bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Le Boulangisme et la Commune
Authors: Nere Jacques
Published: December 2008

Rechercher des liens de filiation possibles entre la Commune et le mouvement boulangiste présente au premier abord un caractère paradoxal. Car le général Boulanger, officier de carrière, a combattu les Communards dans les rangs de l'armée de Versailles. Et les adversaires de Boulanger dans le mouvement ouvrier et socialiste n'ont pas manqué de rappeler ce souvenir. C'est ce que fait notamment l'ouvrier Avronsart, dans une interview de Boulanger dont l'authenticité fut d'ailleurs contestée. Plus tard, lorsque Boulanger pose sa candidature à l'élection partielle de la Seine, se constitue contre lui un groupe qui s'intitule précisément «la Commune» et qui présente la candidature de Protot. Tout serait à citer de la proclamation de ce groupe, dont nous nous bornerons à extraire ce raccourci historique quelque peu hardi:

«Robespierre tue la Commune et fait Bonaparte; Cavaignac tue la Commune et refait Bonaparte; M. Thiers tue la Commune et voilà Boulanger.»
Wirkung und Reflexionen in Ungarn
Authors: Sagvari Agnes
Published: December 2008

Es tut dem historischen Wert eines epochalen Ereignisses keinen Abbruch, wenn seine Ergebnisse und Lehren nicht sofort in Erscheinung treten, seine gesellschaftliche und ideelle Bedeutung wird aber nur noch mehr erhöht, wenn es, wie die Pariser Kommune, bereits in seinem Zeitalter als Wasserscheide aufgefasst wird.
La Chine
Authors: Bergere Marie-Claire
Published: December 2008

«Quel que soit donc son destin à Paris, elle fera le tour du monde», écrivait Marx à propos de la Commune. Parmi les nombreuses confirmations que les événements du siècle écoulé ont donné à cette prédiction, quoi de plus étonnant que la persistance des références à la Commune au cours de la Révolution chinoise? Comment l'image de la Commune parisienne, insurrection urbaine et ouvrière, s'est-elle imposée à un mouvement révolutionnaire qui à partir de 1927 n'a cessé de chercher ses appuis dans les campagnes, qui en 1949 a triomphé en lançant des armées de paysans à l'assaut des centres urbains et qui en 1965, transposant à l'échelle mondiale la stratégie maoïste de l'encerclement des villes à partir de bases rurales rouges, appelait les pays des continents sous-développés – Asie, Afrique, Amérique latine – à renverser la domination des nations industrialisées?
Thomas Hopkins und T. R. Edmonds — Zwei Vergessene „Ricardische Sozialisten”?
Authors: Nolte Ernst
Published: December 2008

Im Paragraphen 2 der Misère de la philosophie führt Marx in der Polemik gegen Proudhon drei Titel von englischen „Sozialisten” an, in denen längst vor Proudhon „die egalitäre Anwendung der Ricardoschen Theorie” vorgeschlagen worden sei:

Nous pourrions citer à M. Proudhon: l'Économie politique de Hopkins, 1822; William Thompson: An Inquiry into the Principles of the distribution of wealth, most conducive to human happiness, 1824; T. R. Edmonds: Practical, moral and political Economy, 1828; etc., etc., et quatre pages d'etc.
Manchester and Salford Politics and the Early Development of the Independent Labour Party
Authors: Hill Jeffrey
Published: December 2008

The grass-roots activities of the Independent Labour Party have been the subject of increased scrutiny from historians over the past few years, especially in the pages of this journal. Consequently we can now be a little surer about the contribution of the party to the development of an independent labour movement in Britain at the end of the nineteenth century, though with every fresh case-study a different local strategy seems to come to light. The one outstanding profile in this field is the closely observed account of the ILP in Bradford by J. Reynolds and K. Laybourn, who identify several key features in the party's growth in that city, notably the reformist nature of ILP socialism and the close associations with local trade unionism. “From the outset”, they tell us, “Bradford trade unionism and the Bradford ILP were seen as two aspects of a single homogeneous labour movement aimed at the emancipation of the working class from poverty and exploitation.”
Wages, Earnings and Real Earnings in Teesside
Authors: Hall A. A.
Published: December 2008

The following article attempts to trace the course of working-class living standards in Britain in the comparatively neglected period between 1870 and the First World War. A considerable body of historical opinion sees this period as a time of marked improvement in standards of life, an improvement based essentially on rising real wages. Studies of this period have owed a considerable debt to the pioneering work of A. L. Bowley and G. H. Wood, which produced an invaluable collection of indices for wages and real wages, upon which most general accounts of living standards in the later nineteenth century have drawn. Wood's contention that real wages, in the years roughly between 1874 and 1900, rose by 36 per cent lies at the heart of an interpretation which sees the late-Victorian period as a time of crucial economic and social amelioration. The data are sufficiently comprehensive to show these improvements to be common to all occupations and to lead to the inescapable conclusion that “industrialization paid off generally in higher real wages for all groups in society in the second half of the nineteenth century”.
Employer, Industrial Housing and the Evolution of Company Welfare Policies in Britain's Heavy Industry: West Scotland, 1870–1920
Authors: Melling Joseph
Published: December 2008

