bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Tense, Indexicality, and Consequence
Authors: Higginbotham James
Published: February 2012

This chapter outlines the problem of framing a theory of the temporal indicators of natural language in all their complexity and, in particular, of understanding the interaction of linguistic and contextual elements. It describes how the phenomenon of sequence of tense shows that tense logic is too limited, since it excludes the cross-reference typical of bound variables; it suggests instead that the tenses express temporal relations between events conceived as in Davidson. The particular discussion leads to the general question of the form of truth conditions for sentences in an indexical language. The discussion advocates conditional truth conditions, in which an antecedent clause spells out the import of the indexical elements. It goes on to describe two notions of a model for a language with such truth conditions, the notions varying as to whether the satisfaction of such antecedents is incorporated, and thus diverging in their conceptions of logical consequence.
Human Capital and Productivity Performance: Britain, the United States and Germany, 1870–1990
Authors: Broadberry Stephen
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the relationship between human capital and productivity among three industrialized economies: Britain, Germany, and the United States. It first presents sectoral estimates of comparative labour productivity from 1870 to 1990. It then examines the process by which Britain was overtaken at the beginning of the twentieth century by the upstart economies of the United States and Germany.
General Purpose Technologies and Surges in Productivity: Historical Reflections on the Future of the ICT Revolution
Authors: David Paul A. , Wright Gavin
Published: February 2012

This chapter analyses the relationship between the diffusion of general purpose technologies (GPTs) and surges in the growth of productivity. It first explores the dynamics of GPT diffusion by considering the generic and differentiating aspects of the US experience with industrial electrification and in comparison with that of the UK and Japan. It then discusses the analogies and contrasts between the historical case of a socio-economic regime transition involving the electric dynamo and the modern experience of the information and communications technology (ICT).
Understanding the Past to Reshape the Future: Problems of South Africa’s Transition
Authors: Wilson Francis
Published: February 2012

This chapter considers the problems of economic transition in South Africa. It begins by discussing the country's economic problems and their historical roots. It describes some of the major factors that helped to shape the South Africa which President Nelson Mandela inherited when he took office in 1994 and which the country's first democratic government has been attempting to reshape since then. Finally, the chapter assesses the ways in which a historical perspective illuminates the search for effective policies to resolve the problems.
John Cyril Smith 1922–2003
Authors: Ashworth Andrew
Published: February 2012

John Cyril Smith (1922–2003), a Fellow of the British Academy, was Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Nottingham where he headed the Law Department for three decades. In 1952–1953, Smith was awarded a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship at Harvard University and became impressed by the casebook method of teaching. The only subject he had taught every year throughout his career was evidence. His deep understanding of the law was apparent in his case commentaries on the subject for the Criminal Law Review, although by the mid-1980s he was handing over many evidence cases to his colleague and former student Diane Birch for commentary. He was a strong advocate of the presumption of innocence, in the form of the principle. It is chiefly for his work on the substantive criminal law that Smith will be long remembered. In addition to his three decades as Head of the Law Department at the University of Nottingham, and all his academic writings, Smith gave considerable time to official committees and other public service work.
The Prehistory of Chinese Music Theory
Authors: Bagley Robert
Published: February 2012

This lecture discusses the prehistory of Chinese music theory. The earliest texts about the music theory in China are the inscriptions of the musical instruments found inside the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng. The lecture describes these inscriptions and tries to identify what sort of musical development lies behind them. It determines that bells were the main influence on Chinese music theory. Bells introduced Chinese theorists to the chromatic scale and made absolute pitch important.
Liberties and Litigation
Authors: Shaw James E.
Published: February 2012

The guilds were essential allies in the operation of the regulatory system, which can be considered an early-modern example of a public/private partnership. Not only were the guilds the chief ‘customers’ of the court, providing much of the funding for public officials, they also had the authority to enforce market rules in their own sector. The price paid for their cooperation was the confirmation of their privileges and the division of the economy into separate sectors. This chapter emphasizes the functional role of guild litigation as opposed to the rhetoric that has surrounded it. From the point of view of a ‘command economy’, guild litigation served no useful purpose. The government considered it to be a waste of money, ‘petty disputes’ of no real significance.
Relational Transactions
Authors: Shaw James E.
Published: February 2012

Having examined the structure of small-claims litigation, this chapter seeks to situate the legal process more solidly in its immediate social context. The equitable character of justice at the lesser courts was in part related to the amateur status of the judges, yet it also reflected the highly informal nature of most everyday transactions. In the absence of written contracts, there was little scope for a sophisticated law of contract. The court's adoption of an equity approach was functionally related to the type of business that it considered. Courts of conscience provided an equivalent structure for small-claims litigation in England, allowing plaintiffs to seek justice even if they did not have the formal proofs required by the common law. This chapter shows that the behaviour of litigants can only be properly understood when this context of informal economic relations is taken into account.
The South Italian Sources
Authors: Falkenhausen Vera von
Published: February 2012

