title: Philippine Air Force

text: Initial attempts to improve the capabilities of the Armed Forces happened when a law was passed in the same year for the sale of redundant military installations and devote 35 percent of the proceeds for the AFP upgrades. Subsequently, the legislature passed the AFP Modernization Act. The law sought to modernize the AFP over a 15-year period, with minimum appropriation of 10-billion Pesos per year for the first five years, subject to increase in subsequent years of the program. The modernization fund was to be separate and distinct from the rest of the AFP budget.


title: Philippine Air Force

text: However, the Asian Financial Crisis struck the region on 1997. This has greatly affected the AFP Modernization Program due to the government's austerity measures meant to turn the economy around after suffering from losses incurred during the financial crisis.


title: Philippine Air Force

text: Several air assets acquired by the Philippine Air Force thru the original AFP Modernization Program of 1995 were the AW109 armed scout helicopters, and airlift assets like the Airbus C295 and CASA C212 Aviocar.


title: Philippine Air Force

text: Since the retirement of the Northrop F-5s in September 2005 without a planned replacement, the Philippine Air Force was left without fighter jets. The PAF resorted to the Aermacchi S-211 trainer jets to fill the void left by the F-5's. These S-211's were later upgraded to light attack capability and used for air and sea patrol and also performed counter-insurgency operations from time to time. The only active fixed wing aircraft to fill the roles were the SF-260 trainers with light attack capability, the OV-10 Bronco light attack and reconnaissance aircraft and the AS-211 warriors (upgraded S-211).


title: Philippine Air Force

text: The incidents with Chinese presence in the South China Sea prompted the Philippines to proceed with formal measures while challenging the Chinese activities in some of the sea features in the disputed island chain. Hence, the South China Sea Arbitration Case was filed by the Philippines in 2013 at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).


title: Philippine Air Force

text: Reminiscent to what occurred in 1995, the Congress passed the Revised AFP Modernization Act of 2012, this was meant to replace the older AFP Modernization Act of 1995 signed during former Pres. Fidel V. Ramos’ term, when its 15-year program effectivity expired in 2010. Major air assets acquired in this new modernization program iteration are 12 FA-50 Light Fighters, while those programmed for future procurements are the Multi-Role Fighters and the Maritime Patrol Aircraft, among other equipment.


title: Philippine Air Force

text: In response to regional strategic challenges and perceived internal weaknesses, the PAF has embarked on a transformation process to enhance its capabilities. Flight Plan 2028 is administered by the Air Force Strategy Management Office (AFSMO), and aims to:


title: Philippine Air Force

text: The plan calls for a reorienting of the Philippine Air Force from a primarily internal security role to a territorial defence force. It will require substantial organisational, doctrinal, training, strategic and equipment transformation.


title: Philippine Air Force

text: In April 2014, the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement was signed by the representatives of the Philippine and US Governments, aimed at bolstering the military alliance of both countries. The agreement allows the United States to rotate troops into the Philippines for extended stays and allows the U.S. to build and operate temporary facilities on Philippine military bases for both American and Philippine forces' use.


title: Philippine Air Force

text: Both parties agreed to determine the military installations across the Philippines as covered by the pact, including the former US Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark Air Base, as well as several locations on Cebu, Luzon, and Palawan.


title: Philippine Air Force

text: As of 2016, four PAF bases and one Army camp have been determined by the United States and the Philippines to be utilized under the agreement. The Air Force Bases are Basa Air Base, Antonio Bautista Air Base, Benito Ebuen Air Base, and Lumbia Airfield.


title: Philippine Air Force

text: The Philippine Air Force is commanded by the Chief of the Air Force, holding the rank of Lieutenant General, and is assisted by the Vice Chief of the Philippine Air Force, and the Chief of Air Staff, in charge of organizational and administrative matters, both holders of the rank of Major General. The Philippine Air Force consists of three tactical commands, three support commands, seven air wings including one separate search and rescue wing, one engineering brigade, one air control and warning wing, one air weather group and one special operations unit.


title: Philippine Air Force

text: The three Tactical Commands are in the direct control of the PAF Leadership while serving his function in the command chain of the AFP. These units are jointly reactivated and reorganized on July 21, 2017, while effectively replacing the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Air Divisions as part of the PAF Flight Plan 2028.


title: Philippine Air Force

text: The three Support Commands are in charge for the overall combat, logistics, education, training, doctrine development, reservist management and administrative support in the PAF's operations.


title: Philippine Air Force

text: The Philippine Air Force had a number of aerobatic teams among which the PAF Blue Diamonds was the first to be founded, and was one of the oldest formal aerobatics teams in the world. The proceeding units listed are at inactive status due to the retirement of their aircraft, most notably the Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighters.


title: Philippine Air Force

text: The Philippine Air Force has nine major air bases and several radar, communications, and support facilities located throughout the archipelago. Shared facilities with commercial airports being used as detachments by the Tactical Operations Command were not included here.


title: Philippine Air Force

text: The Philippine Air Force has made use of its existing equipment to fulfill its mandate while modernization projects are underway. The Republic Act No. 7898 declares the policy of the State to modernize the military to a level where it can effectively and fully perform its constitutional mandate to uphold the sovereignty and preserve the patrimony of the republic. The law, as amended, has set conditions that should be satisfied when the defense department procures major equipment and weapon systems for the air force.


title: Philippine Air Force

text: These are acquisition projects of the government that have been signed and awaiting delivery for the modernization of the air force.


title: Meghan McCain

text: Meghan Marguerite McCain (born October 23, 1984) is an American television personality, columnist, and author. She has worked for ABC News, Fox News, and MSNBC. The daughter of politician John McCain and diplomat Cindy McCain, she has been a public figure for much of her life, first appearing at the 1996 Republican National Convention.


title: Meghan McCain

text: McCain received media attention in her own right in 2007 for her blog, "McCain Blogette", on which she documented life on the John McCain 2008 presidential campaign. In 2009, she became a contributing writer for "The Daily Beast". From 2016 to 2017, she co-hosted the daytime talk show "Outnumbered". She joined the daytime talk show "The View" shortly thereafter, co-hosting it until 2021. McCain became a columnist for the "Daily Mail" newspaper following her departure from "The View".


title: Meghan McCain

text: McCain is the eldest of the four children of Senator John McCain and Cindy McCain. She was born on October 23, 1984, in Phoenix, Arizona, and attended Phoenix Country Day School and Xavier College Preparatory, an all-girl private Catholic high school. She appeared at the 1996 Republican National Convention when she was 11 years of age. On April 5, 2003, McCain was presented to society at the Board of Visitors Debutante Ball at the Camelback Inn in Paradise Valley, Arizona.


title: Meghan McCain

text: She attended Columbia University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in art history in 2007. McCain originally planned to become a music journalist and interned at "Newsweek" and "Saturday Night Live".


title: Meghan McCain

text: McCain launched a blog titled "McCain Blogette" in 2007, documenting her father's presidential campaign as well as musing about fashion, music, and pop culture. On June 12, 2008, McCain wrote on her blog that she had changed her party registration to Republican. She said she did so "as a symbol of my commitment to my Dad and to represent the faith I have in his ability to be an effective leader for our country and to grow and strengthen the Republican party when he is elected president of the United States." In her book "Dirty Sexy Politics" McCain talks about how she nearly overdosed on Xanax on the day of the election. In 2008, she published a book titled "My Dad, John McCain". In an interview on "Larry King Live" in September 2008, McCain stated that she had been too busy to have a romantic relationship while on her father's campaign trail.


title: Meghan McCain

text: Although her blogging was devoted to gaining support for her father among the Generation Y electorate, by October, Steve Schmidt and other McCain campaign staffers had substantially limited her appearances on the campaign, deeming her "too controversial."


title: Meghan McCain

text: McCain began writing for "The Daily Beast" in January 2009. In March 2009, she wrote an article for "The Daily Beast" titled "My Beef With Ann Coulter." In this article, she questioned Republican support for conservative author and columnist Ann Coulter. While Coulter did not respond, conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham challenged McCain's article by comparing her to a "valley girl." Ingraham also mocked McCain: "Ok, I was really hoping that I was going to get that role in "The Real World", but then I realized that, well, they don't like plus-sized models." McCain responded to Ingraham in a second article for "The Daily Beast" titled "Quit Talking About My Weight, Laura Ingraham": "Instead of intellectually debating our ideological differences about the future of the Republican Party, Ingraham resorted to making fun of my age and weight, in the fashion of the mean girls in high school." McCain also stated that she thought the change in discourse toward her body was "terrible" and further argued, "When Tyra Banks went on her show in a bathing suit and said 'kiss my fat ass,' that's what I feel like. Kiss my fat ass!" Ingraham responded by calling McCain a "useful idiot." During a later interview on "Larry King Live", McCain said that as far as she is concerned, "with what's going on with Laura Ingraham, on my end, it's over." She also told King that Coulter never responded to her article, which, she stated, "is fine with me... All I wanted to do is show women that you don't have to be Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham to have a place in the Republican Party... Supriya Jindal is a good role model, but a lot of people hadn't heard of her."


