae: a Pioneer Soil Scientist 1912,1951GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2010J.M. POWELL Abstract James Arthur Prescott was a prominent soil scientist whose career responded to an increasingly complex, recognisably Australian web of interpenetrating spatial scales, served to promote revolutionary global advances in his chosen field, and in the process negotiated the blurred boundaries between ,pure' and ,applied' research. Encounters with this instructive life suggest that, while resolutions of pivotal anxieties might turn on ineluctably personal qualities, they also reflect a dynamic interplay between international, imperial, national and state contexts. Prescott's innovative contributions to soil science, fruits of a tenaciously consolidated career, influenced resource appraisal and environmental management across a prodigious continental expanse. A sustained focus on local and regional development brought him into contact with a wide range of contemporaries, including pioneering geographers, and culminated in his election to a Fellowship of the Royal Society. [source] "GEOGRAPHY IS TWINNED WITH DIVINITY": THE LAUDIAN GEOGRAPHY OF PETER HEYLYNGEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Issue 1 2000Article first published online: 21 APR 2010, Dr. ROBERT J. MAYHEW ABSTRACT. This critical history of geography looks to the political concepts that historical actors held and analyzes the incorporation of these concepts into geography. Peter Heylyn, who politicized his geographical books Microcosmus (1621) and, still more, Cosmographie (1657), followed William Laud's characteristic brand of High Church Anglicanism, avowedly hostile both to Roman Catholicism and to Calvinist forms of Protestantism, while upholding an ideal of the Church of England as both independent and apostolic. Further, Laudians were stalwart defendants of monarchy as a divine institution. This Laudian vision of church and state informed Heylyn's geographical works, which goes against a received wisdom that they are divorced from his polemical historical, political, and theological tracts. We thus recover the politics of early modern geography as contemporaries might have understood them. [source] ,Eine Art geistiger Wiedergutmachung': Karl Otten's Anthologies of Jewish Writing Das leere Haus and SchofarGERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 2 2007Richard Dove ABSTRACT This article evaluates the role played by Karl Otten in the revival of literary Expressionism in post-war Germany and more specifically his efforts to rescue the work of its Jewish exponents, many of whom had died in the Holocaust or the diaspora of exile. In the years 1957 to 1963, Otten edited no fewer than six anthologies, collecting and reintroducing long-forgotten work by his Expressionist contemporaries. The anthologies Das leere Haus (1959) and Schofar (1962) were intended to exemplify the distinctive Jewish contribution to Expressionism, Otten describing them as an act of ,geistige Wiedergutmachung'. The article discusses the textual selection and preparation of these anthologies, evaluating Otten's correspondence with the publishers Cotta, and with friends like Kurt Pinthus, in the light of the contemporary discourse regarding the Nazi past. [source] Between Identification and Documentation, ,Autofiction' and ,Biopic': The Lives of the RAFGERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 4 2003Julian Preece Since the mid-1970s the RAF has generated a variety of different forms of ,life-writing', ranging from memoirs written by ex-terrorists to autobiographical fiction by contemporaries which explores the interaction between an authorial narrator and a central terrorist character. Film-makers, echoing novelists, have often focussed on the life of an individual terrorist. While the view that an individual's turning to the RAF or one of its related groupings could be explained through biographical experience has been discredited by the evidence now available, RAF memoirs are of limited value in other respects because their authors are unable to reflect critically on their past. In fiction (by writers such as Timm, Chotjewitz, and Demksi) and films (by von Trotta, Schlöndorff, and Conradt) which depict the first RAF generation it becomes clear that what is made of the life is more challenging than the life itself. The same appears true of the largely non-fictional treatment of Ulrike Meinhof. Younger writers and playwrights (Dresen, Kuckart, Scholz, Loher) and film-makers (Veiel), while struggling to make links between the recent past and the present, show much greater distance to the material, sometimes to the point of incorporating the points of view of the RAF 's opponents and victims. In addition to generational affiliation the gender of both author/film-maker and particular terrorist subject also determines in unexpected ways the depiction of RAF lives. [source] Politic history, New Monarchy and state formation: Henry VII in European perspectiveHISTORICAL RESEARCH, Issue 217 2009Steven Gunn Historians have repeatedly compared Henry VII with his continental contemporaries, Louis XI of France and Ferdinand of Aragon. Around 1600 the writers of politic history emphasized Henry's wisdom in drawing lessons in statecraft from his fellow monarchs. By 1900 analysts of the ,New Monarchy' placed more stress on the common circumstances that underlay the revival of monarchical power, but thereby raised awkward questions about similarities and differences in the development of national states. Latterly