bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Crítica del entendimiento agente según Ángel Amor Ruibal
Authors: RAÑA DAFONTE César
Published: May 2018

This paper shows the critic developed by Angel Amor Ruibal about the agent understanding of the scholastics, especially to the Tomist version.
Reliability Analysis Based on Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) and Its Application in Geotechnical Engineering
Authors: Zhao Hongbo , Zhu Changxing , Ru Zhongliang
Published: May 2018

Introduction:

Reliability analysis is a good tool to deal with the uncertainty and has been widely used in the engineering system. The first order reliability method (FORM) is generally used to calculate the reliability index but FORM is time-consuming and requires derivative computing.

Methods:

Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm is a very simple, robust and population-based stochastic optimization algorithm. In this study, an ABC-based reliability analysis was proposed to calculate the reliability index of engineering system through combining Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm with FORM. FORM was adopted to calculate the reliability index and design point. ABC is used to solve the constrained optimization about FORM. The procedure of ABC-based reliability analysis was presented in detail.

Results and Conclusion:

The proposed method was verified by two classic examples and then applied to geotechnical engineering. The results show that the ABC algorithm can effectively solve the global optimization problem in FORM. Results demonstrate that ABC-based reliability analysis is a good approach to obtain the reliability index and design point with a good accuracy so that it can be applied to analyze the reliability of a complex engineering system.
Face-to-Face Versus Video Assessment of Facial Paralysis: Implications for Telemedicine (Preprint)
Authors: Tan Jian Rong , Coulson Susan , Keep Melanie
Published: May 2018

BACKGROUND

Patients with facial nerve paralysis (FNP) experience challenges in accessing health care that could potentially be overcome by telemedicine. However, the reliability of telemedicine has yet to be established in this field.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to investigate the consistency between face-to-face and video assessments of patients with FNP by experienced clinicians.

METHODS

A repeated-measures design was used. A total of 7 clinicians assessed the FNP of 28 patients in a face-to-face clinic using standardized grading systems (the House-Brackmann, Sydney, and Sunnybrook facial grading systems). After 3 months, the same grading systems were used to assess facial palsy in video recordings of the same patients.

RESULTS

The House-Brackmann system in video assessment had excellent reliability and agreement (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]=0.780; principal component analysis [PCA]=87.5%), similar to face-to-face assessment (ICC=0.686; PCA=79.2%). Reliability of the Sydney system was good to excellent, with excellent agreement face-to-face (ICC=0.633 to 0.834; PCA=81.0%-95.2%). However, video assessment of the cervical branch and synkinesis had fair reliability and good agreement (ICC=0.437 to 0.597; PCA=71.4%), whereas that of other branches had good to excellent reliability and excellent agreement (ICC=0.625 to 0.862; PCA=85.7%-100.0%). Reliability of the Sunnybrook system was poor to fair for resting symmetry (ICC=0.195 to 0.498; PCA=91.3%-100.0%) and synkinesis (ICC=−0.037 to 0.637; PCA=69.6%-87.0%) but was good to excellent for voluntary movement (ICC=0.601 to 0.906; PCA=56.5%-91.3%) in face-to-face and video assessments. Bland-Altman plots indicated normal limits of agreement within ±1 between face-to-face and video-assessed scores only for the temporal and buccal branches of the Sydney system and for resting symmetry in the Sunnybrook system.

CONCLUSIONS

Video assessment of FNP with the House-Brackmann and Sunnybrook systems was as reliable as face-to-face but with insufficient agreement, especially in the assessment of synkinesis. However, video assessment does not account for the impact of real-time interactions that occur during tele-assessment sessions.
The App Behavior Change Scale: Creation of a Scale to Assess the Potential of Apps to Promote Behavior Change (Preprint)
Authors: McKay Fiona H , Slykerman Sarah , Dunn Matthew
Published: May 2018

BACKGROUND

Using mobile phone apps to promote behavior change is becoming increasingly common. However, there is no clear way to rate apps against their behavior change potential.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to develop a reliable, theory-based scale that can be used to assess the behavior change potential of smartphone apps.

METHODS

A systematic review of all studies purporting to investigate app’s behavior change potential was conducted. All scales and measures from the identified studies were collected to create an item pool. From this item pool, 3 health promotion exerts created the App Behavior Change Scale (ABACUS). To test the scale, 70 physical activity apps were rated to provide information on reliability.

RESULTS

The systematic review returned 593 papers, the abstracts and titles of all were reviewed, with the full text of 77 papers reviewed; 50 papers met the inclusion criteria. From these 50 papers, 1333 questions were identified. Removing duplicates and unnecessary questions left 130 individual questions, which were then refined into the 21-item scale. The ABACUS demonstrates high percentage agreement among reviewers (over 80%), with 3 questions scoring a Krippendorff alpha that would indicate agreement and a further 7 came close with alphas >.5. The scale overall reported high interrater reliability (2-way mixed interclass coefficient=.92, 95% CI 0.81-0.97) and high internal consistency (Cronbach alpha=.93).