title: Meghan McCain

text: In April 2009, she signed a six-figure book deal with Hyperion. She described her aims in this way: "All I am trying to be is a young, cool Republican woman for other Republican women." "Politico" stated that while John McCain did not emerge from the 2008 election victorious, "his Bud Light–drinking, talk-show–appearing, insouciantly Twittering 24-year-old daughter" did." Speaking at the 2009 Log Cabin Republican Convention, McCain said there was "a war brewing in the Republican Party" between the past and the future, and that "Most of the old school Republicans are scared shitless of that future." She followed that by saying her enjoyment of Twitter was diminished by the presence of top Republican strategist Karl Rove, saying, "I can't shake the fact that Karl Rove is following me—it can be creepy" and "We need to take Twitter back from the creepy people."


title: Meghan McCain

text: Statements such as these led news reports and commentators including Rachel Maddow and Kathleen Parker to conclude that McCain had the same "maverick gene" as her father. Following the April 2009 party switch by Senator Arlen Specter from Republican to Democratic, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh suggested that many Republicans wished both McCain and her father would leave too. Her tweet in response was, "RED TIL I'M DEAD BABY!!! I love the Republican party enough to give it constructive criticism, I love my party and sure as hell not leavin'!"


title: Meghan McCain

text: On a May 2009 episode of the "Colbert Report", she stated her support for sex education and criticized Bristol Palin's sexual abstinence campaign, saying it was "not realistic for this generation". McCain also stated her own desires for the Republican Party: "It can be a party for a 24-year-old pro-sex woman. It can be." After John McCain campaign fixture Joe the Plumber made some anti-gay remarks (saying he would not have "queers ... anywhere near my children") in mid-2009, Meghan McCain took aim at him, saying "Joe the Plumber—you can quote me—is a dumbass. He should stick to plumbing." In September 2009 and February 2010, McCain had repeat stints as guest co-host of "The View". In September 2010, she appeared on the NPR news quiz show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" and won a prize for a listener.


title: Meghan McCain

text: Her campaign memoir, "Dirty Sexy Politics", was published in September 2010. In it she expresses her opinions about Sarah Palin and describes her relationships with the McCain campaign staff. She states that the Republican Party seemed "to have lost its way in the last ten years," that the conservative movement seemed "hell-bent on restricting our freedoms rather than expanding them," and that within the Republican Party, she felt a certain stress to take over the ideas of others, like Mitt Romney, especially regarding same-sex marriage, which was a danger for the existence of the party. The "New York Times" described the book as a coming-of-age narrative about herself. However, other reviews were more scathing. Leon H. Wolf wrote, "It is impossible to read "Dirty, Sexy Politics" and come away with the impression that you have read anything other than the completely unedited ramblings of an idiot." During the promotional tour for the book, McCain canceled an appearance at Juniata College owing to what she called "unforeseen professional circumstances." However, according to her Twitter, she was actually in Las Vegas on a girls' weekend, as she got over a boyfriend ending their relationship via e-mail.


title: Meghan McCain

text: McCain has publicly discussed her struggles with grief from the death of her father, John McCain in 2018. In December 2019, McCain spoke with Dr. Lucy Kalanithi on stage at the annual End Well Symposium about challenging taboos and destigmatizing conversations about grief and death.


title: Meghan McCain

text: In April 2022 McCain published a memoir titled "Bad Republican" which sold 244 copies in its opening week.


title: Meghan McCain

text: A month-long road trip with comedian Michael Ian Black in the summer of 2011 led to a collaboration on the 2012 book "America, You Sexy Bitch: A Love Letter to Freedom". In it, McCain lambasts Republican strategist Karl Rove for what she believes was his role in the attacks against her younger sister in her father's 2000 presidential campaign, castigates Bill Clinton for his actions in the Lewinsky scandal, but despite ideological differences, praises Hillary Clinton for having "pushed through many doors and shattered many glass ceilings for women in politics. I love women who don't put up with shit, and Hillary clearly doesn't." In November 2011, McCain became an analyst on MSNBC, and immediately got into a back-and-forth with 2012 Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.


title: Meghan McCain

text: In September 2013, her road-based talk show "Raising McCain" began on the start-up Pivot cable and satellite television channel. It was canceled in January 2014. She was later added as a co-host to the show "TakePart Live" on the same channel, appearing with Jacob Soboroff beginning in May 2014. The show was canceled in December 2014.


title: Meghan McCain

text: She signed on as a Fox News contributor in July 2015 and was named a regular co-host of the afternoon talk program "Outnumbered" on November 14, 2016. Following her departure from both the program and the network in September 2017, McCain was named a permanent co-host of the ABC daytime talk show "The View". She made her debut on the October 9, 2017, episode. She had previously guest co-hosted the show in 2008 and 2010. She announced her exit from the show after her fourth season in July 2021.


title: Meghan McCain

text: McCain describes herself as "a woman who despises labels and boxes and stereotypes" and politically identifies as a Republican who is "liberal on social issues." She registered as an independent voter when she was 18 years old and voted for John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. She has stated that she is pro-life as well as in favor of sex education and birth control. She has expressed an opinion that conservatives demonstrate hypocrisy regarding abortion: "They go on and on about how evil and wrong abortion is, but don't like to talk about how easy it is to "not" get pregnant."


title: Meghan McCain

text: McCain agrees with her father's positions on global warming, stem-cell research, and supporting environmentalist legislation. At first she had doubts about the 2003 invasion of Iraq but subsequently supported her father's pro-intervention position regarding it. She objected to the Arizona SB1070 anti-illegal immigration law, which her father supported. In terms of economic policy, she once remarked on "The Rachel Maddow Show": "I didn't even take econ[omics] in college. I don't completely understand it so I'd hate to make a comment one way or the other. That's—truly of all the things—I keep reading and I just don't understand it."


title: Meghan McCain

text: McCain has campaigned for gay rights, and she has commented that the cause of the gay community for equality is "one of the ones closest to my heart." In this way, she spoke at the Log Cabin Republicans convention in April 2009, describing her cultural and political perspectives with the declaration: "I am concerned about the environment. I love to wear black. I think government is best when it stays out of people's lives and business as much as possible. I love punk rock. I believe in a strong national defense. I have a tattoo. I believe government should always be efficient and accountable. I have lots of gay friends. And, yes, I am a Republican." She supports same-sex marriage and gay adoption. In June 2009, McCain posed for the NOH8 Campaign, a celebrity photo project that protests California's Proposition 8 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, which her mother Cindy also posed for. She was in favor of repealing "Don't ask, don't tell" and allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. military, a position her father adopted prior to his 2008 presidential run. She also co-hosted GLAAD's Concert for Love and Acceptance in Nashville in 2015. McCain described the Trump administration's ban on transgender service as "an unfair, un-American, and dangerous policy."


title: Meghan McCain

text: In the 2016 presidential election, she did not vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, instead writing in Evan McMullin. On September 1, 2018, she delivered a eulogy at her father's funeral at Washington National Cathedral. In an emotional eulogy to her father, McCain mourned her father's passing as the "passing of American greatness, the real thing." In what was widely seen as a sharp rebuke of Donald Trump, McCain remarked: "The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great."


title: Meghan McCain

text: McCain spoke out against the 2021 United States Capitol attack, saying on "The View": "I'm not against sending these people to Gitmo. ... These are domestic terrorists who attacked our own republic. They should be treated the same way we treat Al-Qaeda." She also said, "The bedrock of our democracy and the bedrock of who we are as Americans is the peaceful transition of power. And he is clearly a president who has turned into a mad king." She then called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked, and Trump to be removed from office.


