bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
John Stanton Flemming 1941–2003
Authors: GOODHART C. A. E.
Published: February 2012

John Flemming was a first-class economist in the field of macroeconomics and fiscal policy, but his greatest contributions were, rather, in his general services to the profession and to British public life. He was public-spirited, upright, and high-principled; deeply intelligent and strictly logical; quiet and reserved; kindly with a gentle humour; interested in everyone and everything; widely read; and a great listener. As such, Flemming made the perfect chairman, or committee member. Almost everyone enjoyed working with, or for, him; he had a wide and devoted circle of friends. Everyone sought to benefit from Flemming's advice and wisdom, and he gave that carefully and unstintingly.
Byron, Conversation and Discord
Authors: STABLER JANE
Published: February 2012

This chapter focuses on the force of Byron as a ‘talker’ between poetry and conversation in English verse. It discusses the conversational mode of his poetry, which is noted to be often taken for granted. The chapter also explores Byron's mobile attention to the role of the reader and with the degree of dissonance or friction that the reader helps engender. It shows that the boundaries of both speech and poetry are both enforced and eroded by Byron.
The Inscribed Bronzes from Yangjiacun: New Evidence on Social Structure and Historical Consciousness in Late Western Zhou China (c.800 bc)
Authors: VON FALKENHAUSEN LOTHAR
Published: February 2012

This chapter discusses the twenty-seven inscribed ritual bronze vessels, which were uncovered in Yangjiacun, Mei Xian. The place where these vessels were discovered may have been near the seat of the powerful Shan lineage — several names of Shan family members are inscribed on the vessels. The chapter reveals that the inscriptions on the bronze vessels provide new insights into the structure and internal organisation of lineages in the Late Western Zhou-period China. These inscriptions also convey a feeling of shared identity among the members of the Shan lineage, particularly the male members. It is also shown that they illuminate the contexts in which a sense of history was beginning to form during the final half-millennium of pre-Imperial China.
Slavonic Studies
Authors: Ryan W. F.
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the history and developments in Slavonic studies in Great Britain. It explains that English awareness of Slav Europe was not great in the middle ages and that the inclusion of the medieval period of the various Slav peoples in the general history of Europe was a gradual process. It suggests that the study of Slavonic languages and literatures was not a discipline in British universities until comparatively recent times. However, a good many of the university departments of Russian or Slavonic studies which formerly existed in Great Britain, especially in the post-World War 2 period, have now been closed.
Old English
Authors: Lapidge Michael
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines study in Britain of Old English during the twentieth century. It explains that the field of Old English, the nature of the language and the corpus of literature, was essentially discovered and defined during the course of the nineteenth century, principally by scholars in Germany and Scandinavia. It highlights the institutional support provided by the British Academy to Old English studies.
Introduction
Authors: Livesey Ruth
Published: February 2012

This chapter begins by citing an excerpt from Oscar Wilde's Paul Mall Gazette. In 1889, Oscar Wilde suggested that the growth of socialist activism over the previous decade had been nurtured by the arts. This study explores how the artists and writers involved in the socialist movement during this period evolved a distinct socialist aesthetic in creative tension with such aestheticism. Whilst aestheticism tended towards individualism, the sensuous pleasures of taste and consumption, and insisted on the absolute autonomy of the aesthetic, socialist writers tried to frame an alternative in which art was by its very nature a communal product of labour and will, with only relative freedom from the material determination of capitalism. This book explores Wilde's fleeting allusion to the sex of socialism and its relationship with aesthetics by examining the lives and works of socialist writers and activists in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain.
Politics, Fellowship, and Romance: Clementina Black and the Culture of Socialism in 1880s London
Authors: Livesey Ruth
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the lives and writings of three sisters, each of whom responded to Morris's works with enthusiasm: Grace, Constance (Garnett), and Clementina Black. It explores the rhetoric of ‘fellowship’ that permeated the mixed-sex discussion groups and early socialist organizations frequented by the Blacks and all the writers whose works are subsequently studied in the book. The discussion examines the Black sisters' idiosyncratic political beliefs and their various attempts to advance the socialist cause through labour organization. The chapter also explores the extent to which the Blacks' work and writing for the socialist movement forced them to address the ‘Woman Question’ as a concern in its own right by the late 1880s. The chapter closes with an analysis of Clementina Black's historical romances published in the late 1890s.
Olive Schreiner and the Dream of Labour
Authors: Livesey Ruth
Published: February 2012