CONCLUSIONS

The ABACUS is a reliable tool that can be used to determine the behavior change potential of apps. This instrument fills a gap by allowing the evaluation of a large number of apps to be standardized across a range of health categories.
Gender and Sports Publications in School Newspaper Columns: The Greek Example
Authors: Valsamidou Lina P. , Kyridis Argyris
Published: May 2018

Sport is a basic element of social culture and a way of social expression, while it also constitutes a form of social education. Sport, however, also exhibits the most evident gendered characteristics of sports journalism since it constitutes a “male/male-dominated” field. What is the presence of boys and girls in the role of the sports editor/journalist? What sports issues are chosen by boys and girls and published in school newspaper columns? To what extent is the presence of the “male-dominated” sports domain and the sports news perpetuated/continued in schools’ newspapers? We analyze the publication content by gender in school newspapers, so as to determine in a qualitative and quantitative manner the basic parameters that define gendered sports discourse and its social components.
Afforestation/Reforestation Based on Gmelina Arborea (Verbenaceae) in Tropical Africa: Floristic and Structural Analysis, Carbon Storage and Economic Value (Cameroon)
Authors: Noumi V. Noiha , L. Zapfack , P. Pelbara , Djongmo V. Awe , R. B. Tabue Mbobda
Published: May 2018

The study was carried out in three selected plantations. Sampling was made infive 100x20 m2 plots per site. Overall, 32 species, 36 genera and 17 families were surveyed. Hymenocardia acida, Combretum adenogonium, Daniellia oliveri, Entada africana, Terminalia macroptera, T. laxiflora, Lannea schimperi, Lophira lanceolata, Maytenus senegalensis, Ochna schweinfurthiana, Protea madiensis, Psorospermum senegalense, Piliostigma thonningii, Sarcocephalus latifolius and Securidaca longepedunculata were the most important species. The richness index ranged from 2.53±0.05-7.74±0.03. Shannon index was 3 in all sites. Density ranged from 98±2.01-253±10.23 stems/ha. Basal area was statistically significant among the sites (p<0.001). All sites were floristically similar (k>70 %). The vertical structure showed three types of figures; L shape, symmetrical bell shape and unsymmetrical bell shape. These structures confirmed a good regeneration of timbers in the sites. There was a positive correlation of the species dispersal in the sites (p<0.001). The amount of AGB was 23.50±0.38 t C/ha. The amount of C sequestration was 86.28±16.57 t CO2eq/ha. The ecosystem service payments ranged between 258.87±24.88-8629.25±248.16 €/ha with the lowest values for CDM price and the highest for REDD+price. A financing of such projects is required in the frame of creating adaptation and attenuation measures to global warming effects.
The Role of Schemata in Interpreting Some Certain Texts
Authors: Ahmad Sukirmiyadi
Published: May 2018

Some certain texts either written or spoken are sometimes very difficult to understand and interpret. This might happen if the readers or hearers do not have any experience or background knowledge about the texts to be interpreted. To make it clear, this paper aims at discussing the problems dealing with the role of schemata in interpreting some certain texts related to written and spoken texts. Concerning with individual’s experience or background knowledge of the texts, we then realize that everybody of us or a group of people has their own background knowledge which is different between one person and another, one group of people and another. These facts more often might make them interpret the texts differently based on their own experiences or background knowledge. This different interpretation is due to the different background knowledge or schemata of the readers or hearers, to whom the text is directed. In line with this problem, to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpreting between the two persons or community having different background knowledge or schemata, here are several special texts to discuss and analyze as it was stated by Michael Mc. Carthy (1991), such as: a) Public Notice, b) Headlines of Article on the Newspaper, c) Some Peaces of Small Ads, d) Short Dialogues in Public Services, and e) the Term “Jamu” in Javanese Culture were discussed in this paper. Based on the data analysis, it could be concluded that schemata were required much in efforts to understand and interpret both written and spoken texts correctly.
The Metonymy of “Tay”(Hand) in Vietnamese
Authors: Ngocbich Nguyen
Published: May 2018

Traditional linguistics treats metaphor and metonymy as a kind of rhetoric in language. But now many linguists have proved that metaphor and metonymy are not only a means of modification, but also a way for humans to understand things. Based on the concept of metonymy, this paper uses the methods of metonymy and implicit metaphor to analyze the word “Tay” (hand) in Vietnamese.
Factors influencing dabigatran or warfarin medication persistence in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation
Authors: Annavarapu Srinivas , Gandhi Pranav K , Li Yong , Arora Prachi , Moretz Chad , Wang Cheng , Sander Stephen D , Andrews George A
Published: May 2018

Factors influencing differences in persistence between dabigatran and warfarin in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) remain unclear.
Aim:
Compare differences in persistence between new dabigatran and warfarin users in patients newly diagnosed with NVAF, adjusting for sociodemographics, clinical characteristics, patient out-of-pocket cost and other covariates.
Methods:
A retrospective matched-cohort study was conducted using a US claims database of Medicare and commercially insured patients with NVAF aged≥ 18 years. Persistence and monthly out-of-pocket costs for dabigatran or warfarin were calculated and adjusted for covariates using Cox proportional hazard models.
Results & conclusion:
Unadjusted persistence was significantly lower among dabigatran users (n = 1025) compared with matched warfarin users (38 vs 46%). Adjusting for covariates rendered this difference insignificant (hazard ratio = 0.930).
Sobre la naturaleza humana.
Authors: Rodríguez Castillo Luis
Published: May 2018