title: Meghan McCain

text: In July 2017, McCain became engaged to conservative writer and commentator Ben Domenech. They were married on November 21, 2017, at McCain's family ranch in Page Springs, Arizona. In July 2019, McCain revealed that she had miscarried earlier that year. She gave birth to the couple's first child, a girl named Liberty, in 2020.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a broad type of armoured military vehicle designed to transport personnel and equipment in combat zones. Since World War I, APCs have become a very common piece of military equipment around the world.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: According to the definition in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, an APC is "an armoured combat vehicle which is designed and equipped to transport a combat infantry squad and which, as a rule, is armed with an integral or organic weapon of less than 20 millimetres calibre." Compared to infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), which are also used to carry infantry into battle, APCs have less armament and are not designed to provide direct fire support in battle. Infantry units which travel in APCs are known as mechanized infantry. Some militaries also make a distinction between infantry units which use APCs and infantry units which use IFVs, with the latter being known as armoured infantry in such militaries.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: The genesis of the armoured personnel carrier was on the Western Front of World War I. In the later stage of the war, Allied tanks could break through enemy trenches, but the infantry following—who were needed to consolidate the territory acquired—still faced small arms and artillery fire. Without infantry support, the tanks were isolated and more easily destroyed. In response, the British experimented with carrying machine-gun crews in the Mark V* tank, but it was found that the conditions inside the tanks rendered the men unfit for combat.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: During World War II, half-tracks like the American M3 and German Sd.Kfz. 251 played a role similar to post-war APCs. British Commonwealth forces relied on the full-tracked Universal Carrier. Over the course of the war, APCs evolved from simple armoured cars with transport capacity to purpose-built vehicles. Obsolete armoured vehicles were also repurposed as APCs, such as the various "Kangaroos" converted from M7 Priest self-propelled guns and from Churchill, M3 Stuart and Ram tanks.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: During the Cold War, more specialized APCs were developed. The United States introduced a series of them, including successors to the wartime Landing Vehicle Tracked; but the most prolific was the M113 armored personnel carrier, of which more than 80,000 were produced. Western nations have since retired most M113s, replacing them with newer APCs, many of these wheeled. A cold war example of a "Kangaroo" is the heavily armoured Israeli Achzarit, converted from captured T-55s tanks, the concept culminating in the Namer.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: Meanwhile, the Warsaw Pact developed their own versions of the APC. The Soviet Union termed theirs the Bronetransporter (), better known as the BTR series. It comprised the BTR-40, BTR-152, BTR-60, BTR-70, BTR-80, and the BTR-90, which as a whole were produced in large numbers. Czechoslovakia and Poland together developed the universal amphibious OT-64 SKOT. The BMP series is termed as infantry fighting vehicles, but it has a designed role of carrying troops to the battlefield. The BMP-1, 2, and 3 all possess the ability to transport troops. Their thin armour has hindered effective use in most battlefields however; as part of their design, they were made light enough to float on water, thus their armour is thin and of limited effectiveness against modern anti-armour means. The Russian military has responded by developing a new series of APCs: the Bumerang to replace the BTRs, the Kurganets to replace the BMPs and MT-LB, and a new heavy IFV design similar to the Namer: the BMP T-15. As of early 2022, none of these designs have reached service, but they are expected to eventually comprise a significant portion of the Russian Army.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: By convention, armoured personnel carriers are not intended to take part in direct-fire battle, but are armed for self-defence and armoured to provide protection from shrapnel and small arms fire.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: Wheeled vehicles are typically faster on road and less expensive, however have higher ground pressure which decreases mobility offroad and makes them more likely to become stuck in soft terrains such as mud, snow or sand.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: Tracked vehicles typically have lower ground pressure and more maneuverability off-road. Due to the limited service life of their treads, and the wear they cause on roads, tracked vehicles are typically transported over long distances by rail or trucks.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: Many APCs are amphibious, meaning they are able to traverse bodies of water. To move in water they will often have propellers or water jets, be propelled by their tracks, or driving on the river bed. Preparing the APC to operate amphibiously usually comprises checking the integrity of the hull and folding down a trim vane in front. Water traverse speed varies greatly between vehicles and is much less than ground speed. The maximum swim speed of the M113 is 3.6 mph (5.8 km/h), about 10% its road speed, and the AAVP-7 can swim at 8.2 mph (13.2 km/h).


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: Armoured personnel carriers are typically designed to protect against small arms and artillery fire. Some designs have more protection; the Israeli IDF Namer has as much armour as Merkava main battle tank. Armour is usually composed of steel or aluminium. They will also use bulletproof glass.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: Many APCs are equipped with CBRN protection, which is intended to provide protection from weapons of mass destruction like poison gas and radioactive/nuclear weapons.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: Generally APCs will be lighter and less armoured than tanks or IFVs, often being open topped and featuring doors and windows, as seen in the French VAB.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: Armoured personnel carriers are designed primarily for transport and are lightly armed. They may be unarmed, or armed with some combination of light, medium, heavy machine guns, or automatic grenade launchers.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: In Western nations, APCs are frequently armed with the .50 calibre M2 Browning machine gun, 7.62mm FN MAG, or 40mm Mk 19 grenade launcher. In former Eastern bloc nations, the KPV, PKT and NSV machine guns are common options.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: In "open top" mounts the gunner sticks out of the vehicle and operates a gun on a pintle or ring mount. A ring mount allows the gun to traverse 360 degrees, a pintle mount has a limited field of fire. It can be preferable to an enclosed gunner because it allows a greater field of view and communication using shouts and hand signals. However, the gunner is poorly protected and at risk of injury in the event of vehicle rollover. During the Vietnam War, M113 gunners often suffered heavy casualties.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: Enclosed vehicles are equipped with turrets that allow the crew to operate the weapons system while protected by the vehicle's armour. The Soviet BTR-60 has an enclosed turret mounted with a KPV heavy machine gun with a PKT coaxial machine gun. The U.S. Assault Amphibious Vehicle, Personnel (AAVP7's) machine guns (an M2, .50 caliber MG and a Mk 19 grenade launcher) are in fully enclosed turrets (turrets typically have optics which make them more accurate).


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: More recently, APCs have been equipped remote weapon systems. The baseline Stryker carries an M2 on a Protector remote weapons system.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: APCs may be used as armoured ambulances, to conduct evacuations of wounded personnel. These vehicles are equipped with stretchers and medical supplies.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: According to article 19 of the Geneva Conventions, "mobile medical units of the Medical Service may in no circumstances be attacked, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict". Although article 22 allows them to carry defensive weaponry, they are typically unarmed. Under Article 39, the emblem of the medical service "shall be displayed ... on all equipment employed in the Medical Service." As such, armoured ambulances are marked with International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) recognized symbols.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: The infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) is a derivative of the APC. Various classes of infantry fighting vehicles may be deployed alongside tanks and APCs, in armoured and mechanized forces. The fundamental difference between an APC and IFV, is the role they are designed to serve. The CFE treaty stipulates an infantry fighting vehicle is an APC with a cannon in excess of 20 mm, and with this additional firepower the vehicle is more involved in combat, providing fire support to dismounted infantry.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: "Infantry mobility vehicle" (IMV) is a new name for the old concept of an armoured car, with an emphasis on mine resistance. They are primarily used to protect passengers in unconventional theatres of war.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: The South African Casspir was first built in the late 1970s. In the 21st century, they gained favour in the post-Cold-War geopolitical climate. Identical to earlier High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) in design and function, the uparmoured M1114 HMMWV is a clear example of this. The addition of armour provides protection to passengers. M1114s have been largely replaced by purpose-built Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles.


title: Armoured personnel carrier

text: IMVs generally feature a v-shaped underbelly designed to deflect mine blasts outwards, with additional crew protection features such as four-point seat belts, and seats suspended from the roof or sides of the vehicle. Many feature a remote weapon system. Usually four-wheel drive, these IMVs are distinct from 8-, 6-, and 4-wheeled APCs (such as the VAB), being closer in appearance to civilian armoured money and gold transporters.


title: Ceremonial counties of England

text: The counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England and informally known as ceremonial counties, are areas of England to which lords-lieutenant are appointed. Legally, the areas in England, as well as in Wales and Scotland, are defined by the Lieutenancies Act 1997 as "counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies in Great Britain", in contrast to the areas used for local government. They are also informally known as "geographic counties", to distinguish them from other types of counties of England.


title: Ceremonial counties of England

text: The distinction between a county for purposes of the lieutenancy and a county for administrative purposes is not a new one; in some cases, a county corporate that was part of a county appointed its own lieutenant (although the lieutenant of the containing county would often be appointed to this position, as well), and the three Ridings of Yorkshire had been treated as three counties for lieutenancy purposes since the 17th century.


title: Ceremonial counties of England

text: The Local Government Act 1888 established county councils to assume the administrative functions of quarter sessions in the counties. It created new entities called "administrative counties". An administrative county comprised all of the county apart from the county boroughs; also, some traditional subdivisions of counties were constituted administrative counties, for instance the Soke of Peterborough in Northamptonshire and the Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire. The act further stipulated that areas that were part of an administrative county would be part of the county for all purposes. The greatest change was the creation of the County of London, which was made both an administrative county and a "county"; it included parts of the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent, and Surrey. Other differences were small and resulted from the constraint that urban sanitary districts (and later urban districts and municipal boroughs) were not permitted to straddle county boundaries.


title: Ceremonial counties of England

text: Apart from Yorkshire, counties that were subdivided nevertheless continued to exist as ceremonial counties. For example, the administrative counties of East Suffolk and West Suffolk, along with the county borough of Ipswich, were considered to make up a single ceremonial county of Suffolk, and the administrative county of the Isle of Wight was part of the ceremonial county of Hampshire.


title: Ceremonial counties of England

text: The term "ceremonial county" is an anachronism; at the time they were shown on Ordnance Survey maps as "counties" or "geographical counties", and were referred to in the Local Government Act 1888 simply as "counties".


title: Ceremonial counties of England

text: Apart from minor boundary revisions (for example, Caversham, a town in Oxfordshire, becoming part of Reading county borough and thus of Berkshire, in 1911), these areas changed little until the 1965 creation of Greater London and of Huntingdon and Peterborough, which resulted in the abolition of the offices of Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex, Lord Lieutenant of the County of London, and Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire and the creation of the Lord Lieutenant of Greater London and of the Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdon and Peterborough.


title: Ceremonial counties of England

text: In 1974, administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished, and a major reform was instituted. At this time, lieutenancy was redefined to use the new metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties directly.


title: Ceremonial counties of England

text: Following a further rearrangement in 1996, Avon, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester, and Humberside were abolished. This led to a resurrection of a distinction between the local government counties and the ceremonial or geographical counties used for lieutenancy, and also to the adoption of the term "ceremonial counties", which although not used in statute, was used in the House of Commons before the arrangements coming into effect.


title: Ceremonial counties of England

text: The County of Avon that had been formed in 1974 was mostly split between Gloucestershire and Somerset, but its city of Bristol regained the status of a county in itself, which it had lost upon the formation of Avon. Cleveland was partitioned between North Yorkshire and Durham. Hereford and Worcester was divided into the restored counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Humberside was split between Lincolnshire and a new ceremonial county of East Riding of Yorkshire. Rutland was restored as a ceremonial county. Many county boroughs were re-established as "unitary authorities"; this involved establishing the area as an administrative county, but usually not as a ceremonial county.


