bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Genome-Wide Analysis of the ERF Gene Family in Arabidopsis and Rice
Authors: Nakano Toshitsugu , Suzuki Kaoru , Fujimura Tatsuhito , Shinshi Hideaki
Published: January 2006

Genes in the ERF family encode transcriptional regulators with a variety of functions involved in the developmental and physiological processes in plants. In this study, a comprehensive computational analysis identified 122 and 139 ERF family genes in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and rice (Oryza sativa L. subsp. japonica), respectively. A complete overview of this gene family in Arabidopsis is presented, including the gene structures, phylogeny, chromosome locations, and conserved motifs. In addition, a comparative analysis between these genes in Arabidopsis and rice was performed. As a result of these analyses, the ERF families in Arabidopsis and rice were divided into 12 and 15 groups, respectively, and several of these groups were further divided into subgroups. Based on the observation that 11 of these groups were present in both Arabidopsis and rice, it was concluded that the major functional diversification within the ERF family predated the monocot/dicot divergence. In contrast, some groups/subgroups are species specific. We discuss the relationship between the structure and function of the ERF family proteins based on these results and published information. It was further concluded that the expansion of the ERF family in plants might have been due to chromosomal/segmental duplication and tandem duplication, as well as more ancient transposition and homing. These results will be useful for future functional analyses of the ERF family genes.
Molecular Characterization and Phylogeny of U2AF35 Homologs in Plants
Authors: Wang Bing-Bing , Brendel Volker
Published: January 2006

U2AF (U2 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein auxiliary factor) is an essential splicing factor with critical roles in recognition of the 3′-splice site. In animals, the U2AF small subunit (U2AF35) can bind to the 3′-AG intron border and promote U2 small nuclear RNP binding to the branch-point sequences of introns through interaction with the U2AF large subunit. Two copies of U2AF35-encoding genes were identified in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana; atU2AF35a and atU2AF35b). Both are expressed in all tissues inspected, with atU2AF35a expressed at a higher level than atU2AF35b in most tissues. Differences in the expression patterns of atU2AF35a and atU2AF35b in roots were revealed by a promoter::β-glucuronidase assay, with atU2AF35b expressed strongly in whole young roots and root tips and atU2AF35a limited to root vascular regions. Altered expression levels of atU2AF35a or atU2AF35b cause pleiotropic phenotypes (including flowering time, leaf morphology, and flower and silique shape). Novel slicing isoforms were generated from FCA pre-mRNA by splicing of noncanonical introns in plants with altered expression levels of atU2AF35. U2AF35 homologs were also identified from maize (Zea mays) and other plants with large-scale expressed sequence tag projects. A C-terminal motif (named SERE) is highly conserved in all seed plant protein homologs, suggesting it may have an important function specific to higher plants.
Exposed Loop Domains of Complexed 14-3-3 Proteins Contribute to Structural Diversity and Functional Specificity
Authors: Sehnke Paul C. , Laughner Beth , Cardasis Helene , Powell David , Ferl Robert J.
Published: January 2006

The 14-3-3 family of proteins functions through protein:phosphoprotein interactions, the nature of which has been elucidated using x-ray crystallography. However, some key structural features in nonconserved regions have yet to be fully resolved, leaving open questions regarding the functional selectivity of 14-3-3 family members for diverse clients. In an effort to study surface accessible structural features in 14-3-3 containing macromolecular complexes and to illuminate important structure/function variations among the 14-3-3 isoforms, we determined the epitopes for three unique monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) developed against the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) G-box DNA:protein complex. The epitopes mapped to different loops in a phylogenetically important subset of the 13 14-3-3 family members. All three epitopes were on a common exposed face of complexed 14-3-3s. Two of the mAbs recognized linear sequences within loops 5 and 6, while the third mAb recognized 14-3-3 residues surrounding the pivotal medial Gly in the divalent cation-binding domain of loop 8, together with distal residue(s) in the putative dynamic 10th helix that has yet to be determined by crystallography. Gly at this loop 8 position is unique to nonepsilon 14-3-3 isoforms of the plant kingdom, suggesting that this region constitutes a plant-specific key functional 14-3-3 feature and highlighting that the loop 8 region is functionally significant. Mutagenesis of the medial amino acid in the loop 8 domain changed the flexibility of the C terminus and altered client peptide-binding selectivity, demonstrating the functional significance of the surface accessible, evolutionarily distinct loop 8 domain.
Photosynthesis, Productivity, and Yield of Maize Are Not Affected by Open-Air Elevation of CO2 Concentration in the Absence of Drought
Authors: Leakey Andrew D.B. , Uribelarrea Martin , Ainsworth Elizabeth A. , Naidu Shawna L. , Rogers Alistair , Ort Donald R. , Long Stephen P.
Published: January 2006