On her arrival in London in the early 1880s, Olive Schreiner became a regular visitor to many socialist clubs and debates and developed her interest in the movement hand in hand with her pursuit of the ‘Woman Question’. This chapter explores Schreiner's feminist works, ‘The Woman Question’ (1899) and Woman and Labour (1911), in the context of her exchanges with the socialist Karl Pearson and her good friend Eleanor Marx. In the latter work, Schreiner adopts and revises the rhetoric of manly artistry familiar from Morris's works: a revision that defines women as virile labourers rather than ‘sex parasites’. Meanwhile, it was in her creative collection of allegories and fragments, Dreams (1890), that she insisted upon the autonomy of the aesthetic as an ideal that transcends gender divisions.
The Magistrate’s Actions in Approaching a Resolution
Authors: Liang Linxia
Published: February 2012

This chapter discusses the actions a magistrate might perform in order to approach a resolution. It studies the concept of piao, which are orders issued usually to the runners as an authority to carry out certain actions ordered by the magistrates. Those responsible for carrying out the piao are then required to submit a report, which is discussed in the next section. The chapter studies closing cases without further hearing. This is done only when the two parties have solved their differences and have become on good terms during the investigation. The trial list, statements and bonds of confirmation, and the decisions by the magistrate are also examined in detail. Several cases are presented in the chapter as well.
Law and Legislation on Land, Debt, and Marriage
Authors: Liang Linxia
Published: February 2012

This chapter discusses the sources that are used for solving civil cases. It looks at the active role of legislation in meeting and shaping changing situations. It attempts to answer what were the relevant laws on land, debt, and marriage. The chapter also presents an argument that the relevant law was systematized under the Qing in its context and applicability to solve disputes.
Neither Eyewitnesses, Nor Windows to the Past, but Valuable Testimony in its Own Right: Remarks on Iconography, Source Criticism and Ancient Data-processing
Authors: UEHLINGER CHRISTOPH
Published: February 2012

This chapter explores the potential use of visual sources, together with the methods employed for studying them, such as iconography or iconology, for the history of ‘ancient Israel’. It describes the theoretical and conceptual framework, particularly the notion of ‘eyewitnessing’, and considers the method, particularly iconography. The chapter also presents case examples chosen from monuments which are so well known to historians of ancient Israel that they are well suited to illustrate both the pitfalls of more conventional interpretations and the potential of alternative approaches. Before turning to the sources – namely visual evidence that may be related to the history of ancient Israel and Judah – the chapter discusses the state of the art among fellow historians in neighbouring disciplines, including those belonging to the so-called ‘humanities’ (or arts and letters). It also considers visual art and history, the metaphor of legal investigation, the balancing of testimony, and the particular status of an eyewitness.
Method in the Application of Biblical Source Material to Historical Writing (with Particular Reference to the Ninth Century bce)
Authors: BRETTLER MARC ZVI
Published: February 2012

This essay discusses how biblical texts that may reflect events of the ninth pre-Christian century may be used to reconstruct select ‘real’ events of that century. Using several examples, it reflects on method, namely, the problems that these texts present to the modern historian of ancient Israel. The modern historian of ancient history should approach the texts dealing with the ninth century in the same way he or she would approach earlier or later periods. This essay considers two types of texts: those that explicitly mark themselves as primarily didactic, and those that are marked as symbolic. The texts from the first group are from the Psalms, while Jonah, Job, and Ruth comprise the second group. There may be other sources beyond Kings that need to be considered for reconstructing the history of the ninth century, including Chronicles and the Pentateuch. Different Mesopotamian sources mention kings of Israel and Judah, usually in the context of the offering of tribute.
Reading Kings on the Divided Monarchy: What Sort of Narrative?
Authors: GRAEME AULD
Published: February 2012

Marc Brettler examined the complex issue of genre, noting that the texts most relevant to an historian of Israel and Judah in the ninth century BCE are to be found within 1 Kings 15 to 2 Kings 13. For heuristic purposes, this chapter takes Samuel-Kings as the larger context of which 1 Kings 15–2 Kings 13 is a part. Rather than explore further the theoretical issue (to which in any case Brettler has provided several references), it draws out some implications of points he has made in his paper. In his preliminary remarks on method, Brettler discusses some psalms, including 78, as examples of didactic narrative; and the books of Jonah, Job, and Ruth as instances of symbolic narrative. It is surprising that more attention has not been paid to the apparent patterning of the lists of kings of Judah and Israel which, though not presented as lists, can be (re-)assembled from the books of Kings.
The Northern Kingdom in the Late Tenth-Ninth Centuries bce
Authors: NA’AMAN NADAV
Published: February 2012

A major problem in the discussion of the kingdom of Israel in the late tenth–ninth centuries is the evaluation of the Books of Kings as a source for historical reconstruction. In addition to Kings, there are some late tenth–ninth century Egyptian, Assyrian, Aramaic, and Moabite royal inscriptions that refer to various events in the history of the kingdom. However, the number and scope of these inscriptions are limited, and on their basis plus the archaeological data alone we would be unable to draw even a schematic history. The reconstruction of the early history of the Northern Kingdom must begin by tackling a major problem: that of the historicity of the United Monarchy. From the reigns of Jeroboam and Rehoboam on, the years of each king in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah are accurately enumerated. In addition to the above, this chapter also looks at the early dynasties of the Northern Kingdom, including that of the Omrides, and Jehu's rebellion.
Coin Circulation in the Balkans in Late Antiquity
Authors: GUEST P.
Published: February 2012

