title: Digital Markets Act

text: On 24 March 2022, the Parliament and the Council meeting in the trilogue format together with the Commission reached a political agreement on the DMA. The negotiators reached a consensus on the interoperability provisions for large messaging platforms: the said obligations will make it possible for users to communicate between different platforms, giving them more choice against the increasing dominance of certain companies. The choice is expanded also through provisions that guarantee users’ free choice as regards browsers, virtual assistants or search engines, while no interoperability obligation for social networks has been decided upon yet. In the political agreement, platforms with a market capitalization of €75 billion or turnover in the European Economic Area equal to or above €7.5 billion have been included in the rules’ scope. An agreement was reached for penalties, which will be amounting from 10% of annual worldwide turnover due to non-compliance for first infringements up to 20% in the case of repeated infringements. The text of the DMA provisionally agreed in March 2022 was made publicly available by the European institutions only on 22 May 2022.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The DMA was formally adopted by the Parliament on 5 July 2022 and by the Council on 19 July 2022, and it was signed into law on 14 September 2022 by Presidents of the Parliament and the Council, which concluded the legislative procedure. The adopted text was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 12 October 2022, setting it to come into force twenty days after the publication, on 1 November 2022. After that the gatekeepers will have six months to come into compliance, until 2 May 2023, when the regulation becomes applicable for the most part.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The DMA proposed to classify certain platforms, according to their number of users, capitalisation, market power or turnover, probably including Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon as "Gatekeepers" making them subject to new obligations.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: It aims at preventing large companies from abusing their market power and to allow smaller and new players to enter the market.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: In December 2020, the European Commission released a legislative proposal that intends to protect consumer welfare and to restore a level playing field in the European Union's digital market. At the moment, the economy is being driven to a large extent by the activities conducted through online platforms. A small number of online platforms have come to play a crucial role in the lives of millions of individuals and companies. They intermediate a significant portion of transactions between consumers and businesses, leading to extreme dependencies of many businesses on these important platforms.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: In the table below, it can be observed that EU digital markets face a high level of concentration, with companies such as Google or Facebook controlling almost the entirety of a specific market segment. In the past, some examples have shown that innovation can, at times, reshuffle market power and facilitate the entry for potential competitors. For instance, Facebook replaced MySpace, Google outcompeted AltaVista, and MSN Messenger was overtaken as the main communication platform used on the internet. However, while the dominant position of MySpace or of AltaVista have only lasted for a few years, it seems that Google or Facebook managed to entrench their dominant position in time. In the digital economy jargon, these companies are defined as "digital intermediation platforms" and are at the core of online economic activities. Thus, platforms link and facilitate interactions between economic agents’ groups from different sides of the markets (typically consumers or end-users with business-users).


title: Digital Markets Act

text: As acknowledged by Alexandre de Streel, professor of European law at the University of Namur and specialist in EU competition law, some digital platforms, the GAFAM in particular, may also have a gatekeeper function. The term gatekeeper refers to the ability of intermediary platforms to act as the main "bottleneck" to a large number of market participants, that are not reachable elsewhere. Behind this development are market forces that encompass (1) important economies of scale on the supply side; (2) strong direct and indirect network effects on the demand-side; (3) data-driven competitive advantage; (4) high rate of innovation; and (5) development of conglomerates that structure entire ecosystems. In addition, the combination of these elements can lead to market dynamics that follow the "winner-takes-most" scenarios.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: By way of illustration, there can be considered a hypothetical market for mobile operating systems (OS), formed by one large OS (in terms of consumer base) and a smaller one. Following the assumption according to which the higher the number of persons using a particular OS, the more attractive this OS will be for app developers, under these circumstances, the largest OS may benefit from stronger indirect network effects. Thus, developers will tend to favour the largest OS for their apps because this enables them to reach a larger customer base and a bigger market. Due to these factors, the benefits gap provided by the larger OS and its smaller counterparts, respectively, is expected to grow in time. Moreover, the large OS will gather and process more data than its competitors, aspect that will support the improvement of quality. In parallel, the small OS will become less attractive to both customers and app developers, until it possibly vanishes from the market and the largest OS takes all. According to Joe Belfiore, the current Corporate Vice President in the Experiences and Devices division of Microsoft, one of the reasons that Microsoft decided to leave the mobile market was its inability to attract enough app makers for its operating system.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: During the last years, serious concerns have been expressed by authorities across the world with regard to the economic power of some digital giants. In Europe, the European Commission – backed by years of enforcement experience in EU competition law – has pointed out that a part of those intermediary platforms may be considered "Gatekeeper" or "structuring platforms" in their respective market segments. Moreover, it has also expressed the concern that Big Tech companies might unlawfully take advantage of their market and bargaining powers, in order to lock in dominant positions (i.e. in the existing markets), to increase their level of influence, and to obtain leading positions in new sectors of activity. Hence, this can be interpreted as providing unfair advantages to the incumbents present in core and ancillary services, as distorting the competition, and as harming the consumers, in the long run, through either increased prices or reduced options. Under EU competition law, reaching a "dominant position" is by no mean considered illegal, nor is the idea of a "winner takes most" scenario. However, practices that lock in dominant positions or that impose unfair conditions, terms to third parties might be treated as unlawful.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: It should be mentioned that the economics behind this approach are not always straightforward, taking into account that the effects generated by a company's behaviour often lead, at the same time, to pro and anti-competitive results. If one specific digital platform decides to extend from its core market, where it holds a dominant position, to another related market by offering a wider range of products or services to its consumers, this might be viewed as an example of bundling. In Microsoft's case, given the bundling of Teams with the cloud-based Office software, every user of Microsoft Office software can freely enjoy the Microsoft Teams application. On the one hand, this development is able to deliver benefits for consumers, because it usually increases the synergies between different products provided by a common operator. On the other hand, the same practice can also lead to the exclusion of efficient niche competitors, and affect the efficient providers of complementary products or prevent potential competitors from entering the market, consequently foreclosing the market for the benefit of Microsoft's growth.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Therefore, the economic impact generated by gatekeepers' behaviour can be interpreted under the form of trade-offs, taking into account that their selection depends on various sets of values, rights and interests. An example for the abovementioned trade-off trend can be considered the relation between short term competition versus long term competition. Thus, if we reiterate the previous bundling practice of Microsoft, we can infer that in the short term, consumer welfare may increase (short term competition), but at the same time, it can also be detrimental to consumers in the long run, due to reduced competition and the lack of incentives for Microsoft to further innovate. In addition, another possible trade-off might be derived from the linkage between competition and innovation. While the acquisition of a start-up by a gatekeeper may contribute to the development and/or to the diffusion of the underlying innovation brought by the former, this may be detrimental to the consumers in the long run.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The Proposal on the Digital Markets Act has the aim to increase digital markets' contestability and to ensure a significant level of fairness. By establishing these clear-cut objectives, the European Commission seeks to foster innovation by promoting new entrants' activities and development over incumbents. On the one hand, the DMA intends to constrain gatekeepers’ range of action, but at the same time it also forces the incumbents to open to competition.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Given the fact that EU competition law can be applied only when anti-competitive practices have been enforced, in the literature was initiated a large debate with regard to the ex-ante regulation. Once the utility and efficiency of the existing tools began to be questioned, the policy discussions held before the release of the Digital Markets Act focused on the identification of Gatekeepers, on setting obligations, and on potential conducts that should be outlawed for Gatekeepers.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Following the same line, scholars came to the conclusion that large online platforms ″operate as digital Gatekeepers between businesses and citizens″. At the moment there is not established a clear definition for this term, but it can be mentioned that it usually refers to ″platforms providing online services (e.g. online marketplaces) or controlling and influencing access to online services ... thereby exercising control over entire ecosystems, with a strong impact on competition and innovation in the digital field″.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Under these circumstances, right before the adoption of the Digital Services Act, the commission made public its intention to regulate large online platforms for better ensuring that markets influenced by these actors remain fair and competitive. Thus, the European executive aimed to implement an ″ex-ante regulatory instrument″, through the Digital Markets Act (DMA), for tackling the limitations imposed by its current competition rules.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: For classifying platforms as digital Gatekeepers, a combination of quantitative and qualitative conditions is required. On the one hand, quantitative criteria include indicators for ″market shares, number of users affected by platform operations, time users spent on a platform's website, and the platform's annual economic revenue″. Thus, the following aspects are analysed:


title: Digital Markets Act

text: On the other hand, the qualitative criteria are harder to assess, but several variables can be taken into account, such as the ability of a platform to control access or to leverage its dominant position. While large platforms designed as search engines or marketplaces may be identified or referred to as digital Gatekeepers, it is not clear whether companies that have as subject other activities – travel or music – can be automatically included in the same category. However, even though the legislative proposal does not mention explicitly the undertakings that meet these thresholds, it is expected that the GAFAM will be subject to the DMA.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: At the same time, it should be specified that through market investigation, even providers of core platform services – that cover solely a part of the concerned thresholds – may be identified as Gatekeepers by the commission. ″In conducting its assessment, the Commission shall take into account foreseeable developments of these elements."