The history of working-class housing has become an imporatnt area of urban studies in recent years, as detailed investigations of building activities and property relations uncover the origins of housing initiatives. The growth of cities in the industrial North of England created their own peculiar building styles and housing problems, whilst the great metropolis of London continued to attract thousands of families into its eternal slums. There were also the new boom towns of manufacturing Britain, specialising in particular products as a regional division of productive expertise emerged. Swindon and Crewe flourished in the railway age of the nineteenth century, whilst Barrow and Jarrow belonged to a later period of iron and steel shipbuilding. The latter settlements were dominated not only by a few vital products, but by a handful of large companies with massive resources, which enabled them to undertake the housing of their first workers. These accounts may be complemented by the evidence of working-class dwellings in the early textile villages and larger industrial colonies of Lancashire and West Riding, or by the scattered documentation on the colliery villages which persisted through the major coal fields well into the twentieth century.
Marxismus — Marx — Geschichtswissenschaft
Authors: Rojahn Jürgen
Published: December 2008

Über den Beitrag des Marxismus zur Erforschung der Geschichte ist bereits so viel geschrieben, daß die Literatur zu diesem Thema kaurn noch überschaubar ist; auf den Beitrag der Geschichtswissenschaft zur Erforschung des Marxismus, d.h. primär der Ansichten von Marx, wird kaum je eingegangen — was nicht so erstaunlich scheint. Daß der Marxismus nicht nur eine Theorie der Geschichte, sondern ebenso selbst ein historisches Phänomen ist; daß die Geschichtswissenschaft den Sinn der Marxschen Ansichten durch die Erforschung der Genese zu erhellen sucht; daß sie sich dabei nicht nur, aber in erster Linie auf Marx' eigene — sei es von ihm publizierte, sei es hinterlassene — Texte stützt; daß sie, soweit möglich, von den originalen Texten, d.h. dem von Marx selbst beschriebenen Papier — um diesen handfest-stofflichen Aspekt der originalen Texte einmal zu betonen — auszugehen hat: all das bedarf kaum der Erwähnung. Erwahnung. Dasselbe gilt wohl hinsichtlich der Regeln, gemäß denen bei der Auswertung der Texte vorzugehen ist. Die Geschichtswissenschaft hat die betreffenden Verfahren vor Marx, unabhängig von ihm ausgebildet; sie bedient sich ihrer generell. Daß es jedoch, was die Erforschung des Marxismus angeht, dennoch — hundert Jahre nach dem Tod von Marx — nicht überflüssig ist, besonders auf sie hinzuweisen, zeigt der Fall der Manuskripte aus dem Jahre 1844 (fortan:Manuskripte), die bekanntlich in der Diskussion der letzten fünfzig Jahre eine nicht geringe Rolle gespielt haben.
Government Partners of the Bolsheviks
Authors: Jansen Marc
Published: December 2008

Little is known about the role played by the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks in the so-called Far Eastern Republic, an independent state, at least in name, in Eastern Siberia during the early ̓twenties. Based mainly on material in the archive of the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries, this note wants to shed some light on the events in the area at the time. Unfortunately the author did not have access to a sufficient amount of material from Menshevik archives to detail the Menshevik contribution to the Far Eastern Republic, but we shall see how the Bolsheviks adopted from the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks the idea to form this kind of state, and how they subsequently gained a hold upon the Far Eastern Republic.
Employers' Organisation and Strikebreaking in Britian, 1880–1914
Authors: McIvor Arthur J.
Published: December 2008

The historical development of employers' associations and the role these organisations played in strikebreaking has been considerably neglected in industrial-relations history. With a few notable recent exceptions, research has tended to concentrate on the development and struggles of the organisations of men, rather than the masters. This is partly the result of the secrecy and anonymity of employers' associations and their reluctance to allow access to their records or to attract media interest, and partly because the defensive and conservative attitudes and policies of employers' organisations have proved less attractive to historians than the more militant political and social theories that lie at the foundation of trade-union policy. In particular, the strikebreaking activities of employers and their organisations were not widely publicised. As a result, this whole emotive area is shrouded in exaggeration, sensationalism, distortion and the propagation of myths by both workers and employers. The object of this paper is to analyse the parameters of employers' coercive strikebreaking tactics from the 1880's to 1914 and to shed some light on the role employers' associations played during industrial stoppages. The first section briefly outlines the main developments in employers' organisation, solidarity and labour-relations policy before 1914. Following this is a discussion of the various strikebreaking tactics utilised by employers in this period, broken down into sections on labour replacement, victimisation and legal action, strike compensation and internal solidarity, and, finally, the lock-out.
From Industrial Serf to Wage-labourer: The 1937 Apprentice Revolt in Britain
Authors: McKinlay Alan
Published: December 2008