El argumento central de Marshall Sahlins es que la cultura de Occidente muestra un amplio desdén por sí misma al reducir su comprensión de la humanidad al individuo maximizador. El autor hace un recuento del surgimiento de esta idea en la filosofía política y su contrargumento es que con ello se olvida a la Historia y a la diversidad de una amplia variabilidad del comportamiento humano sustentado en la comunidad del parentesco del que informa el registro etnográfico. Se lanza una mirada crítica sobre ambas formas de fundamentalismos.
A Declaração Universal sobre os Arquivos (DUA): uma reflexão de sua representação social
Authors: Guterres-dos Santos Jackson , Oliveira-Santos Jaires , Sousa-Barreira Maria Isabel de Jesus
Published: May 2018

Este estudio tiene como objetivo elucidar la representatividad social de la Declaración Universal de los Archivos (DUA) en el ámbito de la inteligencia colectiva y de las habilidades requeridas en el proceso de aprendizaje y comprensión de los usuarios y del público en general. La Declaración establece un nuevo enfoque para la preservación del patrimonio documental y la protección de la memoria individual y colectiva, socializando la conciencia de la responsabilidad de todos en la salvaguarda del proceso de construcción del conocimiento. Este es un estudio descriptivo que utiliza un método de investigación bibliográfica y documental, y realiza un análisis de la UDA, su historia e impacto en el proceso de construcción el compromiso de todos en la percepción de la importancia de la preservación de los archivos, las bibliotecas y los museos. La UDA colabora en el desarrollo de la concientización de los ciudadanos para la necesidad de formar profesionales en habilidades de información y convertirse en agentes de memoria y facilitadores del acceso a la información archivada. El estudio concluye con recomendaciones para inclusión de los temas de la UDA en los currículos de los cursos de Biblioteconomía y Archivística, asegurando así que sus principios sean comprendidos y experimentados en la práctica profesional, mientras que sirve para construir la identidad social y el conocimiento.
Towards good governance of heritage management systems: Possible role of accounting
Authors: Noaman Nabiela , Christiaens Johan , Ouda Hassan , El Mehelmy Dina
Published: May 2018

This study contributes to the debate on what constitutes “good governance in the heritage sector” by identifying and testing measurable determinants for good governance (GG) of heritage management (HM), with special attention to financial management and accountability. The deductive approach is used to discern the determinants, while Lawshe (1975) method is used to quantify the results of the content validity. The checklist applicability is investigated, by comparing the appropriated determinants to the practices of the pioneer countries mainly, England and Australia. The compliance of Egypt with GG of HM is assessed to identify the variation in GG of HM between developed and less-developed countries. The results of which reveal much deficiencies and flaws in Egypt’s heritage governance and management and the urgent need for reform.
Mexican Carriers of the HNF1A p.E508K Variant Do Not Experience an Enhanced Response to Sulfonylureas
Authors: Martagón Alexandro J. , Bello-Chavolla Omar Yaxmehen , Arellano-Campos Olimpia , Almeda-Valdés Paloma , Walford Geoffrey A. , Cruz-Bautista Ivette , Gómez-Velasco Donají V. , Mehta Roopa , Muñoz-Hernández Liliana , Sevilla-González Magdalena , Viveros-Ruiz Tannia L. , Ordoñez-Sánchez María Luisa , Rodríguez-Guillen Rosario , Florez Jose C. , Tusié-Luna María Teresa , Aguilar-Salinas Carlos A. ,   Slim Initiative in Genomic Medicine for the Americas (SIGMA) Type 2 Diabetes Consortium, Mercader Josep M. , Huerta-Chagoya Alicia , Moreno-Macías Hortensia , García-Ortiz Humberto , Manning Alisa , Caulkins Lizz , Flannick Jason , Patterson Nick , Martínez-Hernández Angélica , Centeno-Cruz Federico , Barajas-Olmos Francisco Martin , Zerrweck Carlos , Contreras-Cubas Cecilia , Mendoza-Caamal Elvia , Revilla-Monsalve Cristina , Islas Andrade Sergio , Córdova Emilio , Soberón Xavier , González-Villalpando María Elena , Wilkens Lynne , Le Marchand Loic , Monroe Kristine , Kolonel Laurence , Arellano-Campos Olimpia , Ordóñez-Sánchez María L. , Rodríguez-Torres Maribel , Segura-Kato Yayoi , Rodríguez-Guillén Rosario , Cruz-Bautista Ivette , Muñoz-Hernández Linda Liliana , Martagón Alexandro J. , Sevilla Gonzalez Magdalena del Rocio , Gómez Donají , Almeda-Valdés Paloma , Garay Maria Eugenia , Malacara Hernandez Juan Manuel , Burtt Noël P. , Cortes Maria L. , Altshuler David M. , Haiman Christopher A. , Aguilar-Salinas Carlos A. , González-Villalpando Clicerio , Orozco Lorena , Tusié-Luna Teresa , Florez Jose C.
Published: May 2018

