bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Public Policy Toward “The Greatest Trust in the World”
Authors: Aduddell Robert M. , Cain Louis P.
Published: April 2006

In the first of two articles, Professors Aduddell and Cain introduce the complex relations between a dynamic meatpacking industry and a government committed, in uncertain degree, to the philosophy of antitrust. From its earliest beginnings as an industry in the 1830s, meatpacking has experienced constantly changing parameters of technology, supply, demand, and public policy. Matters reached the first of several climaxes a few years after the new and naive Federal Trade Commission was established. Admittedly the dominant factor in a highly integrated meat industry, the largest companies were diversifying into non-meat food products, giving rise to the charge that they proposed to “monopolize” the entire food industry. The outcome was a consent decree in 1920 that, in confirming the large companies in their domination of meatpacking in return for their withdrawal from non-meat foods, revealed a government with a very weak case against an industry that it had made the cynosure of 120 million Americans. True to the familiar pattern of antitrust settlements, the dynamics of technology in transportation and marketing thereupon proceeded to render the decree meaningless. The second article, bringing the subject down to recent times, will appear in the Autumn issue.
Business Education in Germany: Past Systems and Current Practice
Authors: Locke Robert R.
Published: April 2006

Although the American contribution to business education is well-known, that of other nations has been largely overlooked. In this article, Professor Locke reviews the very different history of business education in Germany, which he traces from its early twentieth-century origins to the present. He concludes that, while the German model no longer has the international reputation it did before World War II, it continues to promote solid economic growth.
Thurman Arnold Goes to Washington: A Look at Antitrust Policy in the Later New Deal
Authors: Miscamble Wilson D.
Published: April 2006

No American presidency in this century has inspired quite so much controversy as the turbulent administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Even now, on the one-hundreth anniversary of his birth, and nearly fifty years after the coming of the New Deal, the contentious debates sparked during his four terms as chief executive are no less the subject of argument among historians than they were among the adversaries of the day. One issue in point is the question of antitrust, particularly the principles and practices of Thurman Arnold, who headed the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department during the later stages of the New Deal. While this essay will hardly resolve the contumacious debates over the policies of either Arnold or Roosevelt, Dr. Miscamble nonetheless offers some surprising, but persuasive, evidence about the internal workings of the administration, the antitrust philosophy of Roosevelt, and the remarkable practices of Arnold, the law professor turned antimonopolist.
A Curious Capital Flow: Canadian Investment in Mexico, 1902–1910
Authors: Armstrong Christopher , Nelles H.V.
Published: April 2006

Though Canada was, in the opening decades of the twentieth century, a net capital importer, Canadian-based companies dominated the Mexican public utilities industry. In this article, Professors Armstrong and Nelles explain how this “curious capital flow” came about. Their explanation stresses the personal ties linking Canadian businessmen to the maverick American engineer-entrepreneur F.S. Pearson. In addition to detailing these ties, they describe the methods used to finance the promotions, speculate about the insiders' rates of return, and estimate the origins and magnitude of the capital involved.
The History of Progress Functions as a Managerial Technology
Authors: Dutton John M. , Thomas Annie , Butler John E.
Published: April 2006

In this article, Professors Dutton, Thomas, and Butler trace the sixty-year history of a major managerial technology—the progress function—from its discovery in post-World War I airplane manufacture to its post-World War II popularity among management consultants. By statistically analyzing the large number of progress function studies, they demonstrate that its investigation has become balkanized by academic discipline, and that applied researchers have frequently ignored the contingencies stressed in the leading theoretical studies. Their article is thus a revealing example of how social scientific concepts get translated into business practice.
Entrepreneurial Failure Reconsidered: The Case of the Interwar British Coal Industry
Authors: Dintenfass Michael
Published: April 2006

In this article, Professor Dintenfass reexamines entrepreneurial efficiency in the interwar British coal industry. Using previously neglected company documents, he shows that cost-reducing and price-enhancing innovations in coal extraction, organizational practice, and marketing were not widely diffused, though neither geology, finance, nor industrial relations inhibited their adoption. He concludes that mismanagement was an important cause of the British coal industry's misfortunes in the 1920s and 1930s, but that the coalowners' failure to employ the new techniques cannot be attributed to the structure of the industry or to the survival of outmoded forms of business organization.
The Canadian Securities Market, 1850–1914
Authors: Michie Ranald C.
Published: April 2006