While increasing temperatures and altered soil moisture arising from climate change in the next 50 years are projected to decrease yield of food crops, elevated CO2 concentration ([CO2]) is predicted to enhance yield and offset these detrimental factors. However, C4 photosynthesis is usually saturated at current [CO2] and theoretically should not be stimulated under elevated [CO2]. Nevertheless, some controlled environment studies have reported direct stimulation of C4 photosynthesis and productivity, as well as physiological acclimation, under elevated [CO2]. To test if these effects occur in the open air and within the Corn Belt, maize (Zea mays) was grown in ambient [CO2] (376 μmol mol−1) and elevated [CO2] (550 μmol mol−1) using Free-Air Concentration Enrichment technology. The 2004 season had ideal growing conditions in which the crop did not experience water stress. In the absence of water stress, growth at elevated [CO2] did not stimulate photosynthesis, biomass, or yield. Nor was there any CO2 effect on the activity of key photosynthetic enzymes, or metabolic markers of carbon and nitrogen status. Stomatal conductance was lower (−34%) and soil moisture was higher (up to 31%), consistent with reduced crop water use. The results provide unique field evidence that photosynthesis and production of maize may be unaffected by rising [CO2] in the absence of drought. This suggests that rising [CO2] may not provide the full dividend to North American maize production anticipated in projections of future global food supply.
The Fertilization-Induced DNA Replication Factor MCM6 of Maize Shuttles between Cytoplasm and Nucleus, and Is Essential for Plant Growth and Development
Authors: Dresselhaus Thomas , Srilunchang Kanok-orn , Leljak-Levanić Dunja , Schreiber Daniela N. , Garg Preeti
Published: January 2006

The eukaryotic genome is duplicated exactly once per cell division cycle. A strategy that limits every replication origin to a single initiation event is tightly regulated by a multiprotein complex, which involves at least 20 protein factors. A key player in this regulation is the evolutionary conserved hexameric MCM2-7 complex. From maize (Zea mays) zygotes, we have cloned MCM6 and characterized this essential gene in more detail. Shortly after fertilization, expression of ZmMCM6 is strongly induced. During progression of zygote and proembryo development, ZmMCM6 transcript amounts decrease and are low in vegetative tissues, where expression is restricted to tissues containing proliferating cells. The highest protein amounts are detectable about 6 to 20 d after fertilization in developing kernels. Subcellular localization studies revealed that MCM6 protein shuttles between cytoplasm and nucleoplasm in a cell cycle-dependent manner. ZmMCM6 is taken up by the nucleus during G1 phase and the highest protein levels were observed during late G1/S phase. ZmMCM6 is excluded from the nucleus during late S, G2, and mitosis. Transgenic maize was generated to overexpress and down-regulate ZmMCM6. Plants displaying minor antisense transcript amounts were reduced in size and did not develop cobs to maturity. Down-regulation of ZmMCM6 gene activity seems also to affect pollen development because antisense transgenes could not be propagated via pollen to wild-type plants. In summary, the transgenic data indicate that MCM6 is essential for both vegetative as well as reproductive growth and development in plants.
A Novel Plant-Specific Family Gene, ROOT PRIMORDIUM DEFECTIVE 1, Is Required for the Maintenance of Active Cell Proliferation
Authors: Konishi Mineko , Sugiyama Munetaka
Published: January 2006

Hypocotyl segments of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) produce adventitious roots in response to exogenously supplied auxin. root primordium defective 1 (rpd1) is a temperature-sensitive mutant isolated on the basis of impairment in this phenomenon. This study describes further phenotypic analysis of the rpd1 mutant and isolation of the RPD1 gene. When adventitious root formation was induced from the rpd1 explants at the restrictive temperature, cell proliferation leading to root promordia formation was initiated at the same time as in wild-type explants. However, development of the root primordia was arrested thereafter in the mutant. Temperature-shift experiments indicated that RPD1 exerts its function before any visible sign of root primordium formation. The expression patterns of the auxin-responsive gene DR5:β-glucuronidase and the cytodifferentiation marker gene SCARECROW suggest that the rpd1 mutation interferes with neither axis formation nor cellular patterning at the initial stage of root primordium development. Taken together with the effect of the rpd1 mutation on callus cell proliferation, these data imply a role for RPD1 in prearranging the maintenance of the active cell proliferation during root primordium development. Positional cloning of the RPD1 gene revealed that it encodes a member of a novel protein family specific to the plant kingdom. Disruption of the RPD1 gene by a T-DNA insertion caused embryogenesis arrest at the globular to transition stages. This phenotype is consistent with the hypothesized function of RPD1 in the maintenance of active cell proliferation.
Rewiring Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Cascade by Positive Feedback Confers Potato Blight Resistance
Authors: Yamamizo Chihiro , Kuchimura Kazuo , Kobayashi Akira , Katou Shinpei , Kawakita Kazuhito , Jones Jonathan D.G. , Doke Noriyuki , Yoshioka Hirofumi
Published: January 2006