a model of European state formation has been constructed which sets Henry's kingship less comfortably alongside those of Louis and Ferdinand. This should lead us not to abandon, but to reshape the attempt to set Henry in his European context. [source] ,The pooreste and sympleste sorte of people'?HISTORICAL RESEARCH, Issue 208 2007The selection of parish officers during the personal rule of Charles I The successful implementation of Charles I's personal rule relied much on the co-operation of parish officers whose workload increased significantly in the sixteen-thirties. There is little evidence that the mounting pressure and conflicting loyalties Charles I's reform projects caused resulted in widespread unwillingness to serve as parish officer or led to a changing social composition among office-holders. Local customs continued to determine the appointments of officers. The frequent use of rotas in allocating parish offices, the fact that many parishioners served several terms of office, and the presence of men from all social strata of local communities among parish officers all suggest that Caroline parochial government was considerably inclusive and that the village élites continued to serve for crown and parish. Consequently, parish offices, including the demanding office of petty constable, did not experience a loss of prestige during the personal rule, but parishioners served because they accepted their turn or appreciated the status of the office. Many contemporaries may also have valued parish offices because they provided opportunities to adapt government policies to the political culture of the parish and to enforce only selectively some of the controversial schemes of the sixteen-thirties. [source] Historians in ,the liberal hour': Lawrence Stone and J. H. Plumb re,visitedHISTORICAL RESEARCH, Issue 189 2002David Cannadine This articles assesses the careers and impact of Lawrence Stone and J. H. Plumb, examining their formative influences, and the effect which they in turn had on the writing and practice of history, particularly in the nineteen,sixties. It assesses their two most resonant books: Stone's The Causes of the English Revolution, 1529,1642(1972) and Plumb's The Growth of Political Stability in England, 1675,1725(1967). The article traces historiographical debate through the twentieth century and into the new millennium, focusing on the buoyant and heady atmosphere of the sixties, which so affected Stone, Plumb and their contemporaries, and the revisionist response which peaked in the nineteen,eighties, and concludes that no historian could or should claim to be unaffected by the times in which he or she writes. [source] Napoleon and the Universal MonarchyHISTORY, Issue 319 2010PHILIP DWYER Although the idea of ,Universal Monarchy' has existed since the early middle ages, the term started to be used pejoratively from the sixteenth century onwards. This article looks at the manner in which contemporaries perceived Napoleon's actions on the international scene, and how they used the term in relation to his foreign policy. Most of Europe's political elite believed that Napoleon was bent on some sort of ,universal domination', and that it was not limited to Europe. That perception was a direct result of an aggressive, expansionist French foreign policy. Napoleon's intentions, on the other hand, are more ambiguous. While at times he adopted a rhetoric which informed contemporary fears, the practical limits to his foreign policy were such that ,Universal Monarchy' could never be anything more than an ephemeral dream. [source] Despotism without Bounds: The French Secret Police and the Silencing of Dissent in London, 1760,1790HISTORY, Issue 296 2004SIMON BURROWS Through an examination of the policing of dissident French refugees in London between 1760 and 1790, this article contends that recent historians have tended to over-emphasize the reforming nature of the Bourbon government in the decades prior to the French Revolution, especially under Louis XVI, and overlooked the more repressive and ,despotic' aspects of the regime. It reveals that the Paris police or French secret agents adopted a variety of clandestine methods in their attempts to silence dissident exiles, including attempts at kidnap, and allegedly murder. As much of this police activity was reported in the British press and French printed texts, both before and during the French Revolution, and several of the exiles were celebrated writers or future revolutionary leaders, it was widely known among informed contemporaries. The article therefore contends that the French revolutionaries' allegations of despotism and suspicions of monarchic conspiracies were more deeply rooted in experience than recent historiography has tended to suggest. At the same time, reports of the attempts of the ,despotic' French government to suppress the activities of Frenchmen on British soil helped to reinforce a British national identity based on the celebration of the liberties France lacked. [source] Deists, Papists and Methodists at London Debating Societies, 1749,1799HISTORY, Issue 283 2001Mary Thale During the second half of the eighteenth century artisan debating societies were a popular entertainment in London, attracting both crowds and notoriety. Any man (and later woman) who paid sixpence could speak on questions of religion, politics, commerce and law. The popularity of debates on religion exemplifies features of the English Enlightenment, such as the centrality of religion, religious toleration and the