bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Cold War in the Village
Authors: Thomas Marcel
Published: May 2020

This chapter examines in more detail how the inhabitants of the two villages engaged with the other Germany and the division of their nation. The Neukirchers and Ebersbachers lived far away from the inner-German border, but in their everyday lives they nonetheless were forced to confront the impact of division. By analysing everyday practices through which the villagers positioned themselves in the political landscape of the Cold War, the chapter sheds new light on the asymmetry of (be)longing and othering in the divided nation. It demonstrates how the Neukirchers and Ebersbachers constructed their own respective imaginary East and imaginary West shaped by local concerns and searches for identity. In Neukirch, the villagers increasingly built up the West as an object of longing in their attempts to deal with the daily struggles of life in a shortage economy. The Ebersbachers, on the other hand, used the East as a Cold War ‘other’ to express pride in their economic recovery and gain a stronger sense of their own identity in a divided nation. These distorted images of the other Germany led to widespread alienation and misunderstandings in the first German–German encounters in the reunified nation. It was difference, rather than a shared sense of national identity, that dominated the experiences of the Neukirchers and Ebersbachers when the inner-German border disappeared in 1990.
Oblique Strategies and Experimental Fictions
Authors: Jordan Julia
Published: May 2020

The writers that are the subject of this book have begun to assume increasing importance, gaining in readership, scholarly attention, and critical significance. Yet it has not so far been possible to understand their tonal and formal particularity in its full relation to late modernism, which has recently been defined less as a periodizing hypothesis and more as a distinctive set of aesthetic and philosophical concerns of its own. In this introductory chapter, Oblique Strategies proposes a new reading of these writers, as not merely defined by certain formal effects, including the self-consciously opaque or abstruse, the non-linear, jump-cut, or typographically virtuosic, but arguing that this particular strain of late modernism is best understood as constituted by their thematic and philosophical concern with accident and indeterminacy. Here the book makes the case for these writers’ collective sense of themselves as writing modernist fiction after modernism, with all the belatedness, uncertainty, and paradoxical urgency—aesthetic, philosophical, and stylistic—that obtains.
Accident as Event
Authors: Jordan Julia
Published: May 2020

Dealing with a broad sweep of experimental novels of the period that make accident a central concern, this chapter examines writing by Samuel Beckett, Brigid Brophy, Eva Figes, Gabriel Josipovici, Nicholas Mosley, Muriel Spark, and Stefan Themerson. In these the accident emerges as a thematic motif or philosophical principle: as chronological paralysis, traumatic violence, revelatory or epiphanic understanding, or eroticized encounter with technology. In late modernism, the uneasy mingling of the precariousness induced by an awareness of life as threatened by the atomic as well as constituted by it seems contradictory to an understanding of the accident as inevitable. This is prevalent in Beckett’s invocation of the void as much as in the frantic figurations of a writer like Brophy. The accident then emerges as what reveals the late modernist disposition to passivity, non-mastery, dissolution, and silence, pushing at the limits of what can and cannot be known.
Accident as Critique
Authors: Jordan Julia
Published: May 2020

This chapter turns from reading the accidental and uncertain nature of British post-war avant-gardism as constitutive of its status as late, to asking the question, late to whom? Lateness clearly implies a particular relation to history, and assumes an emergence from a particular tradition, in this instance Western and modernist. What does it mean to conceive of this form of writing—the accidental, the experimental, the uncertain—in the period as new, that is, in terms of the anglophone modernist tradition? The particular historical trajectories of Britain’s colonial past, and the dissolution of its empire, combined to mean that in the 1950s and 1960s some of the most innovative writers were migrants. This chapter accordingly asks how this argument thus far might be extended by thinking about how the specifically postcolonial historical moment is illuminated by their (partial, or perceived) refusal of realism, taking as its examples the experimentalists Zulfikar Ghose and Denis Williams.
Indeterminate Brooke-Rose
Authors: Jordan Julia
Published: May 2020