Late blight, caused by the notorious pathogen Phytophthora infestans, is a devastating disease of potato (Solanum tuberosum) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), and during the 1840s caused the Irish potato famine and over one million fatalities. Currently, grown potato cultivars lack adequate blight tolerance. Earlier cultivars bred for resistance used disease resistance genes that confer immunity only to some strains of the pathogen harboring corresponding avirulence gene. Specific resistance gene-mediated immunity and chemical controls are rapidly overcome in the field when new pathogen races arise through mutation, recombination, or migration from elsewhere. A mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade plays a pivotal role in plant innate immunity. Here we show that the transgenic potato plants that carry a constitutively active form of MAPK kinase driven by a pathogen-inducible promoter of potato showed high resistance to early blight pathogen Alternaria solani as well as P. infestans. The pathogen attack provoked defense-related MAPK activation followed by induction of NADPH oxidase gene expression, which is implicated in reactive oxygen species production, and resulted in hypersensitive response-like phenotype. We propose that enhancing disease resistance through altered regulation of plant defense mechanisms should be more durable and publicly acceptable than engineering overexpression of antimicrobial proteins.
Abscisic Acid Stimulates a Calcium-Dependent Protein Kinase in Grape Berry
Authors: Yu Xiang-Chun , Li Mei-Jun , Gao Gui-Feng , Feng Hai-Zhong , Geng Xue-Qing , Peng Chang-Cao , Zhu Sai-Yong , Wang Xiao-Jing , Shen Yuan-Yue , Zhang Da-Peng
Published: January 2006

It has been demonstrated that calcium plays a central role in mediating abscisic acid (ABA) signaling, but many of the Ca2+-binding sensory proteins as the components of the ABA-signaling pathway remain to be elucidated. Here we identified, characterized, and purified a 58-kD ABA-stimulated calcium-dependent protein kinase from the mesocarp of grape berries (Vitis vinifera × Vitis labrusca), designated ACPK1 (for ABA-stimulated calcium-dependent protein kinase1). ABA stimulates ACPK1 in a dose-dependent manner, and the ACPK1 expression and enzyme activities alter accordantly with the endogenous ABA concentrations during fruit development. The ABA-induced ACPK1 stimulation appears to be transient with a rapid effect in 15 min but also with a slow and steady state of induction after 60 min. ABA acts on ACPK1 indirectly and dependently on in vivo state of the tissues. Two inactive ABA isomers, (−)-2-cis, 4-trans-ABA and 2-trans, 4-trans-(±)-ABA, are ineffective for inducing ACPK1 stimulation, revealing that the ABA-induced effect is stereo specific to physiological active (+)-2-cis, 4-trans-ABA. The other phytohormones such as auxin indoleacetic acid, gibberellic acid, synthetic cytokinin N-benzyl-6-aminopurine, and brassinolide are also ineffective in this ACPK1 stimulation. Based on sequencing of the two-dimensional electrophoresis-purified ACPK1, we cloned the ACPK1 gene. The ACPK1 is expressed specifically in grape berry covering a fleshy portion and seeds, and in a developmental stage-dependent manner. We further showed that ACPK1 is localized in both plasma membranes and chloroplasts/plastids and positively regulates plasma membrane H+-ATPase in vitro, suggesting that ACPK1 may be involved in the ABA-signaling pathway.
Pacific Islands History: A One‐Lifetime ‘Sunset Industry’
Authors: Campbell I. C.
Published: January 2006

In the unprecedented expansion of historical studies after the Second World War, the ‘Third World’ as it later came to be called, attracted new interest, not just as places of European imperialist activity, but as places worthy of study in their own right. Rather surprisingly, the remote and insignificant Pacific Islands were amongst the earliest to come under this new gaze, mainly because of Australian security concerns. Pacific history thus achieved a precocious institutional identity in a dedicated Department of Pacific History at the new Australian National University, intended for research and post‐graduate training only. Its founding member and professor was J. W. Davidson, appointed in 1950.
British Biography, Large and Small
Authors: Harrison Brian
Published: January 2006

British biography has for the past century been a resilient art form, yet there are surprisingly few British sustained studies of biographical method: although biographies are widely read ‘they are for the most part unstudied, unexamined. The spirit which prevails in British biography is commonsensical, empirical and humane’.1 Progress on biographical theory can be made only after identifying biographical sub‐categories. These need to be multi‐layered, so that any one biography can be assigned to more than one layer, depending on whether one's focus is on characteristics of the biographical subject (period, region, gender, occupation, and so on), on the biography's purpose (reverential, celebratory, critical, debunking, expository, interpretative), on its authorship (individual or collaborative, informed or distanced), or on its length (all the way from the magisterial to the sketch or vignette, whose first citation in the Oxford English Dictionary dates from 1880). Fluctuating twentieth‐century fashion in the biography of the individual, written by a single author in one or more volumes, contrasts markedly with the steady and quiet prosperity of collaboratively produced vignettes – biographical sketches whose economy throws the essentials into relief. Because vignettes are my main concern here, the last two of my four layers are of special interest.
The Glorious Revolution
Authors: Pincus Steve
Published: January 2006