This chapter discusses the extant sources that are relevant to Byzantine prosopography. The sections in the chapter are divided according to the various political entities. The first section is on the Byzantine provinces, followed by the former territories of Byzantine between 1071 and 1204, the Lombard principalities, and the Duchies of Naples, Amalfi, and Gaeta and southern Latium.
Armenian Sources
Authors: Greenwood Tim
Published: February 2012

This chapter discusses Armenian sources, which can be divided into two categories: historical compositions and other sources, such as prosopographical data. Each category of Armenian sources is discussed and examined in detail. The chapter determines that Armenian sources appear manageable in the context of prosopography. Aside from providing records of the history of Armenia, these sources can supply useful and sometimes unique information about eleventh-century Byzantine history.
Introduction: Understanding the Partisan-Chetnik Conflict
Authors: Hoare Marko Attila
Published: February 2012

This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to present a history of the birth and rise of the Partisans in Bosnia-Hercegovina, as a Communist-led movement of resistance to the German and Italian occupiers and their domestic collaborators; of the emergence of a Chetnik movement as a conservative, Serb-nationalist rival to the Partisans; and of the conflict between the two. It analyses the impact that the conflict with the Chetniks had on Partisan policy and organization, and the evolution of the Partisan movement under the influence of this conflict. Finally, it examines the sequence of events that enabled the Partisans to emerge effectively as the victors in the contest with the Chetniks in Bosnia-Hercegovina by the autumn of 1943, and the reasons for the Partisan success. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
From Serb Rebellion to Bosnian Revolution, c. December 1941–March 1942
Authors: Hoare Marko Attila
Published: February 2012

The irretrievable breakdown of Partisan–Chetnik relations in Bosnia-Hercegovina and the beginning of open enmity between the two movements had profound consequences for the practices of both, as each moved away from the centre ground towards their respective political extremes. For the Chetniks, the break with the Partisans involved the progressive abandonment of all pretence at resistance to the occupying powers, the shift to outright alliance with the quisling regime in Serbia on a Great Serb nationalist basis, and the adoption of a more systematically genocidal policy towards the non-Serb population. For the Communists, the break involved the adoption of a more radical left-wing outlook that would have negative short-term consequences for the movement. But it also involved a shift from an essentially military strategy based on leading a predominantly Serb armed struggle against the Ustashas, to a political struggle aimed at building a genuinely multinational movement of Croats, Muslims, and Serbs against the ‘reactionary bourgeoisie’ of all nationalities. This shift would transform the Partisan movement from a Serb rebellion into a Bosnian Revolution: in other words, into a movement for radical political and social change on an all-Bosnian basis. Yet it would be many months before this policy would bear fruit for the Communists.
Cosmopolitanism, Patriotism, Nationalism
Authors: Weichlein Siegfried
Published: February 2012

With the French Revolution, the ‘nation’ entered a new phase as a model for political order that replaced corporate societies and triggered a large-scale process of emancipation and modernisation in European societies. Until the eighteenth century the political order in central Europe was organised along other lines, such as the state, the Reich, the monarchy, or the republic. That changed dramatically between the Seven Years War and around 1800. Despite its thorough universalism, Enlightenment in Germany combined universalism with patriotism, a rather unlikely combination in the twentieth century. For most educated authors in the age of Enlightenment, cosmopolitanism and patriotism were not opposites, but complementary. How, then, did contemporaries in the late eighteenth century conceptualise cosmopolitanism, patriotism, and nationalism, and relate them? How did they explain the complicity of cosmopolitanism and patriotism? This chapter outlines different answers to these questions relating to the period between the Seven Years War and around 1800.
Unity and Diversity in European Culture, c. 1800: Summary of Discussion
Authors: Morley Vincent
Published: February 2012

This chapter summarizes issues discussed during the conference on ‘Unity and diversity in European culture, c. 1800’, held in September 2003. Emma Winter opened the first discussion session by suggesting that the replacement of traditional patronage by the market place and the gravitation of the centre of the art world from Rome to Paris were more contested than would appear from the paper presented by James Sheehan. With reference to John Deathridge's paper, Siegfried Weichlein suggested a connection between the rise of German idealism and Germany's retrospective identification with abstract symphonic music, with which Deathridge agreed. Coming back to Sheehan's paper, one participant pointed out the irony that in the eighteenth century the opera was quintessentially Italian while at the same time uniquely cosmopolitan. Volker Sellin suggested that Napoleon Bonaparte hampered rather than fostered German nationalism by abolishing many of the smaller free imperial cities, ecclesiastical territories, and so on in favour of modern states. Other speakers discussed topics related to cultural university and diversity in Europe, including cosmopolitanism, patriotism, nationalism and the invention of national languages.
Ai Khanum Reconstructed
Authors: LECUYOT GUY
Published: February 2012