Since the publication of Harry Braverman's Labor and Monopoly Capital in 1974, an increasing number of social historians have turned their attention towards the workplace as a major site of class struggle. In particular, social historians have focussed on the unequal struggle between employers and craft-workers to determine patterns of work organisation and the balance of power in the labour market. However, despite the growth of interest in the historical relationship between the division of labour, trade unionism and business strategy, no academic work has yet considered the development of apprenticeship in the post-1914 period.
Working-Class Housing in Birmingham During the Industrial Revolution
Authors: Hopkins Eric
Published: December 2008

It is not too much to say that over the last twenty years the history of working-class housing in the nineteenth century has been transformed. Many older historians, of course, took it for granted that the quality of houses built to meet the needs of the fast-growing urban population was uniformly bad, a testimony to the avarice of builders and landlords alike. Beliefs of this kind owed much to Engels, and to the Hammonds writing earlier this century about the life of the town labourter. One of the first suggestions that these views were really an over-simplified description of housing conditions came from Professor Ashworth in the 1950's, who pointed out that it was quite wrong to suppose that all nineteenth-century towns developed on the same lines, a kind of Coketown endlessly repeated. While not denying that there was a great deal of poor-quality building, more recently historians have made it clear that newer town housing of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was not necessarily worse than housing built earlier on, or worse than rural housing built at the same time; that new building varied in construction and amenities in the same town, and from town to town; that the skilled working classes were likely to live in better-quality housing than the unskilled; and that the segregation of working-class housing from middle-class housing, and of the better-off working classes from the labouring classes, again varied from town to town.
Apprenticeship and De-skilling in Britain, 1850–1914
Authors: Knox William
Published: December 2008

The publication of Harry Braverman's seminal study –Labor and Monopoiy Capital(1974) – marked a turning-point for labour and social historians. Since then they have increasingly concerned themselves with the nature of the labour process in industrial capitalism. Central to this concern has been the debate on de-skilling and the destruction of craft control over the labour process and its subordination to the needs of capital. Braverman has been heavily criticised for the one-sidedness and simplicity of his account of this development. Among the weaknesses identified inLabor and Monopoly Capitalis the omission of any mention of class struggle, or worker resistance to technical change; the failure to grasp how de-skilling can be mediated and, therefore, modified through labour, market and product particularisms; the lack of a detailed analysis of the transformation of formal to real subordination (in the Marxist sense) of labour to capital – the process seems to occur automatically; and, the failure to realise how formally skilled workers can continue to occupy a privileged position in the workforce through either the mechanism of custom, or by their strategic placing in the production process, or both.
“United to Support But Not Combined to Injure”
Authors: Batt John
Published: December 2008

The declaration of intent forming the title of this article – united to support but not combined to injure– succinctly illustrates a dilemma that confronted trade unions in Britain in the early nineteenth century, and that has since re-surfaced periodically. Successful trade unionism necessarily requires collective action, whether of an overt form, as during an industrial dispute, or implicitly, as in the enforcement of a closed shop. Not infrequently, though, the claims of solidarity and collective interest run counter to the rights of individuals: of employers, fellow workers and third parties. The intervention of the law provides an added twist to the potential conflict between the individual and the group. While the individual has traditionally enjoyed generous legal protection so that he can conduct his lawful business unhindered, the recognition of collective rights has been hesitant and qualified. The Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act of 1875 and the Trades Disputes Act of 1906 effectively legalized peaceful picketing, but the relationship of criminal law and trade unions remained uneasy despite the rarity of prosecutions for offences such as conspiracy. Nevertheless, during the century and a half since 1825 there has been a progressive tendency – at least until the 1980's – for the contradiction between collective and individual interest to assume a relatively muted and non-violent form. The emergence of institutionalized industrial conflict was a logical consequence of British trade unions achieving a position of respectability in the established order.
The United Englishmen and Radical Politics in the Industrial North-West of England, 1795–1803
Authors: Booth Alan
Published: December 2008

The theory of a secret revolutionary tradition, closely woven into the fabric of early working-class activity and surfacing at particular moments of crisis, continues to fascinate historians. In their attempts to assess its validity much recent effort has been directed at the ten years following the introduction of the infamous Two Acts in December 1795. There has been intensive study of the secret societies in the metropolis and their counterparts in the West Riding of Yorkshire and of their relationship to the Irish rebels. Yet whilst it si now generally recognised that radicalism did not simply evaporate in the oppressive aftermath of the “gagging acts”, its nature and significance continue to provoke disagreement. This paper is a contribution to this debate and an attempt to help stitch together a convincing account of plebeian protest in a region which, despite its prominent position in the radical history of this period, has received little systematic attention.
Sail, Steam and Emergent Dockers' Unionism in Britain, 1850–1914
Authors: Lovell John
Published: December 2008