title: Ceremonial counties of England

text: Most ceremonial counties are, therefore, entities comprising local authority areas, as they were from 1889 to 1974. The Association of British Counties, a traditional counties lobbying organisation, has suggested that ceremonial counties be restored to their ancient boundaries.


title: Ceremonial counties of England

text: The shrieval counties are defined by the Sheriffs Act 1887 as amended, in a similar way to the lieutenancies defined by the Lieutenancies Act 1997. Each has a high sheriff appointed (except the City of London, which has two sheriffs).


title: Ceremonial counties of England

text: The Lieutenancies Act 1997 defines counties for the purposes of lieutenancies in terms of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties (created by the Local Government Act 1972, as amended) as well as Greater London and the Isles of Scilly (which lie outside the 1972 Act's new system). Although the term is not used in the act, these counties are sometimes known as "ceremonial counties". The counties are defined in Schedule 1, paragraphs 2–5 as amended (most recently in 2009 and 2019) — these amendments have not altered the actual areas covered by the counties as set out in 1997, only their composition in terms of local government areas, as a result of structural changes in local government.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, generally referred to by its shortened title The Wealth of Nations, is the "magnum opus" of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. First published in 1776, the book offers one of the world's first collected descriptions of what builds nations' wealth, and is today a fundamental work in classical economics. By reflecting upon the economics at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the book touches upon such broad topics as the division of labour, productivity, and free markets.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: "The Wealth of Nations" was published in two volumes on 9 March 1776 (with books I–III included in the first volume and books IV and V included in the second), during the Scottish Enlightenment and the Scottish Agricultural Revolution. It influenced several authors and economists, such as Karl Marx, as well as governments and organizations, setting the terms for economic debate and discussion for the next century and a half. For example, Alexander Hamilton was influenced in part by "The Wealth of Nations" to write his "Report on Manufactures", in which he argued against many of Smith's policies. Hamilton based much of this report on the ideas of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, and it was, in part, Colbert's ideas that Smith responded to, and criticised, with "The Wealth of Nations".


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: "The Wealth of Nations" was the product of seventeen years of notes and earlier studies, as well as an observation of conversation among economists of the time (like Nicholas Magens) concerning economic and societal conditions during the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and it took Smith some ten years to produce. The result was a treatise which sought to offer a practical application for reformed economic theory to replace the mercantilist and physiocratic economic theories that were becoming less relevant in the time of industrial progress and innovation. It provided the foundation for economists, politicians, mathematicians, and thinkers of all fields to build upon. Irrespective of historical influence, "The Wealth of Nations" represented a clear paradigm shift in the field of economics, comparable to what Immanuel Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" was for philosophy.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Five editions of "The Wealth of Nations" were published during Smith's lifetime: in 1776, 1778, 1784, 1786 and 1789. Numerous editions appeared after Smith's death in 1790. To better understand the evolution of the work under Smith's hand, a team led by Edwin Cannan collated the first five editions. The differences were published along with an edited sixth edition in 1904. They found minor but numerous differences (including the addition of many footnotes) between the first and the second editions; the differences between the second and third editions are major. In 1784, Smith annexed these first two editions with the publication of "Additions and Corrections to the First and Second Editions of Dr. Adam Smith's Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations", and he also had published the three-volume third edition of the "Wealth of Nations", which incorporated "Additions and Corrections" and, for the first time, an index. Among other things, the "Additions and Corrections" included entirely new sections, particularly to book 4, chapters 4 and 5, and to book 5, chapter 1, as well as an additional chapter (8), "Conclusion of the Mercantile System", in book 4.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: The fourth edition, published in 1786, had only slight differences from the third edition, and Smith himself says in the "Advertisement" at the beginning of the book, "I have made no alterations of any kind." Finally, Cannan notes only trivial differences between the fourth and fifth editions—a set of misprints being removed from the fourth and a different set of misprints being introduced.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Division of labour has caused a greater increase in production than any other factor. This diversification is greatest for nations with more industry and improvement, and is responsible for "universal opulence" in those countries. This is in part due to increased quality of production, but more importantly because of increased efficiency of production, leading to a higher nominal output of units produced per time unit. Agriculture is less amenable than manufacturing to division of labour; hence, rich nations are not so far ahead of poor nations in agriculture as in manufacturing.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Limited opportunity for exchange discourages division of labour. Because "water-carriage" (i.e. transportation) extends the market, division of labour, with its improvements, comes earliest to cities near waterways. Civilization began around the highly navigable Mediterranean Sea.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: With division of labour, the produce of one's own labour can fill only a small part of one's needs. Different commodities have served as a common medium of exchange, but all nations have finally settled on metals, which are durable and divisible, for this purpose. Before coinage, people had to weigh and assay with each exchange, or risk "the grossest frauds and impositions." Thus nations began stamping metal, on one side only, to ascertain purity, or on all sides, to stipulate purity and amount.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: The quantity of real metal in coins has diminished, due to the "avarice and injustice of princes and sovereign states," enabling them to pay their debts in appearance only, and to the defraudment of creditors.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Of the Wages of Labour: In this section, Smith describes how the wages of labour are dictated primarily by the competition among labourers and masters. When labourers bid against one another for limited opportunities for employment, the wages of labour collectively fall, whereas when employers compete against one another for limited supplies of labour, the wages of labour collectively rise. However, this process of competition is often circumvented by combinations among labourers and among masters. When labourers combine and no longer bid against one another, their wages rise, whereas when masters combine, wages fall. In Smith's day, organised labour was dealt with very harshly by the law.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Smith himself wrote about the "severity" of such laws against worker actions, and made a point to contrast the "clamour" of the "masters" against workers associations, while associations and collusions of the masters "are never heard by the people" though such actions are "always" and "everywhere" taking place:


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: In societies where the amount of labour exceeds the amount of revenue available for waged labour, competition among workers is greater than the competition among employers, and wages fall. Conversely, where revenue is abundant, labour wages rise. Smith argues that, therefore, labour wages only rise as a result of greater revenue disposed to pay for labour. Smith thought labour the same as any other commodity in this respect:


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: However, the amount of revenue must increase constantly in proportion to the amount of labour for wages to remain high. Smith illustrates this by juxtaposing England with the North American colonies. In England, there is more revenue than in the colonies, but wages are lower, because more workers flock to new employment opportunities caused by the large amount of revenue – so workers eventually compete against each other as much as they did before. By contrast, as capital continues to flow to the colonial economies at least at the same rate that population increases to "fill out" this excess capital, wages there stay higher than in England.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: The only way to determine whether a man is rich or poor is to examine the amount of labour he can afford to purchase.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Smith also describes the relation of cheap years and the production of manufactures versus the production in dear years. He argues that while some examples, such as the linen production in France, show a correlation, another example in Scotland shows the opposite. He concludes that there are too many variables to make any statement about this.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Of the Profits of Stock: In this chapter, Smith uses interest rates as an indicator of the profits of stock. This is because interest can only be paid with the profits of stock, and so creditors will be able to raise rates in proportion to the increase or decrease of the profits of their debtors.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Smith argues that the profits of stock are inversely proportional to the wages of labour, because as more money is spent compensating labour, there is less remaining for personal profit. It follows that, in societies where competition among labourers is greatest relative to competition among employers, profits will be much higher. Smith illustrates this by comparing interest rates in England and Scotland. In England, government laws against usury had kept maximum interest rates very low, but even the maximum rate was believed to be higher than the rate at which money was usually loaned. In Scotland, however, interest rates are much higher. This is the result of a greater proportion of capitalists in England, which offsets some competition among labourers and raises wages.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: However, Smith notes that, curiously, interest rates in the colonies are also remarkably high (recall that, in the previous chapter, Smith described how wages in the colonies are higher than in England). Smith attributes this to the fact that, when an empire takes control of a colony, prices for a huge abundance of land and resources are extremely cheap. This allows capitalists to increase their profits, but simultaneously draws many capitalists to the colonies, increasing the wages of labour. As this is done, however, the profits of stock in the mother country rise (or at least cease to fall), as much of it has already flocked offshore.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Of Wages and Profit in the Different Employments of Labour and Stock: Smith repeatedly attacks groups of politically aligned individuals who attempt to use their collective influence to manipulate the government into doing their bidding. At the time, these were referred to as "factions", but are now more commonly called "special interests," a term that can comprise international bankers, corporate conglomerations, outright oligopolies, trade unions and other groups. Indeed, Smith had a particular distrust of the tradesman class. He felt that the members of this class, especially acting together within the guilds they want to form, could constitute a power block and manipulate the state into regulating for special interests against the general interest:


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Smith also argues against government subsidies of certain trades, because this will draw many more people to the trade than what would otherwise be normal, collectively lowering their wages.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Of the Rent of the Land: Chapter 10, part ii, motivates an understanding of the idea of feudalism. Rent, considered as the price paid for the use of land, is naturally the highest the tenant can afford in the actual circumstances of the land. In adjusting lease terms, the landlord endeavours to leave him no greater share of the produce than what is sufficient to keep up the stock from which he furnishes the seed, pays the labour, and purchases and maintains the cattle and other instruments of husbandry, together with the ordinary profits of farming stock in the neighbourhood.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: This is evidently the smallest share with which the tenant can content himself without being a loser, and the landlord seldom means to leave him any more. Whatever part of the produce, or, what is the same thing, whatever part of its price, is over and above this share, he naturally endeavours to reserve to himself as the rent of his land, which is evidently the highest the tenant can afford to pay in the actual circumstances of the land. Sometimes, indeed, the liberality, more frequently the ignorance, of the landlord, makes him accept of somewhat less than this portion; and sometimes too, though more rarely, the ignorance of the tenant makes him undertake to pay somewhat more, or to content himself with somewhat less, than the ordinary profits of farming stock in the neighbourhood. This portion, however, may still be considered as the natural rent of land, or the rent for which it is naturally meant that land should for the most part be let.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: When the stock which a man possesses is no more than sufficient to maintain him for a few days or a few weeks, he seldom thinks of deriving any revenue from it. He consumes it as sparingly as he can, and endeavours by his labour to acquire something which may supply its place before it be consumed altogether. His revenue is, in this case, derived from his labour only. This is the state of the greater part of the labouring poor in all countries.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: But when he possesses stock sufficient to maintain him for months or years, he naturally endeavours to derive a revenue from the greater part of it; reserving only so much for his immediate consumption as may maintain him till this revenue begins to come in. His whole stock, therefore, is distinguished into two parts. That part which, he expects, is to afford him this revenue, is called his capital.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Adam Smith uses this example to address long-term economic growth. Smith states, "As subsistence is, in the nature of things, prior to conveniency and luxury, so the industry which procures the former, must necessarily be prior to that which ministers to the latter". In order for industrial success, subsistence is required first from the countryside. Industry and trade occur in cities while agriculture occurs in the countryside.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Agricultural work is a more desirable situation than industrial work because the owner is in complete control. Smith states that: In our North American colonies, where uncultivated land is still to be had upon easy terms, no manufactures for distant sale have ever yet been established in any of their towns. When an artificer has acquired a little more stock than is necessary for carrying on his own business in supplying the neighbouring country, he does not, in North America, attempt to establish with it a manufacture for more distant sale, but employs it in the purchase and improvement of uncultivated land. From artificer he becomes planter, and neither the large wages nor the easy subsistence which that country affords to artificers, can bribe him rather to work for other people than for himself. He feels that an artificer is the servant of his customers, from whom he derives his subsistence; but that a planter who cultivates his own land, and derives his necessary subsistence from the labour of his own family, is really a master, and independent of all the world. Where there is open countryside agriculture is much preferable to industrial occupations and ownership.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Adam Smith goes on to say "According to the natural course of things, therefore, the greater part of the capital of every growing society is, first, directed to agriculture, afterwards to manufactures, and last of all to foreign commerce". This sequence leads to growth, and therefore opulence.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Of the Discouragement of Agriculture: Chapter 2's long title is "Of the Discouragement of Agriculture in the Ancient State of Europe after the Fall of the Roman Empire".


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: How the Commerce of the Towns Contributed to the Improvement of the Country: Smith often harshly criticised those who act purely out of self-interest and greed, and warns that,


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: ...[a]ll for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Smith vigorously attacked the antiquated government restrictions he thought hindered industrial expansion. In fact, he attacked most forms of government interference in the economic process, including tariffs, arguing that this creates inefficiency and high prices in the long run. It is believed that this theory influenced government legislation in later years, especially during the 19th century.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Smith advocated a government that was active in sectors other than the economy. He advocated public education for poor adults, a judiciary, and a standing army—institutional systems not directly profitable for private industries.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Of the Principle of the Commercial or Mercantile System: The book has sometimes been described as a critique of mercantilism and a synthesis of the emerging economic thinking of Smith's time. Specifically, "The Wealth of Nations" attacks, "inter alia", two major tenets of mercantilism:


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Of Restraints upon the Importation: Chapter 2's full title is "Of Restraints upon the Importation from Foreign Countries of such Goods as can be Produced at Home". The "invisible hand" is a frequently referenced theme from the book, although it is specifically mentioned only once.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: The metaphor of the "invisible hand" has been widely used out of context. In the passage above Smith is referring to "the support of domestic industry" and contrasting that support with the importation of goods. Neoclassical economic theory has expanded the metaphor beyond the domestic/foreign manufacture argument to encompass nearly all aspects of economics.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Of the extraordinary Restraints: Chapter 3's long title is "Of the extraordinary Restraints upon the Importation of Goods of almost all Kinds, from those Countries with which the Balance is supposed to be Disadvantageous".


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Of Drawbacks: Merchants and manufacturers are not contented with the monopoly of the home market, but desire likewise the most extensive foreign sale for their goods. Their country has no jurisdiction in foreign nations, and therefore can seldom procure them any monopoly there. They are generally obliged, therefore, to content themselves with petitioning for certain encouragements to exportation.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Of these encouragements what are called Drawbacks seem to be the most reasonable. To allow the merchant to draw back upon exportation, either the whole or a part of whatever excise or inland duty is imposed upon domestic industry, can never occasion the exportation of a greater quantity of goods than what would have been exported had no duty been imposed. Such encouragements do not tend to turn towards any particular employment a greater share of the capital of the country than what would go to that employment of its own accord, but only to hinder the duty from driving away any part of that shares to other employments.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Of Bounties: Bounties upon exportation are, in Great Britain, frequently petitioned for, and sometimes granted to the produce of particular branches of domestic industry. By means of them our merchants and manufacturers, it is pretended, will be enabled to sell their goods as cheap, or cheaper than their rivals in the foreign market. A greater quantity, it is said, will thus be exported, and the balance of trade consequently turned more in favour of our own country. We cannot give our workmen a monopoly in the foreign as we have done in the home market. We cannot force foreigners to buy their goods as we have done our own countrymen. The next best expedient, it has been thought, therefore, is to pay them for buying. It is in this manner that the mercantile system proposes to enrich the whole country, and to put money into all our pockets by means of the balance of trade.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Of the Advantages which Europe has derived from the Discovery of America, and from that of a Passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope:


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Conclusion of the Mercantile System: Smith's argument about the international political economy opposed the idea of Mercantilism. While the Mercantile System encouraged each country to hoard gold, while trying to grasp hegemony, Smith argued that free trade eventually makes all actors better off. This argument is the modern 'Free Trade' argument.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Of the Agricultural Systems: Chapter 9's long title is "Of the Agricultural Systems, or of those Systems of Political Economy, which Represent the Produce of Land, as either the Sole or the Principal, Source of the Revenue and Wealth of Every Country".


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Smith postulated four "maxims" of taxation: proportionality, transparency, convenience, and efficiency. Some economists interpret Smith's opposition to taxes on transfers of money, such as the Stamp Act, as opposition to capital gains taxes, which did not exist in the 18th century. Other economists credit Smith as one of the first to advocate a progressive tax. Smith wrote, "The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion." Smith believed that an even "more proper" source of progressive taxation than property taxes was ground rent. Smith wrote that "nothing [could] be more reasonable" than a land value tax.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Of the Expenses of the Sovereign or Commonwealth: Smith uses this chapter to comment on the concept of taxation and expenditure by the state. On taxation, Smith wrote,


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: For the lower echelon, Smith recognised the intellectually erosive effect that the otherwise beneficial division of labour can have on workers, what Marx, though he mainly opposes Smith, later named "alienation"; therefore, Smith warns of the consequence of government failing to fulfill its proper role, which is to preserve against the innate tendency of human society to fall apart.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Under Smith's model, government involvement in any area other than those stated above negatively impacts economic growth. This is because economic growth is determined by the needs of a free market and the entrepreneurial nature of private persons. A shortage of a product makes its price rise, and so stimulates producers to produce more and attracts new people to that line of production. An excess supply of a product (more of the product than people are willing to buy) drives prices down, and producers refocus energy and money to other areas where there is a need.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Of the Sources of the General or Public Revenue of the Society: In his discussion of taxes in Book Five, Smith wrote:


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: He also introduced the distinction between a "direct tax", and by implication an "indirect tax" (although he did not use the word "indirect"):


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: This term was later used in United States, Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, and James Madison, who wrote much of the Constitution, is known to have read Smith's book.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Smith then goes on to say that even if money was set aside from future revenues to pay for the debts of war, it seldom actually gets used to pay down the debt. Politicians are inclined to spend the money on some other scheme that will win the favour of their constituents. Hence, interest payments rise and war debts continue to grow larger, well beyond the end of the war.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Summing up, if governments can borrow without check, then they are more likely to wage war without check, and the costs of the war spending will burden future generations, since war debts are almost never repaid by the generations that incurred them.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: The first edition of the book sold out in six months. The printer William Strahan wrote on 12 April 1776 that David Hume said "The Wealth of Nations" required too much thought to be as popular as Edward Gibbon's "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". Strahan also wrote: "What you say of Mr. Gibbon's and Dr. Smith's book is exactly just. The former is the most popular work; but the sale of the latter, though not near so rapid, has been more than I could have expected from a work that requires much thought and reflection (qualities that do not abound among modern readers) to peruse to any purpose." Gibbon wrote to Adam Ferguson on 1 April: "What an excellent work is that with which our common friend Mr. Adam Smith has enriched the public! An extensive science in a single book, and the most profound ideas expressed in the most perspicuous language". The review of the book in the "Annual Register" was probably written by Whig MP Edmund Burke. In 1791, the English-born radical Thomas Paine wrote in his "Rights of Man" that "Had Mr. Burke possessed talents similar to the author 'On the Wealth of Nations,' he would have comprehended all the parts which enter into, and, by assemblage, form a constitution."