This chapter discusses the computer graphic (CG) reconstruction of the ancient city of Ai Khanum. The CG reconstruction project was initiated by a Japanese television producer and the completed images showed the picture of Ai Khanum as a town during the middle of the second century BC, which corresponds to the final architectural phase of the city. The chapter explains that Ai Khanum is a key element for understanding the Hellenization of the East.
The Culture of Parthian Nisa between Steppe and Empire
Authors: INVERNIZZI ANTONIO
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the culture of the Parthian fortress of Old Nisa. It suggests that the very existence of a monumental complex such as that at Old Nisa, built by royal command, is indicative of a profound process of change in the new ruling class. The chapter explores the actual foundation and location of Nisa and explains that the recent excavations increasingly support the hypothesis that the complex of Old Nisa probably functioned as a sanctuary for Arsacid kings.
Ardashir’s Eastern Campaign and the Numismatic Evidence
Authors: ALRAM MICHAEL
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the eastern campaign of Ardashir as the king of Fars based on numismatic evidence. Ardashir's coinage can be easily divided into three major phases according to its images and legends. The first phase is represented by a single type of coin minted in series, the second phase involved Ardashir's first minting phase of king of kings, and the third is marked by the introduction of a new coin type on the obverse showing Ardashir with a covered hairstyle. The metal analysis of four coins of Farn-Sasan has shown that their chemical composition is quite similar to those of the throne-successor coins.
The Bullae of Gobekly-depe
Authors: GAIBOV VASIF
Published: February 2012

This chapter describes the bullae or collection of imprints of seals on clay found at the Gobekly-depe in the Merv Oasis. The majority of bullae from Gobekly were found in the north and west corridors and in the north-west room of the Parthian building, and a few bullae were also recorded in the south courtyard, adjacent to the west corridor, which came in various shapes and sizes. The chapter also describes a small group of bullae found on the floor of the courtyard that showed a scene with figures standing either side of a fire altar, representing a scene of the investiture of a king by a female deity.
Money as a Marker of Cultural Continuity and Change in Central Asia
Authors: CRIBB JOE
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the role of coins or money as a marker of cultural continuity and change in Central Asia. It explores the full range of surviving coins to create an overview of coinage in the region and suggests that the origins and progress of coinage in ancient Central Asia can be seen as creating for the region an emerging tradition framing both the long-term and the innovative elements which characterize the coins of the region as contributors to a unified pattern. The findings reveal that, for more than 1,000 years, the coinages of ancient Central Asia were part of a continuous tradition which illustrated the Greek and Iranian cultures of the region combined with the strong adherence of local settled communities to their nomad origins.
Religious Iconography on Ancient Iranian Coins
Authors: SARKHOSH CURTIS VESTA
Published: February 2012

This chapter aims to draw attention to the importance of coin iconography in the Parthian and Sasanian periods and to suggest an alternative approach to the conventional reading of the symbolism. The iconography of Iranian coins after the conquest of Alexander shows similarity with the iconography of Seleucid coins, and in both cases the king on the obverse enjoys divine support. The chapter suggests that the iconography of pre-Islamic Iranian coins must therefore be understood not as part of the Hellenistic tradition but should be seen within its Iranian/Zoroastrian context.
How to Address Gender Inequality in British Pensions
Authors: Hollis Patricia
Published: February 2012

Pensions have been constructed by men in full-time work for other men in full-time work; but most pensioners are women. The basic state pension (BSP) still assumes that women will derive their state pensions as dependants of their husbands. And modern occupational pensions (OP) still assume that women will derive private pensions from full-time work and full-time saving continued without interruption over forty years. Neither the model of the BSP nor of the OP fits the world women inhabit. Women are so at risk of poverty in retirement due to three main factors: fluid family forms, flexible labour markets, and increased longevity. Barely 20 per cent of women enter retirement with a full national insurance pension in their own right.
Perspectives on Pensions in Eastern Europe
Authors: Müller Katharina
Published: February 2012

The dramatic political and economic changes witnessed by Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Former Soviet Union (FSU) since the late 1980s did not leave the area of old-age security unaffected. While the inherited pension systems were rather uniform, the past seventeen years have brought diversity to the region's retirement schemes. Most transition countries have opted for parametric reforms, thus changing key characteristics of their pre-existing pay-as-you-go schemes. A number of countries in the region have embarked on partial or full pension privatization, thereby following the much advertised Latin American role models. Moreover, some countries have introduced national defined-contribution plans, similar to the schemes of Sweden and Italy. Overall, contributory approaches to old-age security — whether publicly or privately organized — dominate the post-socialist pension reform agenda. This chapter outlines the pre-1989 legacy in old-age security and the impact of transformation on the existing retirement schemes. It reviews pension reforms in CEE and the FSU and evaluates the state of pension reform in the post-socialist world.
The Farther They Come, the Harder They Fall? First- and Second-Generation Immigrants in the Swedish Labour Market
Authors: JONSSON JAN O.
Published: February 2012