In a well known study of the building industry written some years ago, Richard Price argued that the institutionalisation of trade unions and general formalisation of industrial relations that occurred during the latter half of the nineteenth century were influences that tended to restrict the capacity of work groups to regulate the conditions of their working lives. Whereas earlier labour historians, from the Webbs onwards, had emphasised the part played by formal organisations in the improvement of working conditions, Price stressed the capacity of informal groups to control the way work was conducted. Price's approach, and that of other writers adopting a similar perspective, has been extremely influential, not least because it accorded well with developments taking place in the modern industrial relations setting of the 1960s and 1970s, where interest was focussed upon autonomous work group activity. In the context of the mid-nineteenth century, however, Price certainly pushed his argument a long way. The capacity of craft workers, possessing a strong corporate tradition, to regulate autonomously conditions in their trade was one thing, but Price suggested that work group formation and activity extended to labourers, in building and other industries. Dock labourers, in particular, were held to have been capable of such regulative activity, “long before unionisation”. If this was indeed the case, then the argument regarding the negative contribution of formal union organisation and collective bargaining must presumably be held to apply even in those sectors of employment where the new unionism of the 1880s and 1890s made its appearance.
The International Labour Movement and the Limits of Internationalism: the International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centres, 1901–1913
Authors: Milner Susan
Published: December 2008

Despite an abundance of literature on the Second International relatively little is known about the work of the International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centres (ISNTUC). Foundect in 1901 by the German and Scandinavian labour leaders, this exclusively trade union International (the forerunner of the post-war International Federation of Trade Unions) included representatives of most of the major labour movements of Europe and the USA. Under German leadership it occupied itself with exclusively trade union issues, a limitation which was contested by revolutionary labour federations. Study of the ISNTUC therefore reveals much about conceptions of internationalism within the internationally organized labour movement.
Irish Politics in Manchester 1890–1914
Authors: Fielding Steve
Published: December 2008

This article questions the prevalent assumption that prior to 1914 the Irish in Britain were unquestioningly attached to the Liberal party. It suggests that Home Rule forced the Irish into wider political sympathies which embraced both radical Liberalism and Labour. The Irish in Manchester are highlighted and the “progressive” nature of local Nationalism described. It is also denied that the transfer of Irish loyalties to Labour was proof of the emergence of a class politics or of their integration into the unskilled working-class. It is suggested that this was, in fact, evidence of their continued cultural and political distinctiveness.
The National Integration of European Working Classes (1871–1914)
Authors: van der Linden Marcel
Published: December 2008

Seven factors that may have contributed to the national integration of the working classes in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia 1871–1914 are explored: the national process of capital accumulation, the international prestige of the nation, the coming of interregional connections, compulsory education, suffrage, the role of the army, and the introduction of social insurance systems. The (provisional) results of this exploration show a clustering of integration-promoting factors in Britain, Germany and France, which is to a certain extent lacking in Italy and Russia.
The Making of Russian Female Social Democrats, 1890–1917
Authors: Fieseler Beate
Published: December 2008

The social composition of female RSDRP members (who constituted between 11% and 15% of the total party membership) prior to 1917 is analyzed using prosopographic methods. The analysis reveals that women social democrats tended to come from higher social classes, and to have a higher educational attainment, and professional occupations. Thus, it is misleading to characterize the RSDRP as a “workers' party”, for only its male contingent was composed mostly of workers.

The analysis of the process of radicalization reveals the cultural barriers whioch these women had to overcome before they would join the party. Breaking free from their role in society meant, for them, leading fuller lives as women and an oppurtunity to dedicate themselves to the people.
The Making of a Female Marxist: E.D. Kuskova's Conversion to Russian Social Democracy
Authors: Norton Barbara T.
Published: December 2008

Historians have traditionally overlooked the role of women in Russian Social Democracy. This article, based on archival as well as published sources, examines the radicalization of E.D. Kuskova (1860–1958), a long neglected participant in the Russian Marxist movement during its formative years.

Kuskova was attracted to radicalism by its promise of a fulfilling life of service to society, and as an escape from the traditional, confining roles for women in prerevo-lutionary Russia. She came to Social Democracy after concluding that it provided a more satisfactory Weltanschauung and a more accurate diagnosis of Russia's socio-economic ills than did its ideological alternatives.
The Sound of One Hand Clapping: A Comment on the “Rank and Filism” Debate
Authors: Hyman Richard
Published: December 2008

The issue of “spontaneity versus organisation” has provoked constant controversy within labour movements, at least since the polemic between Lenin and Luxemburg in the first years of this century. The rise of mass social-democratic parties and national industrial unions generated a familiar dilemma for the left: an apparent contradiction between direct, localised and immediate collective expressions of working-class experience and aspirations – with the virtues of authenticity and self-activity – and the centralised, co-ordinated and disciplined institutions which strategic efficacy seemingly required. Experience of the particularly bureaucratic and authoritarian German movement helped inspire Michels' eloquent thesis that hierarchical organisational structures were unavoidable, yet inevitably resulted in conservative and anti-democratic outcomes. Others – most notably, perhaps, the Webbs – insisted that oligarchy could be avoided by appropriate organisational engineering; yet others, implicitly endorsing Michels' equation, proposed syndicalist strategies for avoiding institutional discipline. Subsequently the Third International, with its concept of “democratic centralism”, sought to dissolve the whole issue by what critics regarded as a definitional sleight-of-hand.
Whatever Happened to Red Clydeside?
Authors: Melling Joseph
Published: December 2008