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Given the importance and the innovative character of the DMA proposal, several stakeholders have engaged and proposed scenarios for applying a test with the purpose of identifying digital Gatekeepers. The UK Competition Market Authority came with the suggestion of implementing ex-ante rules for companies known to possess "strategic market status". Thus, they proposed three factors to be considered: the size and scale; ability to leverage their market power in other sectors of activity; to hold the position of access point both for consumers and businesses. Furthermore, the Centre on Regulation in Europe published a lengthier and in-depth analysis, according to which ex-ante regulation should be applied if online platforms comply with four cumulative criteria: large size; to occupy a position on which other businesses rely/depend; Gatekeeper position that lasts (due to high entry barriers); Gatekeeper having control over an ecosystem.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The Digital Markets Act sets up a list of conducts that should be outlawed, on the one hand, and obligations that platforms identified as Gatekeepers should respect, on the other hand. The list is divided in two different parts, the general blacklisted actions (Article 5) and the case by case assessment that needs to be specified (Article 6).


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The different ways of defining obligations and prohibitions have raised several debates between scholars and stakeholders. Some experts support the approach focused on balancing anti-competitive effects with possible justifications, while others are in favour of banning specific practices from the beginning. De Streel classified the new obligations as concerning the following common areas:


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Those practices are often derived from the past case-law and are considered unfair by the European Commission. Therefore, this proposal uses "ex-post" cases to create new "ex-ante" regulations and to tackle the issue from the roots.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The DMA covers eight different sectors, also known as Core Platforms Services (CPS). The European Commission considers them problematic because the Gatekeepers' presence prevents market contestability to a certain extent. It is important to remember that the commission has not released yet the list of companies that will be identified as Gatekeepers and that all the firms mentioned in the following sections are only possible examples.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The two following sections detail each rule individually and mention, when it is the case, the concrete example that determined the commission to include them.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: This list comprises seven obligations and prohibitions for addressing the unfair trading practices. All the identified Gatekeepers will have to respect these provisions, independently from their sector of activity or their individual specificities. Moreover, enshrined in the Article 5 of the proposal, there are included general but also specific prohibitions to online platforms:


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Combining personal data from different sources was ruled illegal by the German Federal Cartel Office in 2019, in a case against Facebook. The company was also fined €110 million in May 2017 for notifying the Commission that it would not be possible to combine data coming from Facebook and WhatsApp, at the time of the acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014. However, the Commission found that this practice constituted a possibility since 2014, given the fact that WhatsApp inserted this option in its terms of services privacy policy in 2016.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: This has already been considered illegal in a competition law-case concerning Amazon e-books. In its contracts with the publishers of E-books, Amazon required them to offer at least the best price or conditions that they proposed to any other competitors. This article also derives from the cases concerning online travel agencies such as Booking.com or Expedia.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The legal character of this kind of practices is currently investigated by the European Commission in a case concerning the App Store of Apple and the 30% commission that they charged to all the subscriptions made through the App Store.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: This is a general practice that does not come from the case law but it guarantees the right of business-users to raise possible concerns to public authorities (such as the European Commission).


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Also known as a "bundling" practice, it prevents gatekeepers from forcing business users to use the ID of the Core Platform Services when they offer their services. Thus, it is often related to advertisers or publishers issues such as Google and their methods of collecting data.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: For this bundling practice, in 2018, Google was fined with €4.3 billion by the Commission in a decision on Android. The company breached the antitrust rules of the EU by forcing Android's users to pre-install its own services, such as Google search and Google Chrome. This way, Google secured its dominant position in terms of internet search.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: This last obligation is linked to the investigation of the European Commission on Google's data and advertising practices.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The second part of the list comprises eleven obligations and prohibitions for gatekeepers enshrined in Article 6. After conducting a jointly assessment with the concerned Gatekeeper, the European Commission may specify individually the necessary obligations. The dialogue with the Gatekeeper has to respect the principle of effectiveness and proportionality, as stated in Article 7.5. Once again, most of the actions derive from former and current competition legal cases.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The potential ban of this practice derives from the Amazon Marketplace case that is under investigation by the European Commission. The Commission claimed that Amazon breached antitrust rules by using "non-public data" from their business users in order to compete with them.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: This obligation derives from the cases on Microsoft Internet Explorer and Google Android, where the European Commission forced them to allow end-users to uninstall pre-installed app from their core platforms services.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The practice is currently investigated in the "Apple App Store case". The Commission considers that Apple does not let its competitors inform users about the possibility to buy their products on other platforms than the App store, at potential cheaper prices.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: This practice has already been prohibited in the case of "Google Shopping" and is currently investigated in the "Amazon Buy Box" case. Mainly, it refers to self-preferencing own products at the expense of competitors in the search results of a certain marketplace.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: This can be seen as deriving from the conflict between Spotify and Apple on the restrictions imposed to use Spotify on Apple devices, that had the purpose of promoting Apple music services.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: This provision derives from the practices currently analysed in the "Apple Pay case." By favouring its devices and its own method of payment – Apple Pay – at the expense of its competitors, Apple is currently scrutinized by the commission.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: This article would help business users of platforms, especially advertisers, to have access to the data related to the ads and publications posted on the Gatekeeper's platforms. Facebook and Google are potentially the main targets of this article, and maybe Amazon.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The abovementioned provision has a more general scope and it is not built around specific cases. Seen as complementing the GDPR regulation, it gives more precision regarding the scope of data portability, by adding that the data access should be "continuous" and "real time". In practical terms, this guarantees both access to users (including business-users) and benefits in terms of up-to-date data portability generated by the platform.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: As article (h), this article does not derive from an individual case and complements the GDPR. It guarantees more rights to business and end-users regarding the interoperability of the data generated on platforms. This is meant to make data generated by different platforms compatible and usable by different systems.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: This article is especially meant to ensure a higher degree of competition in the online search engines market, by providing more rights to the (new) competitors. It gives providers of online search engines access to data generated by the Gatekeeper in the sector (presumably Google Search at the moment, as it concentrates 95% of the market share in this sector). This is also related to the "Google Search" case and to Article 5(d) or the "blacklisted actions" of the DMA (see above).


title: Digital Markets Act

text: This provision targets the store application of Gatekeepers (App Store, Google Play), and has the aim to protect the rights of app developers and of business-users.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Bjorn Lundqvist, in a paper published in February 2021, considers that the combination of the case by case obligations present in the Article 6 (a), (h) and (i) of the DMA, could be a real "game changer" regarding access to data. In addition, he highlights the fact that Art. 6 (a) prevents gatekeepers from using data generated by business-users, that are not publicly available, for competition reasons. At the same time, Art. 6 (h) and (i) guarantee rights to business-users and end-users with regard to access and portability of the data they have generated on the platform.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The author concludes by saying that the potential consequences should be clarified by the European Commission in order to know if this proposal will mark a major change in terms of access to data for business and end-users.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The Digital Markets Act will allow the European Commission to have regulatory and market investigation powers. Under these circumstances, market investigations will be mainly designated to:


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Art. 1(5) of the Digital Markets Act states that Member States are prohibited from imposing on gatekeepers further obligations by way of laws, regulations or administrative action for the purpose of ensuring contestable and fair markets. Obligations that are unrelated to the relevant undertakings having a status of gatekeeper within the meaning of the Digital Markets Act are exempted from this prohibition.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: On 22 March 2022, the European Court of Justice ruled in the joint cases C-117/20 Bpost and C-151/20 Nordzucker that investigators can start antitrust scrutiny of companies that have already been probed under sector regulation such as the Digital Markets Act, so long as the two cases are “conducted in a sufficiently coordinated manner within a proximate timeframe and the overall penalties imposed must correspond to the seriousness of the offenses committed.”


title: Digital Markets Act

text: This opens up a path for parallel national prosecution of gatekeepers, for example as Germany has done under the German competition law amendment Section 19a. The German Federal Cartel Office has in 2021 opened multiple proceedings against large tech firms that would be considered gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act, including Facebook (now: Meta), Amazon, Apple and Google. Section 19a cases may involve coordination among the German Federal Cartel Office and the European Commission and other national competition authorities. Legally, it has been proposed by the Federal Cartel Office that Section 19a must be seen as an expansion of competition law, meaning that it could be applied parallel to the Digital Markets Act. The trilogue negotiations on the Digital Markets Act have not yielded a common position on the matter.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The tensions between Google and the European Union have been generated by sanctions applied to unfair practices related to advertising, mobile operating system, or shopping strategies. Several fines were imposed by the European Commission to Google because of breaches of competition law but taking into account that despite the CJEU's rulings, "inefficient market outcomes in terms of higher prices, lower quality, less choice and innovation" still emerged, the DMA aims to better regulate this area.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: As the main focus of the Digital Markets Act is represented by operators that provide search engines, social networks, cloud computing services and operating systems, Google was one of the companies that officially presented its position. In an interview, Google's President of Business and Operations for the EMEA region Matt Brittin stated that: "It's so important to get the rules right for European consumers to have more choice, to support the kind of jobs we'll need in the future and to support European businesses."”