OBJECTIVE

To assess whether an ethnic-specific variant (p.E508K) in the maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) gene hepatocyte nuclear factor-1α (HNF1A) found in Mexicans is associated with higher sensitivity to sulfonylureas, as documented in patients with MODY3.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

We recruited 96 participants (46 variant carriers and 50 age- and sex-matched noncarriers). Response to glipizide (one 2.5–5.0-mg dose), metformin (four 500-mg doses), and an oral glucose challenge was evaluated using a previously validated protocol. Glucose and insulin levels and their areas under the curve (AUCs) were compared between groups.

RESULTS

Carriers of the p.E508K variant had a lower maximum insulin peak during the glipizide challenge as compared with noncarriers with diabetes (P < 0.05). Also, carriers had a lower insulin response after the oral glucose challenge. Following an oral glucose tolerance test in the presence of metformin, carriers of the p.E508K variant with diabetes had a lower maximum insulin peak and total and incremental insulin AUC value as compared with noncarriers with diabetes (P < 0.05). A similar but nonsignificant trend was seen in participants without type 2 diabetes.

CONCLUSIONS

Carriers of variant p.E508K in HNF1A have a reduced insulin response rather than the increased sensitivity to sulfonylureas seen in patients with MODY3.
Postface
Authors: Prins Yopie
Published: May 2018

In this postface, the author reflects on how archives might be considered the site for her performance of translation using the example of Meta Glass, a woman who earned a Ph.D. in Latin and Greek from Columbia University in 1912. The traces of Meta Glass's reading are visible in abundant marginalia, dating from 1909, in her personal copy of Sophocles's tragedy Antigone. Meta Glass's edition has been photographed by artist Andrea Eis. This chapter, reflecting on the name of Meta Glass as a meta-narrative about Ladies' Greek, translates these photographs of her writing into an allegory for reading the Woman of Greek Letters. It also reads, or translates, the artfully enlarged photographs created by Eis, in her 2008 series entitled “Marginalia,” which superimpose the Meta Glass marginalia on fragmentary images of Greek sculptures. Finally, it considers the basic principles, or axioms, for reading Ladies' Greek.
Ocean Acoustics
Authors: Adam John A.
Published: May 2018

This chapter deals with the mathematics of ocean acoustics. A number of environmental factors affect the transmission of sound in the ocean, including the depth and configuration of the bottom, the sound velocity structure within the ocean, and the shape of the ocean surface. The depths in the ocean are distributed in a peculiar manner, and the solution of underwater-sound problems may be grouped into two categories that differ mainly in terms of dimension: the average depths of water for deep-water transmission are 10,000 to 20,000 feet, whereas those for shallow-water transmission are less than 300 feet. The chapter first provides an overview of ocean acoustic waveguides before discussing one-dimensional waves in an inhomogeneous medium. It also considers a mathematical model of acoustic wave propagation in a stratified fluid and concludes with an analysis of the one-dimensional time-independent Schrödinger equation for solving the potential well problem.
The Paradox of Vulnerability
Authors: Campbell John L. , Hall John A.
Published: May 2018

Why are small and culturally homogeneous nation-states in the advanced capitalist world so prosperous? Examining how Denmark, Ireland, and Switzerland managed the 2008 financial crisis, this book shows that this is not an accident. The book argues that a prolonged sense of vulnerability within both the state and the nation encourages the development of institutions that enable decision makers to act together quickly in order to survive, especially during a crisis. Blending insights from studies of comparative political economy and nationalism and drawing on both extensive interviews and secondary data, the book's authors support their claim by focusing on the three states historically and, more important, on their different responses to the 2008 crisis. The authors also devote attention to the difficulties faced by Greece and Iceland. The implications of their argument are profound. First, they show that there is a positive side to nationalism: social solidarity can enhance national prosperity. Second, because globalization now requires all states to become more adaptable, there are lessons here for other states, large and small. Lastly, the formula for prosperity presented here is under threat: highly homogeneous societies face challenges in dealing with immigration, with some responding in ways that threaten their success. This book demonstrates how the size and culture of a nation contribute in significant ways to its ability to handle political and economic pressures and challenges.
Ireland
Authors: Campbell John L. , Hall John A.
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines how Ireland managed the 2008 financial crisis. It first provides an overview of Ireland's transition from colony to nation-state before discussing its institutions and legacies as well as the national question that it had to deal with. It then considers Ireland's political economy, focusing on the impact of the multinational corporations on the economy, along with the origins of the 2008 financial crisis and a number of issues faced by Ireland, such as the possibility of groupthink and the lack of expertise and regulation in the country. Finally, it analyzes Ireland's response to the crisis in the form of a package of state guarantees, capital injections, efforts to clean up the banks' loan books, and a bailout deal with the Troika of the European Union, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund.
Unveiling Modernity: Verdi’s America and the Unification of Italy
Authors: Körner Axel
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines the creation of Giuseppe Verdi's American opera Un ballo in maschera, first performed around the time of Italy's Second War of Independence, in 1859. Un ballo in maschera was the first modern Italian opera set across the Atlantic. The history of its creation and the subsequent debate around it serves as a classic example of the cultural imagination surrounding life in the New World as well as the wider social impact of political ideas in nineteenth-century Italy. The chapter first considers Un ballo's close connection to the Unification of Italy before offering a reading of the opera. It also explores how Verdi depicted America in his opera and how his depiction relates to Italian debates about America at the time. Finally, it assesses the impact of censorship on the plot of Un ballo.
Agrarian Crossings
Authors: Olsson Tore C.
Published: May 2018