In this article Dr. Michie examines the origins and development of the Canadian securities market from its appearance in the mid-nineteenth century until the First World War. He traces the growth of Canadian-based and Canadian-owned joint-stock enterprise and the rise of a distinct Canadian investing public, which led to the establishment of a Canadian securities market, and he explains why so much Canadian business continued to be transacted on both the London and New York stock exchanges. Dr. Michie also discusses the rivalry between the Montreal and Toronto stock exchanges and its detrimental consequences for the creation of a strong and unified Canadian market. Finally, he argues that, despite Toronto's rapid growth, Montreal remained the financial center of Canada throughout this period.
Big Business in Interwar Germany: Organizational Innovation at Vereinigte Stahlwerke, IG Farben, and Siemens
Authors: Feldenkirchen Wilfried
Published: April 2006

In interwar Germany, the overall economic importance of big business rapidly increased, as concentration was seen as a suitable means of coping with Germany's post–First World War problems. Growing and integrating vertically and laterally, Germany's big combines had to adjust their organization to deal with these amalgamations. In the following article, Professor Feldenkirchen takes a close look at the measures employed at Vereinigte Stahlwerke, IG Farben, and Siemens, Germany's three largest combines during the interwar period.
Employee Attitude Testing at Sears, Roebuck and Company, 1938–1960
Authors: Jacoby Sanford M.
Published: April 2006

Despite recent interest in the history of the American worker, relatively little attention has been paid to the evolution of corporate employment and labor relations practices, particularly in the nonunion sector. In this article, Professor Jacoby examines the employee attitude testing program at Sears, Roebuck and Company and places it in a larger historical context as well as in the narrower framework of developments in personnel relations. During the 1940s and 1950s the Sears program was one of the most innovative and sophisticated applications of behavioral science to workplace problems, and it served as a model for many other companies. Although the testing program was developed as part of an ongoing effort to forestall unionization, it also had a research component that made important contributions to a number of academic disciplines, particularly organizational theory and industrial sociology.
Incorporating the Star: The Intersection of Business and Aesthetic Strategies in Early American Film
Authors: Kerr Catherine E.
Published: April 2006

Scholars generally have studied the emergence of American film stars in one of two ways: as an aesthetic, cultural phenomenon or as part of the larger story of corporate consolidation in the film industry. This article combines these approaches, arguing that the early film star played two overlapping roles. Within the new long feature films, stars served as focal points for continuity across complex narratives; within the new vertically integrated film corporations, they became focal points for the coordination of production, distribution, and promotion. The article concludes by suggesting that the interconnections between aesthetic practice and industrial organization bear further examination.
Laboring on the Periphery: Managers and Workers at the A. M. Byers Company, 1900–1956
Authors: Santos Michael W.
Published: April 2006

Although historians have thoroughly discussed the impact of transformations in the workplace and the corporate structure that accompanied the rise of modern business enterprises, Professor Santos argues that they have ignored the traditional firms that continued to exist amid these changes. Constituting a significant portion of companies operating in the industrial economy, firms like Byers employed simple systems of managerial control based on the entrepreneurs' personal authority and property interest in the business. While labor policy at modern corporations was shaped by the managers' need to establish administrative control over the production and distribution systems, Byers's labor policy was defined by family attitude and the company's history.
News as a Public Good: Cooperative Ownership, Price Commitments, and the Success of the Associated Press
Authors: Shmanske Stephen
Published: April 2006

In this article Professor Shmanske examines the history of the wire service industry with special attention to two economic peculiarities: the “public good” nature of news dissemination and the different ownership structures of the competing firms. By focusing on the interplay of the nonprofit, cooperative organizational structure of the Associated Press and the public good characteristics of news, the author provides a new and economically sound explanation for the AP's relative success. In addition, he demonstrates that many unusual institutions in the news-providing industry, particularly pricing structures, can be understood by analyzing the economic and marketing problems associated with private-sector production of a public good.
Creating Control Systems: Edwin F. Gay and the Central Bureau of Planning and Statistics, 1917–1919
Authors: Cuff Robert D.
Published: April 2006

In tracing the work of Edwin Gay in the mobilization effort during the First World War, this article presents an intriguing picture of the wartime administration's gradual realization of its need for more accurate information for central economic and political decision making. Although Gay's specific agency was short-lived, the work he did, and the viewpoint he represented, contributed significantly to the search for coherent administration in the executive branch.
Reflections on Global Business and Modern Italian Enterprise by a Stubborn “Chandlerian”
Authors: Amatori Franco
Published: April 2006

It is perfectly correct to place the work of Alfred Chandler at the center of a discussion of globalization as seen by business historians. No other author in our field of studies has offered us so much both in terms of research results as well as tools for the analysis and definition of the global characteristics of the modern large enterprise. It is enough in this respect to consider his last book,Scale and Scope, where the author examined the history of six hundred firms (the top two hundred in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany) for the period from the 1880s to the 1940s.
American Management Consulting Companies in Western Europe, 1920 to 1990: Products, Reputation, and Relationships
Authors: Kipping Matthias
Published: April 2006