England's Revolution of 1688‐89 has long been described as Glorious because it was not a Revolution. Edmund Burke set the tone for over two centuries of historiographical analysis when he proclaimed that ‘The Revolution was made to preserve our ancient indisputable laws and liberties, and that ancient constitution of government which is our only security for law and liberty.’ The English were not creating a new regime, merely restoring the old one that had been distorted by the Catholic James II. ‘The very idea of the fabrication of a new government is enough to fill us with disgust and horror,’ Burke concluded1. Thomas Babington Macaulay, writing two generations later, deployed his extensive historical learning to reach similar conclusions to his Whig precursor. The horrible ‘calamities’ of continental revolutions were averted in England because this ‘was a revolution strictly defensive, and had prescription and legitimacy on its side.’2‘To us who have lived in the year 1848,’ Macaulay argued, ‘it may seem almost an abuse of terms to call a proceeding, conducted with so much deliberation, with so much sobriety, and with such minute attention to prescriptive etiquette, by the terrible name of revolution.’3 Macaulay's great nephew George Macaulay Trevelyan reached very similar conclusions. Like Macaulay, Trevelyan insisted that in 1688‐89 ‘there are no new ideas.’4 He interpreted the Revolution as ‘a victory of moderation.’5 Unsurprisingly, like both Burke and Macaulay, Trevelyan thought ‘the spirit of this strange Revolution was the opposite of revolutionary.’6 More recent scholarship has done much to refine the story. Excellent work has been done to demonstrate that James II was himself a sophisticated ruler, with an innovative but not unrealistic political agenda. While a devout catholic, James II was committed to religious toleration. James II's very modern attempt to survey the Parliamentary classes, and to pressure them into repealing the Test Act and Penal Laws, the bulwark of a coercive national church, had a real chance of success.7 Nevertheless, after surveying recent findings by historians, John Morrill has found little reason to dissent from Trevelyan's fundamental assessments, concluding that ‘the Sensible Revolution of 1688‐89 was a conservative Revolution.’8
The Significance of the Frontier in World History
Authors: Jones Dan
Published: January 2006

Take a walk down the streets of any town in the western United States and you will see the legacy of a frontier: not the exceptional frontier of American mythology, but a fragment of the global frontier of European expansion over the last five hundred years. European weeds on the sidewalks, Eurasian microbes in Caucasian bodies, crosses on the church and in the cemetery, and Old World crops growing in the fields outside of town, all provide evidence of the modern expansion of European power. Now fly to Yunnan in China and see Muslim farmers harvesting Southeast Asian crops and worshiping in mosques that look like Chinese temples. These examples reveal that one of the most prominent facets of world history is the expansion and interchange of cultural and biological traditions that give rise to “frontier zones” of cultural interchange, accommodation, and conquest. Often fragmented by modern national borders, these frontier zones represent one of the major areas of global change. Despite the ubiquity of such zones, there exist few clear standards for defining frontiers or for studying them. Using a combination of scholarship from the study of the American West and some comparative examples from other world frontiers, a few observations can be made.
Some caveats about the ‘Atlantic’ paradigm
Authors: Cañizares‐Esguerra Jorge
Published: January 2006

Atlantic history is becoming increasingly fashionable. For colonial North American history in particular, this new perspective has proven genuinely liberating. It has allowed historians to escape the traditional teleological narratives of the nation. The colonial history of what would later be the United States has long been cast in rather narrow conceptual and geographical terms. Narratives exploring the vicissitudes and exploits of European settlers, as they allegedly went about creating the foundations of the new nation somewhere on the northeast coast, had crowded the field. This paradigm has come tumbling down as scholars now study developments in areas well beyond the British continental colonies. Historians currently maintain that the territories that came together to form the original union were part of a much larger Atlantic, namely, colonial British, French, Dutch, and Spanish worlds, each made up of a multitude of historical actors. This change of perspective, to be sure, is most welcome.
Australian Historical Studies– New Directions for the Twenty‐First Century
Authors: Damousi Joy
Published: January 2006

Australian Historical Studies is the oldest historical journal in Australia. It began in 1940 in the Department of History at the University of Melbourne. Since then, the journal has been the barometer of the state of the profession and the changing nature of historical scholarship in Australia. From its initial connections to British constitutional and imperial history, to the establishment of Australian history as a discipline in its own right, AHS has charted the various trends, fashions and orientations of Australian historians. The expansion of social then cultural history, the influence of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s in the emergence of labour and feminist history, as well as other specialisations such as immigration, urban, military, and sport history have all been documented in the contributions received over the past thirty years. The journal has also reflected the changing face of the profession itself, with a growing number of female, Indigenous and non‐Anglo contributors who have offered a corrective to the over‐representation of white, male, and middle class scholars who initially dominated the ranks of the profession. As the number of historians who have been employed outside of the universities has increased in number, so too have the contributions from freelance historians, museum curators and archivists. It is a challenge for any editor to capture a broad audience when dealing with this level of fragmentation of the discipline and an increasing specialisation of fields of research. These areas of history have now expanded and diversified to the extent that they run their own journals, conferences, and seminars, often without reference to the work of others in related fields.
Scottish or British?
Authors: Harvie Christopher
Published: January 2006