The archaeological excavations carried out on late Roman and early Byzantine sites in the Balkans has revolutionized our knowledge of this part of the world in Late Antiquity. How these sites are dated is obviously important as, without accurate and reliable dating, it is difficult to understand how they fit into the wider historical narrative. This chapter takes the coins excavated at Dichin as its starting point and, by careful analysis, proposes a general dating scheme for the two phases of occupation at the settlement. The lack of coins struck during the years 474–518 is a notable feature of the assemblage from Dichin, a pattern that is repeated at most sites in the region where coins of the emperor Zeno are particularly rare. By looking at both site finds and hoards from the region, however, these explanations need to be revised as they are based on a numismatic mirage rather than archaeological fact.
Nicopolis ad Istrum: Backward and Balkan?
Authors: WHITTOW M.
Published: February 2012

The story of Nicopolis ad Istrum and its citizens exemplifies much that is common to the urban history of the whole Roman Empire. This chapter reviews the history of Nicopolis and its transition into the small fortified site of the fifth to seventh centuries and compares it with the evidence from the Near East and Asia Minor. It argues that Nicopolis may not have experienced a cataclysm as has been suggested, and that, as in the fifth and sixth century west, where landowning elites showed a striking ability to adapt and survive, there was an important element of continuity on the lower Danube, which in turn may account for the distinctive ‘Roman’ element in the early medieval Bulgar state. It also suggests that the term ‘transition to Late Antiquity’ should be applied to what happened at Nicopolis in the third century: what happened there in the fifth was the transition to the middle ages. This chapter also describes late antique urbanism in the Balkans by focusing on the Justiniana Prima site.
Introduction
Authors: Runciman W. G.
Published: February 2012

There have been claims that the Marxist approaches to the history are no longer tenable. This idea that Marx has lost such relevance to historiography is due to the failure of his prophesies, including the three particular assumptions: the anti-universalism, the neglect of cultural representation and discourses, and the success of capitalism. Anti-universalism claims that no history can ever be written, except from the historian's own point of view and the interests and values which come with it. In the case of Marx, whose main interest in history is the discovery of the path of man to communism, any claim to universal validity made him compromised from the outset by the local provenance of his and Engel's experience of capitalism and the intensity of their disapproval. The second assumption is Marx's neglect of cultural representations and discourses. By neglecting the sufferings and aspirations of the people who were the victims of capitalist exploitation, Marx missed the opportunity to give his moral denunciation of capitalism added perlocutionary force. The third assumption is the success of capitalism in beating the Marxists. On this view, Marx failed to allow the possibility that when the time came for the capitalist and socialist modes of production to compete directly with one another, it would be the capitalist modes of production that would be stronger between the two. Nevertheless, despite the failure of some of the Marxist prophesies and theories, it is nonetheless significant in the writing of history, which needs explanation. Marxism still has much to offer in the structural analysis of the development of history.
Herodotus and Olbia1
Authors: WEST STEPHANIE
Published: February 2012

This chapter discusses Herodotus's account of Olbia. Whilst he was forthcoming about his visit and experiences in the Egyptian Thebes, Herodotus did not claim to see Olbia firsthand. And although he had seen Olbia for himself, he did not say so in plain terms. Although Olbia was very central to Herodotus's account of Scythia, his description and narrative of Olbia was rather limited. Olbia nonetheless received more attention from Herodotus compared to other Greek communities, however Olbia was peripheral to his interests. His avoidance of the city's official and designated name which was preferred by the citizens is not insignificant. His avoidance of the official name implied his manner of underplaying the importance of the place as a channel through which most of his Scythian information came. His accounts of the Scythian ethnography more than as results of long years of patient fieldwork were the results of information collected unsystematically as seen in his disordered presentation of the geographical and ethnographical information of Olbia. His accounts of the Scythian conservatism and resistance to foreign influence was out of convenience, allaying qualms about combining items of information gathered over time, but was not altogether borne out by his narrative. Unable to claim direct access to native Scythian informants on their own ground, he was not keen to advertise the derivative quality of his material, and close attention of the Olbiopolitai might have exposed what he wanted to camouflage.
Olbia and the Barbarians from the First to the Fourth Century ad
Authors: KRAPIVINA V. V.
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines Olbia during the first century to the fourth century AD. In the middle of the first century BC, Olbia was attacked by the Geto-Dacians of Burebista. Those inhabitants who survived the attacked fled from Olbia, causing the life at the city to come to an end for several decades. The Olbiopolitans were assumed to have taken refuge in other Greek communities and friendly barbarian areas. One of the places of refuge for the fleeing Greeks was the lower Dneiper with its Hellenized population. By the end of the first century BC, Olbia saw the resettlements. The Greeks returned to their old location, a process catalyzed by political change in the region and by the new unity among the citizens of Olbia. In 44 BC after the death of Burebista, his regime in Olbia collapsed and from 29 BC, the Romans pacified the Geta-Dacians who continually posed threats in the neighbouring communities. Meanwhile the settlements in the lower Dnieper were under pressure from the Samartians who were moving westwards. This movement caused Olbia and its immediate environs to be vacated once again by the Greeks who were avoiding the pressure by moving southwards. The city was established once again in the latter centuries wherein the renewal of the Olbia city was facilitated by Greeks and Hellenized Scythians.
Key Elements of China’s Foreign Strategy
Authors: SHAOJUN LI
Published: February 2012