This article surveys the expansion of American management consulting companies to Western Europe in the twentieth century. It focuses on the way these consultancies built and sustained activities outside their home country. A number of elements facilitated expansion abroad, including the creation of new and distinctive “products,” or approaches to management, and the use of domestic multinational clients as “bridges” to foreign countries. But to be successful in the long run, American consulting companies needed to create relationships with clients in the host country. In this respect, social and, sometimes, political contacts with the local elite, usually established through a few well-connected individuals, proved a crucial advantage.
Manufacturing Power: The Organizational Revival of the National Association of Manufacturers, 1941–1945
Authors: Workman Andrew A.
Published: April 2006

In the years following World War II, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) regained the political effectiveness it had lost during the New Deal. This article analyzes NAM's resurgence within the context of the rising popularity and political strength of organized business in the postwar period. It argues that NAM's success is only partly explained by external factors, such as the policies of Truman administration and divisions among labor organizations. NAM's renewed ability to shape national affairs resulted from an internal transformation that vastly improved its administrative capacity, and from a change in its public relations and labor policies. These efforts came to fruition when NAM proved able to dominate the proceedings of the 1945 Labor-Management Conference.
Business Failure, Judicial Intervention, and Financial Innovation: Restructuring U.S. Railroads in the Nineteenth Century
Authors: Tufano Peter
Published: April 2006

This article describes the problems faced by reorganizers of distressed railroads in the late nineteenth century and how they were addressed by a combination of judicial intervention and financial innovations. In particular, the judicial innovations of supersenior financing, the equity receivership process, and the setting of upset values permitted firms to raise funds. The private financial innovations of deferred coupon debt, contingent charge securities, and voting trusts made subsequent default less likely. The private innovations can be interpreted as responses to both the distress of the railroads as well as the intervention by the courts that emasculated prior debt contracts.
The U.S. Cable Television Industry, 1948–1995: Managerial Capitalism in Eclipse
Authors: Eisenmann Thomas R.
Published: April 2006

Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., observed that under managerial capitalism, salaried managers tended to pursue policies that promoted the long-term stability and growth of their enterprises. The U.S. cable television industry provides a case study of how managers responded when stability and growth were mutually consistent objectives, and when they were mutually exclusive. From the late 1950s through the early 1980s, agent-led newspaper publishers and television broadcasters invested aggressively in the cable business. Beginning in the mid-1980s, however, investing in cable implied a tradeoff between stability and growth objectives. As a wave of mergers swept the cable industry, agent-led companies avoided acquisitions that might dilute earnings and depress stock prices. Confronting an increasingly turbulent competitive environment during the first half of the 1990s, agent-led companies were much more likely to divest cable assets than owner-managed firms. In agent-led companies, managers believed that their cable units would require massive capital investments, and they were reluctant to “bet the company” on a business facing so much competitive, technological, and regulatory uncertainty. Owner-managers, emotionally attached to the cable industry and to the firms they had built, and often harboring dynastic ambitions, were more reluctant to sell: they were willing to gamble on growth.
Commercial Associations and the Creation of a National Economy: The Demand for Federal Bankruptcy Law
Authors: Hansen Bradley
Published: April 2006

Throughout the nineteenth century, merchants and manufacturers involved in interstate commerce sought federal bankruptcy legislation to overcome diverse and discriminatory state laws that raised the cost of credit and impeded interstate trade. In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, they formed a national organization to lobby for bankruptcy legislation. While many scholars have seen the passage of federal bankruptcy legislation as a response to the economic depression of the 1890s, this article shows that it was the formation of this national organization, rather than the economic crisis, that was the primary force behind the Bankruptcy Act of 1898.
The Origins And Evolution of Japanese Direct Investment in Europe
Authors: Mason Mark
Published: April 2006

Common misperceptions notwithstanding, Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) in Europe has a long history. Such investment first penetrated European markets in the 1870s, and it has since evolved through a number of important historical phases. In quality, sectoral composition, location, motivation, and several other characteristics, Japanese FDI in Europe exhibited striking continuities during its first century of development. In more recent years, however, each of these characteristics has undergone substantial change as compared to earlier times.
The Competitive Performance of U.S. Industrial Enterprises since the Second World War
Authors: Chandler Alfred D.
Published: April 2006

This article begins with an overview of the changing context of U.S. industrial enterprise from the Second Industrial Revolution of the late nineteenth century to the end of the Second World War. It then examines the changes in the nature of competition, in the financial markets, and in corporate management that transformed the industrial environment in the postwar decades. Against that historical background, the essay describes in detail the results of an empirical study aimed at discovering how U.S. companies maintained, increased, or dissipated their organizational capabilities and how the market for corporate control affected that behavior.
Rhetoric and Reality: Corporate America's Perceptions of Southeast Asia, 1950–1961
Authors: Gillespie Lodge
Published: April 2006