Sweden has been an immigrant country since World War II, with a mix of labour (especially from neighbouring Nordic countries) and refugee immigration up to the early 1970s and a large inflow of refugees, especially from the Middle East, after that. In 2002, almost 13 percent of the Swedish population was born in another country, summing up to more than one million inhabitants out of a total nine million. Labour immigrants arriving before 1970 used to have a labour-market achievement on a par with native Swedes. In recent decades, however, the first generation of immigrants, particularly those of non-European origin, have had relatively poor success in the labour market. This is counterbalanced by two facts: first, immigrants' labour-market attainment improves with years of residence in Sweden; second, there is considerable assimilation across generations. The second generation (born in Sweden, or who immigrated before starting school) do almost as well in the labour market as those with two Swedish-born parents. The remaining worry for this group is their relatively low employment rates.
Crossnational Patterns and Processes of Ethnic Disadvantage
Authors: HEATH ANTHONY
Published: February 2012

The experience of the second generation of migrants gives a clearer idea of whether liberal developed countries of Europe and North America provide equal opportunities to all their citizens, irrespective of their ethnic or national origin. This chapter examines the relationship between patterns of ethnic disadvantage and the nature of each country's economy, its patterns of social fluidity, its conception of nationhood, racism and xenophobia, and the relevant government policies. It discusses the gross disadvantages that ethnic minorities typically experience in the labour market and the net disadvantages (or ethnic penalties) after controlling for individual characteristics, especially for educational level and age. The chapter also assesses the gross differences between groups to determine the overall extent of ethnic stratification in each society and the nature of the vertical mosaic.
Star Status: Rennes and Spitzbergen (1839)
Authors: Mercer Wendy S.
Published: February 2012

On 18 September 1838, while Marmier was still in Sweden, he was appointed, in his absence, to the newly created chair of Foreign Literature at the University of Rennes. This was one of a number of new posts created in an expansion of provincial universities by an initiative of the Ministre de l'Instruction publique, Salvandy. Once back with his parents in Bourgfeld, Marmier learned with great satisfaction that Salvandy would allow him to spend the remainder of the year on sabbatical in Paris. After becoming bored with his post, he urged Gaimard to organise a new expedition. In his expedition in Spitzbergen, the things that struck Marmier most during his contacts with the local population were their hospitality, their honesty, their physical beauty, and their terrible poverty. On the whole, his comments about them are sympathetic and positive, although he condemns the treatment of animals there.
The Transitional Years (1851–69)
Authors: Mercer Wendy S.
Published: February 2012

If the years 1849–50 brought a degree of disappointment in the Americas in the wake of the French revolution of 1848, they also brought a new love into Marmier's life. The first section of this chapter describes his journey from Paris to the Balkans, along with romantic encounters with Mme Panckoucke and Louise-Adelaïde Amélie Viéz-Lefebvre-Gineau (Ebba). Marmier completed his narrative with surveys of the topography, administration, judiciary, statistics, and ethnography of the Balkans, and with a description of the life and customs of the country, including sections on marriage, the position of women, and an analysis of the total annual transactions made by Montenegrins at the Cattaro market. The second section describes his journey to the Baltic. The last section cites Marmier's contributions as a novelist.
A Decade of Tumult (1870–9)
Authors: Mercer Wendy S.
Published: February 2012

The year 1870 proved momentous both in terms of French life and history and for Marmier personally. His joy at being elected to the Académie française was set against the grim backdrop of the Franco–Prussian War, the Siege of Paris, and the bloodbaths at the end of the Commune. Marmier suffered from pneumonia, which kept him in bed for two months. On 19 May, he was elected to fill the seat vacated by Pongerville in the Academy.
Steady States
Authors: Crawford Harriet
Published: February 2012

This chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about regime change in the ancient Near East and Egypt. It examines the dynastic change and institutional administration in southern Mesopotamia in the third millennium BCE, the social change and the transition from the Third Dynasty of Ur to the Old Babylonian kingdoms, and the role of Islamic art as a symbol of power. It explores regime change in Iraq from the Mongols to the present.
The Royal Hunt in Islamic Art: a Symbol of Power or an Enduring Image?
Authors: Canby Sheila
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the imagery of the royal hunt in the Middle East and particularly Iran from the seventh to the nineteenth century. It attempts to determine whether the strength of the association of hunting with kingship underlies the enduring symbolism of the king as the supreme hunter, or whether the power of the visual motifs was so compelling that they ensured the continuity of the royal hunter in the visual arts of the Islamic world. It concludes that the attitudes to the depiction of royal hunts in Islamic Iran depended to a great extent on who was in power and how they wished to be perceived.
Tradition, Innovation, and Researching the Past in Libyan, Kushite, and Saïte Egypt
Authors: Morkot Robert
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the series of dynastic changes and military invasions in Egypt from the end of the New Kingdom to the reunification of the country under the rule of the Saïte pharaohs. The main evidence available at present for the study of prosopography and administration throughout the Libyan and Kushite periods comes from the Theban region and this shows a remarkable continuity through the various upheavals during the Third Intermediate Period. In the changes of the Third Intermediate Period there are traditional and innovative depictions that reflect unusual political geography and these changes must also reflect the self-identity of Libyans and Kushites, and the reactions of the Egyptian elite to foreign rulers.
Egypt in the Graeco–Roman World: from Ptolemaic Kingdom to Roman Province
Authors: Bowman Alan K.
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the changes in Egypt in the Graeco-Roman world during the Hellenistic and Roman periods following the death of Alexander the Great. It explains that these periods highlight episodes of military aggression, conquest, and annexation during the struggles of the Successors of Alexander and the Roman takeover of the Hellenistic kingdoms. The analysis of the changes in the role of the elites, the exploitation of the material resources, and the character of the military presence reveal that they are all expressions of the ways in which the coming of Roman rule brought change to Egypt and their effect was cumulative and which had begun before Egypt was annexed and made into a Roman province.
New Rule over Old Structures: Egypt after the Muslim Conquest
Authors: Sijpesteijn Petra M.
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the administrative changes in Egypt after the Muslim conquest. It explains that the conquest of Egypt by the Arab armies in 642 CE brought a new religious, linguistic, and administrative rule to this rich and important Byzantine province. However, this transformation was gradual and the arrival of the Arabs had little impact on the daily lives of the Egyptians. The Arab conquest did not result in mass confiscations of land in Egypt and there was no programme of land rewards for the conquering elite. This chapter suggests that both administrative continuity and change were part of the Muslim plan for Egypt after the conquest but it was not a formal plan but rather a pragmatic response to the challenges the conquerors encountered.
Introduction
Authors: Evans R. J. W.
Published: February 2012

The formation of Czechoslovakia introduced a remarkable novelty into the heart of the European continent after World War I. It was an unexpected creation and a completely new state, whereas its neighbours as successors to the Habsburg Monarchy either carried historic names and connections (Austria, Hungary, Poland), or were reincarnations of existing sovereign realms (Yugoslavia), or both (Rumania). Moreover, Czechoslovakia seemed uniquely to embody the ideals of the post-war settlement, as a polity with strongly western, democratic, and participatory elements. Yet Czechoslovakia was a historical construct, deeply rooted in earlier developments. It constitutes classic terrain for a study of the ‘nationalist and fascist Europe’ which emerged after 1918. This book deals with the history of Czechoslovakia and discusses Czech nationalism, along with the Czechs' relationship with Slovaks and Germans, Britain's policy towards Czechoslovakia, and gender and citizenship in the first Czechoslovak Republic.
Czech-Slovak Relations in Czechoslovakia, 1918–1939
Authors: Rychlík Jan
Published: February 2012

On October 28, 1918, the Czechoslovak state was proclaimed in Prague by the representatives of the main Czech political parties who formed the National Committee. In the proclamation addressed to the ‘Czechoslovak nation’, the Czech politicians claimed that the centuries-old dream of the nation has been realized. On October 30, the representatives of the Slovak political parties formed the Slovak National Council, which declared separation of Slovakia from Hungary. This chapter shows how Czechs and Slovaks welcomed the Czechoslovak state — but expected different things from it. It argues that the presumption of a single, unitary ‘Czechoslovak’ nation proved abortive from the very beginning, yet many Czechs failed to recognize this and therefore continued to underestimate the Slovak problem. That tended to undermine the country's raison d'être, which rested on the state rights of the majority population rather than on guarantees of an ethnic right. Autonomy was demanded by only one party, the Populists, and this did not command a majority among Slovaks at any point in the inter-war period. Nevertheless, their attachment to some form of separate status ran deep.
The Transfer of Czechoslovakia’s Germans and its Impact in the Border Region after the Second World War
Authors: Radvanovský Zdeněk
Published: February 2012