This chapter seeks to overcome the problem of strategic misunderstanding of China by setting out some of the cultural traditions and strategic concepts that underpin its behaviour. It does not deny that China has a long tradition of realpolitik but locates this internally in the desire for a ‘reliable defensive capability’; externally, China's strategy is geared towards institutional integration with international society. The discussion holds that China faces problems with regards to a world order centred on the United States (USA). Unipolar order means accepting US hegemony, but promoting multipolarity could mean confronting the USA and an end to China's peaceful rise. As a result, China should move away from a polarity perspective and concentrate on fulfilment of national interests by ‘joining and adapting’.
Contrast in the Security Concepts of China and the EU: The Perspective of a PLA Officer
Authors: BO CHEN
Published: February 2012

This chapter presents the perspectives of officers in the People's Liberation Army (PLA). It provides an analytical review of the two security concepts that have emerged in response to the post Cold War order. It holds that China's security policy is designed first and foremost to safeguard the sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of the nation under the paradoxical conditions of globalization. Although recognizing the mutuality of security, the purpose of China's policy is to gain other actors' support for the defence of China's sovereign interests. The EU's core interests are defined in terms of ‘a stronger international society, well functioning international institutions and a rule-based international order’. This also recognizes the mutuality of security but does not place sovereignty as the absolute good: if international society, institutions, and order require the mitigation of sovereignty, then Europeans will accept it.
The Limits of Deponency: A Chukotko-centric Perspective*
Authors: Bobaljik Jonathan David
Published: February 2012

This chapter discusses two questions about the phenomenon of deponency. It lays out the basic case for treating the spurious antipassive (SAP) as an instance of deponency and looks at the differences between Chukchi and Latin. The highlights of a detailed theoretical analysis of the Chukchi SAP are then presented. The chapter concludes that no special deponency devices are necessary for an analysis of v-deponents in the Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages. Its properties are found to arise from the independently observed properties of Chukchi grammar, interacting in a predictable fashion with independent principles of morphology and syntax.
Pseudo-Argument Affixes in Iwaidja and Ilgar: A Case of Deponent Subject and Object Agreement*
Authors: Evans Nicholas
Published: February 2012

This chapter discusses a particular type of deponency that is found in several languages of the Iwaidjan family and involves pseudo-argument affixes on the verb. The chapter focuses on two closely related languages, Iwaidja and Ilgar/Garig, which share about eighty percent vocabulary. The uses of agreement of the pseudo-argument, the standard use of argument agreement, and the conjugational types are discussed as well.
Traders
Authors: Haour Anne
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the similarities in the medieval Sahel and north-west Europe within the specific context of trade, and particularly of traders. It outlines the common themes of trade in central Sahel and north-west Europe including the mechanisms for the movement of goods and forms of trade. The findings indicate that the commerce in slaves is a strong thread of similarity and a concrete link between north-west Europe and the central Sahel.
Petrarch solitarius
Authors: Petrie Jennifer
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines Petrarch's view on the solitary life based on his De Vita Solitaria. It explores the tensions behind the Petrarch's praise of the solitary life, notably the criticisms of it voiced by Augustinus in the Secretum. It explains that this opposition is left unresolved and what is left is a more complex picture of the humanist's self-portrayal as solitarius. It presents a poem from the second part of the Canzoniere which can be read as a subversion or as a sort of complement mirror image of all that is said in the De Vita Solitaria.
Petrarch Reading Dante: The Ascent of Mont Ventoux (Familiares 4. 1)
Authors: Santangelo Enrico
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the influence of Dante in Petrarch's Epistolae Familiares. It highlights a series of textual echoes particularly of specific cantos of the Purgatorio in this highly allusive and important letter. It suggests that one major difference between Petrarch and Dante's ascent to Mont Ventoux is that Petrarch's journey up the mountain is circuitous and culminates with the discovery of the self and its divisions, while Dante's is vertical and leads to the contemplation of the Deity beyond the self.
Sidney, Spenser, and Political Petrarchism
Authors: Pugh Syrithe
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines traces of Petrarchism in English poets Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip Sydney. It argues that the engagements of both poets with Petrarchism are more serious, and indeed more political, than traditional readings have implied. It explains that these two poets share Petrarch's condemnation of desire but do not display their contemptus mundi. It also discusses Spenser's recognition of the Petrarch's authority as a model for creating a sense of nationhood in thrall to a monarch and his use of this model to create a counter-national poetry whose authority is independent of political power.
From Mesolithic to Early Neolithic in the western Mediterranean
Authors: Guilaine Jean , Manen Claire
Published: February 2012