This article challenges both those historians—represented primarily by neo-colonialists and World Systems theorists— who stress economic factors as motivations of U.S. policy in Southeast Asia during the 1950s. Although such analyses provide valuable insights into American foreign policy, neither the desire to secure the markets and raw materials of Southeast Asia for American industry nor the perceived need to preserve a capitalist World System offers an adequate explanation for the American commitment to Southeast Asia. Using the business press and trade journals as primary sources, this article examines the public remarks and activities of the American business community throughout the decade; it concludes that, despite their frequently strong rhetoric, business leaders were generally ambivalent about the proper course of action in Southeast Asia and about the region's importance to American interests. The research presented here suggests that other, non-economic, factors may better explain U.S. policy in that region during the 1950s.
The Counterproductive Management of Science in the Second World War: Vannevar Bush and the Office of Scientific Research and Development
Authors: Owens Larry
Published: April 2006

Established to mobilize science during the Second World War, the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) and its director, Vannevar Bush, created new weapons as well as a new relationship between science and government that helped shape Cold War America. Yet much about the partnership that emerged disappointed Bush, especially its uncontrolled expansion and the failure of civilian oversight. The failure, ironically, as this article explains, can be traced to the very approach that allowed Bush to mobilize rapidly during wartime, especially to an “associationalism” and contractual strategy that centralized the management of R&D in Washington while leaving its performance to private contractors. Forged in more conservative decades, the strategy facilitated the rapid exploitation of private-sector resources at the cost of promoting the uncontrolled proliferation of public-private arrangements that undercut Bush's postwar hopes.
Strategy and Irreversibility in Supplier Relations: The Case of the U.S. Automobile Industry
Authors: Helper Susan
Published: April 2006

The purchasing strategies of the dominant U.S. automakers form a topic neglected by both economists and business historians. The following article examines the automakers' changing relations with their suppliers throughout the twentieth century. Using the exit/voice paradigm, it establishes a framework that can account for both current and past strategies, even when they seem to contradict the logic of economic theory.
Vulture Capitalism in Antebellum America: The 1841 Federal Bankruptcy Act and the Exploitation of Financial Distress
Authors: Balleisen Edward J.
Published: April 2006

There is, on an average, annually wrecked upon the Florida coast, about fifty vessels…. The great destruction of property consequent upon this state of things, and the hope of gain, have induced a settlement at Key West, where, to adjudicate upon the wrecked property, a court of admiralty has been established. A large number of vessels, from 20 to 30, are annually engaged as wreckers, lying about this coast to “help the unfortunate,” and to help themselves. These vessels are in many instances owned in whole or in part by the merchants of Key West; the same merchant frequently acts in quadruple capacity of owner of die wrecker, agent for the wreckers, consignee of the captain, andagent for the underwriters. Whose business he transacts with most assiduity, his own, or that of others, may be readily inferred.

—“Wrecks, Wrecking, and Wreckees, on Florida Reef,”Hunt's Merchants' Magazine6 (1842): 349.
Enterprise and State in the West German Wirtschaftswunder: Volkswagen and the Automobile Industry, 1939–1962
Authors: Tolliday Steven
Published: April 2006

Analysts of the post-war German “economic miracle” (Wirtschaftswunder) have diverged sharply over its origins and dynamic. The well-known Olson thesis stresses the importance of a radical break in institutions and interests, while other historians have recently posited the centrality of continuities from the fascist era to the Bonn republic. This article examines the history of Volkswagen, the largest firm in the crucial automobile industry, to understand the balance between continuity and change and systemic and conjunctural factors in the impressive success of this firm. Tolliday rejects the Olsonian notion of institutional “cleansing” and argues that the legacies of both fascism and the British Occupation were vital but that during the 1950s overlapping institutional structures, argumentative interest groups and rival political coalitions at VW could well have choked off growth in the absence of quite favorable circumstances.
The Transformation of the Railroad Commission of Texas, 1917–1940: Business-Government Relations and the Importance of Personality, Agency Culture, and Regional Differences
Authors: Childs William R.
Published: April 2006

This intensive analysis of the Railroad Commission of Texas during the first half of the twentieth century focuses on the impact of personality and of regional and cultural characteristics on regulatory policy and outcomes. The article suggests that a “myth of power” and a “civil religion” of Texas oil, galvanized by a popular commissioner, both allowed cooperative control of oil production and obscured the real sources of power in the world oil industry.
The Marian Exiles-Denizens or Sojourners?
Authors: Norwood Frederick A.
Published: April 2006