In the 1930s and 1940s, rural reformers in the United States and Mexico waged unprecedented campaigns to remake their countrysides in the name of agrarian justice and agricultural productivity. This book tells the story of how these campaigns were conducted in dialogue with one another as reformers in each nation came to exchange models, plans, and strategies with their equivalents across the border. Dismantling the artificial boundaries that can divide American and Latin American history, the book shows how the agrarian histories of both regions share far more than we realize. It traces the connections between the US South and the plantation zones of Mexico, places that suffered parallel problems of environmental decline, rural poverty, and gross inequities in land tenure. Bringing this tumultuous era vividly to life, the book describes how Roosevelt's New Deal drew on Mexican revolutionary agrarianism to shape its program for the rural South. The book also looks at how the US South served as the domestic laboratory for the Rockefeller Foundation's “green revolution” in Mexico—which would become the most important Third World development campaign of the twentieth century—and how the Mexican government attempted to replicate the hydraulic development of the Tennessee Valley Authority after World War II. This book is an innovative history of comparisons and the ways they affected policy, moved people, and reshaped the landscape.
Introduction
Authors: Olsson Tore C.
Published: May 2018

This introductory chapter sets out the book's two primary arguments, both of which take aim at artificial but widely accepted geographic dichotomies mapped onto the US–Mexico border. First, the book argues that the disciplinary distinction between “American” and “Latin American” history has obscured the confluence and interaction between US and Mexican state-led rural reform along with its attendant social upheaval during the radical 1930s. The border between the United States and Mexico not only separates “American” from “Latin American” history, it also marks where the Global North meets the Global South, or as was once popular, where the First World meets the Third World. The book's second major argument concerns that planetary dichotomy, and how it has warped scholarly understandings of a vast campaign that would remake countless human societies during the twentieth century: development.
Refinement, Affirmation—and the Seeds of Revolt
Authors: Galbraith John Kenneth
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines how economists in the established tradition amended and sharpened Adam Smith's conclusions, struggled to resolve his ambiguities, and sought otherwise to complete his system. In the years following Smith's death, three key figures emerged to refine and extend his work: Jean Baptiste Say, Thomas Robert Malthus, and David Ricardo. Improving on Smith, all three men sought to bring economics in step with the Industrial Revolution. With them came the economics of the industrial order. The chapter first considers the concept of Say's Law and Say's views on subjects such as borrowing, capitalism, distribution, production, profit, and purchasing power before discussing the ideas of Malthus and Ricardo regarding capitalism, competition, prices, value, stock market, employment, production, and poverty.
The Great Classical Tradition, 2
Authors: Galbraith John Kenneth
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines the classical tradition in economics at the apogee of high capitalism. Throughout the nineteenth century and virtually everywhere in the world, the primary concern of economics was how prices, wages, interest and profits are determined, as well as the character of money and the role of banking. The chapter first considers the development of ideas on price and the distribution of its proceeds, the effort to improve and refine the elements of cost, and the return to capital and labor. It then discusses Adam Smith's unresolved question of value in use and value in exchange and how economists in the latter part of the nineteenth century tried to deal with it, including Auguste Walras, William Stanley Jevons, Karl Menger, and John Bates Clark. It also describes the concept of marginal utility.
The Grand Assault
Authors: Galbraith John Kenneth
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines Karl Marx's critique of the classical tradition in economics. The classical tradition postulated an equilibrium that would come to be known as equilibrium economics. No change occurred in the basic relationship between employer and worker, between land, capital and labor. The change in the supply of labor and capital only gave rise to a new and similar equilibrium. Understanding that final equilibrium was the essence of economic science. The chapter considers Marx's rejection of the most fundamental assumptions of classical economics. It first discusses Friedrich Engels's influence on Marx before analyzing Marx's views on capitalism and other subjects such as distribution of power, wages, unemployment, labor, production, and property rights. It concludes with an assessment of the flaws of the Marxian system.
The Primal Force of the Great Depression
Authors: Galbraith John Kenneth
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines the impact of the Great Depression on classical economic ideas. When the Great Depression struck after the stock market crash of October 1929, economists in the classical tradition such as Joseph Schumpeter and Lionel Robbins chose to do nothing. They argued that the depression must be allowed to run its course. The chapter first considers U.S. economic policy under Franklin D. Roosevelt, focusing on how he addressed three visible features of the depression: deflation in prices, unemployment, and the hardship depression suffered by especially vulnerable groups. It also discusses the views of two scholars who belonged to the group known as the Roosevelt Brains Trust (later the Brain Trust), Rexford Guy Tugwell and Adolf A. Berle Jr. Finally, it explores how depression and price deflation led to two efforts to raise prices, one through the National Recovery Act and the other through agriculture.
The Culture of Contentment
Authors: Galbraith John Kenneth , Madrick Jeff
Published: May 2018