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: In 1800, the "Anti-Jacobin Review" criticized "The Wealth of Nations". In 1803, "The Times" argued against war with Spain: She is our best customer; and by the gentle and peaceable stream of commerce, the treasures of the new world flow with greater certainty into English reservoirs, than it could do by the most successful warfare. They come in this way to support our manufactures, to encourage industry, to feed our poor, to pay taxes, to reward ingenuity, to diffuse riches among all classes of people. But for the full understanding of this beneficial circulation of wealth, we must refer to Dr. Adam Smith's incomparable "Treatise on the Wealth of Nations". In 1810, a correspondent writing under the pseudonym of Publicola included at the head of his letter Smith's line that "Exclusive Companies are "nuisances" in every respect" and called him "that learned writer". In 1812, Robert Southey of the "Quarterly Review" condemned "The Wealth of Nations" as a "tedious and hard-hearted book". In 1821, "The Times" quoted Smith's opinion that the interests of corn dealers and the people were the same. In 1826, the English radical William Cobbett criticised in his "Rural Rides" the political economists' hostility to the Poor Law: "Well, amidst all this suffering, there is one good thing; the Scotch political economy is blown to the devil, and the "Edinburgh Review" and Adam Smith along with it".


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: The Liberal statesman William Ewart Gladstone chaired the meeting of the Political Economy Club to celebrate the centenary of the publication of "The Wealth of Nations". The Liberal historian Lord Acton believed that "The Wealth of Nations" gave a "scientific backbone to liberal sentiment" and that it was the "classic English philosophy of history".


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Smith's biographer John Rae contends that "The Wealth of Nations" shaped government policy soon after it was published.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: In 1777, in the first budget after the book was published, Prime Minister Lord North got the idea for two new taxes from the book: one on man-servants and the other on property sold at auction. The budget of 1778 introduced the inhabited house duty and the malt tax, both recommended by Smith. In 1779, Smith was consulted by politicians Henry Dundas and Lord Carlisle on the subject of giving Ireland free trade.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: "The Wealth of Nations" was first mentioned in Parliament by the Whig leader Charles James Fox on 11 November 1783: There was a maxim laid down in an excellent book upon the Wealth of Nations which had been ridiculed for its simplicity, but which was indisputable as to its truth. In that book it was stated that the only way to become rich was to manage matters so as to make one's income exceed one's expenses. This maxim applied equally to an individual and to a nation. The proper line of conduct therefore was by a well-directed economy to retrench every current expense, and to make as large a saving during the peace as possible. However Fox once told Charles Butler sometime after 1785 that he had never read the book and that "There is something in all these subjects which passes my comprehension; something so wide that I could never embrace them myself nor find any one who did." When Fox was dining with Lord Lauderdale in 1796, Lauderdale remarked that they knew nothing of political economy before Adam Smith wrote. "Pooh," replied Fox, "your Adam Smiths are nothing, but" (he added, turning to the company) "that is his love; we must spare him there." Lauderdale replied: "I think he is everything", to which Fox rejoined: "That is a great proof of your affection". Fox also found Adam Smith "tedious" and believed that one half of "The Wealth of Nations" could be "omitted with much benefit to the subject".


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: "The Wealth of Nations" was next mentioned in Parliament by Robert Thornton MP in 1787 to support the Commercial Treaty with France. In the same year George Dempster MP referenced it in the debate on the proposal to farm the post-horse duties and in 1788 by a Mr. Hussy on the Wool Exportation Bill.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: The prime minister, William Pitt, praised Smith in the House of Commons on 17 February 1792: "…an author of our own times now unfortunately no more (I mean the author of a celebrated treatise "on the Wealth of Nations"), whose extensive knowledge of detail, and depth of philosophical research will, I believe, furnish the best solution to every question connected with the history of commerce, or with the systems of political economy." In the same year it was quoted by Samuel Whitbread MP and Fox (on the division of labour) in the debate on the armament against Russia and also by William Wilberforce in introducing his Bill against the slave trade. The book was not mentioned in the House of Lords until a debate in 1793 between Lord Lansdowne and Lord Loughborough about revolutionary principles in France. On 16 May 1797, Pitt said in the debate on the suspension of cash payments by the Bank of England that Smith was "that great author" but his arguments, "though always ingenious", were "sometimes injudicious". In 1798, Sir John Mitford, the Solicitor-General, cited the book in his criticism of bills of exchange given in consideration of other bills.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: During a debate on the price of corn in 1800 Lord Warwick said: There was hardly any kind of property on which the law did not impose some restraints and regulations with regard to the sale of them, except that of provisions. This was probably done on the principles laid down by a celebrated and able writer, Doctor Adam Smith, who had maintained that every thing ought to be left to its own level. He knew something of that Gentleman, whose heart he knew was as sound as his head; and he was sure that had he lived to this day and beheld the novel state of wretchedness to which the country was now reduced ...; that Great Man would have reason to blush for some of the doctrines he had laid down. He would now have abundant opportunities of observing that all those artificial means of enhancing the price of provisions, which he had considered as no way mischievous, were practised at this time to a most alarming extent. He would see the Farmer keeping up his produce while the poor were labouring under all the miseries of want, and he would see Forestallers, Regraters, and all kinds of Middle-men making large profits upon it.<nowiki> </nowiki>Lord Grenville replied: [W]hen that great man lived, ... his book was first published at a period, previous to which there had been two or three seasons of great dearth and distress; and during those seasons there were speculators without number, who ... proposed that a certain price should be fixed on every article: but all their plans were wisely rejected, and the "Treatise on the Wealth of Nations", which came forward soon after, pointed out in the clearest light how absurd and futile they must have been.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: The Radical MP Richard Cobden studied "The Wealth of Nations" as a young man; his copy is still in the library of his home at Dunford House and there are marginal notes on the places where Smith criticizes British colonial policies. There are none on the passage about the invisible hand. Cobden campaigned for free trade in his agitation against the Corn Laws. In 1843, Cobden quoted Smith's protest against the "plain violation of the most sacred property" of every man derived from his labour. In 1844, he cited Smith's opposition to slave labour and claimed that Smith had been misrepresented by protectionists as a monopolist. In 1849, Cobden claimed that he had "gone through the length and breadth of this country, with Adam Smith in my hand, to advocate the principles of Free Trade." He also said he had tried "to popularise to the people of this country, and of the Continent, those arguments with which Adam Smith ... and every man who has written on this subject, have demonstrated the funding system to be injurious to mankind."


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Cobden believed it to be morally wrong to lend money to be spent on war. In 1849, when "The Times" claimed political economists were against Cobden on this, Cobden wrote: "I can quote Adam Smith whose authority is without appeal now in intellectual circles, it gives one the basis of science upon which to raise appeals to the moral feelings." In 1850, when the Russian government attempted to raise a loan to cover the deficit brought about by its war against Hungary, Cobden said: "I take my stand on one of the strongest grounds in stating that Adam Smith and other great authorities on political economy are opposed to the very principle of such loans." In 1863, during Cobden's dispute with "The Times" over its claims that his fellow Radical John Bright wanted to divide the land of the rich amongst the poor, Cobden read to a friend the passage in the "Wealth of Nations" which criticized primogeniture and entail. Cobden said that if Bright had been as plain-speaking as Smith, "how he would have been branded as an incendiary and Socialist". In 1864, Cobden proclaimed, "If I were five-and-twenty or thirty, ... I would take Adam Smith in hand, and I would have a League for free trade in Land just as we had a League for free trade in Corn. You will find just the same authority in Adam Smith for the one as for the other."


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: After the conquest of New France in 1760 during the French and Indian War, Charles Townshend suggested that the American colonists provide help to pay for the war debt by paying an additional tax on tea. During this time, Adam Smith was working for Townshend and developed a relationship with Benjamin Franklin, who played a vital role in the American Revolution three months after Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" book was released.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: James Madison, in a speech given in Congress on 2 February 1791, cited "The Wealth of Nations" in opposing a national bank: "The principal disadvantages consisted in, 1st. banishing the precious metals, by substituting another medium to perform their office: This effect was inevitable. It was admitted by the most enlightened patrons of banks, particularly by Smith on the "Wealth of Nations"." Thomas Jefferson, writing to John Norvell on 14 June 1807, claimed that on "the subjects of money & commerce, Smith's "Wealth of Nations" is the best book to be read, unless "Say's Political Economy" can be had, which treats the same subject on the same principles, but in a shorter compass & more lucid manner."


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: With 36,331 citations, it is the second most cited book in economics published before 1950, behind Karl Marx's "Das Kapital".


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: George Stigler attributes to Smith "the most important substantive proposition in all of economics" and foundation of resource-allocation theory. It is that, under competition, owners of resources (labour, land, and capital) will use them most profitably, resulting in an equal rate of return in equilibrium for all uses (adjusted for apparent differences arising from such factors as training, trust, hardship, and unemployment). He also describes Smith's theorem that "the division of labour is limited by the extent of the market" as the "core of a theory of the functions of firm and industry" and a "fundamental principle of economic organisation."