The question posed in the title of this article is answered, without further research, by the obvious facts of history. The English refugees from the wrath of Queen Mary did not plan to live long enough in their temporary homes on the Continent to be regarded as inhabitants. A fruitful field for investigation, however, lies in the study of the results of this transitory sojourn in the Swiss Cantons and the valley of the Rhine.
Natural Law in the Thought of Luther
Authors: McNeill John T.
Published: April 2006

Henry Drummond's Natural Law in the Spiritual World (1883) opens with the sentence: “Natural law is a new word.” But the term may claim a respectable antiquity: it goes back to the pre-Socratic philosophers. In Drummond's time it was merely being put to a new use. To him it meant the body of principles learned in the laboratories of physical science. In the long tradition of ethical, legal, and political thought from Hippias to Kant it implied a body of principles which, resting upon a divinely implanted endowment of human nature, underlie all acceptable ethical precepts, just laws, and sound political institutions.
Religion for Slaves: Difficulties and Methods
Authors: Perkins Haven P.
Published: April 2006

I confine myself largely to the period between 1830 and 1850 and to the movement for additional religious instruction of slaves which flourished during those years, though it did not end in 1850. The sources on which the analysis is based represent conditions in South Carolina and Georgia, with a moderate sampling of Alabama and Mississippi, and not a great deal for the border states.
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg and the American Revolution
Authors: Tappert Theodore G.
Published: April 2006

The growing tension between the American colonies and England in the decade preceding the Revolution confronted conscientious colonists with the necessity of making a difficult decision. Pressure to reach a decision was immeasurably increased when friction developed into war. It was relatively easy for some colonists to make up their minds as to whether or not they should remain loyal to the British crown. Those who were called Whigs or Tories recognized no serious problem; political ideals and allegiances, considerations of self-interest, and long standing prejudices united in various ways to make them zealous patriots or ardent loyalists. But these extremists were in a decided minority at the beginning of the Revolution. The majority of the colonists occupied ground somewhere in between; they were conservatives who hoped for a compromise solution of the differences between England and America, or wavered in distrustful indecision, or had no conviction whatsoever in the matter. It would be unjust lightly to prejudge their motives as of necessity either nobler or baser than those of the patriots and loyalists. Particularly unhappy was the lot of those who were unable to reach a conscientious decision either for or against the struggle for independence.
The American Tract Society, 1814-1860
Authors: Twaddell Elizabeth
Published: April 2006

In 1825, at the founding of the American Tract Society in New York, its leaders declared that with this event began “a new era in the history of the American churches.” Ten years earlier, American Protestants had formed the American Bible Society for the purpose of publishing and distributing the Bible “without note or comment.” Beyond this single endeavor, they felt, sectarian loyalties made common missionary effort impossible. But now, the co-operation in the new Tract Society “of various local institutions, and of Christians of different denominations” heralded an era of harmony among the churches, and of unity in the national body politic. More than this, churchmen and philanthropists believed that through the agency of the Tract Society, and of other benevolent organizations of national scope, the force of a united Protestantism would speedily evangelize America and the world.
Ephraemius, Patriarch of Antioch
Authors: Downey Glanville
Published: April 2006

The sixth century in the Eastern Roman Empire saw the appointment to high ecclesiastical offices of several laymen chosen from the upper ranks of the army and the civil service. Apollinaris, patriarch of Alexandria from 551 to 570, had been before his appointment a high military officer, and his successor John had likewise passed the whole of his previous career in the army. It was evidently their marked executive ability which was responsible for the sudden translation of such men from the government service to the church, and in their new careers their energy and their mastery of administrative detail no doubt outweighed any previous lack of training in theological affairs.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
Authors: Lőwith Karl
Published: April 2006

To commemorate Nietzsche on the occasion of his hundredth anniversary is both easy and difficult. It is easy because one cannot but remember him as the prophet of our century. He is more alive in 1944 than he was in 1888 when he suddenly burned out like a volcano after the last eruption, calledEcce Homo. He knew every recess of the modern soul, its widest periphery and its hidden center. His problems are our problems and his predicament is our own. For this very reason it is also difficult to commemorate him. He is still becoming what he is, and one cannot but hesitate to sum up his final significance in the history of Western man and the Christian Occident.
The Historiography of the Mennonites in the Netherlands
Authors: Krahn Cornelius
Published: April 2006

This study is not intended to give a complete bibliography of contributions by or on Dutch Mennonites. The writer plans to do this in a later study. This article is limited to giving an outline of the historiography of the Dutch Mennonites and to tracing the trends of development in this field. The main writers and their works will be mentioned.
The Church and the Social Order in the Old South as Interpreted by James H. Thornwell
Authors: Smith H. Shelton
Published: April 2006