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Even though not specifically named, Google is one of the companies that will be affected by the stringent rules, because the legislation will be applied to firms with European revenues of at least €6.5 bn or at least 45 million users across Europe. Nevertheless, as subject to potential fines of up to 10% of its global revenue for breaking the rules, Google is highly incentivized to continue influencing the legislators and lobbying in Brussels for obtaining better conditions under the Digital Market Act.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The rhetoric of Google and its attempts to contour an official position relied mainly on the risks that might emerge from the legislative act, namely barriers – "as Europeans will only have access to less choice and to more costly alternatives". Nevertheless, the big tech has also tried to highlight the weaknesses of the Digital Market Act and they labelled it a blacklist – whose implications in terms of interoperability might not generate innovation in the future, but incentives for "lowest common denominator".


title: Digital Markets Act

text: In November 2020, the French news magazine "Le Point" published Google's leaked lobby strategy on the Digital Market Act, thus several practices and intentions have been uncovered. For example, there were made references to:


title: Digital Markets Act

text: As far as the cost of these lobbying practices is concerned, according to the Transparency Register, Google spent more than €19 million euros on lobbying in the first half of 2020. Even though the sum of money allocated by Google has already reached significant levels, the numbers presented above do not comprise all the transactions related to academic partnerships, law firms, or activities conducted in individual Member States.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Corporate Europe Observatory investigated the fight of EU tech regulation and according to its findings, 158 meetings were registered since the Von der Leyen Commission took office, meetings that "involved 103 organisations, mostly companies and lobby groups. Only 13 actors had at least 3 or more meetings logged on these issues. Google stands out with the most meetings with Microsoft and Facebook trailing close behind. Apple and Amazon have also lobbied on the DMA and/ or DSA, although they rank lower overall with two and one meeting respectively". However, one of the limitations faced is represented by the fact that the endeavours with the officials responsible for drafting the legislation are not mentioned, as only the official meetings with high representatives are declared or announced.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Despite the fact that the proposal has been published on 15 December 2020, the lobbying practices still represent an ongoing process because they have been transferred from the commission to the European Parliament and Council. However, comparing the data obtained on the meetings of the European Commission with the information made available by the other institutions, it can be observed that transparency is even less stringent.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The new European draft legislation has also targeted Apple's App Store with regard to its practices and preinstalled applications. One of the main changes that will be brought to their current business model is represented by the removal of the "self-preferencing" strategy. As a result of the proposal on the Digital Markets Act, Apple would be forced to change the manner in which its apps are displayed in the App Store searches, so as to give the chance to smaller developers to have their software downloaded by consumers. Moreover, Apple will have to allow its customers to uninstall preloaded first-party apps from the devices procured. Thus, both Google and Apple will be constrained and their practices more regulated. According to the DMA final proposal, these big tech companies will be compelled to share performance metrics for free with advertisers and publishers.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Before the official release of the DMA proposal, some companies – including Apple – tried to change their anti-competitive behaviour, taking into account the reactions generated by the commission's intent to regulate the digital market. As far as Apple is concerned, in October, a group of French publishers – led by (APIG) – highlighted its concern with regard to the App Store's terms of service. For example, one of their requirements was related to the economic dependence on Apple – "Content publishers are in a situation of absolute economic dependence on Apple for the distribution of their content on the iPhone, since the only store available on this device is the AppStore". In addition, Apple was criticised for the 30% commission on sales that it makes through apps on the platform, thus the APIG showed its concern vis a vis the further concentration on the market. The reaction of Apple to these allegations was focused especially on a reduction of its commission rate to 15% for app developers with less than $1 million in annual net sales, but this did not impede the European Commission to continue advocating for the Digital Markets Act.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Similar to Google's case, Apple also seeks to limit the influence of the commission and to escape the definition of gatekeeper, so as not to become subject to further obligations. However, as Brussels still wants to outlaw gatekeepers' ability to ban others from accessing their marketplaces, firms like Spotify and Facebook – that believe Apple has set unfair conditions on those companies' apps within App Store, seem to support the commission's proposal.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The strategy of Apple to limit the influence of the DMA is not as clear or well-structured as in Google's case. However, there can be observed some practices engaged in by the company to ensure that its objectives are taken into account by the European officials. According to a research conducted by the Corporate Europe Observatory, it seems that Apple, Google, and Facebook used to work with several associations that declared themselves independent, without disclosing their linkages. For example, the Center for European Reform has featured on its website a list of its corporate donors – one of them being Apple – but Apple does not specify this information on the Transparency Register entry. Under these circumstances, it can be observed the network created around interests' groups, companies, NGOs and think tanks, as all of them seek to shape the legislative process in Brussels in their favour.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: When it comes to lobby spending, despite the limited and incomplete information, it can be observed that Apple is in the top 30 individual corporate lobby spenders in Brussels, at numbers 16 (with over €2 million). In comparison with Google, that has allocated a budget of €8 million, Apple still invests a considerable sum of money on access to European officials, so as to present its demands.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Considering that the Digital Markets Act aims to limit the influence of large companies by allowing alternative players to emerge, Meta has also been targeted by the legislative proposal. As in the other companies' cases, once the DMA is adopted, unfair practices will be highly discouraged and even prohibited, so as to stop the harm they bring to competition.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: However, apart from Google, Apple, and Amazon, Meta seems to support the EU rules that have been published last year. In its official declarations, Meta claimed that it hopes that the European Union will set boundaries for Apple. Nevertheless, in this context there were not observed solely tensions between the Commission and the Big Tech companies, but even between GAFAM, taking into account their statements and the objectives they advocate for.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The controversies between Meta and Apple started with the privacy feature used by Apple, that allows consumers to block advertisers from tracking them across different applications. Thus, Meta, a company that earns revenue from advertising, began to retaliate and showed its discontent. It has also added that "Apple controls an entire ecosystem from device to app store and apps, and uses this power to harm developers and consumers, as well as large platforms like Facebook". The reaction of Apple was quite harsh and accused Meta of "invasive tracking". Therefore, the discussions around the Digital Markets Act started to create more tensions between Big Tech firms and to deviate from the scope of the proposal, as the companies focused on criticising their "competitors" of illegal practices.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Amazon welcomed the DMA and according to its position, the company has not been as concerned about it as the other GAFAM members. This can be explained by the fact that compared to Google's and Apple's case, the Digital Markets Act could affect Amazon only in three aspects:


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The prohibition on using non-public data from competitors it hosts on its platform and the prohibition on ranking its product before the ones offered by competitors may impact Amazon if the proposal for the DMA is adopted under its current form. Moreover, these aspects caused Amazon to negotiate the final version of the regulation, taking into account that it spent €1.75 million on lobbying practices and that it became a member of several think tanks.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Compared to other Big Tech firms, Microsoft is the most discreet, as it does not use media or newspapers to express its opinion on the Digital Markets Act. The only thing done in a public manner by Microsoft was to react to the commission's consultations. They suggested that the qualification of platforms as gatekeepers might be determined by using a two-pronged test. On the one hand, it should be assessed the level of market power protected by significant barriers to entry. On the other hand, a specific EU regulatory body for the enforcement of ex-ante regulation should be implemented. Moreover, according to Caffara & Morton, the only obligation that might affect Microsoft under the DMA is to allow end-users to delete any software applications pre-installed.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Before the release of the proposal, there was a debate related to the criteria needed for designating a company as gatekeeper. On a more general note, one of the most important indicators would be considered the number of firms impacted by the DMA. As this narrow definition for gatekeepers has been applied by the European Commission, only a few firms (especially the American 'Big Tech' or GAFAM) are likely to be targeted by the concerned legislation.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Due to their important positions on the short-term accommodation market, AirBnB and Booking.com became potential targets for the legislation. Indeed, above 50% of the homes designated for ‘short-terms stay’ are listed on AirBnB, and approximatively on Booking.com. Therefore, their possible labelling as gatekeepers has been long debated, leading the companies to defend themselves and explain why they should not be considered included in this category. Moreover, Booking.com insisted on the fact that it is one of the only European companies that is a global success and that as they are not the most dominant actor in this sector, they should not be disincentivized while competing with bigger companies.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: With approximatively of the market share in 2020 in the music subscription market, Spotify is by far the dominant actor in this sector as Apple music comes in second position, with around 15% of market share. However, Spotify does not seem to meet the criteria set by the European Commission, according to the analysis of "Vox EU". Dirk Auer, an economist of the American think tank ICLE, qualified this piece of legislation as a way to protect the European firms, and that the criteria are on purpose excluding major European tech firms, notably Spotify. Even if it is true that SAP would probably be the only European firm targeted by the legal act, there are also American big platforms like Twitter or Uber not targeted by the legislation, despite their important market position.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The French Government expressed its ambition for imposing stricter enforcement on competition rules, so as to prevent giant tech firms favouring their own services, ousting rivals or maintaining their dominant positions.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Nevertheless, France would like to rely on the possibility of adapting the rules, through the Digital Markets Act, in order to respond to the constant changes of the digital market.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The French government is known to be publicly in favour of more regulation of the GAFAM and unilaterally set up its "" in 2019. This tax has been the source of tensions with the Trump administration.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The German federal government welcomed the proposal on the Digital Markets Act. They consider that the current European legal framework is not sufficiently strong and that the enforcement measures must also be strengthened with respect to digital platforms. However, the main concern of Germany still remains the preservation of small and medium-sized companies, as it intends to keep them out of the scope of the new rules.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The head of the German Federal Cartel Office, Andreas Mundt, has on several occasions criticised the European Commission's centralised approach to regulating gatekeepers. He has called the European Commission's veto right over national competition authorities’ powers to impose decisions against Big Tech "unacceptable", and has asked for more powers to be given to national competition authorities. This position was echoed by other Member States.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: In October 2020, the Dutch Government jointly with France and Belgium, expressed their willingness for a stricter enforcement of the competition rules, in order to avoid abuse of dominance and anti-competitive practices.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: On 17 February 2021, the Dutch Government published its official position on the Digital Markets Act and welcomed the initiative, taking into account that the objectives it comprises are aligned with their national position.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: The Irish government published its position on 8 September 2020, during the public consultations held for the Digital Services Act Package. According to their statements, Irish authorities are not willing to assess the definition of ″gatekeepers″, as they explained that the occupation of a dominant position is not illegal. Moreover, they have also stressed that this particular aspect does not imply a diminution of consumer welfare and does not prevent innovation or new entrances in the digital market.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Many of the companies that are likely to be targeted by the DMA have their headquarters in Ireland. The approach of the Irish Government towards Big Tech companies has often been the source of debates within the European Union. In 2016, the European Commission accused Ireland of granting Apple "illegal tax benefits". The General Court ruled in favour of Apple, but the Commission expressed its intention to appeal the ruling to the European Court of Justice.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Even though they are not mentioned explicitly in the proposal released by the European Commission, it is more than likely that the American "Big Tech" (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft), as well as Booking.com are expected to be the main targets of this new legislation.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: This legislation comes in a context where the EU and the US, under the Biden administration, want to rebuild a better relation after the tensions that emerged during the Trump presidency. The European Commission has stressed the need for cooperation between the EU and US to deal with the dominant position of online platforms and big tech that they consider harmful.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: In January 2021, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von Der Leyen, stated that the current president of the United States, Joe Biden, and the European Union share the same position regarding the regulation of tech companies. In a speech at the Munich Security Conference in February 2021, she invited the United States to join the European Unions in their initiatives in order to create rules in the digital Economy that can be "valid worldwide".