This chapter discusses the transition from the Mesolithic to the Early Neolithic in the western Mediterranean. The spread of the production economy in the western Mediterranean occurred in a cultural context extremely different from the zone where Neolithization was born: the Turco–Syrian borders where PPNB, the truly founding culture of the Neolithic, seems to have emerged. In southern France, the earliest Neolithic manifestations are due to small groups of ‘settlers’ of Italic origin. They are distinguished by the installation of small settlements of limited duration but which were clearly vectors of the ‘Neolithic package’: agriculture, animal husbandry, pottery, polished axes, and so on. It thus seems that the trigger in the beginning was a process of maritime colonization of Italic origin. The Cardial must henceforth be considered, in France, as a secondary process. In Spain, where the pioneering Italic culture establishments have not yet been identified, the Cardial, spreading from Provence and Languedoc, seems to have been in its turn the vector of the economic and technical ‘Neolithic package’.
Beyond ‘migration’ versus ‘acculturation’: new models for the spread of agriculture
Authors: Robb John , Miracle Preston
Published: February 2012

The beginning of farming should be one of the most exciting issues in European prehistory. Instead, it runs repetitively in well-worn ruts. This chapter aims to open up a theoretical can of worms, working in similar directions to some recent essays in a non-dichotomized, nonessentializing archaeology of Europe in this period. These take two distinct but related directions. One is to re-evaluate standard interpretive tropes in classic cases such as the LBK, and to argue for much more complex processes at the forager–farmer encounter. A more radical approach is represented by theorists who question the idea that one can define essentialist identities based upon economies. The chapter first discusses the basic terms of argument critically, then poses several new models, and concludes by discussing the resolvability of the question. Beyond the Socratic aim of annoying all parties to the debate equally, it hopes to open a theoretical space in which Europe between 7000 and 4000 cal bc can be freed of encumbering conceptual baggage and viewed as a real ethnographic landscape.
Mobility, specialisation and community diversity in the Linearbandkeramik: isotopic evidence from the skeletons
Authors: Bentley Alex
Published: February 2012

This chapter considers the LBK in south-western Germany, which is an ideal study area regarding questions of community diversity, because it was at or near the frontier zone between foragers and farmers for centuries, c. 5500–5200 cal bc. The presence of shell-tempered, La Hoguette pottery in terminal Mesolithic contexts in Alsace indicates that indigenous groups were at least in indirect contact with Neolithic (probably Cardial) communities, even if it is debatable whether La Hoguette predates the earliest LBK in southern Germany. Flint from the Paris Basin and the Maas Valley of the Netherlands, each well within Mesolithic territory during the early LBK, are found in LBK contexts in the Rhine valley, at sites such as Bruchenbrücken, Zimmersheim, Ensisheim, Bischoffsheim, and Spechbach–Le-Bas. At Bruchenbrücken, the earliest LBK blades have faceted striking platforms with a 70° angle between the striking platform and the dorsal ridge, which is common on Mesolithic blades from the Paris Basin, but not in Earliest LBK blades elsewhere, for which 90° was the norm. In addition, a pointed base vessel recently discovered at the LBK site of Rosheim in Alsace may derive from the Ertebølle culture or even possibly the Russian steppes.
Neolithic cattle domestication as seen from ancient DNA
Authors: Bollongino Ruth , Burger Joachim
Published: February 2012

Studies on modern cattle populations demonstrate the relations of the two major cattle breeds, the humpless taurine cattle (B. Taurus) and the Asian humped zebu (B. indicus). Studies by Loftus et al. (1994), Bradley et al. (1996), and MacHugh et al. (1997) showed that these two groups stem from independent domestication events in different geographical regions. Concerning the taurine cattle, recent population studies show that today the genetic diversity is highest in the Near and Middle East. This is an indication of the centre of origin in this region. But modern data can be biased by recent breeding practices and introgression. Only the analysis of ancient samples can help to get at detailed information about prehistoric situations. This chapter presents ancient mitochondrial data from 40 domestic cattle and 17 aurochs samples (plus ancient bison for comparison) that date mainly to the Neolithic, but which also include some of Mesolithic and Bronze Age date.
Parallel worlds or multi-stranded identities? Considering the process of ‘going over’ in Ireland and the Irish Sea zone
Authors: Cooney Gabriel
Published: February 2012