When World War II broke out, Britain's Foreign Office set up a number of brains trusts which, in co-operation with the east European exile governments, proceeded to formulate plans for reordering central and south-eastern Europe. The planning intensified after the Soviet Union and the United States entered the war. Already the basic consensus was that those states to be reconstituted after Nazi Germany's defeat should have no national minorities — certainly no German minorities — and that this solution could be achieved through a massive transfer of inhabitants. Most political parties in Slovakia demanded autonomy for their country and the formation of an independent Slovak government. In Czechoslovakia's border regions in the early post-war months, there was something of a vacuum when it came to settling the fate of the Germans. Alongside the expulsion of the Germans, far less attention was paid in the Allied states to a concomitant development: the resettlement of the border region with a Czech or Slovak population.
English Political History of the Late Middle Ages, 1272–c. 1520
Authors: Keen Maurice
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines British scholarship and research on the political history of England during the period from 1272 to 1520. It explores the influences and modes of thought that underlay the preoccupations and lines of approach of the scholarship of the years before and attempts to provide explanation for the change of direction after 1950. It explains that most of the works before 1950 were largely narrative studies of particular reigns and of prominent individuals.
Legal History
Authors: Brand Paul
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines twentieth-century British scholarship on medieval English legal history. Legal history has long been a marginal subject within British academic life, falling somewhat clumsily between the two stools of law and history, although it is an essential part of both subjects. There were very few English medieval legal historians at work during the twentieth century and this is unlikely to change for the better in the future.
Romance Studies 3: Dante
Authors: Deyermond Alan
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines British studies and research with regard to medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri. It explains that Dante and his Divina commedia have been a central preoccupation of British Italianists throughout the twentieth century and that it was the focus of the first two volumes of the influential Cambridge Studies on Medieval Literature series. Notable general studies of the Commedia include Sir Cyril Hinshelwood's article on its imagery, Sheila Ralphs' short book on allegorical patterns, and two longer books by Jeremy Tambling and Patrick Boyde.
The Study of Medieval Art I: 1900–50
Authors: Kauffmann C. M.
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the history of the study of medieval art in Great Britain during the first half of the twentieth century. Before 1932, no British university offered an honours degree course in the history of art. In the case of the British Academy, art did not figure in any of its sections until 1923 when the title of Section Two was changed to Medieval and Modern History and Archaeology and Art. Three fellows of this section include M.R. James, G.F. Warner and O.M. Dalton. This chapter also highlights the contributions of continental art historians to the development of British medieval studies. They include Hugo Buchtal, Otto Demus and Ernst Kitzinger.
Dollie Radford and the Ethical Aesthetics of Fin-de-Siecle Poetry
Authors: Livesey Ruth
Published: February 2012

This chapter uses the case of the poet, Socialist League member, and Fabian, Dollie Radford, to examine the relationship between socialism and fin-de-siècle aestheticism. After outlining Radford's conversion to socialism, the discussion examines her attempts to publish her work in the socialist journal Today. Radford's work from the 1880s forms a marked contrast with that of her widely published fellow Fabian E. Nesbit and the contrast highlights the oft-remarked ‘feminine’ lyricism of Radford's poetry. The chapter argues that, like Schreiner's Dreams, Radford's ‘A Ballad of Victory’, published in the Yellow Book, uses allegory to render political questions in an aesthetic register. The chapter concludes by comparing Radford's work from the 1890s with that of her fellow in the League, William Morris.
Engendering a New Age: Isabella Ford and Alfred Orage
Authors: Livesey Ruth
Published: February 2012

This chapter analyses the dissemination of socialist aesthetics in the press up until 1914. During the 1890s, the rise of the ILP shifted the locus of such debates from London to northern manufacturing towns, as is evident from the contributions of Isabella Ford, Margaret McMillan, Robert Blatchford, and Alfred Orage to the Clarion, Labour Leaden and the Leeds Arts Club. The discussion focuses on the development of Orage's politics and aesthetics from his early work with Isabella Ford and Edward Carpenter in Leeds to the peak of his influence as editor of the New Age in 1914. Orage came to reject both the ‘sentimental’ aesthetics of the ILP and the compromises of the Parliamentary Labour Party in the early twentieth century; turning instead to the model of guild socialism.
Introduction
Authors: Liang Linxia
Published: February 2012

This introductory chapter discusses the magistrates and their possible roles in debt, marriage, and land disputes. It begins with the data sources used by the author, namely the Qing official law, original case records, and the collections of judicial decisions. The latter part of the chapter introduces two fundamental issues, namely: the Qing approach to matters concerning land, debt, and marriage, and the multiple roles of the magistrate in terms of his responsibilities.
Cases and Judicial Decisions Concerning Land
Authors: Liang Linxia
Published: February 2012

This chapter discusses the magistrate's performance in resolving disputes over land matters. It reveals some important aspects of the magistrate's judgment regarding land disputes. The material covered by the land cases is considered to be one of the best illustrations of the interrelation of individuals in their daily life.
Other Relevant Matters Concerning the Resolution of Land, Debt, and Marriage Disputes
Authors: Liang Linxia
Published: February 2012