Recent studies of industrial conflict during the First World War have challenged earlier interpretations of working-class politics in Britain. The debate has focussed on the events in west Scotland during the years when the legend of “Red Clydeside” was made. It is now commonplace to emphasise the limited progress of revolutionary politics and the presence of a powerful craft sectionalism in the industrial workforce. This essay discusses the recent research on workplace unrest, popular politics and the wartime state. Although the “new revisionism” provides an important corrective to earlier scholarship, there remain important questions which require a serious reappraisal of the forces behind the different forms of collective action which took place and their implications for the politics of socialism. It is argued that the struggles of skilled workers made an important contribution to the growth of Labour politics on the Clyde.
Labour Conflicts and Working-Class Culture in Early Modern Holland
Authors: Dekker Rudolf
Published: December 2008

From the 15th to the 18th century Holland, the most urbanized part of the northern Netherlands, had a tradition of labour action. In this article the informal workers' organizations which existed especially within the textile industry are described. In the 17th century the action forms adjusted themselves to the better coordinated activities of the authorities and employers. After about 1750 this protest tradition disappeared, along with the economic recession which especially struck the traditional industries. Because of this the continuity of the transition from theancien régimeto the modern era which may be discerned in the labour movements of countries like France and England, cannot be found in Holland.
1889 And All That: New Views on the New Unionism
Authors: Matthews Derek
Published: December 2008

This article reviews the existing literature on the rise of the New Unionism and suggests some revisions of the nature of the phenomenon based on recent research. One finding is that as institutions the unions were not militant but from their inception favoured a moderate stance regarding relations with employers. The causes of the New Unionism and the strike wave of 1889–1890 are analysed within a framework of neoclassical economics and the major operator in the situation is identified as the dwindling supply of rural labour which increased the value and bargaining power of the unskilled toward the end of the nineteenth century.
Collective Bargaining and the Emergence of National Employer Organisation in the British Shipbuilding Industry
Authors: Lovell John C.
Published: December 2008

The article takes shipbuilding as a case study in the development of collective bargaining in Britain during the period 1889–1910. During the period shipbuilding employers established an effective national organisation and were successful in drawing the unions into an industry-wide disputes procedure. These developments occurred notwithstanding marked differences in outlook and interest as between the two main centres of activity in the industry, the Clyde and the northeast coast. The more militant posture of the Clyde employers towards the unions is examined in relation to a number of key issues – the apprentice and machine questions, managerial prerogative, wage control. In interpreting the general nature of the transition that occurred in the industry's labour relations, the article questions the view that the move to national bargaining was associated with a general commitment to the joint regulation of employment rules. It further suggests that the general level of employer acceptance of trade unionism may have been less than is sometimes assumed. These conclusions may well have a significance beyond the case in question.
Social Conflict and Trade-Union Organisation in the Catalan Cotton Textile Industry, 1890–1914
Authors: Smith Angel
Published: December 2008

The article deals with the development of Catalan cotton textile trade unionism between 1890 and 1914. It has been argued that, given the economic difficulties which faced the cotton textile industry, employers were anxious to cut labour costs and unwilling to negotiate with trade unions. Between 1889 and 1891, therefore, they launched an attack on trade-union organisation within the industry. In many rural areas they were able to impose their will with relatively little difficulty. In urban Catalonia, however, they faced stiffer opposition. The state's response to labour unrest was not uniform. Nevertheless, at crucial moments the authorities supported the mill owners' assaults on labour organisation. The result was to radicalise the cotton textile labour force. This could be seen in the growing influence of socialists and anarchists in the textile unions' ranks, and in the increasing willingness of the textile workers to use general strike tactics.
Ralahine: An Irish Owenite Community (1831–1833)
Authors: Geoghegan Vincent
Published: December 2008

This article is a study of the Owenite community established in Co. Clare, Ireland from November 1831 to November 1833. It examines the role of economic crisis in Ireland in stimulating interest in Owenite solutions. It analyses the differing motivations of the various actors (landowner, Owenite reformer, the peasantry) in joining the venture. It examines the sources of the community's stability – economic, sociological, and cultural. It argues that the community was destroyed by the contradictory roles of its founder, Vandeleur, who was both owner and President. In the process a detailed description of the community is provided, covering matters such as institutional arrangements, the division of labour, wages and benefits, gender relationships, and religion.
Race, Ethnicity, and Union in the Chicago Stockyards, 1917–1922
Authors: Halpern Rick
Published: December 2008