title: Digital Markets Act

text: Even if the official position of the Biden administration on the Digital Markets Act is not yet publicly known, the same debates about the dominant position of some digital tech platforms are rising in the United States. An antitrust lawsuit was opened in December 2020 against Facebook by the US Federal Trade Commission and 46 American states for abusing its dominant position and exercising anti-competitive conduct for several years.


title: Digital Markets Act

text: In a document published in March 2021, the Congressional Research Service, an American government think tank that informs the members of the US Congress, outlined the fact that the new digital regulations led by the European Union, including the Digital Markets Act, could be sources of potential future cooperation between the EU and the United States, while stressing the potential impact on the US economy.


title: Motivational speaker

text: A motivational speaker is a speaker who makes speeches intended to motivate or inspire an audience. Such speakers may attempt to challenge or transform their audiences. The speech itself is popularly known as a pep talk.


title: Motivational speaker

text: Motivational speakers can deliver speeches at schools, colleges, places of worship, companies, corporations, government agencies, conferences, trade shows, summits, community organizations, and similar environments.


title: Motivational speaker

text: One of the earliest known motivational speakers and credited for what was considered his revolutionary work was Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) an American essayist, poet, and philosopher.


title: Motivational speaker

text: The two main theories for why motivational speakers may need to be externally searched out if to fill the need of content theory or the process theories.


title: Motivational speaker

text: The content theories were created by different philosophers, such as Abraham Maslow, Clayton Alderfer, Frederick Herzberg, and David McClelland. They focus on the inner workings and think of an individual and what will energize, stop behaviors, and keep it sustainable for long-term needs. These theories awknowledge that every individual is unique and has different needs in order to motivate them.


title: Motivational speaker

text: The process theories focus on the explanation and analysis of different people and what will energize, stop behaviors, and keep it sustainable for long-term needs. Brought into perspective by Victor Vroom, B.F Skinner, Ruth Kanfer, and Albert Bandura, it addresses the needs of learning and expectancy and realizes that individuals will make choices based on reward and compensation.


title: Motivational speaker

text: Speakers try and show their audience about the positive outcomes that can happen in life and focus on the possible opportunities rather than the limits that people set themselves to. Using positively connated words rather than negative ones and gives charasmatic verbal and non-verbal social cues. Using their posture, eye contact, body language, facial expressions, and by dressing appropriately they can engage with the audience in a non-verbal way. They can change the tone of their voice, speech pattern, accent, and pitch to emphasize and show emotion behind what they are saying.


title: Ice pick

text: The ice pick is a pointed metal tool used from the 1800s to the 1900s to break, pick or chip at ice. The design consists of a sharp metal spike attached to a wooden handle. The tool's design has been relatively unchanged since its creation. The only notable differences in the design are the material used for the handle. The handle material is usually made out of wood but can also be made from plastic or rubber. These materials can be better in terms of safety and allow the user to better grip the pick during use.


title: Ice pick

text: During the 1800s, ice blocks were gathered from frozen water sources and distributed to nearby homes. Ice picks were used to easily cut the blocks into smaller pieces for use. In many cases these smaller blocks were used in iceboxes. Iceboxes are similar in use to refrigerators with the major difference being that iceboxes could only stay cold for a limited time. They needed to be restocked with ice regularly to continue proper functioning. The ice pick slowly began to lose popularity in the early to mid-1900s due to the creation of the modern refrigerator. Many refrigerators came with a build in ice maker which allowed for easy access to small ice chunks at anytime and eliminated the need for the ice pick. Today, the ice pick has become basically obsolete.


title: Ice pick

text: The effectiveness of an ice pick is dependent on the weight of the pick and the force by the user. Most ice picks are pointed with a slight bend at the tip. If the tip is bent, the ice shatters upon striking. The bent tip allows for large chunks to break off in comparison to a tip that is straight. To avoid the handle slipping, most ice picks feature a knob at the end. Most picks have a wood handle made out of spruce as it is sturdy. The wood handle also helps to prevent the users hand from freezing. The steel bar in an ice pick is affixed to the wood handle.


title: Ice pick

text: One way that the ice pick is still used today is through bartending. Bartenders go to great lengths to create new and unique beverages. In many cases a bartender will use an ice pick to create various shapes out of blocks of ice. This allows them to create a unique ice creation to add to any beverage.


title: Ice pick

text: Because of its availability and ability to puncture the skin easily, the ice pick has sometimes been used as a weapon. Most notoriously, New York's organized crime groups known as Murder Incorporated made extensive use of the ice pick as a weapon during the 1930s and 1940s. There were up to 1,000 murders committed by this group. In 1932, the bodies of two young men were found who had been stabbed numerous times with an ice pick. A man named Jacob Drucker was found guilty of murdering a man in 1944. His victim had been stabbed with an ice pick over 20 times. The most feared hitman of his day, Abe Reles, used the ice pick as his weapon of choice, usually stabbing his victims in the ear.


title: Ice pick

text: According to New York City police, ice picks are still used today as street weapons. On August 21, 2012, a man was attacked with an ice pick in the Bronx. John Martinez, a man from the Bronx, was convicted of several robberies using an ice pick in 2011.


title: Ice pick

text: Murderer Richard Kuklinski, who claimed to have killed over 200 people, was reported to have used an ice pick among other weapons.


title: Ice pick

text: Leon Trotsky is sometimes incorrectly said to have been killed with an ice pick. He was actually killed with an ice axe, a mountaineering tool.