The last generation of the ante-bellum South devoted its best thought to the integration of a plantation culture whose economic base was chattel slavery. Every aspect of its civilization had to make its peace with slavery or be rejected. Long before the guns fired on Fort Sumpter, southern civilization had wrought out an ideology that was as dogmatic as Marxism has ever dared to be. Those who rejected this ideology were promptly silenced or ushered into a cooler climate. The liberalism of an older revolutionary South had long ago been smothered in the atmosphere of cultural fascism.
Councils Held Under Pope Symmachus
Authors: Townsend W. T.
Published: April 2006

The death of Pope Anastasius II in 498 precipitated a bitter controversy in Rome and throughout Italy. Ostensibly the causes went back to the conflict over the ratification of theHenotikon, and the struggle between the Emperor Anastasius and Pope Gelasius I. But this was not the only line of demarcation, and it is the other elements entering in that make the situation difficult to define.
Frontier Missionary Life
Authors: Thrift Charles T.
Published: April 2006

Most of the people to whom the missionaries of the American Home Missionary Society ministered in the South were leading the rugged lives of frontiersmen, and frontier life is never easy. The missionaries themselves, though usually far above the average frontiersman in educational achievements, were not exempt from the hardships and privations of the frontier. Indeed the very nature of their tasks often made them feel the harshness of their environment even more keenly than did the average settler. In the maze of theological problems, interdenominational conflicts, slavery agitation, and the routine duties of a missionary, one easily loses sight of the fact that the principals involved in all these enterprises were self-sacrificing men of high ambition. Frequently they were men with families, from the more thickly settled North. The purpose of this essay is to call attention to the human side of the missionary enterprise, the suffering entailed by the lack of material possessions, by the lack of books, by sickness, and sometimes by physical violence at the hands of fellow-men. The hardships to which the missionaries were subjected changed progressively with the shifting Southern frontiers.
The Historiography of the German Reformation During the Past Twenty Years
Authors: Pauck Wilhelm
Published: April 2006

There are some historical fields which generations of scholars have plowed with special care and thoroughness. The Reformation is one of them. A survey of such labor is quite difficult, particularly if it is to be given within a limited space. I have therefore decided to confine myself in the following investigation of Reformation scholarship to the products of the last twenty years. It will be my purpose to record the chief contributions to historical knowledge and to evaluate the main interests which they reflect.
The First Synod of New York, 1745–1758 and its Permanent Effects
Authors: Nichols Robert Hastings
Published: April 2006

The first Synod of New York, formed two hundred years and a month ago, was the outcome of a religious revival, the Great Awakening, which on a great scale transformed and regenerated organized Christianity in the American colonies. The life of the Synod is a brilliant example of this transforming and regenerating work, so that its history is of much more than Presbyterian significance. Among its permanent effects was the stámping upon American Presbyterianism of a lofty character derived from the great revival.
The Covenant Idea as a Revolutionary Symbol: Scotland, 1596–1637
Authors: Burrell S. A.
Published: April 2006

I should like to call attention once again to the old home truth that ideas, while they may not be completely independent of their environment, are still possessed of a heredity of their own that can and often does transform the material circumstances of man and affect the course of history. the course of history. I have chosen for purposes of illustration the covenant or federal theological conception, which worked a powerful influence in Scottish society during the early decades of the seventeenth century and which, in turn, was peculiarly influenced and reshaped by that society until it evolved into a symbol for the revolution which terminated in the overthrow of the monarchy of Charles I. In brief, it is my conviction that this rebellion against Charles and his government was primarily and mainly, though not solely, the result of a religious ferment that had been brewing for forty years.
American Catholic History: A Progress Report on Research and Study
Authors: Browne Henry J.
Published: April 2006

Historians are wary of surveys of neatly packaged periods of time such as the decade. However, an attempt to survey progress in the field of American Catholic history might be excused if it settled on the period of the last ten years. There are two reasons for this decision. First, it was just ten years ago that the late Thomas F. O'Connor in his presidential address to the American Catholic Historical Association spoke on trends and what, for some unexplained reason, he called ominously “portents” in the writing of American Catholic history. We have, therefore, in his remarks some mark from which to judge forward movement. The second reason for restricting an examination of this matter to the last decade is that the year 1946 marked the first formal entrance of John Tracy Ellis into the circle of historians of American Catholicism.
The Religious Problem of the Italian Risorgimento as Seen by Americans
Authors: Marraro Howard R.
Published: April 2006