This article examines the ways in which unionization impacted upon race relations in Chicago's meatpacking industry. It focuses upon a period when a dynamic working-class movement sought to overcome barriers imposed by a hierarchical job structure and reinforced by ethnic and racial divisions. The movement drew its strength from several sources. The support of the Chicago Federation of Labor threw the resources of a powerful local movement behind the campaign and encouraged the emergence of new, inclusive, forms of organization. The existence of shop-floor organizations further augmented the movement's power. Finally, the intervention of the government, in the form of binding arbitration, led to dramatic improvements in wages and conditions which helped the movement consolidate its position. Although these gains were undone and the movement destroyed, the union campaign transformed racial and class experiences in the stockyards.
From Pauperism to Social Policy
Authors: Metz Karl H.
Published: December 2008

The first part of this paper establishes the outlines of social policy in the course of the nineteenth century using Great Britain, Germany and France as examples, with particular emphasis on the differences arising from the varying political cultures of these countries. In the second part the paper attempts to establish comparisons for a generalized framework, also covering developments into the twentieth century. ‘Social policy’ in this instance means all state measures to safeguard the physical and social existence of employed workers on the basis of a criterion of fairness which is derived from their citizenship, it is political in other words. Safety ar work is as much a part of this as protection during illness, old age or unemployment. This study as a whole sets out to achieve some standardizations which will be useful in the analysis of the history of social policy and may also be helpful in the discussion of current socio-political problems.
Polymorphism in hydroids: the extensible polyp of Halecium halecinum (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa: Haleciidae)
Authors: Gravier-Bonnet Nicole
Published: December 2008

The study of living Halecium halecinum colonies revealed a new case of zooid polymorphism. Besides the ordinary hydranth, the polyp devoted to feeding, this species is provided with a second kind of polyp, differing only slightly in structure and morphology but most conspicuously in its behaviour. It is named ‘extensible polyp’ in reference to its great extensibility and the resulting filiform shape. There are slight differences in the tentacles: lower number, shorter length, thicker diameter, and the tip slightly swollen and rounded instead of tapering. Their large microbasic mastigophores are abundant and evenly distributed, while the hydranth has a few large ones only on the oral side but has otherwise numerous small ones. When extended and at rest, the tubular column is much longer than that of the hydranth and not delimited from the head of the polyp by a bulge followed by a constriction. Behavioural differences are its capacity to coil and bend during extension and thus being able to move in all directions and exploring a large volume of seawater, and also its ability to produce regional swellings (peristalsis) and to contract by folding and bulging though still extended. Besides a probable role in defence, the extensible polyp exhibits an excretory function and it could also have sensory functions. The extensible polyp type is not classified as a nematophore because it has a functional gastrovascular cavity and a mouth. Polyp dimorphism (hydranth/extensible polyp) is reported in one more halecid and two sertularids.
Seasonal changes in host phenotype manipulation by an acanthocephalan: time to be transmitted?
Authors: BENESH D. P. , HASU T. , SEPPÄLÄ O. , VALTONEN E. T.
Published: December 2008

Many complex life cycle parasites exhibit seasonal transmission between hosts. Expression of parasite traits related to transmission, such as the manipulation of host phenotype, may peak in seasons when transmission is optimal. The acanthocephalanAcanthocephalus luciiis primarily transmitted to its fish definitive host in spring. We assessed whether the parasitic alteration of 2 traits (hiding behaviour and coloration) in the isopod intermediate host was more pronounced at this time of year. Refuge use by infected isopods was lower, relative to uninfected isopods, in spring than in summer or fall. Infected isopods had darker abdomens than uninfected isopods, but this difference did not vary between seasons. The level of host alteration was unaffected by exposing isopods to different light and temperature regimes. In a group of infected isopods kept at 4°C, refuge use decreased from November to May, indicating that reduced hiding in spring develops during winter. Keeping isopods at 16°C instead of 4°C resulted in higher mortality but not accelerated changes in host behaviour. Our results suggest that changes in host and/or parasite age, not environmental conditions, underlie the seasonal alteration of host behaviour, but further work is necessary to determine if this is an adaptive parasite strategy to be transmitted in a particular season.
The dynamics of genetically markedAscaris suuminfections in pigs
Authors: NEJSUM P. , ROEPSTORFF A. , ANDERSON T. J. C. , JØRGENSEN C. , FREDHOLM M. , THAMSBORG S. M.
Published: December 2008

The genotypes of both host and parasite may influence the outcome of parasitic infections, but few attempts have been made to quantify the effect of parasite genotype on macroparasite infections of socio-economic importance. We examined variation in particular traits during the infection in pigs with the parasitic nematodeAscaris suum. We infected 26 pigs with mixtures of equal proportions of embryonated eggs from 4 single female worms each with a unique mtDNA haplotype – the eggs from each female worm were a mixture of siblings and half-siblings. Pigs were necropsied on days 14, 17 and 28 following inoculation, which corresponded to time-points before, during and after the main immune responses against the nematode. A total of approximately 11 000 worms were recovered at necropsy. The location in the small intestine was recorded for all worms and the length and mtDNA haplotype were determined for about 4200 individual worms. There were significant differences in the distribution and abundance of the 4 individual haplotypes among individual pigs demonstrating strong interactions between parasite and host. We found significant differences in the abundance and position in the small intestine as well as the size of worms among haplotypes. We conclude that both parasite and host effects as well as the interplay between them play important roles in determining the characteristics and outcome of infection.
Cryptopain-1, a cysteine protease ofCryptosporidium parvum, does not require the pro-domain for folding
Authors: NA B.-K. , KANG J.-M. , CHEUN H.-I. , CHO S.-H. , MOON S.-U. , KIM T.-S. , SOHN W.-M.
Published: December 2008