The world has become increasingly separated into the haves and have nots. This book shows how a contented class—not the privileged few but the socially and economically advantaged majority—defend their comfortable status at a cost. Middle-class voting against regulation and increased taxation that would remedy pressing social ills has created a culture of immediate gratification, leading to complacency and hampering long-term progress. Only economic disaster, military action, or the eruption of an angry underclass seem capable of changing the status quo. A groundbreaking critique, the book shows how the complacent majority captures the political process and determines economic policy.
The Culture of Contentment
Authors: Galbraith John Kenneth
Published: May 2018

This book examines what it calls the political economy of contentment. It argues that the fortunate and the favored do not contemplate and respond to their own longer-run well-being. Rather, they respond to immediate comfort and contentment. In the so-called capitalist countries, the controlling contentment and resulting belief is now that of the many, not just of the few. It operates under the guise of democracy, albeit a democracy not of all citizens but of those who, in defense of their social and economic advantage, actually go to the polls. This chapter discusses how economic life undergoes a constant process of change, and, in consequence, the same action or event occurring at different times can lead to very different results. It considers some examples throughout history, such as the economic ideas of the Physiocrats in France, the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, and Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.
The Functional Underclass
Authors: Galbraith John Kenneth
Published: May 2018

This chapter considers the nature and services of the so-called functional underclass. The underclass refers to individuals and families that do not share the comfortable well-being of the prototypical American. These people are concentrated in the centers of the great cities or, less visibly, on deprived farms, as rural migrant labor or in erstwhile mining communities. The underclass is deeply functional; all industrial countries have one in greater or lesser measure and in one form or another. The chapter first examines how the need to keep some part of the underclass in continued and deferential subjection is resolved in Western Europe before focusing on immigrants belonging to the functional underclass. It also explores the role of the functional underclass in capitalism, resentment and social unrest among those in the functional underclass, and the continuing threat of underclass social disorder, crime and conflict in the inner cities of the United States.
The Economic Accommodation, I
Authors: Galbraith John Kenneth
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines the ability of economics to accommodate its view of economic process, instruction and recommended public action to contentment. It begins with a discussion of the broad commitment to the doctrine of laissez faire as economic accommodation, arguing that it is general but not a confining force in the culture of contentment. It then considers how the most serious general threat to contentment arises from the intrinsic tendency of capitalism to instability—to recession or depression. It also explores three lines of government intervention in economics: fiscal policy, monetary policy, and direct restraint on costs. The chapter distinguishes between monetary policy and monetarism, the latter of which used to have a prominent role in the political economy of contentment.
The Economic Accommodation, II
Authors: Galbraith John Kenneth
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines economic accommodation in the age of contentment. For some centuries, reputable mainstream economics has given grace and acceptability to convenient belief—to what the socially and economically favored most wish or need to have believed. This economics permeates and even dominates professional discussion and writing, the textbooks and classroom instruction, as can be seen in the area of monetary policy. The chapter first considers three basic requirements to serve contentment: the need to defend the general limitation on government as regards the economy; to find social justification for the unbridled pursuit and possession of wealth; and to justify a reduced sense of public responsibility for the poor. It then explores Adam Smith's case against unwanted government action, or more specifically that part which is not in the service of contentment. It also discusses economic accommodation in relation to the welfare state, supply-side economics, and tax reductions.
The Foreign Policy of Contentment
Authors: Galbraith John Kenneth
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines how the culture of contentment has influenced foreign policy in the United States. In general, performance in the area of foreign policy is relatively free from the economic, political and even intellectual requirements and constraints that control much domestic government action. A change in official attitude toward some foreign country has no negative consequences for the average citizen. The chapter first considers the unique features of foreign policy and places it in its public context before discussing how American wealth, economic well-being and the resulting largesse that the United States has distributed overseas have added to the enjoyments of more substantive foreign policy. It shows that U.S. foreign policy in the age of contentment was passive and recreational in nature, its two principal and substantial supports being economic and military power.
Banks
Authors: Galbraith John Kenneth , Galbraith James K.
Published: May 2018