At the outset of Italy's struggle for political regeneration religious differences divided American opinion as to the justice of the Italian demands and continued to color that opinion throughout the years that followed. Before the election of Pius IX to the Papacy, Americans had read and heard a great deal about the tyranny of the various despotic governments of Italy after the Congress of Vienna. Books of travel, memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, accounts of newspaper correspondents in various cities of the peninsula, stories told by returning travellers and by Italian exiles in America had painted a most gloomy picture of the spiritual and physical conditions under which many liberals were suffering in the dungeons of the despots who had been restored to power after the downfall of Napoleon. Nowhere were conditions worse, it was believed, than in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and in the Papal States.
The German Reformed Church and the Home Missionary Movement before 1863: A Study in Cultural and Religious Isolation
Authors: Weaver Glenn
Published: April 2006

Shortly before the opening of the nineteenth century there began what American historians have chosen to call the Home Missionary Movement. This phenomenon in American social and religious history must not be confused with “church extension,” for its purpose was not to extend religious denominations as such. but rather to “save souls.” This missionary enterprise was carried out chiefly by various missionary “societies”—both denominational and interdenominational. Some of these groups were all-inclusive in their missionary interests, but others were limited to specific phases of the work, such as the distributional enterprises. While these organizations flourished along the Atlantic seaboard, their chief concern was the spiritual welfare of the inhabitants of the frontier where the easterners believed that shameful lawlessness and immorality prevailed.
Molanus, Lutheran Irenicist (1633–1722)
Authors: Miller Samuel J. T.
Published: April 2006

At the present time ideas of church reunion are current in many forms. Journals are appearing which are devoted exclusively to the exposition of dogmatic positions in an increasingly irenical light. Not the least important among these publications devoted to the expository method of clearing up possible areas of thought for reunion are Irenikon, produced by the Benedictines at Chevtogne, and Catholica, published at Münster under the auspices of Dr. Robert Grosche. Catholica has once again appeared after eleven years of virtual suspension and Dr. Grosche lauds the theologisches Gespräch “as the recognized way which can bring us nearer to the unity of the Church.” With respect to actual ecumenical meetings the Faith and Order Conference of the World Council of Churches met in Lund, Sweden, in 1952, and there Greek Orthodox, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican and free church representatives, and even Roman Catholic observers, rubbed shoulders and discussed problems of ecclesiology with church unity as the ultimate goal.
Sources for The Study of American Church History in The Library of Congress
Authors: Burr Nelson R.
Published: April 2006

Several weeks ago I received an appealing letter from a scholar who is presently engaged in making a study of the life and labors of an eminent priest of the Church of England in Colonial New Jersey. The reverend gentleman was the somewhat notorious Uzal Ogden, Junior, missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, stationed in Sussex County. His was one of the most interesting careers of his time. He was a noted evangelistic preacher— so much so that some of his colleagues in the priesthood regarded him with jaundiced eyes as “Methodistical,” and the General Convention of the Episcopal Church drove a spike into his proposed consecration to the episcopate.
The Origin of Monasticism in Mesopotamia
Authors: Vööbus Arthur
Published: April 2006

A student of the history of Oriental Christianity is particularly fascinated by the role Syrian monasticism has played, not only in the religious, ecclesiastical, spiritual, literary, and cultural life of the Christian Syrians, but also far outside the confines of the territory of Aramean Christianity. To be sure, Syrian monasticism has been exaggeratedly ascetic. But paradoxically, the same psyche which has passionately longed for mortification and relentless chastisement has showed a remarkable flexibility. It has released energies to direct them towards various tasks which serve the Christian community, proving its sympathetic and even warm participation in the multifarious responsibilities of human life. Its missionary activities, zeal and enthusiasm to reach faraway countries are well-known. Its achievements, particularly in Eastern Asia, are admirable. What the bilingual monument of Si-nganfu has immortalized is only one luminary among other achievements which probably have not been carved in stone so explicitly. Other aspects are no less important. In one study I have already sketched the profile of Syrian monasticism in the light of philanthropic activities in Mesopotamia and Persia. I have also had the opportunity to show its share in the history of education and schools, learning and literary life, and even in the history of the New Testament text. The traces which have been left behind are not traces in sand, but have been carved in human hearts. These traces are still visible to anyone who studies the history, literature and mythology of the nations in Middle and Eastern Asia. These are only the most important aspects amongst others, which depict peculiar features in the physiognomy of Syrian monasticism.
Lutheran Immigrant Churches Face the Problems of the Frontier
Authors: Meyer Carl S.
Published: April 2006

Turner has no mention of “Lutherans” on the frontier, and Paxson disregards them. Marcus Lee Hansen, better than any other historian, secular or ecclesiastical, has seen the importance of Lutheran immigration, Scandinavian and German, for its relation to the westward movement and the frontier.However, his suggestion that a survey be inaugurated of the source materials in the libraries of theological institutions and in the archives of church headquarters, has not been carried out. A synthesis, too, of the various immigrant movements must be made. Perhaps then the writer of a general work in the history of American Christianity or even the writers of a textbook in American history will see the significance of the Lutheran immigrants on the frontier.
A Historian's Approach to Theology
Authors: Glover Willis B.
Published: April 2006