Cryptosporidium parvumis an intracellular protozoan parasite that causes cryptosporidiosis in mammals including humans. In the current study, the gene encoding the cysteine protease ofC. parvum(cryptopain-1) was identified and the biochemical properties of the recombinant enzyme were characterized. Cryptopain-1 shared common structural properties with cathepsin L-like papain family enzymes, but lacked a typical signal peptide sequence and contained a possible transmembrane domain near the amino terminus and a unique insert in the front of the mature domain. The recombinant cryptopain-1 expressed inEscherichia coliand refolded to the active form showed typical biochemical properties of cathepsin L-like enzymes. The folding determinant of cryptopain-1 was characterized through multiple constructs with or without different lengths of the pro-domain of the enzyme expressed inE. coliand assessment of their refolding abilities. All constructs, except one that did not contain the full-length mature domain, successfully refolded into the active enzymes, suggesting that cryptopain-1 did not require the pro-domain for folding. Western blot analysis showed that cryptopain-1 was expressed in the sporozoites and the enzyme preferentially degraded proteins, including collagen and fibronectin, but not globular proteins. This suggested a probable role for cryptopain-1 in host cell invasion and/or egression by the parasite.
A study of psychiatrists' concepts of mental illness
Authors: Harland R. , Antonova E. , Owen G. S. , Broome M. , Landau S. , Deeley Q. , Murray R.
Published: December 2008

Background

There are multiple models of mental illness that inform professional and lay understanding. Few studies have formally investigated psychiatrists' attitudes. We aimed to measure how a group of trainee psychiatrists understand familiar mental illnesses in terms of propositions drawn from different models.

Method

We used a questionnaire study of a sample of trainees from South London and Maudsley National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust designed to assess attitudes across eight models of mental illness (e.g. biological, psychodynamic) and four psychiatric disorders. Methods for analysing repeated measures and a principal components analysis (PCA) were used.

Results

No one model was endorsed by all respondents. Model endorsement varied with disorder. Attitudes to schizophrenia were expressed with the greatest conviction across models. Overall, the ‘biological’ model was the most strongly endorsed. The first three components of the PCA (interpreted as dimensions around which psychiatrists, as a group, understand mental illness) accounted for 56% of the variance. Each main component was classified in terms of its distinctive combination of statements from different models: PC1 33% biologicalversusnon-biological; PC2 12% ‘eclectic’ (combining biological, behavioural, cognitive and spiritual models); and PC3 10% psychodynamicversussociological.

Conclusions

Trainee psychiatrists are most committed to the biological model for schizophrenia, but in general are not exclusively committed to any one model. As a group, they organize their attitudes towards mental illness in terms of a biological/non-biological contrast, an ‘eclectic’ view and a psychodynamic/sociological contrast. Better understanding of how professional group membership influences attitudes may facilitate better multidisciplinary working.
Suicide in paradise: aftermath of the Bali bombings
Authors: Suryani L. K. , Page A. , Lesmana C. B. J. , Jennaway M. , Basudewa I. D. G. , Taylor R.
Published: December 2008

Background

The relationship between the Bali (Indonesia) bombings of October 2002 and suicide has not previously been investigated, despite anecdotal evidence of the economic and psychological consequences of these attacks.

Method

Suicide rates were calculated over the period 1994–2006 in three Bali regencies to determine whether suicide increased in the period following the first Bali bombings. Poisson regression and time-series models were used to assess the change in suicide rates by sex, age and area in the periods before and after October 2002.

Results

Suicide rates (age-adjusted) increased in males from an average of 2.84 (per 100 000) in the period pre-2002 to 8.10 in the period post-2002, and for females from 1.51 to 3.68. The greatest increases in suicide in the post-2002 period were in the age groups 20–29 and ⩾60 years, for both males and females. Tourist arrivals fell significantly after the bombings, and addition of tourism to models reduced relative risk estimates of suicide, suggesting that some of the increase may be attributable to the socio-economic effects of declines in tourism.