This chapter discusses some other relevant matters that concern all three areas of cases. It notes that the frequency of allegations of physical injury or false accusation rests upon the fact that the laws on injury were drafted too widely and that those on false accusation were too complicated. The chapter includes a section on custom, which played an important role in the process of solving disputes. However, it was not the fundamental principle applied by magistrates in decision-making. Finally, the chapter presents an argument that the magistrate enjoyed discretion in solving land, debt, and marriage cases whenever there was a gap between the law and the facts of that particular case.
kuk
Authors: Crook Tony
Published: February 2012

Some gardeners say that they think sorrowfully about their children whilst they work, of how they might one day return to the same place and remember their parent cutting trees and carrying a heavy net-bag of taros back to the village. Clearing a garden from primary forest is a larger task than clearing regrowth, yet people insist on the appetite-satisfying quality. Certain important trees should not be cut down, and remain as markers of previous garden sites and for hunting trips. Differences between the movements of more junior and more senior men are also evident in the yolam during the sum wok takamin rite. The events after the showing of mafum-ban are described. Mafum-ban intends two apparently alternate effects, preparing the young men for marriage by making them irresistibly handsome, and preparing them for fighting by making them devastatingly violent.
Cosmology in the Making: Barth, the Baktaman, and Secrecy
Authors: Crook Tony
Published: February 2012

This chapter explores Barth's work among the Baktaman, and examines how the Min got into Anthropology and how Anthropology got into the Min. It opens with an image that affords a glimpse of influences on Barth's perception of the Baktaman. The chapter also presents an in-depth example of two-way combinations between social relationships, analytical relationships, and ethnography, such that they ultimately appear inseparably a combination of the others and yet appear at moments as if they are stand-alone ‘separates’. Barth's record provides a rare opportunity to track the impressions left behind by thinking carried away from experiences at the ends of other journeys, the impressions left behind by earlier conceptual work, and to witness their development in subsequent passages. After the effects on Barth's epistemology are outlined, the discussion backtracks to focus on the Baktaman monograph. The chapter also examines the consequences of Barth having in mind a structuralist opposition of isolated symbolic elements. It then addresses Barth's discussion of creative mechanisms during storage within the minds of individual ritual specialists. Barth's methodological landscape is made concrete such that the movement of ideas can be witnessed in the passage of senior men through the forest to attend an initiation.
Classical History: a Sketch, with Three Artifacts
Authors: WISEMAN T. P.
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the chronological range of Greco-Roman history and the nature of the main narrative sources. The discussion begins about 1200 BCE, with the end of the Bronze Age palace culture, conventionally called Mycenaean. The destruction of the palace centres – at Knossos, Mycenae, Pylos, and Thebes – was responsible for preserving the ‘Linear B’ tablets, which form the earliest evidence for the Greek language. By the sixth century, Greek city-states were established widely round the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. This is the time of what is sometimes called ‘the Greek miracle’, the origin of philosophy and science as well as historiography. The chapter draws attention to three archaeological discoveries and the way their evidential value has been assessed: a gold mask, discovered in 1876 in the first of the ‘shaft graves’ at Mycenae, the so-called tomb of Agamemnon; an artefact discovered in 1977 by the Dutch archaeological team excavating the temple of Matuta at the Latin town of Satricum; and a gold bulb, or locket, discovered in 1794.
The Spade and the Text: The Interaction between Archaeology and Israelite History Relating to the Tenth-Ninth Centuries bce
Authors: MAZAR AMIHAI
Published: February 2012

There exists today a wide spectrum of views concerning the process of the writing and redaction of the various parts of the Hebrew Bible, as well as the evaluation of the biblical text in reconstructing the history of Israel during the Iron Age. An archaeologist must make a choice between divergent views and epistemological approaches when trying to combine archaeological data with biblical sources. There are five major possibilities, one of which is to claim that the biblical sources retain important kernels of ancient history in spite of the comparatively late time of writing and editing. Archaeology can be utilized to examine biblical data in the light of archaeology and judge critically the validity of each biblical episode. This chapter examines why we should accept the historicity of the biblical account regarding ninth-century northern Israel and discredit the historicity of the United Monarchy or Judah. It also discusses Jerusalem as a city during the tenth to ninth centuries and its role in defining state formation in Judah.
The Late Roman Army and the Defence of the Balkans
Authors: WHITBY MICHAEL
Published: February 2012