This chapter discusses the history of banks as one of three progenitors of money, the others being mints and treasury secretaries or finance ministers. Banking had a substantial presence in Roman times, then declined during the Middle Ages as trade became more hazardous and lending came into conflict with the religious objection to usury. The Renaissance saw the revival of money due in part to trade. It is fair to say that the decline and revival of banking took place in Italy. The banking houses of Venice and Genoa are acknowledged as the precursors of modern commercial banks. The chapter also considers how banking that developed from the seventeenth century spawned cycles of euphoria and panics. Finally, it examines the case of John Law, who established a bank in France that was authorized to issue notes in the form of loans, with the state as the principal borrower.
The Impeccable System
Authors: Galbraith John Kenneth , Galbraith James K.
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines the impact of the Federal Reserve System on money and banking in the United States. The Federal Reserve System was created in 1913 by virtue of the Federal Reserve Act passed by Congress and signed by President Woodrow Wilson. The Federal Reserve Act (1913) provided not for one but for as many as twelve central banks. It was conceived as an answer to the great panics, but in this respect the System was notably defective. Nor was the System better as an antidote for an alarming epidemic of bank failures. Furthermore, the most severe inflation ever in peacetime occurred under its watch. The chapter considers the successes and failures of the Federal Reserve System and looks at another body established to study the management of money in the United States: the National Monetary Commission.
The Coming of J. M. Keynes
Authors: Galbraith John Kenneth , Galbraith James K.
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines John Maynard Keynes's views with respect to money. It first considers Keynes's argument that, left to itself and given time, the economic system would find its equilibrium with all or nearly all its willing workers employed. If Keynes's instinct were right, the hopes of the monetary radicals would also destroyed. A change in the gold content of the dollar or an increase in banks' reserves would not mean more borrowers, more deposits, more money and a surge of the economy back to full employment. It followed that monetary policy would not work. What was needed was a policy that increased the money supply available for use and then ensured its use. The chapter considers Keynes's theoretical justification for his views in the 1936 book The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money, the fiscal policies he advocated, his repudiation of Say's Law, and Keynesian policies on taxation.
War and the Next Lesson
Authors: Galbraith John Kenneth , Galbraith James K.
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines the lessons of World War II with respect to money and monetary policy. World War I exposed the fragility of the monetary structure that had gold as its foundation, the great boom of the 1920s showed how futile monetary policy was as an instrument of restraint, and the Great Depression highlighted the ineffectuality of monetary policy for rescuing the country from a slump—for breaking out of the underemployment equilibrium once this had been fully and firmly established. On the part of John Maynard Keynes, the lesson was that only fiscal policy ensured not just that money was available to be borrowed but that it would be borrowed and would be spent. The chapter considers the experiences of Britain, Germany, and the United States with a lesson of World War II: that general measures for restraining demand do not prevent inflation in an economy that is operating at or near capacity.
The Many Deaths of Jew Süss
Authors: Mintzker Yair
Published: May 2018

Joseph Süss Oppenheimer—“Jew Süss”—is one of the most iconic figures in the history of anti-Semitism. In 1733, Oppenheimer became the “court Jew” of Carl Alexander, the duke of the small German state of Württemberg. When Carl Alexander died unexpectedly, the Württemberg authorities arrested Oppenheimer, put him on trial, and condemned him to death for unspecified misdeeds. On February 4, 1738, Oppenheimer was hanged in front of a large crowd just outside Stuttgart. He is most often remembered today through several works of fiction, chief among them a vicious Nazi propaganda movie made in 1940 at the behest of Joseph Goebbels. This book is an account of Oppenheimer's notorious trial. The book investigates conflicting versions of Oppenheimer's life and death as told by four contemporaries: the leading inquisitor in the criminal investigation, the most important eyewitness to Oppenheimer's final days, a fellow court Jew who was permitted to visit Oppenheimer on the eve of his execution, and one of Oppenheimer's earliest biographers. What emerges is a lurid tale of greed, sex, violence, and disgrace—but are these narrators to be trusted? Meticulously reconstructing the social world in which they lived, and taking nothing they say at face value, the author conjures an unforgettable picture of Jew Süss in his final days that is at once moving, disturbing, and profound. The book is an innovative work of history, and an illuminating parable about Jewish life in the fraught transition to modernity.
Joseph and His Brothers
Authors: Mintzker Yair
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines the life and work of Mordechai Schloss, a Jewish notable who stood behind the publication of the only contemporary Jewish account of Joseph Süss' life and death. Schloss' own life story, and the important text he helped publish about Oppenheimer, together reveal much about the fraught relationships among Jews in 1730s Stuttgart. A careful reconstruction of this relationship will challenge many common assumptions about Oppenheimer's trial, its causes, and its implications. In order to make sense of Schloss' account, one needs to understand his relationship with Oppenheimer, and in order to do that, one must begin with the ghetto.
Introduction
Authors: Cutterham Tom
Published: May 2018