Basil Willey in the introductory chapter of hisSeventeenth Century Backgroundcalls attention to the fact that the rise of scientific humanism introduced a basic dichotomy into the intellectual and religious life of that century. A new pattern of explanation came to dominate Western thought in the seventeenth century, and it was destined to continue without being effectively challenged until the twentieth. For three centuries it was assumed that reality was a closed system of law, and no explanation was satisfactory which did not make clear the efficient causation operating within this closed system. Epistemological studies, to be sure, developed within this period a radical skepticism regarding the validity of man's knowledge of ultimate reality; but not even Hume or Kant succeeded in conceiving of reality as essentially dynamic. The early nineteenth century witnessed a reaction against the static rationalism of the previous age. Emphasis came to be put on movement, development, evolution. Things were explained, not by direct relation to a nexus of fixed laws, but by descriptions of how they came to be.
The Art of Church History
Authors: Nichols James Hastings
Published: April 2006

Academic history in general, as is well known, straddles the conventional departments of college faculties; it is always a problem whether history should be listed among the social sciences or with the humanities. Clio is traditionally one of the arts, yet historians jealously defend their claims also to critical science. Church history likewise presents these Janus faces to the world; it is at the same time a product of religious imagination and thought and a scientific discipline. May it not be, however, that these two aspects of church history need to be maintained in a certain relation to each other, and that today they are generally imperfectly integrated?
Social Responsibility and the Late Medieval Mystics
Authors: Petry Ray C.
Published: April 2006

Charges of social irresponsibility have frequently been hurled against the medieval mystics, in their own day as in our yet more activist age. Mysticism and monasticism, to whose discipline the mystics owed much, have often been condemned for selfish withdrawal from public obligation. A major cause of this unjustifiable indictment is doubtless traceable to a predominant area of ignorance within the Western World. This is the growing unawareness of the balance maintained in the Christian tradition between contemplative worship of the Divine and active service of the human.
Julian and Justinian and the Unity of Faith and Culture
Authors: Downey Glanville
Published: April 2006

The relationship—or lack of it—between religious belief and socalled secular culture is a topic which has been of perennial interest both to ancient students of religion and history and to modern historians. Students today use the phrase Unity of Faith and Culture because it has become current and because it bears some relationship to our own situation and problems, but we must also consider the subject, at least as we see it in antiquity, in terms of the interdependence or the interaction of faith and culture.
Celio Calcagnini (1479–1541)
Authors: Breen Quirinus
Published: April 2006

Celio Calcagnini's active career falls in a period marked by many men of note and by a number of significant events. He touched some of these directly or indirectly. He was involved in an imperial and in a papal war, in an imperial election, in the controversy stirred up by Luther, in the divorce question precipitated by Henry VIII. He fanned into flame the conflict over the imitation of Cicero. He took an interest in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Independently of Copernicus, Calcagnini made a curious and not altogether ridiculous contribution toward creating an attitude of mind favorable to the new conception of the solar system for which Copernicus was to become famous. He was personally acquainted with the painter Raphael, with Jovius, with Manardi the physician, with Ziegler, the poet Ariosto, the humanist Erasmus. In his home-town of Ferrara he enjoyed a place of honor as university professor, as apostolic prothonotary, as an excellent dinner host. He was considered to be one of the most learned men of Italy. Yet his importance was always that of a bridesmaid rather than of a bride. It has its uses, however, to look at a wedding from a bridesmaid's angle. To see an era reflected in the career of a minor actor may prove rewarding.
George D. Herron and the Kingdom Movement
Authors: Handy Robert T.
Published: April 2006

The story of the Kingdom movement of the 1890's is one of the most important chapters in the history of American social Christianity. In the middle years of the 1890's the Christian social movement really began to exert significant influence upon the American Protestant churches and to modify the character of certain denominations. The Kingdom movement played an important role in the events of these crucial years.
The Imperial Administration and the Church in Byzantine Africa
Authors: Markus R. A.
Published: April 2006

There are only two moments during the Byzantine era at which the African Church emerges into something like daylight: on the morrow of the reconquest, in the middle years of the sixth century, and again almost a century later, under the emperors Heraclius and Constans II. Both in the controversies over the ‘three chapters’ under Justinian, and in those over monothelitism in the seventh century, the African Church took the lead in resisting what seemed, in the eyes of its leading churchmen, attempts by the Court to subvert the Chalcedonian orthodoxy.