Christine Brooke-Rose is more often thought of in terms of constraint than indeterminacy, due to her decision to write most of her novels under certain rules of exclusion or grammatical limitation, a decision which means that her work is often determined, in particular ways, before she starts writing. But it is largely against this notion of constraint that this chapter reads her 1966 novel Such, and her writing more generally, as ‘indeterminate’. This chapter will use this term not only to indicate that Brooke-Rose is engaged with a particular kind of scientific discourse about uncertainty and indeterminacy, but also as a way to read her figurative imagination. Indeterminacy evokes both epistemic ambiguity and a muddy opacity, and Such, without itself being formally indeterminate ‘as such’, offers us a vision of what a sense of unconstraint might do elsewhere: to human relations, to epistemology, and to the human subject.
The Kelmendi
Authors: Malcolm Noel
Published: May 2020

The clan or tribe (‘fis’) system was fundamental to life in the northern Albanian highlands (Malësi e Madhe), and the Kelmendi were the most important of all the clans. This essay traces the story of their origin and development, and explains how and why they acquired their special pre-eminence over a much larger group of clans. Like the others, they began in the fifteenth century as a grouping, for self-defence purposes, around one prominent family. Unlike the others, they were given a special role by the Ottomans: derbend status, which meant that they functioned as armed guards of mountain passes and roads over a large area. This gave them a stronger collective identity, the privilege of bearing arms and the ability to extend their influence over other clans. The Kelmendi were active in many seventeenth-century revolts, and in the early eighteenth century the Ottomans tried to control them by means of a policy of mass deportation. Nevertheless they remained a dominant presence in the area until the early twentieth century.
Pjetër Bogdani’s Cuneus prophetarum (1685)
Authors: Malcolm Noel
Published: May 2020

This essay investigates the background and nature of the most important early work written and printed in Albanian, Archbishop Pjetër Bogdani’s theological treatise Cuneus prophetarum. Evidence from Bogdani’s correspondence suggests that he was working on what became the second part of this large book, the part describing the life of Christ, in the mid-1670s. Possibly this derived from sermons which he had given to his flock (in present-day Kosovo). Gradually he expanded the project, adding arguments which were directed against both Orthodox Christianity and Islam. The intellectual context of this was a circle of theologians in Rome (identified here) who were engaged in conversionary work, both against those faiths and against Judaism. Conversion was, however, at most a secondary aim for Bogdani, who was writing primarily for his own Catholic flock. But his project was taken up by Cardinal Gregorio Barbarigo in Padua, who eventually published the book in 1685, and for Barbarigo the conversion of Muslims was a major aim, linked to aspirations for the conquest of the Ottoman Empire. Barbarigo was also keen to display the capabilities of his newly established printing press; this explains why Bogdani’s text, which would ideally have been produced in a pocket-sized edition suitable for covert transmission inside the Ottoman Empire, appeared as a grand, illustrated folio volume, with passages in languages such as Syriac and Armenian. Bogdani’s project had, it is argued, been taken over and used for other purposes.
The Cultural Roots of American Management
Authors: D’Iribarne Philippe , Chevrier Sylvie , Henry Alain , Segal Jean-Pierre , Tréguer-Felten Geneviève
Published: May 2020

Management by Objectives, formalized by Peter Drucker in the middle of the twentieth century, has since been maintained as an essential reference in the United States and as the core of ‘American-style’ management. Despite the tremendous economic, technological and societal transformations that have taken place in recent decades, it remains the main tool used by managers to delegate and control team members’ work. The persistence of MBO is demonstrated by using three types of data: the introduction to MBO at General Electric in the early 1950s, a field survey in the early 1980s in a Maryland plant and the current policies of American companies considered as innovative in their workforce’s management. The longevity of MBO can be explained by its deep cultural embeddedness in American values. Precisely, its underlying principles stem from the American view of fair regulations of labour relations, which is not necessarily shared abroad.
American Management Put to the Test
Authors: D’Iribarne Philippe , Chevrier Sylvie , Henry Alain , Segal Jean-Pierre , Tréguer-Felten Geneviève
Published: May 2020