title: Ice pick

text: The lobotomy was a medical treatment that gained popularity during the mid-1930s. Lobotomist Walter Freeman performed thousands of lobotomies across the world. Reportedly, he used an ice pick from his family's kitchen. The pick would be inserted into the brain through the eye socket. The procedure would be done without the use of anesthetics. This "Ice Pick Lobotomy," was believed to diminish mental issues however these often resulted in paralysis and early death. This treatment failed due to a lack of testing before being performed on thousands of people. Walter Freeman's medical license was revoked in 1967 after a woman died during a lobotomy. This method of lobotomy led to the deaths of around 500 people over the course of 50 years. By the 1970s, The procedure would be banned in many countries for being inhumane.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: The British Rail Class 150 "Sprinter" is a class of diesel multiple unit passenger trains; they were developed and constructed by BREL York between 1984 and 1987 for use on regional services across the UK. The type is a second-generation design, built to more modern standards and based on BR's Mark 3 body design for longer-distance services. It was developed alongside the lower-cost "Pacers", which were built using bus parts, for use on short-distance services. Two prototype units were built, followed by 135 production units in two batches.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: Subsequently, further members of the Sprinter family were also developed and introduced to service, including the Class 155, Class 156, Class 158 and Class 159.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: By the beginning of the 1980s, British Rail (BR) was operating a large fleet of first-generation DMUs of various designs. While formulating its long-term strategy for this sector of its operations, BR planners recognised that there would be considerable costs incurred by undertaking refurbishment programmes necessary for the continued use of these ageing multiple units, particularly due to the necessity of handling and removing hazardous materials such as asbestos. In light of the high costs involved in retention, planners examined the prospects for the development and introduction of a new generation of DMUs to succeed the first generation.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: In the concept stage, two separate approaches were devised, one involving a so-called "railbus" that prioritised the minimisation of both initial (procurement) and ongoing (maintenance and operational) costs, while the second was a more substantial DMU that could deliver better performance than the existing fleet, particularly on long-distance services. The initial specification developed for the latter type was relatively ambitious for the era, calling for a maximum speed of , a rate of acceleration compatible to contemporary EMUs, the ability to couple/work in multiple with existing EMUs, facilitate through-access for passengers, feature pressure ventilation, the ability to assist another failed unit, and to comprise either a three or four-car consist.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: This specification led to the development of the experimental British Rail Class 210 DMU. However, to deliver the performance specified, it was found that relatively expensive equipment had to be used, particularly to provide sufficient speed, acceleration, and through-passenger access; it also had maintainability problems due to space limitations. Despite these shortcomings, it was recognised that a production fleet that was assembled from proven components would possess both a greater reliability level and lower maintenance costs; it was forecast to achieve an availability rate of 85 percent. As such, the type had sufficiently demonstrated a promising reduction in maintenance costs was achievable, especially once initial teething problems were dealt with, as well as the wider value represented by a new generation of DMUs in the reduction of ongoing costs for BR.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: By 1983, experience with the Class 210 had influenced planners to favour the procurement of a new generation of DMUs, but also to adopt a new set of specifications somewhat less demanding than the prior set. Specifically, it was decided to lower the top speed from , as testing had shown that the higher rate brought no perceptible improvement in journey times due to the typically short distances between the stations that the type was intended to serve. Furthermore, it was determined that a propulsion system delivering per tonne would deliver sufficient acceleration. The requests for compatibility with other rolling stock were eliminated, although auto-coupling and auto-connecting functionality were added. In addition to a good ride quality, the specification included a sound level of 90dB when at full speed, an operational range of , and an interval between major overhauls of five years or .


title: British Rail Class 150

text: In comparison to the previous generation of DMUs, which typically used a pair of engines for each power car, the new generation DMU would use only a single engine per car; sufficient cooling was also provided that even with one failed engine, a two-car unit could continue to perform typical services without incurring a major performance deficit. From an operational perspective, it was intended that the DMU could be assembled akin to building blocks, comprising between two and four cars that may or may not be outfitted with various passenger amenities such as toilets and luggage spaces.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: Initially formalised as a business specification, these requirements were transferred into a relatively broad technical specification that avoided any specifics other than those deemed essential for compatibility purposes. Thereafter, it was issued to various rolling-stock manufacturers for a competitive tender. As part of this process, these manufacturers submitted bids to construct an initial series of three-car prototypes as demonstration units. A relatively constrained timetable of 18months from the date of order to delivery of these prototypes was also specified; this has been blamed for restricting manufacturers to existing industrial practices for their submissions.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: In response to the specification, several submissions were received by BR. The bid submitted by British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) was heavily based on its successful Class 455 EMU, sharing its body and the majority of its running gear, albeit equipped with two different power trains. The railway engineering company Metro-Cammell also bid, offering its own design that employed rivetted aluminium construction; this feature was credited with enabling a meaningful reduction in weight over conventional methods. BR officials quickly opted to proceed with a pair of prototypes from both BREL and Metro-Cammell, issuing orders to these manufacturers thenceforth.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: The Class 150 is a two- or three-car commuter diesel multiple unit. The steel bodyshell is shared with the Class 455 suburban EMU, with doors at 1/3 and 2/3. With the exception of units 150001 and 150002 in their original prototype configurations, each vehicle in the unit is powered by an underframe-mounted Cummins six-cylinder turbo-diesel engine that develops . The engine drives a Voith T211r hydrokinetic transmission that in turn drives both axles on the inner bogie via a Cardan shaft and Gmeinder GM 180 final drive units. The design speed is . The majority of units are formed of a DMS (Driving Motor Second - numbered 57xxx) vehicle and a DMSL (Driving Motor Second Lavatory - numbered 52xxx) vehicle. Both vehicles are single class while the DMSL contains the toilet. The two prototype units were built as three-car sets with the addition of a MS (Motor Second) vehicle. In common with other non-intercity stock of the time the trains lack air conditioning, ventilation is provided though opening hopper windows. As built passenger seating was in a 3+2 configuration.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: The second batch of production vehicles featured a new cab with gangway connection along with a revised interior.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: During 1984, BREL constructed a pair of prototype three-car Class 150/0 units, numbered 150001 and 150002; the first unit was delivered to BR only 15 months following the date of order. 150001 was fitted with Cummins engines and Voith hydraulic transmission, and 150002 was fitted with Perkins (Rolls-Royce) engines and a fully automatic gearbox developed by the Self-Changing Gears company. Other than the power train, the two units were identical.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: The design specifications of the prototypes were similar to the later production units, but they were to remain as the only Class 150s to be built as three-car units. Additional three-car units were created later by re-marshalling a 150/2 car in the middle of a 150/1 set, but only the prototypes had purpose-built centre cars without driving cabs. Both cab doors are air-operated, unlike the Class 150/1 production model, but seen later on in the 150/2 variant.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: 150002 proved to be the worse of the two for reliability, and was consequently chosen for use as the testbed for the , being re-geared to a maximum speed of and fitted with Cummins engines and Voith transmission, and with a Class 158 interior. One car was fitted with the Class 151 Twin Disc 'hot-shift' transmission, which it used successfully, once the control software was sorted out. To distinguish this unit, it was reclassified as the Class 154. It has since been returned to the standard configuration and reverted to its original number. Both prototypes were still in service with London Midland until 2011. 150001 entered service with First Great Western in January 2012, with 150002 to follow after refurbishment and re-livery. 150001 & 150002 then operated for Great Western Railway. 150001 was based at Bristol's St. Phillips Marsh Depot, primarily working the Bristol Parkway-Weston Super Mare route. 150002 was based at Exeter St. Davids Depot and mainly operated the Riviera Line alongside Class 143 Pacers. In April 2020, both units transferred to Northern's Newton Heath Depot. Both units have since entered into service, initially being used mainly on the Manchester Victoria - Todmorden - Blackburn diagram, and subsequently on Rochdale - Manchester - Bolton - Clitheroe services.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: At the same time that BREL built the 150/0s, Metro-Cammell built two prototype units at its Washwood Heath plant. The two types of unit were exhaustively tested, with a view to placing further orders for the more successful. These tests revealed that the Class 150 had exceptional ride quality, as well as fully meeting the 50 percent engine-out performance requirements. In the event, the two Class 150 units proved to be more reliable and, as a result, an order for 50 two-car units was placed with BREL.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: This second batch of fifty units were classified as Class 150/1 and numbered in the range . Like the prototype units, they did not have front-end gangway connections which allowed passengers to move between two units that were working in multiple. Originally based at Derby Etches Park depot, these units were introduced in 1985, mainly concentrated around Birmingham and Manchester, and in later years restricted mainly to commuter services.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: The final batch of 85 two-car units were built with front-end gangway connections. These units were classified as Class 150/2 and numbered in the range . They were used on longer-distance services. The end gangways make them very similar in appearance to the Class 317/2 and Class 455/7 and 455/9 EMUs, also based on the Mark 3 bodyshell.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: Some of the Class 150/2 units were later disbanded, and the vehicles were used to make some of the Birmingham and Manchester-based Class 150/1 units into three-car sets. The units in Manchester were later returned to their original configuration, but the Birmingham-based units were renumbered into the 1500xx range by subtracting 100 from the previous number (e.g. 150103 became 150003). This also gave the operational advantage of there being an extra set of passenger door controls within the train for use by the conductor, making it easier to collect revenue without having to run the full length of the unit between stations.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: The Class 150 units have BSI couplers which enable them to work in multiple with , , , , , , , and units, as well as with units of the same class. However, they cannot work in multiple with or units due to incompatible wiring arrangements.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: When introduced, the Class 150s had unique interior door open/close buttons. In the north of England, they were square and blue. In the south of Scotland they were yellow in colour and lit up turquoise when enabled. The button lit up bright yellow in the south of England. The illumination feature was intended to aid visually impaired people, although they did not meet the subsequent standards set out by disability regulations that were later introduced, because they had no raised braille and were too small for some disabled people to reasonably locate. During the 2000s, these blue buttons were replaced across the fleet by the standard EAO series 56 'easy to see, easy to press' raised circular door button, with braille writing for the visually impaired, over a yellow surround to comply with the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: The 450 Class was built using the Class 150 bodyshell and was operated by Northern Ireland Railways. It came to the end of its design life in 2014, so most of them were scrapped, although two remained.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: One further unit was built specifically for testing duties. Originally numbered in the Class 180 series, the unit is now in the departmental series, numbered 950001 and carries the yellow Network Rail livery.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: The performance of the Class 150 was such that BR decided to procure similar trains for the Provincial fleet, such as the Class 156 and Class 158 for longer regional routes, replacing a significant portion of the locomotive-hauled stock previously operated by BR.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: After privatisation, North Western Trains (which was later taken over by First Group and re-branded First North Western shortly afterwards) and Arriva Trains Northern operated Class 150/1 and 150/2s on their routes. The North Western Trains units underwent refurbishment by Hunslet-Barclay in Kilmarnock. The Arriva Trains Northern trains did not. When Northern Rail took over, both the former FNW and ATN Class 150s were transferred to Newton Heath depot, Manchester, with the former North Western Trains Class 158s taking the 150s' places at Northern's Neville Hill depot (Leeds). All Northern 150s contain high-density 2+3 seating. During late 2011, Northern Rail received various ex London Midland 150/1s and 150/2s when the brand-new units entered service in the Midlands. This enabled Northern Rail to increase capacity on its most overcrowded services.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: In 2015, the then-new Northern franchise (Northern) announced that 24 of their Class 150 units would be reformed into three-car units by March 2019. The three-car sets would be used on routes including the Penistone Line and Leeds to Goole, though this did not end up happening. The current operator, Northern Trains received the Angel Trains 150/0s, previously leased to GWR, on 1 April 2020.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: After British Rail was privatised, the fleet passed to Porterbrook who leased the trains to Wales & West, which was later split up into Wessex Trains and Wales & Borders (later Arriva Trains Wales) in 2001.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: Great Western Railway currently operates a fleet of 20 Class 150/2 units which are mainly used for services on the local branch lines in Devon. This includes the Avocet Line/Riviera Line between Exmouth and Paignton plus the Tarka Line between Barnstaple and St James' Park (occasionally usually if a Class 158 isn't available). They are also used on the Cornish branch lines which includes the Tamar Valley Line between Plymouth and Gunnislake, Atlantic Coast Line between Par and Newquay, Looe Valley Line between Liskeard and Looe, Maritime Line between Truro and Falmouth Docks and St Ives Bay Line between St Erth and St Ives.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: GWR previously operated the two prototype three-car Class 150/0 units, which had transferred from London Midland and replaced the and "Turbo" units which were being used on the Reading to Basingstoke Line, which allowed the Turbo units to reinforce Thames Valley services. 150001 had entered service in January 2012. The two prototype units later cascaded down to the West fleet in response to the Class 387s taking over from the s and s on the London Paddington to Didcot Parkway services, hence releasing Turbos to take over on the Reading to Basingstoke Line again. Until the end of their operation by GWR, the two 150/0s were based at St Phillips Marsh depot in Bristol and were used on local services around Bristol and Exeter. In April 2020, they transferred to Northern Trains.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: Following privatisation, Wales & Borders continued to use the fleet of Class 150 units on branch-line services as well as on the commuter services around Cardiff known as the Valley Lines and the Vale of Glamorgan Line. The units transferred to Arriva Trains Wales in December 2003, with more later acquired for the reopened Ebbw Vale line. All of the ATW units were transferred to KeolisAmey Wales on 14 October 2018 and all KeolisAmey Wales units were transferred to Transport for Wales Rail on 7 February 2021.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: Upon the privatisation of British Rail, the bus company National Express ran ScotRail, and its successor First ScotRail operated 18 Class 150s out of on Fife Circle services. Other workings included Dundee and Carnoustie, as well as operating alongside other DMUs such as Class 158s on the Crossrail services between Newcraighall through Edinburgh to Bathgate, Stirling, Dunblane and occasionally Perth. In 2005, 15 were transferred to Arriva Trains Wales and three to Northern Rail.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: Anglia Railways was created upon privatisation of British Rail, and it initially inherited a small fleet of nine Class 150/2 units, later supplemented with a tenth. The units were based at Crown Point TMD, and put to use on rural services in Suffolk and Norfolk. Lines using the units included the Bittern Line, the East Suffolk Line, and the Wherry Lines, as well as services from Ipswich to Cambridge. One unit each weekday was sub-leased to First Great Eastern for use on the Sudbury Branch Line.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: Anglia Railways named all bar one unit (150245) of its fleet after famous local figures. On 1 April 2004, Anglia Railways became part of the new 'One' franchise. The Class 150 units were transferred to Arriva Trains Wales (no. 150245) and Central Trains (all other units), having been replaced by units from Central Trains.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: National Express operated the North London Railways franchise from 1997 under the Silverlink brand. They had eight Class 150s; seven were cascaded from Central Trains following delivery of new Turbostar units in 2000, to replace the ageing fleet of and units. The eighth unit, no. 150121, was transferred to Silverlink in late 2005.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: London Overground, which took over the North London network in 2007, inherited the eight Class 150/1 units. Six were employed on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line, while two were sent on long-term loan to First Great Western.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: All units had names. The majority of the names are references to the Marston Vale Line on which they operated during Silverlink's franchise: Leslie Crabbe was a long-standing railway employee, who worked on the route; Richard Crane is the chairman of the Bletchley to Bedford Rail Users Association who has campaigned for the line to be retained and expanded. Three of the names (marked with an asterisk) were inherited from the previously incumbent units. All the units were then transferred to GWR in 2010 before being transferred again to Arriva Rail North in 2018, and their names are no longer applied.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: By the end of October 2010, all London Overground's Class 150/1s had been replaced by a new fleet of eight two-car units operating exclusively on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line. Their final use was on 28 October 2010, when unit 150128 formed the 19:02 Barking to Gospel Oak service. The six units were cascaded to First Great Western, together with nine of the London Midland fleet.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: Following privatisation of British Rail, both Silverlink and Central Trains operated Class 150s in the midland regions of England and both companies were run by National Express.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: In 2010, London Midland ordered replacements for its Class 150s. It initially hoped to retain some of the 150s as additional capacity, although they were also wanted by First Great Western and Northern Rail. London Midland was expected to lose all of its Class 150s, but a change in plan saw it retain three Class 150 units as additional capacity, following a statement from the Department for Transport on 10 August 2011. However, London Midland lost two Class 153s to First Great Western as a result.