In Late Antiquity, the Balkans were transformed from a relatively prosperous region to one of great insecurity, with emperors increasingly inclined to ignore problems as long as they did not threaten the security of Constantinople itself; the Roman troops in the Balkans might appear inadequate in both quality and quantity for dealing with the challenges from beyond the Danube, particularly those posed by the great federations of Huns and Avars. Huns and Avars both shattered the Roman Empire's defences, but the process took time. Overall, the performance of the Roman army in the defence of the Balkans might seem mixed for such a significant area, although periods of considerable success should be recognized. Logistics as well as strategic and tactical thinking were powerful advantages for the Romans, and were exploited right through until the early seventh century.
Amida and Tropaeum Traiani: a Comparison of Late Antique Fortress Cities on the Lower Danube and Mesopotamia
Authors: CROW J.
Published: February 2012

Fortifications are now recognized as a defining feature of the late antique city and in a time of insecurity they were a positive factor for the maintenance of urban life as well as making an important contribution towards imperial defence. But in place of the fora, aqueducts and curiales of the high Roman Empire, the new foundations of the fourth century display new urban typologies derived, in part at least, from patterns of military organization rather than urban organization. This chapter compares the two frontier cities of Amida in Roman Mesopotamia and Tropaeum Traiani in Scythia as examples of new urban foundations in the early fourth century. Detailed structural evidence from the walls of Amida indicates two main phases of construction, one under Valens and a second under Anastasius following the major siege of 502. On the lower Danube the city of Tropaeum Traiani reveals similar features of major defences and urban layout with a range of internal structures including granaries and churches distinct from the typical attributes of the classic Graeco-Roman city.
The Contribution of Regional Survey to the Late Antiquity Debate: Greece in its Mediterranean Context
Authors: BINTLIFF J.
Published: February 2012

The fall of the Roman Empire remains a mystery. Archaeological and historical concerns today are less metaphysical and more intellectually challenging at the level of reconstructing the processes at work before, during and long after the official sack of Rome, and are as much focused on the succeeding transition to the medieval world as on the build-up to imperial decay and collapse. This chapter presents a grassroots case-study examination of the transformation of society in town and country in central Greece, founded on a regional survey project that has been running for 25 years. From the arrival of Roman control, through Late Antiquity and into the resurgence of strong state control emanating out of Byzantium in the eighth-nineth centuries AD, this chapter tries to set the patterns, provisional interpretations and questions which have arisen from the sequence in this region into wider debates around the Mediterranean concerning the contribution of regional archaeological surveys to the late antique-early medieval transition.
Memories of Underdevelopment: What Has Marxism Done for Medieval History, and What Can It Still Do?
Authors: Wickham Chris
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the medieval history of Europe within the context of Marxism, discussing the changes in class conflicts and their role in determining the socio-economic developments of European countries. It determines the historical contributions Marxism has made to medieval history and the future challenges it has to face. The chapter focuses on Marxist medieval history, which was dominated by the three strands of production in agrarian and feudal societies: slave plantations, peasant farming, and wage labour.
Marx’s Critique of Political Economy: A Theory of History or a Theory of Communism?
Authors: Jones Gareth Stedman
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the aim of Marx's theory and whether he succeeded in establishing what he was set out to prove. In 1883, at the graveside of Marx, Engels wrote of Marx's achievement as the discovery of ‘laws’ of history. Engel's depiction of Marx has been followed by Marx's disciples and opponents. After the First World War, Marx's writings were subjected to distorted views and interpretations that turned Marx into a remote and opaque figure. In the 1950s, attempts to capture the true thoughts of Marx were made. These attempts disclosed his difficulty in applying a socially determinist approach to the explanation of the republicanism and the constitutional character of the struggle between the elected president and the elected assembly. His basic assumption of the ‘forces of production’ as a means for the proletariat to advance and the bourgeoisie to rescind failed to interpret the transition from Second Empire to Third Republic. Forced to abandon this evolutionary scenario of capitalist development, Marx developed his Critique of Political Economy, wherein his prime objective was not to construct a theory of history, but to discover the path of man to communism.
The Drama of Revolution and Reaction: Marxist History and the Twentieth Century
Authors: Callinicos Alex
Published: February 2012

Marx's The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte was written not as a history but as an insight to the present – as a piece of contemporary political analysis. The The Eighteenth Brumaire aims to explain the political turmoil of 1848 to 1849 that ended in Napoleon's coup d' état. It was part of the first genre of historical writing to take as its object the most important political episodes of the century. The The Eighteenth Brumaire seeks to make sense of some contemporary event by constructing a narrative of it informed by the Marxist theory of history. This chapter considers specific cases of the dynamics of revolution, including the processes through which revolution is prevented and reaction institutionalized. It also discusses Marxist interpretations of the twentieth century, with emphasis on the Marxist thesis proposed by Perry Anderson, Eric Hobshawn, and Francis Fukuyama. Within the framework of Marxist historiography, the chapter measures how Marx's theory of history confronts the present as a historical problem.