This chapter discusses the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in Ireland. The ideas of identity encompassing places, pasts and presents, and people and things are seen as providing an important reference point in considering the various strands of evidence and inter-play between large-scale environmental and social processes and lives lived locally.
From fish and seal to sheep and cattle: new research into the process of neolithisation in northern Germany
Authors: Hartz Sönke , Lübke Harald , Terberger Thomas
Published: February 2012

The border between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic in Central Europe is traditionally defined on the basis of subsistence strategy. It is the development from hunter-gatherer groups in the forests of the early Holocene to the first farmers. The debate on the character of this process has been going on for over 100 years. This chapter presents results of new research on this subject, with an emphasis on northern Germany.
Mistrust traditions, consider innovations? The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in southern Scandinavia
Authors: Larsson Lars
Published: February 2012

For the individuals participating in the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition, one question must have recurrently emerged as a prime concern: ‘Should I mistrust traditions and consider innovations’? This concern encompassed the introduction of new material culture and new techniques of obtaining food. It also involved new ways of conceiving the world and people's place in it. And it was affected by important – sometimes catastrophic – changes in the physical environment. It must be emphasized that the question of whether to mistrust traditions and consider innovations is not only a matter of concern for prehistoric actors. It is also important for those who are making prehistory today. As is presented in this chapter, the facts presented for south Scandinavia have been variously interpreted as indicating the rapid introduction of a ‘Neolithic’ package with new ways of thinking and acting, as well as reflecting a mixture of traditions and gradually incorporated innovations. Future research into the transition should focus on combining new problem-oriented excavation with fresh ideas about how the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic occurred.
Specialized Inference Engines as Precursors of Creative Imagination?
Authors: BOYER PASCAL
Published: February 2012

The human imagination is often thought of as creativity and originality. It is often considered in terms of its high-end, creative products such as religion, arts, and literature. However, the human imagination does not solely produce flights of creative fancy. It is also involved in the production of highly stable and fairly predictable representations of possible situations. This chapter discusses the humble imaginations of the human mind which are generally automatic and largely unconscious, yet are crucial to the formation of representations of what is to happen. This imagination is the construction of ‘what if’ which aids in the prediction of possible outcomes. The focus of this chapter is on specialized inference engines which are believed to be vehicles of creative imagination. Examples are provided in this chapter to illustrate the specialized ‘what if’ inferential systems of the human mind.
Introduction
Authors: AYERS MICHAEL
Published: February 2012

This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about the relation between the concepts of rationalism, Platonism, and God. This book is intended as a contribution to the exploration and exposition of the common ground of the great early modern rationalist theories. It examines contemplation and control in Cartesian philosophy and analyses the priority of the perfect in the philosophical theology of the continental rationalists. It also provides commentaries on the relevant theories of philosophers Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, and Gottfried Leibniz.
The Priority of the Perfect in the Philosophical Theology of the Continental Rationalists
Authors: ADAMS ROBERT MERRIHEW
Published: February 2012

This chapter examines the concept of the priority of the perfect in continental rationalists’ philosophical theology. It suggests that the less perfect or complete needs to be understood in terms of what is more perfect and complete and this is called the top-down strategy. It argues that divine knowledge constitutes a kind of perfect ideal or archetype which human knowledge imperfectly resembles or approaches and contends that man’s knowledge and thought could be to God’s rather as a dog’s is to man’s.
John Andrew Gallagher 1919–1980
Authors: Darwin John
Published: February 2012

John Andrew Gallagher, in collaboration with Ronald Robinson, published ‘The Imperialism of Free Trade’, a manifesto of startling originality on the pattern of British expansion in the 19th century, and the way that it ought to be studied. It is perhaps the most widely read essay on modern imperialism, whose phrases and concepts have been bandied about, not just by historians, but by sociologists, political scientists, and students of international relations, for the last forty years. Gallagher and Robinson also wrote Africa and the Victorians (1961), a large-scale assault on the conventional history of the African Scramble and of European imperialism more generally.
William McKane 1921–2004
Authors: Williamson H. G. M.
Published: February 2012

There was little in Willie Mckane's background and upbringing to herald the distinguished career as Semitist and Old Testament scholar that would follow. Nor was his path into academia one that would be usual in these days, when the track from Bachelors to Masters and a doctorate seems almost to be a sine qua non. Rather, the fact that McKane arrived where he did by the route that he took is itself testimony to the single-minded, even ascetic, dedication to the rigorous pursuit of excellence which was such a hallmark of his scholarship.
Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper 1914–2003
Authors: Worden Blair
Published: February 2012

Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper has been called both a Whig and a Tory historian, a distinction he shares, perhaps fittingly, with Hume. He was a Whig insofar as he believed in a plural, liberal society, in constitutional checks and balances, and in social counterweights to centres of power. He was a Tory insofar as he recognised the power of traditional institutions, if they are kept up to the mark, to channel constructive human characteristics and restrain destructive ones. However, neither the Whig nor the Tory label, nor any other, captures Trevor-Roper's idiosyncratic essence. In everything he was his own man. The historians of Trevor-Roper's own time whom he most admired were not the panjandrums of the academic community but figures eccentric to it, whom he discovered for himself: above all Gerald Brenan and Frances Yates, neither of whom had been trained as a historian.
Henry William Rawson Wade 1918–2004
Authors: Beatson Jack
Published: February 2012

Sir William Wade dominated two diverse areas of law – real property and administrative law – by writing the textbooks that became a source of first reference for students, scholars, practitioners, and judges. While he was the leading academic land lawyer of his generation, he will principally be remembered as one of the two scholars who did most to revitalise administrative law during the 20th century. Wade's scholarly career lasted over sixty years, and he remained active into his eighties. He wrote with penetrating clarity and an elegant and memorable turn of phrase, often expressing himself in trenchant terms. Wade did this both when grappling with the technicalities of property law and, in the heady atmosphere of constitutional principles, with the respective roles of executive government and the courts.
Alan Harold Williams 1927–2005
Authors: Sugden Robert
Published: February 2012

Alan Williams was, by common consent, the leading health economist in Britain. Indeed, it is in large part due to him that there is a community of health economics for anyone to lead. Williams was renowned for the logical rigour of his thinking, for his passionate commitment to the principle of universal health care supplied according to need, for his determination to ensure that health-service resources are used to the best effect, and for his evangelical sense of mission in advocating the use of the quality-adjusted life year as a measure of health-service effectiveness. He was also famous for the notice on his desk – later moved to his door so that callers would be forewarned of what to expect – with the injunction: ‘Be reasonable do it my way’. That so many people remember this message shows that it was something more than an office joke.
John James Wymer 1928–2006
Authors: Gamble Clive
Published: February 2012

John Wymer devoted his professional life to the study of the Palaeolithic, and his importance to the subject extended far beyond a brick pit in Suffolk. He was the greatest field naturalist of the Palaeolithic. Wymer had acute gifts of observation and an attention to detail for both artefacts and geology that was unsurpassed. He provided a typology and a chronology for the earliest artefacts of Britain and used these same skills to establish major sequences in South Africa. In doing so Wymer ordered and energised what was a neglected and demoralised subject so that it is now one of the most vibrant communities in British archaeology.
Judicial Independence: Who Cares?
Authors: MacCormick Neil
Published: February 2012

This lecture discusses judicial independence. It notes that the increase in concern over judicial independence was due to recent developments in Scotland, England and Wales. The constitutional changes also led to new relationships between ministers and judges, which in turn has led to governmental declarations to respect the rule of law and judicial independence. The lecture also stresses the importance of considering and re-asserting the principles that justify judicial independence, as well as the underlying concept of separation of powers.
Nation and Covenant: The Contribution of Ancient Israel to Modern Nationalism
Authors: Smith Anthony D.
Published: February 2012

This lecture provides of ancient Israel that were revealed in the Hebrew Bible. It looks at some of the main themes and goals of modern nationalism. One section is devoted to suggesting possible causal links between the two in certain political frameworks and Christian traditions. The lecture also argues that based on the context of competing territorial states, the term ‘covenantal’ nationalism in certain early modern societies has proven to be the first kind of nationalism. This would be followed over a hundred years later by secularising nationalisms, which are both civic-territorial and ethnic-romantic.
Making Moral Meanings
Authors: Dixon Thomas
Published: February 2012

This chapter explains how ‘altruism’ made its way into the first published part of the greatest record of the English language, the Oxford English Dictionary. It uses this story of lexicographers, readers, definitions, and illustrative quotations as an initial vignette of the world of Victorian moral thought. It also discusses the relationship between words and concepts and the different assumptions and methods appropriate to writing the histories of each. In his History in English Words, Owen Barfield noted that the nineteenth century saw a proliferation of English words formed in combination with ‘self-’. Mentioning especially ‘self-help’ and a newly positive sense of ‘self-respect’, he saw this development as an aspect of the rise of Victorian ‘individualism’ and ‘humanism’.
The Darwinian Conscience
Authors: Dixon Thomas
Published: February 2012