The environment of history‐writing has always been governed by the school and university curricula, research, hopes of a general readership, and the requirements of politics. These have been framed by the English language community, the publishing industry and, more recently, the media market. To this Scotland added, after about 1960, an unprecedentedly active politics, culminating with the grant in 1999 of broad powers of self‐government. In this History has been both resource and instrument, and is correspondingly complex.
Continental Conceptions
Authors: Mapp Paul
Published: January 2006

They look solid enough on a modern globe, but continents turn out to be rather mercurial. It's more than a matter of plate tectonics, and North America is no exception. For more than three centuries after Columbus’ famous landfall, large parts of the North American continent remained unseen and uncharted by Europeans.1 Consequently, the western portions of maps of North America remained fluid, changing with new reports from explorers and with new fashions in cartography. Moreover, as new accounts reached, and new ideas gripped them, European savants considered and reconsidered how best to denominate and classify the vast lands of the western hemisphere. A complicated story lies behind the commonplace phrase ‘North America’.
Canada and the Empires of the Past
Authors: Perry Adele
Published: January 2006

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip paid a visit to the prairie city where I live last month, and people stayed away in droves. Across the country, the tour met with small crowds and sceptical assessments of the monarchy's future; there are many regional peculiarities in modern Canada, but disinterest in imperial pageantry apparently is not among them. This may not provide an answer to that shopworn question of North American historiography – namely why Britain's northern colonies did not share the revolutionary sentiments of their southern neighbours – but does hint at a distinct Canadian response to the innumerable disappointments of empire.
The History of Parliament
Authors: Seaward Paul
Published: January 2006

Since 1951 the History of Parliament has been at work on one of the most complex and comprehensive projects ever attempted in British history. In its fifty years the History has published just eight works: but they include two hundred and eighty‐one years’ worth of political and parliamentary life in twenty‐eight volumes, twenty‐one thousand pages, around seventeen million words; over eighteen thousand biographies and around two thousand three hundred constituency articles researched in exhaustive detail, pulled together with introductory surveys.
Colonial North America
Authors: Taylor Alan
Published: January 2006

The escalating integration of North America ‐ by treaty, investment, trade, migration, travel, mass‐media, and environmental pollution ‐ renders our national boundaries increasingly porous. As a result, we may now be prepared to broaden our historical imagination beyond the national limits of the United States, to see more clearly a colonial past in which those boundaries did not yet exist.1
The Reformation Revived: The English Reformation Beyond Revisionism
Authors: Wabuda Susan
Published: January 2006

Does the study of the Reformation still matter? Was the English Reformation a great political and cultural watershed whose conspicuous importance lies beyond serious doubt? Or do historians agree that the Reformation was less successful, less complete, and ultimately less important than we once thought? As the twentieth century drew to its close, the study of the Reformation seemed to fall on hard times until academic discourse was restructured around a vibrant new multiculturalism. Long‐held assumptions that used to dominate the field of historical research now had to be tested. Fresh voices from around the globe, who previously were rarely heard, at long last began to receive the scholarly attention that they deserve. Any western cultural ascendancy seemed to be a dubious legacy in a troubled world. New studies cut across established disciplines. Scholars challenged the notion of traditional historical eras, and changed many universities’ curricula. Familiar conceptual markers were removed, perhaps forever.
The John Foxe Project
Authors: Loades David
Published: January 2006

The aim of this project is to publish a definitive four‐text edition of John Foxe's Acts and Monuments of the English Martyrs. Foxe issued his original work in four versions over twenty years (1563, 1570, 1576 and 1583), and before that two shorter Latin versions (1554, 1559). The end product was immensely influential in shaping that protestant English self‐consciousness which emerged in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and survived as part of the ’philosophy of Empire’ until the middle of the twnentieth century. John Bunyan and John Milton, as well as generations of church historians and political pamphleteers, acknowledged a debt of gratitude to Foxe. After the vernacular bible, the Acts and Monuments was probably the most influential book to appear in English during the sixteenth century.
The Crusades in Perspective: The Crusades in Modern Islamic Perspective
Authors: Andrea A. J.
Published: January 2006

Over the course of the next year, I would like to offer occasional perspectives on the crusades—a series of holy wars waged by the Latin Christian World against primarily the Islamic World of the Middle East and largely during the period 1096–1291.
Why Australian History Matters
Authors: Bridge Carl
Published: January 2006