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Paul Samuelson finds in Smith's pluralist use of supply and demand—as applied to wages, rents, and profit—a valid and valuable anticipation of the general equilibrium modelling of Walras a century later. Moreover, Smith's allowance for wage increases in the short and intermediate term from capital accumulation and invention added a realism missed later by Malthus and Ricardo in their propounding a rigid subsistence-wage theory of labour supply.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Ronald Coase suggests that if Smith's earlier proposal of granting colonies representation in the British parliament proportional to their contributions to public revenues had been followed, "there would have been no 1776, … America would now be ruling England, and we [in America] would be today celebrating Adam Smith not simply as the author of the "Wealth of Nations", but hailing him as a founding father."


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Mark Blaug argues that it was Smith's achievement to shift the burden of proof against those maintaining that the pursuit of self-interest does not achieve social good. But he notes Smith's relevant attention to definite institutional arrangements and process as disciplining self-interest to widen the scope of the market, accumulate capital, and grow income.


title: The Wealth of Nations

text: Economic anthropologist David Graeber argues that throughout antiquity one can identify many different systems of credit and later monetary exchange, drawing evidence for his argument from historical and also ethnographical records, that the traditional explanation for the origins of monetary economies from primitive bartering systems, as laid out by Adam Smith, does not find empirical support. The author argues that credit systems developed as means of account long before the advent of coinage around 600 BCE, and can still be seen operating in non-monetary economies. The idea of barter, on the other hand, seems only to apply to limited exchanges between societies that had infrequent contact and often in a context of ritualised warfare, rendering its conceptualisation among economists as a myth. As an alternative explanation for the creation of economic life, the author suggests that it originally related to social currencies, closely related to non-market quotidian interactions among a community and based on the "everyday communism" that is based on mutual expectations and responsibilities among individuals. This type of economy is, then, contrasted with the moral foundations of exchange based on formal equality and reciprocity (but not necessarily leading to market relations) and hierarchy, based on clear inequalities that tend to crystallise in customs and castes.


title: Historical fiction

text: Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other types of narrative, including theatre, opera, cinema, and television, as well as video games and graphic novels.


title: Historical fiction

text: An essential element of historical fiction is that it is set in the past and pays attention to the manners, social conditions and other details of the depicted period. Authors also frequently choose to explore notable historical figures in these settings, allowing readers to better understand how these individuals might have responded to their environments. The historical romance usually seeks to romanticize eras of the past. Some subgenres such as alternate history and historical fantasy insert intentionally ahistorical or speculative elements into a novel.


title: Historical fiction

text: Works of historical fiction are sometimes criticized for lack of authenticity because of readerly criticism or genre expectations for accurate period details. This tension between historical authenticity and fiction frequently becomes a point of comment for readers and popular critics, while scholarly criticism frequently goes beyond this commentary, investigating the genre for its other thematic and critical interests.


title: Historical fiction

text: Historical fiction as a contemporary Western literary genre has its foundations in the early-19th-century works of Sir Walter Scott and his contemporaries in other national literatures such as the Frenchman Honoré de Balzac, the American James Fenimore Cooper, and later the Russian Leo Tolstoy. However, the melding of "historical" and "fiction" in individual works of literature has a long tradition in most cultures; both western traditions (as early as Ancient Greek and Latin literature) as well as Eastern, in the form of oral and folk traditions (see mythology and folklore), which produced epics, novels, plays and other fictional works describing history for contemporary audiences.


title: Historical fiction

text: Definitions differ as to what constitutes a historical novel. On the one hand the Historical Novel Society defines the genre as works "written at least fifty years after the events described", while critic Sarah Johnson delineates such novels as "set before the middle of the last [20th] century ... in which the author is writing from research rather than personal experience." Then again Lynda Adamson, in her preface to the bibliographic reference work "World Historical Fiction", states that while a "generally accepted definition" for the historical novel is a novel "about a time period at least 25 years before it was written", she also suggests that some people read novels written in the past, like those of Jane Austen (1775–1817), as if they were historical novels.


title: Historical fiction

text: Historical fiction sometimes encouraged movements of romantic nationalism. Walter Scott's Waverley novels created interest in Scottish history and still illuminate it. A series of novels by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski on the history of Poland popularized the country's history after it had lost its independence in the Partitions of Poland. Henryk Sienkiewicz wrote several immensely popular novels set in conflicts between the Poles and predatory Teutonic Knights, rebelling Cossacks and invading Swedes. He won the 1905 Nobel Prize in literature. He also wrote the popular novel "Quo Vadis", which was about Nero's Rome and the early Christians and has been adapted several times for film, in 1913, 1924, 1951, 2001 to only name the most prominent. Sigrid Undset's "Kristin Lavransdatter" fulfilled a similar function for Norwegian history; Undset later won a Nobel Prize for Literature (1928).


title: Historical fiction

text: Many early historical novels played an important role in the rise of European popular interest in the history of the Middle Ages. Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" often receives credit for fueling the movement to preserve the Gothic architecture of France, leading to the establishment of the "Monuments historiques", the French governmental authority for historic preservation. Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti's historical mystery saga "Imprimateur Secretum Veritas Mysterium" has increased interest in European history and features famous castrato opera singer Atto Melani as a detective and spy. Although the story itself is fiction, many of the persona and events are not. The book is based on research by Monaldi and Sorti, who researched information from 17th-century manuscripts and published works concerning the siege of Vienna, the plague and papacy of Pope Innocent XI.


title: Historical fiction

text: The genre of the historical novel has also permitted some authors, such as the Polish novelist Bolesław Prus in his sole historical novel, "Pharaoh", to distance themselves from their own time and place to gain perspective on society and on the human condition, or to escape the depredations of the censor.


title: Historical fiction

text: In some historical novels, major historic events take place mostly off-stage, while the fictional characters inhabit the world where those events occur. Robert Louis Stevenson's "Kidnapped" recounts mostly private adventures set against the backdrop of the Jacobite troubles in Scotland. Charles Dickens's "Barnaby Rudge" is set amid the Gordon Riots, and "A Tale of Two Cities" in the French Revolution.


title: Historical fiction

text: In some works, the accuracy of the historical elements has been questioned, as in Alexandre Dumas' 1845 novel "Queen Margot". Postmodern novelists such as John Barth and Thomas Pynchon operate with even more freedom, mixing historical characters and settings with invented history and fantasy, as in the novels "The Sot-Weed Factor" (1960) and "Mason & Dixon" (1997) respectively. A few writers create historical fiction without fictional characters. One example is the series "Masters of Rome" by Colleen McCullough.


title: Historical fiction

text: Historical prose fiction has a long tradition in world literature. Three of the Four Classics of Chinese literature were set in the distant past: Shi Nai'an's 14th-century "Water Margin" concerns 12th-century outlaws; Luo Guanzhong's 14th-century "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" concerns 3rd-century wars which ended the Han Dynasty; Wu Cheng'en's 16th-century "Journey to the West" concerns the 7th-century Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang.


title: Historical fiction

text: Classical Greek novelists were also "very fond of writing novels about people and places of the past". "The Iliad" has been described as historic fiction, since it treats historic events, although its genre is generally considered epic poetry. Pierre Vidal-Naquet has suggested that Plato laid the foundations for the historical novel through the myth of Atlantis contained in his dialogues "Timaeus" and "Critias". "The Tale of Genji" (written before 1021) is a fictionalized account of Japanese court life about a century prior and its author asserted that her work could present a "fuller and therefore 'truer version of history.


title: Historical fiction

text: One of the earliest examples of the historical novel in Europe is "La Princesse de Clèves", a French novel which was published anonymously in March 1678. It is regarded by many as the beginning of the modern tradition of the psychological novel, and as a great classic work. Its author is generally held to be Madame de La Fayette. The action takes place between October 1558 and November 1559 at the royal court of Henry II of France. The novel recreates that era with remarkable precision. Nearly every character – except the heroine – is a historical figure. Events and intrigues unfold with great faithfulness to documentary records. In the United Kingdom, the historical novel "appears to have developed" from "La Princesse de Clèves", "and then via the Gothic novel". Another early example is "The Unfortunate Traveller" by Thomas Nashe, published in 1594 and set during the reign of King Henry VIII.


title: Historical fiction

text: Historical fiction rose to prominence in Europe during the early 19th century as part of the Romantic reaction to the Enlightenment, especially through the influence of the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott, whose works were immensely popular throughout Europe. Among his early European followers we can find Willibald Alexis, Theodor Fontane, Bernhard Severin Ingemann, Miklós Jósika, Mór Jókai, Jakob van Lennep, Demetrius Bikelos, Enrique Gil y Carrasco, Carl Jonas Love Almqvist, Victor Rydberg, Andreas Munch, Alessandro Manzoni, Alfred de Vigny, Honoré de Balzac or Prosper Mérimée. Jane Porter's 1803 novel "Thaddeus of Warsaw" is one of the earliest examples of the historical novel in English and went through at least 84 editions. including translation into French and German, The first true historical novel in English was in fact Maria Edgeworth's "Castle Rackrent" (1800).


title: Historical fiction

text: In the 20th century György Lukács argued that Scott was the first fiction writer who saw history not just as a convenient frame in which to stage a contemporary narrative, but rather as a distinct social and cultural setting. Scott's Scottish novels such as "Waverley" (1814) and "Rob Roy" (1817) focused upon a middling character who sits at the intersection of various social groups in order to explore the development of society through conflict. "Ivanhoe" (1820) gained credit for renewing interest in the Middle Ages.