title: British Rail Class 150

text: On 29 April 2019, the Class 150s that were still in operation with West Midlands Trains transferred to Northern, having been replaced by Class 230s and Class 172s.


title: Muscle cell

text: A muscle cell is also known as a myocyte when referring to either a cardiac muscle cell (cardiomyocyte), or a smooth muscle cell as these are both small cells. A skeletal muscle cell is long and threadlike with many nuclei and is called a muscle fiber. Muscle cells (including myocytes and muscle fibers) develop from embryonic precursor cells called myoblasts.


title: Muscle cell

text: Myoblasts fuse to form multinucleated skeletal muscle cells known as syncytia in a process known as myogenesis. Skeletal muscle cells and cardiac muscle cells both contain myofibrils and sarcomeres and form a striated muscle tissue.


title: Muscle cell

text: Cardiac muscle cells form the cardiac muscle in the walls of the heart chambers, and have a single central nucleus. Cardiac muscle cells are joined to neighboring cells by intercalated discs, and when joined in a visible unit they are described as a "cardiac muscle fiber".


title: Muscle cell

text: Smooth muscle cells control involuntary movements such as the peristalsis contractions in the esophagus and stomach. Smooth muscle has no myofibrils or sarcomeres and is therefore non-striated. Smooth muscle cells have a single nucleus.


title: Muscle cell

text: The unusual microscopic anatomy of a muscle cell gave rise to its own terminology. The cytoplasm in a muscle cell is termed the sarcoplasm; the smooth endoplasmic reticulum of a muscle cell is termed the sarcoplasmic reticulum; and the cell membrane in a muscle cell is termed the sarcolemma. The sarcolemma receives and conducts stimuli.


title: Muscle cell

text: Skeletal muscle cells are the individual contractile cells within a muscle, and are more usually known as muscle fibers because of their longer threadlike appearance. A single muscle such as the biceps brachii in a young adult human male contains around 253,000 muscle fibers. Skeletal muscle fibers are the only muscle cells that are multinucleated with the nuclei usually referred to as myonuclei. This occurs during myogenesis with the fusion of myoblasts each contributing a nucleus to the newly formed muscle cell or "myotube". Fusion depends on muscle-specific proteins known as fusogens called "myomaker" and "myomerger".


title: Muscle cell

text: A striated muscle fiber contains myofibrils consisting of long protein chains of myofilaments. There are three types of myofilaments: thin, thick, and elastic that work together to produce a muscle contraction. The thin myofilaments are filaments of mostly actin and the thick filaments are of mostly myosin and they slide over each other to shorten the fiber length in a muscle contraction. The third type of myofilament is an elastic filament composed of titin, a very large protein.


title: Muscle cell

text: In striations of muscle bands, myosin forms the dark filaments that make up the A band. Thin filaments of actin are the light filaments that make up the I band. The smallest contractile unit in the fiber is called the sarcomere which is a repeating unit within two Z bands. The sarcoplasm also contains glycogen which provides energy to the cell during heightened exercise, and myoglobin, the red pigment that stores oxygen until needed for muscular activity.


title: Muscle cell

text: The sarcoplasmic reticulum, a specialized type of smooth endoplasmic reticulum, forms a network around each myofibril of the muscle fiber. This network is composed of groupings of two dilated end-sacs called terminal cisternae, and a single T-tubule (transverse tubule), which bores through the cell and emerge on the other side; together these three components form the triads that exist within the network of the sarcoplasmic reticulum, in which each T-tubule has two terminal cisternae on each side of it. The sarcoplasmic reticulum serves as reservoir for calcium ions, so when an action potential spreads over the T-tubule, it signals the sarcoplasmic reticulum to release calcium ions from the gated membrane channels to stimulate a muscle contraction.