I have been teaching Australian history to students in the University of London on and off over the last fifteen years. Most of the class are young Britons, and there is a scattering of exchange students from other European universities, the Americas and Asia. It is a perennially popular subject and I often wonder why? One answer, better than it seems at first sight, is the mountaineer’s: ‘because it is there’. But there are certainly some things that attract students to Australian history more than others. There is a fascination with the exotic and the natural wonders. Students are particularly interested in the Aboriginal past and culture. And they are curious to explore what European and other immigrants and their descendants have achieved when they have a chance to invent a society de novo. There is also an interest in how a country of predominantly European traditions has negotiated its position permanently anchored as it is in Pacific Asia. As our London students all study Australian history along with courses on the histories of other countries and movements, there is also considerable opportunity for comparative work, and this offers perspectives that do not naturally occur to historians studying Australia from within.
Culture across Borders in the Americas
Authors: Fein Seth
Published: January 2006

To begin, all history is cultural, and all culture is hybrid. Whether or not they ostensibly frame their work as ‘cultural’, all historians grapple to contextualize past communication. Whether or not they work across national borders, all historians must examine the distinct fibers that comprise seemingly solid fields of signification. For the historian who does work cross‐nationally, it is necessary to relate the distinct international forces operating between nations to the transnational forces produced by the presence of one nation within another. It is at this nexus of the international and transnational – of the territorial and extraterritorial, of political economy and socioculture – that provocative work about U.S.‐Latin American cultural relations currently resides.
Comparing Early Modern American Worlds: Some Reflections On The Promise Of A Hemispheric Perspective
Authors: Greene Jack P.
Published: January 2006

This article explores the tensions between the fashionable Atlantic history and multicultural history paradigms, in particular between the broad‐ranging tendencies of the former and the national state‐centered orientation of the latter. It proposes an American hemispheric perspective as a way of supplementing both these paradigms, while at the same time enriching understanding of the variations in the operation of the colonial impulse in the early modern Americas and avoiding the anachronism implicit in a multicultural approach that interests itself only in those areas that subsequently became part of the United States.
Finding the Voices of Nineteenth Century Urban Mexico
Authors: Warren Richard
Published: January 2006

The last two decades have seen a dramatic increase in research that focuses on the transition from colony to nation‐state for that part of the Americas that would become Mexico during the first half of the nineteenth century. Central to this enterprise has been the challenge to understand endemic political instability from the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1810 to the rise of the Porfirio Díaz regime in the eighteen‐seventies. Factions with competing ideologies (federalists and centralists, republicans and monarchists) intermittently gained a shaky hold over national authority, sometimes through peaceful means, most often by force. This upheaval has affected the way researchers approach the era conceptually and methodologically. Much of the traditional historiography dismissed this ‘age of caudillos’ either as a series of personal confrontations among military chieftains or as pure anarchy roaring through the crumbling floodgates of colonial structures. The major sources for this interpretation of Mexico's nineteenth century were the narrative accounts of contemporary participants and observers, both domestic and foreign. A primary obstacle to revision of this orthodoxy is a result of the very instability that needs explanation, since many of the traditional tools of the historian, even the most basic public records, have disappeared, been damaged beyond repair, or were never generated in the first place. The recent proliferation of excellent publications on the era is a tribute to researchers’ diligence in tracking down material and their creativity in working with what is available. Neglected sources from municipal and regional archives ‐ for example, judicial, electoral, and ecclesiastical records ‐ have been used to great effect. In addition, the application of sophisticated quantitative analysis on the one hand and a turn towards cultural history on the other, have altered our understanding of this era and fomented healthy discussions within the field over the nature of the historical inquiry. The endnotes and bibliography for this essay contain only a brief sample of this scholarship.
Genocide and Holocaust Consciousness in Australia
Authors: Dirk Moses A.
Published: January 2006

Ever since the British colonists in Australia became aware of the disappearance of the indigenous peoples in the 1830s, they have contrived to excuse themselves by pointing to the effects of disease and displacement. Yet although ‘genocide’ was not a term used in the nineteenth century, ‘extermination’ was, and many colonists called for the extermination of Aborigines when they impeded settlement by offering resistance. Consciousness of genocide was suppressed during the twentieth century – until the later 1960s, when a critical school of historians began serious investigations of frontier violence. Their efforts received official endorsement in the 1990s, but profound cultural barriers prevent the development of a general ‘genocide consciousness’. One of these is ‘Holocaust consciousness’, which is used by conservative and right‐wing figures to play down the gravity of what transpired in Australia. These two aspects of Australian public memory are central to the political humanisation of the country.
History Never Repeats? The Waitangi Tribunal and New Zealand History
Authors: Morris Ewan
Published: January 2006