Conclusions

There was an almost fourfold increase in male suicide risk and a threefold increase in female suicide risk in the period following the 2002 bombings in Bali. Trends in tourism did not account for most of the observed increases. Other factors such as indirect socio-economic effects and Balinese notions of collective guilt and anxieties relating to ritual neglect are important in understanding the rise in suicide in the post-2002 period.
Adapting SVM for data sparseness and imbalance: a case study in information extraction
Authors: LI YAOYONG , BONTCHEVA KALINA , CUNNINGHAM HAMISH
Published: December 2008

Support Vector Machines (SVM) have been used successfully in many Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks. The novel contribution of this paper is in investigating two techniques for making SVM more suitable for language learning tasks. Firstly, we propose an SVM with uneven margins (SVMUM) model to deal with the problem of imbalanced training data. Secondly, SVM active learning is employed in order to alleviate the difficulty in obtaining labelled training data. The algorithms are presented and evaluated on several Information Extraction (IE) tasks, where they achieved better performance than the standard SVM and the SVM with passive learning, respectively. Moreover, by combining SVMUM with the active learning algorithm, we achieve the best reported results on the seminars and jobs corpora, which are benchmark data sets used for evaluation and comparison of machine learning algorithms for IE. In addition, we also evaluate the token based classification framework for IE with three different entity tagging schemes. In comparison to previous methods dealing with the same problems, our methods are both effective and efficient, which are valuable features for real-world applications. Due to the similarity in the formulation of the learning problem for IE and for other NLP tasks, the two techniques are likely to be beneficial in a wide range of applications1.
Review of:Comparison of gene expression profiles predicting progression in breast cancer patients treated with tamoxifen
Authors: Loi S.
Published: December 2008

Citation of original article:

Koket al.Breast Cancer Research and Treatment4 March 2008 [Epub ahead of print].

Abstract of the original article:

Background:Molecular signatures that predict outcome in tamoxifen-treated breast cancer patients have been identified. For the first time, we compared these response profiles in an independent cohort of (neo)adjuvant systemic treatment naïve breast cancer patients treated with first-line tamoxifen for metastatic disease.Methods:From a consecutive series of 246 estrogen receptor (ER) positive primary tumors, gene expression profiling was performed on available frozen tumors using 44K oligoarrays (n= 69). A 78-gene tamoxifen response profile (formerly consisting of 81 cDNA clones), a 21-gene set (microarray-based Recurrence Score), as well as the HOXB13-IL17BR ratio (Two-Gene Index, RT-PCR) were analyzed. Performance of signatures in relation to time to progression (TTP) was compared with standard immunohistochemical (IHC) markers: ER, progesterone receptor (PgR) and HER-2.Results:In univariate analyses, the 78-gene tamoxifen response profile, the 21-gene set and the HOXB13-IL17BR ratio were all significantly associated with TTP with hazard ratios of 2.2 (95% CI 1.3–3.7,P= 0.005), 2.3 (95% CI 1.3–4.0,P= 0.003) and 4.2 (95% CI 1.4–12.3,P= 0.009), respectively. The concordance among the three classifiers was relatively low, they classified only 45–61% of patients in the same category. In multivariate analyses, the association remained significant for the 78-gene profile and the 21-gene set after adjusting for ER and PgR.Conclusion:The 78-gene tamoxifen response profile, the 21-gene set and the HOXB13–IL17BR ratio were all significantly associated with TTP in an independent patient series treated with tamoxifen. The addition of multigene assays to ER (IHC) improves the prediction of outcome in tamoxifen-treated patients and deserves incorporation in future clinical studies.
Some notes on British Trade Unionism in the third Quarter of the nineteenth Century
Authors: Cole G. D. H.
Published: December 2008

The principal purpose of these notes is to correct certain misunderstandings which I believe to be widely prevalent concerning the character of British Trade Unionism during the quarter of a century which followed the establishment in 1850—1851 of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. The period covered thus begins with the inauguration of the ‘new model’ type of Amalgamated Society, and extends to the end of the trade boom of the early seventies, stopping just short of the Great Depression which set in about 1875.
Introduction à l'étude historique du mouvement syndical chrétien
Authors: Vignaux Paul
Published: December 2008

The aim of the author of this article was merely to write an introduction, i.e. to offer some observations on the methods and theories appropriate, in his opinion, to the study of the Christian Syndicalist Movement.

In part I he deals with the organisations' internal life. Here he examines in turn:

The circumstances of the organisations' foundation, namely partly clerical and doctrinal influences, partly the reactions of the workers. The various ways in which Christian Trade-Unionism is influenced by the clergy. The structure of the confederations, especially the problems of centralism and bureaucracy, democracy and federalism. And finally recruiting-conditions, viz. the degree of confessionalism of the organisation, the religious attitude of the members as a whole, and the distrubution both geographically and vocationally. Here he adds a comparison between the fluctuations in the number of members of Christian and of socialist organisations.
Social utopias in American literture
Authors: Normano J. F.
Published: December 2008

An interest in the history of ideas has never been popular in the United States; the modern student finds a tabula rasa in all fields of social science. The late Vernon L. Parrington complained of “the present lack of exact knowledge in connection with the history of American letters”). Charles E. Merriam observed that the “development of American political theories has received surprisingly little attention from students of American history”); and the history of economic ideas in America may be similarly described:—it does not yet exist.