title: Muscle cell

text: In skeletal muscle, at the end of each muscle fiber, the outer layer of the sarcolemma combines with tendon fibers at the myotendinous junction. Within the muscle fiber pressed against the sarcolemma are multiple flattened nuclei; embryologically, this multinucleate condition results from multiple myoblasts fusing to produce each muscle fiber, where each myoblast contributes one nucleus.


title: Muscle cell

text: The cell membrane of a cardiac muscle cell has several specialized regions, which may include the intercalated disc, and transverse tubules. The cell membrane is covered by a lamina coat which is approximately 50 nm wide. The laminar coat is separable into two layers; the lamina densa and lamina lucida. In between these two layers can be several different types of ions, including calcium.


title: Muscle cell

text: Cardiac muscle like skeletal muscle is also striated and the cells contain myofibrils, myofilaments, and sarcomeres as the skeletal muscle cell.


title: Muscle cell

text: The cell membrane is anchored to the cell's cytoskeleton by anchor fibers that are approximately 10 nm wide. These are generally located at the Z lines so that they form grooves and transverse tubules emanate. In cardiac myocytes this forms a scalloped surface.


title: Muscle cell

text: The cytoskeleton is what the rest of the cell builds off of and has two primary purposes; the first is to stabilize the topography of the intracellular components and the second is to help control the size and shape of the cell. While the first function is important for biochemical processes, the latter is crucial in defining the surface to volume ratio of the cell. This heavily influences the potential electrical properties of excitable cells. Additionally deviation from the standard shape and size of the cell can have negative prognostic impact.


title: Muscle cell

text: Smooth muscle cells are so-called because they have neither myofibrils nor sarcomeres, and therefore no striations. They are found in the walls of hollow organs, including the stomach, intestines, bladder and uterus, in the walls of blood vessels, and in the tracts of the respiratory, urinary, and reproductive systems. In the eyes, the ciliary muscles dilate and contract the iris and alter the shape of the lens. In the skin, smooth muscle cells such as those of the arrector pili cause hair to stand erect in response to cold temperature or fear.


title: Muscle cell

text: Smooth muscle cells are spindle-shaped with wide middles, and tapering ends. They have a single nucleus and range from 30 to 200 micrometres in length. This is thousands of times shorter than skeletal muscle fibers. The diameter of their cells is also much smaller which removes the need for T-tubules found in striated muscle cells. Although smooth muscle cells lack sarcomeres and myofibrils they do contain large amounts of the contractile proteins actin and myosin. Actin filaments are anchored by dense bodies (similar to the Z discs in sarcomeres) to the sarcolemma.


title: Muscle cell

text: A myoblast is an embryonic precursor cell that differentiates to give rise to the different muscle cell types. Differentiation is regulated by myogenic regulatory factors, including MyoD, Myf5, myogenin, and MRF4. GATA4 and GATA6 also play a role in myocyte differentiation.


title: Muscle cell

text: Skeletal muscle fibers are made when myoblasts fuse together; muscle fibers therefore are cells with multiple nuclei, known as myonuclei, with each cell nucleus originating from a single myoblast. The fusion of myoblasts is specific to skeletal muscle, and not cardiac muscle or smooth muscle.


title: Muscle cell

text: Myoblasts in skeletal muscle that do not form muscle fibers dedifferentiate back into myosatellite cells. These satellite cells remain adjacent to a skeletal muscle fiber, situated between the sarcolemma and the basement membrane of the endomysium (the connective tissue investment that divides the muscle fascicles into individual fibers). To re-activate myogenesis, the satellite cells must be stimulated to differentiate into new fibers.


title: Muscle cell

text: Myoblasts and their derivatives, including satellite cells, can now be generated in vitro through directed differentiation of pluripotent stem cells.


title: Muscle cell

text: When contracting, thin and thick filaments slide with respect to each other by using adenosine triphosphate. This pulls the Z discs closer together in a process called sliding filament mechanism. The contraction of all the sarcomeres results in the contraction of the whole muscle fiber. This contraction of the myocyte is triggered by the action potential over the cell membrane of the myocyte. The action potential uses transverse tubules to get from the surface to the interior of the myocyte, which is continuous within the cell membrane.


title: Muscle cell

text: Sarcoplasmic reticula are membranous bags that transverse tubules touch but remain separate from. These wrap themselves around each sarcomere and are filled with Ca.


title: Muscle cell

text: Excitation of a myocyte causes depolarization at its synapses, the neuromuscular junctions, which triggers action potential. With a singular neuromuscular junction, each muscle fiber receives input from just one somatic efferent neuron. Action potential in a somatic efferent neuron causes the release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.


title: Muscle cell

text: When the acetylcholine is released it diffuses across the synapse and binds to a receptor on the sarcolemma, a term unique to muscle cells that refers to the cell membrane. This initiates an impulse that travels across the sarcolemma.


title: Muscle cell

text: When the action potential reaches the sarcoplasmic reticulum it triggers the release of Ca from the Ca channels. The Ca flows from the sarcoplasmic reticulum into the sarcomere with both of its filaments. This causes the filaments to start sliding and the sarcomeres to become shorter. This requires a large amount of ATP, as it is used in both the attachment and release of every myosin head. Very quickly Ca is actively transported back into the sarcoplasmic reticulum, which blocks the interaction between the thin and thick filament. This in turn causes the muscle cell to relax.


title: Muscle cell

text: There are four main types of muscle contraction: twitch, treppe, tetanus and isometric/isotonic. Twitch contraction is the process in which a single stimulus signals for a single contraction. In twitch contraction the length of the contraction may vary depending on the size of the muscle cell. During treppe (or summation) contraction muscles do not start at maximum efficiency; instead they achieve increased strength of contraction due to repeated stimuli. Tetanus involves a sustained contraction of muscles due to a series of rapid stimuli, which can continue until the muscles fatigue. Isometric contractions are skeletal muscle contractions that do not cause movement of the muscle. However, isotonic contractions are skeletal muscle contractions that do cause movement.


title: Muscle cell

text: Specialized cardiomyocytes in the sinoatrial node generate electrical impulses that control the heart rate. These electrical impulses coordinate contraction throughout the remaining heart muscle via the electrical conduction system of the heart. Sinoatrial node activity is modulated, in turn, by nerve fibres of both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. These systems act to increase and decrease, respectively, the rate of production of electrical impulses by the sinoatrial node.


title: Muscle cell

text: The evolutionary origin of muscle cells in animals is highly debated. One view is that muscle cells evolved once and thus all muscles cells have a single common ancestor. Another view is that muscles cells evolved more than once and any morphological or structural similarities are due to convergent evolution and genes that predate the evolution of muscle and even the mesoderm—the germ layer that gives rise to vertebrate muscle cells.


title: Muscle cell

text: Schmid and Seipel argue that the origin of muscle cells is a monophyletic trait that occurred concurrently with the development of the digestive and nervous systems of all animals and that this origin can be traced to a single metazoan ancestor in which muscle cells are present. They argue that molecular and morphological similarities between the muscles cells in cnidaria and ctenophora are similar enough to those of bilaterians that there would be one ancestor in metazoans from which muscle cells derive. In this case, Schmid and Seipel argue that the last common ancestor of bilateria, ctenophora, and cnidaria was a triploblast or an organism with three germ layers and that diploblasty, meaning an organism with two germ layers, evolved secondarily due to their observation of the lack of mesoderm or muscle found in most cnidarians and ctenophores. By comparing the morphology of cnidarians and ctenophores to bilaterians, Schmid and Seipel were able to conclude that there were myoblast-like structures in the tentacles and gut of some species of cnidarians and in the tentacles of ctenophores. Since this is a structure unique to muscle cells, these scientists determined based on the data collected by their peers that this is a marker for striated muscles similar to that observed in bilaterians. The authors also remark that the muscle cells found in cnidarians and ctenophores are often contests due to the origin of these muscle cells being the ectoderm rather than the mesoderm or mesendoderm. The origin of true muscles cells is argued by others to be the endoderm portion of the mesoderm and the endoderm. However, Schmid and Seipel counter this skepticism about whether or not the muscle cells found in ctenophores and cnidarians are true muscle cells by considering that cnidarians develop through a medusa stage and polyp stage. They observe that in the hydrozoan medusa stage there is a layer of cells that separate from the distal side of the ectoderm to form the striated muscle cells in a way that seems similar to that of the mesoderm and call this third separated layer of cells the ectocodon. They also argue that not all muscle cells are derived from the mesendoderm in bilaterians with key examples being that in both the eye muscles of vertebrates and the muscles of spiralians these cells derive from the ectodermal mesoderm rather than the endodermal mesoderm. Furthermore, Schmid and Seipel argue that since myogenesis does occur in cnidarians with the help of molecular regulatory elements found in the specification of muscles cells in bilaterians that there is evidence for a single origin for striated muscle.