This chapter retells the story of Darwin, the moral theorist. Although Charles Darwin himself neither used nor explicitly resisted the language of altruism, many others, from the 1870s to the present, have made claims about Darwin as a theorist of altruism and selfishness. Darwin, in fact, saw sympathy and love, alongside selfishness and violence, throughout the natural world. In insect societies as well as human ones, cooperation and benevolence had evolved for good reasons. The theory of the evolution of the moral sense that Darwin developed in The Descent of Man (1871) was complicated and not entirely ‘Darwinian’. It combined ideas from moral philosophy with observations of the instincts of insects, all within a theoretical framework that included a belief in the heritability of acquired characteristics and the ability of nature to select at the level of communities as well as individuals.
The growth of rural madrasa
Authors: Becker Felicitas
Published: February 2012

In parallel with mosques, centres of Quranic education, known locally as madrasa, sprang up in the countryside between c.1920 and 1960. They were small, poor, and often transient; their one defining feature was the presence of a mwalimu, a teacher. Comparison of the parallel development of madrasa and mission schools makes clear that the main reason for this divergence was not resistance to Christian elements in the missionaries' syllabus, but to the perceived interference of mission teachers with the authority of students' families and with local religious practices. By contrast, madrasa tolerated these practices and were more closely integrated into the social networks of parents. The spread of madrasa and of mission schools involves three subtle long-term processes. Topics covered include educational practice and the status of knowledge, madrasa and mission schools, unyago, colonial politics and local networks, schools and madrasa as local institutions, madrasa as sites of encounter with Muslim knowledge, imagining Muslim scholarship, and performance and orality in Muslim education. In general, the history of madrasa emphasizes an indirect association between education and social control – the complex status of knowledge.
Internal debates and international influences: the rise of Islamic radicalism in the 1990s
Authors: Becker Felicitas
Published: February 2012

Although the synchronicity of the rise of Muslim radicalism in East Africa with similar phenomena in many parts of the world gives that radicalism the appearance of an unstoppable ideological tide, it is intricately connected to recent political and economic changes in Tanzania. It is shown that while the Ansar of Southeast Tanzania formed part of a transregional reformist current, their confrontational style and inflammatory rhetoric were directed against the specific conjunction of the political and religious authority they faced at home. The reformist debates and Muslim discontent in East Africa after independence are explained. In addition to the above, this chapter elaborates on the crisis of the urban economy and of the tarika. The parallelism of political and trade liberalization has made commercial strength a potential basis for the pursuance of political aims. It is difficult to present a conclusive account of the Ansar in Southeast Tanzania, since their role is still unfolding. The attack on Muslim notables and their relations with government are illustrated. The proactive and calculated response of the authorities to the actions of the Ansar indicates that Tanzanian politicians take the provinces more seriously than is immediately apparent to the outside observer.
New Partners
Authors: Herbert James
Published: February 2012

This chapter discusses the emergence of new partners and alliances of the AHRB. In 2000, Brian Follet was appointed as the Chairman of the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB). As the appointed Chairman, Follet made a commitment to create new partners and allies of AHRB. Its ultimate goal was to bring together all areas which systematically create and shape knowledge or a ‘Wissenschaft’. During 2000–2001, the Council for Science and Technology (CST) led by Cambridge historian Emma Rothschild considered what bearing the arts and humanities might have on the strategies of sciences. In July 2001, the CST presented a report to the Prime Minister and other government leaders. This report, Imagination and Understanding: A Report on the Arts and Humanities in relation to Science and Technology found out that arts and humanities are an outstanding part of UK research, contributing in several ways to the nation's prosperity and well-being. In February 2001, the CST formed the first Quinquennial Review and in December 2001, the Quinquennial Review recommended the creation of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) Strategy Group which required Research Councils to work in partnership with other Councils including stakeholders. With this new policy, the AHRB worked and forged partnerships with Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Foundation for Science and Technology (FST), European Science Foundation (ESF).
At the Point of a Larger Conflict
Authors: Herbert James
Published: February 2012

This chapter discusses the existence of support for the AHRB during its struggle for recognition and acceptance. In January 22, 2003, the White Paper on the Future of Higher Education created uproar. This furore over the White Paper was due to concerns over the government's proposal to allow universities to raise fees and to provide deferred loans by which the students might meet those charges. The uproar was also heightened by the government's declared intention to concentrate on research funding. Amidst the din over the AHRB's establishment and the government's intention of giving research funds to research councils, the AHRB found immense support from various groups. Iain Gray, Scotland's Minister For Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, expressed support for the creation of the AHRB. The same warm response to the White Paper and to the prospect of the creation of the AHRB was also expressed by the RCUK Strategy Group which emphasized the importance of arts and humanities as equal to those of engineering, science, and technology. The same response was also accorded by the House of Commons. In addition to the positive responses to the proposal of creating a humanities research council, UK government and political officials were beginning to include the White Paper recommendations into their debates. By mid-summer, widespread support for the AHRB was garnered and on January 27 2004, a second reading of the Higher Education Bill approved the creation of the Arts and Humanities Research Council.