progressive laicization of religion. Although most of the speakers were artisans, shopkeepers and clerks, some speakers of higher rank, including educated deists, Roman Catholics, Anglican clergymen and Methodists, came to practise oratory or to convert. The religious debates warrant notice for their evidence of the extent of free speech allowed. The evidence of religious proselytizing and the reactions of working-class audiences call into question the dangers of artisan debating alleged by contemporaries. A survey of the debates on religion indicates that the speakers who best used the debating societies to defend their cause were not the deists or the papists, but the Methodists. At the end of the eighteenth century the view of Methodists that emerged from the London debating societies was consonant with the Halevy-Semmel thesis that the Methodists weighed the balance against revolution in England. [source] MAKING SENSE OF CONCEPTUAL CHANGEHISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 3 2008JOUNI-MATTI KUUKKANEN ABSTRACT Arthur Lovejoy's history of unit-ideas and the history of concepts are often criticized for being historically insensitive forms of history-writing. Critics claim that one cannot find invariable ideas or concepts in several contexts or times in history without resorting to some distortion. One popular reaction is to reject the history of ideas and concepts altogether, and take linguistic entities as the main theoretical units. Another reaction is to try to make ideas or concepts context-sensitive and to see their histories as dynamic processes of transformation. The main argument in this paper is that we cannot abandon ideas or concepts as theoretical notions if we want to write an intelligible history of thought. They are needed for the categorization and classification of thinking, and in communication with contemporaries. Further, the criterion needed to subsume historical concepts under a general concept cannot be determined merely on the basis of their family resemblances, which allows variation without an end, since talk of the same concepts implies that they share something in common. I suggest that a concept in history should be seen to be composed of two components: the core of a concept and the margin of a concept. On the basis of this, we can develop a vocabulary for talking about conceptual changes. The main idea is that conceptual continuity requires the stability of the core of the concept, but not necessarily that of the margin, which is something that enables a description of context-specific features. If the core changes, we ought to see it as a conceptual replacement. [source] The Cage of Nature: Modernity's History in JapanHISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 1 2001Julia Adeney Thomas "The Cage of Nature" focuses on the concept of nature as a way to rethink Japanese and European versions of modernity and the historical tropes that distance "East" from "West." This essay begins by comparing Japanese political philosopher Maruyama Masao and his contemporaries, Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. Both sets of authors define modernity as the moment when humanity overcomes nature, but Maruyama longs for this triumph while Horkheimer and Adorno deplore its consequences. Maruyama insists that Japan has failed to attain the freedom promised by modernity because it remains in the thrall of nature defined in three ways: as Japan's deformed past, as the mark of Japan's tragic difference from "the West,"and as Japan's accursed sensuality, shackling it to uncritical bodily pleasures. In short, Maruyama sees Japan as trapped in the cage of nature. My argument is that Maruyama's frustration arises from the trap set by modern historiography, which simultaneously traces the trajectory of modernity from servile Nature to freedom of Spirit and at the same time bases the identity of the non-Western world on its closeness to nature. In other words, nature represents both the past and the East, an impossible dilemma for an Asian nationalist desirous of liberty. By revising our historical narratives to take into account the ways in which Western modernity continued to engage versions of nature, it becomes possible to reposition Japan and "the East" within modernity's history rather than treating them as the Other. [source] Networks of Empire: Linkage and Reciprocity in Nineteenth-Century Irish and Indian HistoryHISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2009Barry Crosbie Recent debates surrounding Ireland's historical relationship with the British empire have focused almost exclusively upon its constitutional and political ties with Britain. The question of Ireland's colonial status continues to be heavily debated in Irish historiography and has been a contributing factor in obscuring our wider understanding of the complexity of Ireland's involvement in empire. For over 200 years, Ireland and India were joined together by an intricate series of networks that were borne out of direct Irish involvement in British imperialism overseas. Whether as migrants, soldiers, administrators, doctors, missionaries or educators, the Irish played an important role in administering, governing and populating vast areas of Britain's eastern empire. This article discusses new approaches to the study of Ireland's imperial past that allow us to move beyond the old ,coloniser-colonised' debate, to address the key issue of whether Ireland or the varieties of Irishness of its imperial servants and settlers made a specific difference