In 1985, the New Zealand government extended the jurisdiction of the Waitangi Tribunal, a quasi‐judicial body formed to investigate Maori claims of breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, back to the time of the signing of the Treaty in 1840. As a result, the Tribunal entered the business of writing history. The history that appears in Tribunal reports, however, has some distinctive features that distinguish it from other types of historical writing, and this article explores some of these features. The article argues that the Tribunal's historical reports have sought not only to explain the losses suffered by Maori in the past, but also to suggest a better way forward for Maori and non‐Maori in the future.
A History for our Time? The Idea of the People in Australian Democracy
Authors: McKenna Mark
Published: January 2006

An attempt is made to re‐appraise the language of popular sovereignty in Australian political history and to signpost some important directions that new research might take. The increasing relevance of popular sovereignty in contemporary politics in both the United Kingdom and Australia is explored. The traditional interpretations of the role of popular sovereignty in Australian political history are outlined: their origins are explained, their credibility is assessed and the recent historiography of popular constitutionalism in nineteenth‐century Australia is addressed. In conclusion, some directions for future research are suggested.
Australia and New Zealand: Turning Shared Pasts into a Shared History
Authors: Smith Philippa Mein , Hempenstall Peter
Published: January 2006

Australia and New Zealand have a shared past, but not a shared history. A project at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand addresses this problem by exploring the relationship between the two countries on multiple levels – political, intellectual, cultural, social and economic – from the 1880s to 2000. It analyses the nature of Australia – New Zealand ties, where they are strongest and weakest, and how they have changed. The investigators are collaborating to address the deficits in knowledge about trans‐Tasman relations – beyond foreign affairs – since the 1880s. This missing knowledge of trans‐Tasman ties impoverishes both national stories and the quality of public commentary.
When Does World History Begin? (And Why Should We Care?)
Authors: Northrup David
Published: January 2006

Advances in evidence and understanding challenge the conventional view that history begins with written records. Nonliterate societies and unlettered social classes, not just the literate élite, are now standard subjects of historical inquiry. Moreover, advances in archaeology and other disciplines have made ‘prehistory’ knowable. Advocates of ‘Big History’ start history with the Big Bang, but a less radical beginning is the point at which humans first began to display modern esthetic and intellectual traits – a point that now seems to coincide with the evolution of biologically modern humans.
No One Said it was Quetzalcoatl: Listening to the Indians in the Conquest of Mexico*
Authors: Townsend Camilla
Published: January 2006

This article argues that, contrary to popular opinion, there is little evidence that the indigenous people of Mexico ever believed that Hernando Cortés and his men were gods, and that there is no meaningful evidence that any story about the god Quetzalcoatl's returning from the East in 1519 ever existed prior to the conquest. In order to dismantle the contruct, the origins and durability of the myth are explained, and then an alternate explanation is offered as to what the indigenous were in fact thinking at the point of contact.
Gender, women and the Occupation of France, 1940‐1944
Authors: Tumblety Joan
Published: January 2006

Perhaps the only acquaintance that a popular audience is likely to have with the women of wartime France is provided by Charlotte Gray, the eponymous fictional creation of novelist Sebastian Faulks, who, in the service of British intelligence, is parachuted into Occupied France during the Second World War to aid local resisters. Describing the film version of the novel as both ‘cinéma‐sucré’ and a ‘preposterous fable’ for its romantic and simplified view of the lives of such agents, one critic has been keen to emphasise that the reality of wartime resistance for women, and indeed for men, was very different, demanding highly developed skills of communication and evasion deployed in a state of constant fear.1 Historians now know much more about the role of women in the resistance and about their lives under the Occupation in general than was the case two decades ago, when histories of Occupied France were, for the most part, gender blind.
Ottoman History Writing and Changing Attitudes Towards the Notion of “Decline”
Authors: Quataert Donald
Published: January 2006

The arguments presented below support, I hope, the following set of assertions. First, historical writing on the question of the “decline” of the Ottoman Empire presently is undergoing a sweeping, if incomplete, revision that vitally affects our perceptions not only of this now‐defunct imperial system but also of the contemporary Middle East. Secondly, the debate over Ottoman decline only now is escaping from its thorough enmeshment in European norms of what constitutes political and economic development and the very concept of progress itself. Thirdly, from the later 18th century until about twenty years ago, notions of Ottoman “decline” had been a popular and unquestioned item in the intellectual inventory of Western academics and politicians alike. Fourthly, the challenges mounted to the decline paradigm reflect, among Ottomanists, an increasingly sophisticated sense of the past that owes much to the growth of global and comparative history. The collapse of the Soviet empire reinforced, but did not give rise to, these challenges.
The Concept that Came Out of the Cold: the Progressive Historicization of Generic Fascism and its New Relevance to Teaching Twentieth‐century History
Authors: Griffin Roger
Published: January 2006