title: Muscle cell

text: In contrast to this argument for a single origin of muscle cells, Steinmetz et al. argue that molecular markers such as the myosin II protein used to determine this single origin of striated muscle actually predate the formation of muscle cells. This author uses an example of the contractile elements present in the porifera or sponges that do truly lack this striated muscle containing this protein. Furthermore, Steinmetz et al. present evidence for a polyphyletic origin of striated muscle cell development through their analysis of morphological and molecular markers that are present in bilaterians and absent in cnidarians, ctenophores, and bilaterians. Steimetz et al. showed that the traditional morphological and regulatory markers such as actin, the ability to couple myosin side chains phosphorylation to higher concentrations of the positive concentrations of calcium, and other MyHC elements are present in all metazoans not just the organisms that have been shown to have muscle cells. Thus, the usage of any of these structural or regulatory elements in determining whether or not the muscle cells of the cnidarians and ctenophores are similar enough to the muscle cells of the bilaterians to confirm a single lineage is questionable according to Steinmetz et al. Furthermore, Steinmetz et al. explain that the orthologues of the MyHc genes that have been used to hypothesize the origin of striated muscle occurred through a gene duplication event that predates the first true muscle cells (meaning striated muscle), and they show that the MyHc genes are present in the sponges that have contractile elements but no true muscle cells. Furthermore, Steinmetz et al. showed that the localization of this duplicated set of genes that serve both the function of facilitating the formation of striated muscle genes and cell regulation and movement genes were already separated into striated myhc and non-muscle myhc. This separation of the duplicated set of genes is shown through the localization of the striated myhc to the contractile vacuole in sponges while the non-muscle myhc was more diffusely expressed during developmental cell shape and change. Steinmetz et al. found a similar pattern of localization in cnidarians with except with the cnidarian "N. vectensis" having this striated muscle marker present in the smooth muscle of the digestive track. Thus, Steinmetz et al. argue that the pleisiomorphic trait of the separated orthologues of myhc cannot be used to determine the monophylogeny of muscle, and additionally argue that the presence of a striated muscle marker in the smooth muscle of this cnidarian shows a fundamentally different mechanism of muscle cell development and structure in cnidarians.


title: Muscle cell

text: Steinmetz et al. continue to argue for multiple origins of striated muscle in the metazoans by explaining that a key set of genes used to form the troponin complex for muscle regulation and formation in bilaterians is missing from the cnidarians and ctenophores, and of 47 structural and regulatory proteins observed, Steinmetz et al. were not able to find even on unique striated muscle cell protein that was expressed in both cnidarians and bilaterians. Furthermore, the Z-disc seemed to have evolved differently even within bilaterians and there is a great deal diversity of proteins developed even between this clade, showing a large degree of radiation for muscle cells. Through this divergence of the Z-disc, Steimetz et al. argue that there are only four common protein components that were present in all bilaterians muscle ancestors and that of these for necessary Z-disc components only an actin protein that they have already argued is an uninformative marker through its pleisiomorphic state is present in cnidarians. Through further molecular marker testing, Steinmetz et al. observe that non-bilaterians lack many regulatory and structural components necessary for bilaterians muscle formation and do not find any unique set of proteins to both bilaterians and cnidarians and ctenophores that are not present in earlier, more primitive animals such as the sponges and amoebozoans. Through this analysis the authors conclude that due to the lack of elements that bilaterians muscles are dependent on for structure and usage, nonbilaterian muscles must be of a different origin with a different set regulatory and structural proteins.


title: Muscle cell

text: In another take on the argument, Andrikou and Arnone use the newly available data on gene regulatory networks to look at how the hierarchy of genes and morphogens and other mechanism of tissue specification diverge and are similar among early deuterostomes and protostomes. By understanding not only what genes are present in all bilaterians but also the time and place of deployment of these genes, Andrikou and Arnone discuss a deeper understanding of the evolution of myogenesis.


title: Muscle cell

text: In their paper Andrikou and Arnone argue that to truly understand the evolution of muscle cells the function of transcriptional regulators must be understood in the context of other external and internal interactions. Through their analysis, Andrikou and Arnone found that there were conserved orthologues of the gene regulatory network in both invertebrate bilaterians and in cnidarians. They argue that having this common, general regulatory circuit allowed for a high degree of divergence from a single well functioning network. Andrikou and Arnone found that the orthologues of genes found in vertebrates had been changed through different types of structural mutations in the invertebrate deuterostomes and protostomes, and they argue that these structural changes in the genes allowed for a large divergence of muscle function and muscle formation in these species. Andrikou and Arnone were able to recognize not only any difference due to mutation in the genes found in vertebrates and invertebrates but also the integration of species specific genes that could also cause divergence from the original gene regulatory network function. Thus, although a common muscle patterning system has been determined, they argue that this could be due to a more ancestral gene regulatory network being coopted several times across lineages with additional genes and mutations causing very divergent development of muscles. Thus it seems that myogenic patterning framework may be an ancestral trait. However, Andrikou and Arnone explain that the basic muscle patterning structure must also be considered in combination with the cis regulatory elements present at different times during development. In contrast with the high level of gene family apparatuses structure, Andrikou and Arnone found that the cis regulatory elements were not well conserved both in time and place in the network which could show a large degree of divergence in the formation of muscle cells. Through this analysis, it seems that the myogenic GRN is an ancestral GRN with actual changes in myogenic function and structure possibly being linked to later coopts of genes at different times and places.


title: Muscle cell

text: Evolutionarily, specialized forms of skeletal and cardiac muscles predated the divergence of the vertebrate/arthropod evolutionary line. This indicates that these types of muscle developed in a common ancestor sometime before 700 million years ago (mya). Vertebrate smooth muscle was found to have evolved independently from the skeletal and cardiac muscle types.


title: Muscle cell

text: The properties used for distinguishing fast, intermediate, and slow muscle fibers can be different for invertebrate flight and jump muscle. To further complicate this classification scheme, the mitochondria content and other morphological properties within a muscle fiber can change in a tsetse fly with exercise and age.


title: The Story of Civilization

text: The Story of Civilization (1935–1975), by husband and wife Will and Ariel Durant, is an 11-volume set of books covering both Eastern and Western civilizations for the general reader, with a particular emphasis on European (Western) history.


title: The Story of Civilization

text: The first six volumes of "The Story of Civilization" are credited to Will Durant alone, with Ariel recognized only in the acknowledgements. Beginning with "The Age of Reason Begins", Ariel is credited as a co-author. In the preface to the first volume, Durant states his intention to make the series in 5 volumes, although this would not turn out to be the case.


title: The Story of Civilization

text: The series won a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1968 with the 10th volume in the series, "Rousseau and Revolution".


title: The Story of Civilization

text: The volumes sold well for many years, and sets of them were frequently offered by book clubs. An unabridged audiobook production of all eleven volumes was produced by the Books on Tape company and was read by Alexander Adams (also known as Grover Gardner).


title: The Story of Civilization

text: This volume covers Near Eastern history until the fall of the Achaemenid Empire in the 330s BC, and the history of India, China, and Japan up to the 1930s.


title: The Story of Civilization

text: James H. Breasted's review was highly negative. W. N. Brown was hardly more impressed. Henry James Forman, reviewing for The New York Times found the work to be a masterpiece as did the New York Herald Tribune.


title: The Story of Civilization

text: Michael Ginsberg was favorably disposed. As was Edmund C. Richards. Reviews over Time and Boston Evening Transcript were very positive.


title: The Story of Civilization

text: J.W. Swain noted the book was written for a popular audience rather than scholars. And, it was successful at that. A review in "Time" was positive. John Day published a mixed review. Ralph Bates posted a negative one for "The New Republic".


title: The Story of Civilization

text: This volume covers the Middle Ages in both Europe and the Near East, from the time of Constantine I to that of Dante Alighieri.


title: The Story of Civilization

text: Sidney R. Packard, professor emeritus of history at Smith College, found the work to be quite good. Norman V. Hope had a similar impression. L.H. Carlson, for the Chicago Tribune, compared it to Jacob Burckhardt's works.


title: The Story of Civilization

text: This volume covers the history of Italy from c.1300 to the mid 16th century, focusing on the Italian Renaissance.


title: The Story of Civilization

text: Wallace K. Ferguson published a review. Geoffrey Brunn wrote a favorable review for The New York Times.


title: The Story of Civilization

text: This volume covers the history of Europe outside of Italy from around 1300 to 1564, focusing on the Protestant Reformation.


title: The Story of Civilization

text: Geoffrey Bruun published a positive review for The New York Times. Garrett Mattingly, for The Saturday Review, lambasted the volume but went on to say that Durant was widely-read and a capable storyteller.


title: The Story of Civilization

text: This volume covers the period of the Age of Enlightenment, as exemplified by Voltaire, focusing on the period between 1715 and 1756 in France, Britain, and Germany.


title: The Story of Civilization

text: This volume centers on Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his times. It received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1968.


title: The Story of Civilization

text: John H. Plumb was scathing. Joseph I. Shulim took a similar view. Alfred J. Bingham had a mixed yet favorable opinion. A review over The Saturday Review was very positive.


title: The Story of Civilization

text: One volume, "Rousseau and Revolution", won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1968. All eleven volumes were Book-of-the-Month Club selections and best-sellers with total sales of more than two million copies in nine languages.


title: The Story of Civilization

text: Plumb's opinion on the series was that “historical truth… can rarely be achieved outside the professional world [of historians].”