This introductory chapter provides an overview of American gentlemen. Before the American Revolution, the idea of the gentleman was already in flux. American gentlemen could not rely on maintaining their status without effort. The performance of gentility involved more than buying and wearing the right things. It also required adherence to the gentlemanly code of honor. While the expectations and behaviors that made up the code were slightly different in different parts of the colonies, there were some things that were supposed to characterize gentlemen everywhere. Most important, a gentleman was someone who could be trusted—who always dealt honestly and kept his word. If he was accused of breaking this code, it was expected that a gentleman would defend his honor, by fighting a duel if necessary. Maintaining the status of a gentleman could end up costing not just one's fortune, but one's life.
Obedience
Authors: Cutterham Tom
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines the attempts to develop new and revolutionary approaches to education and literature. For some, especially the representatives of New England's Congregationalist establishment, the colonies' religious and educational traditions could find a new and central role in the republic. Public schooling and public religion would teach Americans not to abuse their new independence. It would help maintain the sober order and hierarchy necessary for national greatness. However, not every gentleman thought alike on matters of education or religion. For some young men, especially those who had come of age during the war, the revolution offered the chance to break out of old traditions.
Speaking of Us
Authors: Costello Bonnie
Published: May 2018

This chapter reflects on the perils and controversies surrounding common usage of the first-person plural. Poetry's first-person plural often prompts questions central to modern social thought: For whom does the poet write, and what authority does she have to speak for others? Is there a prior selfhood standing behind the collective, or is the “I” suspended in the voicing of “we”? Is “we” one or many? Can the poet construct a “we” that retains multiplicity within its choral force? When does the poem give assent to this claim of collective identity, and when does it distance itself?
Physics and Geometry
Authors: Gutfreund Hanoch , Renn Jürgen
Published: May 2018

This chapter concerns the ongoing debate about the meaning of Einstein's theory in the formative years, with particular attention to the relation between physics and geometry. It also compares Einstein's thinking on this issue with that of the French mathematician and philosopher Henri Poincaré and deals with the role of symmetry in the theory of relativity—one of Einstein's enduring legacies. The role of symmetry becomes evident, for instance, in the lecture on special relativity, in which it is shown how relativistic invariance, a symmetry property of the spacetime continuum, shapes Maxwell's equations and other laws of physics. In the period under consideration, the understanding of symmetry is deepened by the emergence of Emmy Noether's famous theorems, for which the theory of general relativity was an important source of inspiration.
The First Solutions and the Challenge of Their Interpretation
Authors: Gutfreund Hanoch , Renn Jürgen
Published: May 2018

This chapter discusses the first wave of the exploration of exact solutions to Einstein's gravitational field equations. When Einstein published the final form of the field equations in 1915, only an approximate solution was known. Given the complicated nonlinear character of the field equations, he did not expect that exact solutions could easily be found. He was all the more surprised when the astronomer Karl Schwarzschild presented him with just such an exact solution. Thus, this chapter presents a series of these solutions, beginning with the work of Karl Schwarzschild, Johannes Droste, Willem de Sitter, Alexander Friedmann, Hans Reissner, Gunnar Nordström, and finally, Georges Lemaître.
Einstein and the Astronomers
Authors: Gutfreund Hanoch , Renn Jürgen
Published: May 2018

This chapter deals with the early exploration of observational and experimental consequences of general relativity. It explores Erwin Freundlich's failed attempts to verify gravitational light bending and the redshift. The long collaboration between Einstein and Freundlich suffered a setback caused by personal tensions and disagreements around the end of 1921. Nevertheless, they continued to collaborate until both of them had to leave Germany when the Nazis came to power. The chapter also focuses on the triumphal confirmation of light bending during a solar eclipse by Arthur Eddington's expedition. Finally, this chapter considers the Hubble's discovery of the redshift of distant galaxies, which established the notion of an expanding universe.
Philosophical Debates on General Relativity
Authors: Gutfreund Hanoch , Renn Jürgen
Published: May 2018

This chapter addresses the philosophical debate surrounding general relativity in its formative period, from Einstein's own writings on methodological and epistemological aspects of the theory to the first reactions by philosophers such as Moritz Schlick, Ernst Cassirer, and Hans Reichenbach. The focus is on the philosophical investigations clarifying and reinterpreting the conceptual foundations of general relativity. General relativity emerged from Einstein's concerns for the foundations of physics. His early readings of philosophers had made him aware of the delicate relation between the fundamental concepts of space and time and experience. In creating special relativity, David Hume's empiricism and Poincaré's conventionalism had been helpful because they encouraged Einstein to ascribe new notions of space and time to coordinates that in Hendrik Lorentz's electrodynamics had no direct physical meaning.
The Quest for a Unified Field Theory
Authors: Gutfreund Hanoch , Renn Jürgen
Published: May 2018

This chapter addresses the question of why general relativity was perceived to be an incomplete theory by many contemporary scientists, including Einstein himself. In the formative years, general relativity was often seen as a partial or incomplete theory to be generalized, encompassed, or superseded by an overarching unifying theory that would also explain the constitution of matter, typically by including gravity and electromagnetism. This chapter also discusses Einstein's essay, entitled “Generalization of Gravitation Theory,” which he added to the third edition of The Meaning of Relativity. This essay reflects Einstein's struggle in his search for a unified field theory, which in the last ten years of his life was based on the notion of a non-symmetric metric.