This article first surveys the confusion that prevailed in fascist studies for decades, and which makes it quite understandable if the term ‘fascism’ has been generally avoided both by historians and by lecturers and others teaching inter‐war European history to students in non‐specialist ‘survey’ courses. It then outlines the main features of the ‘new consensus’ that is emerging among scholars on the heuristic value of seeing fascism as a form of revolutionary ideology, bent on purging society of decadence and inaugurating the rebirth of the nation. Next, it focuses on how this approach enables Fascism and Nazism to be located within the supranational forces shaping modern history, and on the light it throws on their profound relationship to totalitarianism, political religion and modernity. It closes with brief examples of how this approach can be applied to structuring answers to essays and exam questions on inter‐war Europe, and welcomes the prospect opened up by the new consensus for greater collaboration between specialists in fascist studies, empirical historians, university lecturers, textbook writers and students – and even, one day, students in secondary education, and their teachers and examiners – in this fascinating, and rapidly evolving, field of teaching and research.
An Update on the Reign of Francis I
Authors: Knecht R. J.
Published: January 2006

The purpose of this article is to draw attention to work on the reign of King Francis I of France (1515–47) produced since 1994, when my own Renaissance Warrior and Patron: the Reign of Francis I was published. Little that is new has been added to the political history of the reign, but fresh light has been shed on the court – following an exploration of hitherto neglected Italian archives – on the king's artistic patronage and also on his financiers. The significance of Francis’ patronage of humanism has been questioned. More attention is focusing on the last ten years of the reign. Once dismissed as a playboy, Francis I, whose 500th anniversary passed almost unnoticed in France, is now taken more seriously.
Consumer Culture and Political Transformations in Twentieth‐Century Germany
Authors: Ganaway Bryan
Published: January 2006

Generally, Frankfurt School theorists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer's critique of mass culture as merely an instrument of totalitarianism dominates German historiography on consumption.1According to this view, elites use the media to control how people think. Another member of the school, Walter Benjamin, is famous for arguing that the industrial production of goods removed the “aura” from unique things (paintings, for example) and turned them into commodities, devoid of higher social value.2The widespread acceptance of their views meant German historians generally disdained consumer culture as a field of study.3Recently, however, some have discovered another and more accurate conceptualization of consumer culture from an often‐overlooked Frankfurt School scholar, Siegfried Krakauer. He agreed authoritarians could use consumer culture to control the polity, but “the mass ornament is [also] ambivalent.” Additionally, it offered the opportunity to think of things in new ways, to imagine oneself differently through film, for example. Krakauer's problem with consumer culture and capitalism in Weimar was that “it rationalizes not too much but rather too little.” The more people that could participate in capitalism through consumption, he reasoned, the more receptive the system could become to new voices.4Much of the best contemporary historiography on twentieth‐century Germany produced by scholars in the UK, USA and the Federal Republic is now premised on this insight.
‘Dead Meat’ Dramas: Diseased Meat and the Public's Health
Authors: Waddington Keir
Published: January 2006

A series of ‘Dead Meat Drama[s]’ in the 1880s, which culminated in the 1889 Glasgow trial and the appointment of the first royal commission on tuberculosis in 1890, reflected growing contemporary anxiety about food safety.1 Underlying this anxiety was an ongoing concern about the adulteration of common foodstuffs and an emerging bacteriology of food that highlighted the role played by certain food items (mainly meat and milk), not only in cases of poisoning, but, more importantly, in the spread of disease at a time when standards of living and levels of meat consumption were rising. Despite claims by Burnett that by 1900 food no longer represented a significant threat to public health, debates about food safety and its role in the transmission of disease continued to worry the state, veterinarians and medical practitioners.2 Although the public were apathetic about food safety, by the Edwardian period the role food played in spreading certain bacteriological diseases had become an article of faith among public health officials, even if the science was not always with them.
The Reign of James VI and I: the Birth of Britain
Authors: Croft Pauline
Published: January 2006

This article considers recent work over the past twenty‐five years on the reign of James VI and I. The author argues that the multiple monarchy created by James VI of Scotland's accession to the English throne in 1603 was one of the greatest formative moments in the history of the British Isles, creating a political unit that endured until 1922, with the emergence of the Irish Free State. However, the structural problems of that multiple monarchy were also the major underlying cause of the ‘British’ civil war – fought out in Scotland and Ireland as well as England – that broke out in 1642.
What Can We Learn From the History of Homosexuality in Russia?
Authors: Healey Dan
Published: January 2006

Since the collapse of the Soviet regime in 1991, scholars have generated a wave of new studies on the political, social and cultural history of Russia, making enthusiastic use of sources that were once inaccessible. Topics long taboo under the pall of Cold War conservatism (in the West) and authoritarian censorship (in the East) are also increasingly open to researchers too.1 The history of homosexuality in Russia is one such topic.
Imperial Legacy: Lessons from British Rule in Iraq?
Authors: Sluglett Peter
Published: January 2006

At a time when Iraqis are bracing themselves for another round of ‘reconstruction’ it seems important to stress some matters of fundamental importance which the would‐be ‘reconstructers’ will need to bear in mind.