title: Historical fiction

text: Many well-known writers from the United Kingdom published historical novels in the mid 19th century, the most notable include Thackeray's "Vanity Fair", Charles Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities", George Eliot's "Romola", and Charles Kingsley's "Westward Ho!" and "Hereward the Wake". "The Trumpet-Major" (1880) is Thomas Hardy's only historical novel, and is set in Weymouth during the Napoleonic wars, when the town was then anxious about the possibility of invasion by Napoleon.


title: Historical fiction

text: In the United States, James Fenimore Cooper was a prominent author of historical novels who was influenced by Scott. His most famous novel is "" (1826), the second book of the "Leatherstocking Tales" pentalogy. "The Last of the Mohicans" is set in 1757, during the French and Indian War (the Seven Years' War), when France and Great Britain battled for control of North America. Cooper's chief rival, John Neal, wrote "Rachel Dyer" (1828), the first bound novel about the 17th-century Salem witch trials. "Rachel Dyer" also influenced future American fiction set in this period, like "The Scarlet Letter" (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne which is one of the most famous 19th-century American historical novels. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity.


title: Historical fiction

text: In French literature, the most prominent inheritor of Scott's style of the historical novel was Balzac. In 1829 Balzac published "Les Chouans", a historical work in the manner of Sir Walter Scott. This was subsequently incorporated into "La Comédie Humaine". The bulk of La Comédie Humaine, however, takes place during the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy, though there are several novels which take place during the French Revolution and others which take place of in the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, including "About Catherine de Medici" and "The Elixir of Long Life".


title: Historical fiction

text: Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1831) furnishes another 19th-century example of the romantic-historical novel. Victor Hugo began writing "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" in 1829, largely to make his contemporaries more aware of the value of the Gothic architecture, which was neglected and often destroyed to be replaced by new buildings, or defaced by replacement of parts of buildings in a newer style. The action takes place in 1482 and the title refers to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, on which the story is centered. Alexandre Dumas also wrote several popular historical fiction novels, including "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Three Musketeers". George Saintsbury stated: ""Monte Cristo" is said to have been at its first appearance, and for some time subsequently, the most popular book in Europe." This popularity has extended into modern times as well. The book was "translated into virtually all modern languages and has never been out of print in most of them. There have been at least twenty-nine motion pictures based on it ... as well as several television series, and many movies [have] worked the name 'Monte Cristo' into their titles."


title: Historical fiction

text: Tolstoy's "War and Peace" offers an example of 19th-century historical fiction used to critique contemporary history. Tolstoy read the standard histories available in Russian and French about the Napoleonic Wars, and used the novel to challenge those historical approaches. At the start of the novel's third volume, he describes his work as blurring the line between fiction and history, in order to get closer to the truth. The novel is set 60 years before it was composed, and alongside researching the war through primary and secondary sources, he spoke with people who had lived through war during the French invasion of Russia in 1812; thus, the book is also, in part, ethnography fictionalized.


title: Historical fiction

text: "The Charterhouse of Parma" by Marie-Henri Beyle (Stendhal) is an epic retelling of the story of an Italian nobleman who lives through the Napoleonic period in Italian history. It includes a description of the Battle of Waterloo by the principal character. Stendhal fought with Napoleon and participated in the French invasion of Russia.


title: Historical fiction

text: "The Betrothed" (1827) by Alessandro Manzoni has been called the most famous and widely read novel of the Italian language. "The Betrothed" was inspired by Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe" but, compared to its model, shows some innovations (two members of the lower class as principal characters, the past described without romantic idealization, an explicitly Christian message), somehow forerunning the realistic novel of the following decades. Set in northern Italy in 1628, during the oppressive years under Spanish rule, it is sometimes seen as a veiled attack on Austria, which controlled the region at the time the novel was written.


title: Historical fiction

text: The critical and popular success of "The Betrothed" gave rise to a crowd of imitations and, in the age of unification, almost every Italian writer tried his hand at the genre; novels now almost forgotten, like "Marco Visconti" by Tommaso Grossi (Manzoni's best friend) or "Ettore Fieramosca" by Massimo D'Azeglio (Manzoni's son-in-law), were the best-sellers of their time. Many of these authors (like Niccolò Tommaseo, Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi and D'Azeglio himself) were patriots and politicians too, and in their novels, the veiled politic message of Manzoni became explicit (the hero of "Ettore Fieramosca" fights to defend the honor of the Italian soldiers, mocked by some arrogant Frenchmen). Unfortunately, in them, the narrative talent not equaled the patriotic passion, and their novels, full of rhetoric and melodramatic excesses, are today barely readable as historical documents. A significant exception is "The Confessions of an Italian" by Ippolito Nievo, an epic about the Venetian republic's fall and the Napoleonic age, told with satiric irony and youthful brio (Nievo wrote it when he was 26 years old).


title: Historical fiction

text: In Arabic literature, the Lebanese writer Jurji Zaydan (1861–1914) was the most prolific novelist of this genre. He wrote 23 historical novels between 1889–1914. His novels played an important in shaping the collective consciousness of modern Arabs during the Nahda period and educated them about their history. "The Fleeing Mamluk" (1891), "The Captive of the Mahdi Pretender" (1892), and "Virgin of Quraish" (1899) are some of his nineteenth-century historical novels.


title: Historical fiction

text: A major 20th-century example of this genre is the German author Thomas Mann's "Buddenbrooks" (1901). This chronicles the decline of a wealthy north German merchant family over the course of four generations, incidentally portraying the manner of life and mores of the Hanseatic bourgeoisie in the years from 1835 to 1877. Mann drew deeply from the history of his own family, the Mann family of Lübeck, and their milieu. This was Mann's first novel, and with the publication of the 2nd edition in 1903, "Buddenbrooks" became a major literary success. The work led to a Nobel Prize in Literature for Mann in 1929; although the Nobel award generally recognizes an author's body of work, the Swedish Academy's citation for Mann identified "his great novel "Buddenbrooks"" as the principal reason for his prize. Mann also wrote, between 1926 and 1943, a four-part novel "Joseph and His Brothers". In it Mann retells the familiar biblical stories of Genesis, from Jacob to Joseph (chapters 27–50), setting it in the historical context of the reign of Akhenaten (1353–1336 BC) in ancient Egypt.


title: Historical fiction

text: In the same era, Lion Feuchtwanger was one of the most popular and accomplished writers of historical novels, with publications between the 1920s and 1950s. His reputation began with the bestselling work, "Jud Süß" (1925), set in the eighteenth century, as well as historical novels written primarily in exile in France and California, including most prominently the "Josephus trilogy" set in Ancient Rome (1932 / 1935 / 1942), "Goya" (1951), and his novel "Raquel: The Jewess of Toledo" - set in Medieval Spain.


title: Historical fiction

text: Robert Graves of Britain wrote several popular historical novels, including "I, Claudius", "King Jesus", "The Golden Fleece" and "Count Belisarius". John Cowper Powys wrote two historical novels set in Wales, "Owen Glendower" (1941) and "Porius" (1951). The first deals with the rebellion of the Welsh Prince Owain Glyndŵr (AD 1400–16), while "Porius" takes place during the Dark Ages, in AD 499, just before the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain. Powys suggests parallels with these historical periods and Britain in the late 1930s and during World War II.


title: Historical fiction

text: Other significant British novelists include Georgette Heyer, Naomi Mitchison and Mary Renault. Heyer essentially established the historical romance genre and its subgenre Regency romance, which was inspired by Jane Austen. To ensure accuracy, Heyer collected reference works and kept detailed notes on all aspects of Regency life. While some critics thought the novels were too detailed, others considered the level of detail to be Heyer's greatest asset; Heyer even recreated William the Conqueror's crossing into England for her novel "The Conqueror". Naomi Mitchison's finest novel, "The Corn King and the Spring Queen" (1931), is regarded by some as the best historical novel of the 20th century. Mary Renault is best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece. In addition to fictional portrayals of Theseus, Socrates, Plato, Simonides of Ceos and Alexander the Great, she wrote a non-fiction biography of Alexander. "The Siege of Krishnapur" (1973) by J. G. Farrell has been described as an "outstanding novel". Inspired by events such as the sieges of Cawnpore and Lucknow, the book details the siege of a fictional Indian town, Krishnapur, during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 from the perspective of the town's British residents. The main characters find themselves subject to the increasing strictures and deprivation of the siege, and the absurdity of maintaining the British class system in a town no one can leave becomes a source of comic invention, though the text is serious in intent and tone.


title: Historical fiction

text: In Welsh literature, the major contributor to the genre in Welsh is William Owen Roberts (b. 1960). His historical novels include "Y Pla" (1987), set at the time of the Black Death; "Paradwys" (2001), 18th century, concerning the slave trade; and "Petrograd" (2008) and "Paris" (2013), concerning the Russian revolution and its aftermath. "Y Pla" has been much translated, appearing in English as "Pestilence", and "Petrograd" and "Paris" have also appeared in English. A contemporary of Roberts' working in English is Christopher Meredith (b. 1954), whose "Griffri" (1991) is set in the 12th century and has the poet of a minor Welsh prince as narrator.