to the experience of empire. By highlighting the multiplicity of Irish connections within the context of the nineteenth-century British empire in India, this article describes how imperial networks were used by contemporaries (settlers, migrants and indigenous agents) as mechanisms for the exchange of a whole set of ideas, practices and goods between Ireland and India during the colonial era. [source] The Trans-Tasman Cable, the Australasian Bridgehead and Imperial HistoryHISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2008James Smithies The extension of the ,All Red' telegraph network to Australia and New Zealand during the 1870s greatly enhanced communication between the centre and periphery, consolidating British imperial expansion and offering the Australasian colonies the opportunity to engage more fully in imperial affairs. For contemporaries, the Trans-Tasman cable between Australia and New Zealand provided the final link in a grand imperial chain of communications, which promised to bolster their significance in world affairs and offset the cultural isolation which appeared to be stifling their development. The cable represented an essential bond between the furthest-flung imperial ,bridgehead' (John Darwin) and the cultural and strategic centre of London. In real terms, however, the promises of the new technology of submarine telegraphy failed to live up to expectations. Although quickly integrated into New Zealanders' dawning cultural nationalist myth, the cable was expensive and underused for many years. Its real significance lies in its symbolic power as a symbol of imperial expansion, and as a case study in the vagaries of technology transfer. [source] Exploring the nutrition and lifestyle knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of student home economics teachers: baseline findings from a 4-year longitudinal studyINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 4 2008Mary Isobelle Mullaney Abstract It is widely acknowledged that obesity linked with reduced exercise contributes to health problems, and that, conversely, individuals who embark on weight reducing diets may become deficient in key nutrients. It is often advocated that these problems, which can be grouped together as poor dietary practice, be tackled through education. This study attempts to examine the relationship between nutrition education and lifestyle behaviours in a select group of third level students. The Irish Home Economics curriculum aims to teach secondary school pupils about nutrition and lifestyle practices conducive to health. However, the attitudes and lifestyle practices of those teaching this subject have never been examined in Ireland. The purpose of the present 4-year longitudinal study, whose first year findings are presented here, is to investigate the nutrition and lifestyle knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of a cohort of Irish student home economics teachers over the 4 years of their Bachelor of Education (Home Economics) degree course. The study was designed to explore possible changes in knowledge, attitudes and practices over the course of their professional education. Nutritional knowledge was measured using a 220-question adapted version of the test devised by Parmenter and Wardle. Attitudes were measured using a questionnaire adapted from the Pan-EU Survey on Consumer Attitudes to Physical Activity, Body-weight and Health. Food, alcohol consumption and exercise were measured using a 7-day reported dietary/exercise diary. Nutrient intake data were determined using dietary analysis. Weight, height and waist circumference were measured and body mass index (BMI) calculated. When starting college, student home economics teachers have broadly similar anthropometric, dietary and lifestyle characteristics to those of their contemporaries. Mean BMI was identical [24.4 kg/m2 (SD 4.3)] to that reported in the North/South Ireland Food Consumption Survey (NSIFCS) for those aged 18,35 years, although energy intakes were significantly higher in the cohort of student teachers (P = 0.000). Thirty-eight per cent were overweight or obese vs. 33.6% in the NSIFCS. Only 17% (n = 6) of students achieved an intake of 300 µg/day of folate as recommended by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and only one the recommended intake of non-starch polysaccharides (18 g/day). One in three students in this study smoke (16 of 48) and alcohol consumption was high. Only one student was very active. Students scored a mean of 55% (SD 8%) on the knowledge test, with similar scores attained for specific aspects of nutritional knowledge (i.e. food groups, constituents of foods, current dietary advice, nutrients, lifestyle practices). However, knowledge of nutrition definitions was weaker with a mean score of 31% (SD 8.6%). Students had a positive attitude towards food choice, the link between food and health and control over their own diet. Similar attitudes towards exercise, smoking and alcohol consumption were displayed despite students perceiving themselves as not having a balanced diet, having insufficient exercise and having regretted something done as a result of consuming alcohol. They appear to display optimistic bias in relation to health risks. These findings provide baseline data for the longitudinal study and indicate that those choosing to pursue a career as a home economics teacher in Ireland have similar nutritional and lifestyle characteristics to those of their contemporaries. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||