What happens when the concept of management by objectives (MBO) is introduced into organizations in which employees conceive labour relations differently from their American counterparts? Three case studies, respectively located in Tunisia, France, and Vietnam illustrate the diversity of the interpretations, from one country to another, of each of the key concepts of MBO: what does an objective mean? How are achievements to be measured? How are performances to be recognized or sanctioned? These cases display the various reinterpretations of the MBO which lead to a wide range of behaviours and contrasting outcomes: from terminating the use of the method to the implementation of adaptations that can better make sense in the local universe of meaning and help enhance organizational performance.
Theorizing National Cultures
Authors: D’Iribarne Philippe , Chevrier Sylvie , Henry Alain , Segal Jean-Pierre , Tréguer-Felten Geneviève
Published: May 2020

In the field of management, two main strands are currently concerned with cultures: one, originating from social psychology, uses attitude scales to characterize national cultures; the other, sociological and anthropological, considers only small groups. This literature did not provide a theory that would serve to interpret satisfactorily what we were observing. We identified two layers in a culture. A first layer corresponds to the existence of a specific way of giving meaning to situations and events, of experiencing power relations, of deciphering the intentions of others. A deeper layer comes from the existence, in each society, of a specific type of concern. The diversity of cultures is precisely related to the fact that the main fears from which one seeks to be free vary significantly from one society to another; so does the organization of social life which has over the years been developed to ward off those fears.
Leadership
Authors: D’Iribarne Philippe , Chevrier Sylvie , Henry Alain , Segal Jean-Pierre , Tréguer-Felten Geneviève
Published: May 2020

It is generally admitted that, in different national contexts, employees expect different behaviours from their managers. This chapter goes further and highlights the diverse culturally rooted conceptions of ‘virtuous authority’ which meets employees’ expectations. It draws upon a comparison between the recommendations on how to develop their leadership addressed to future managers in the United States, Germany, and France. These prescriptions, taken from management consulting sites of the three countries, differ in several respects. The differences relate to the diverse cultural interpretations of the particular social relationship that the hierarchical subordination represents. More precisely, the acceptable ways of exercising hierarchical authority in each country are those that dispel the fears locally associated with subordination. Each way offers counterbalances that, in practice and symbolically, make it possible to rebalance a social relationship that would otherwise be considered too unequal.
Procedures and Control
Authors: D’Iribarne Philippe , Chevrier Sylvie , Henry Alain , Segal Jean-Pierre , Tréguer-Felten Geneviève
Published: May 2020

The content of expected procedures, their precision, the more or less strict compliance requested, and the way their implementation is audited, depend on cultural contexts. The first part of the chapter depicts a Cameroonian company in which the expectations for detailed procedures manuals to be applied literally are high. Such a use of procedures can be explained by the need to ward off the underlying fear that personal relationships outweigh the objectivity of the rules. Conversely, the second part shows that, in France, detailed operating procedures in the automotive and nuclear sectors contradict the quest for autonomy, associated with the importance of mastering one’s profession. A comparison with the nuclear sector in the United States shows that there the stakes are again different. This chapter deals with the way procedures are articulated with the expectations and fears, specific to each universe of meaning, which are generally ignored.
Decision-making
Authors: D’Iribarne Philippe , Chevrier Sylvie , Henry Alain , Segal Jean-Pierre , Tréguer-Felten Geneviève
Published: May 2020

Making decisions involves many risks such as ignoring relevant points of view; angering those who are frustrated, inducing them, once the decision has been made, to hinder its implementation. One way to limit these risks is to frame decisions with rituals. However, for a ritual to work, it must appear respectable; and this relies on an eminently cultural interpretation. To understand what is at stake, two aspects of the decision-making process are explored successively. First, a Franco-Dutch case demonstrates how social interactions intervene in the idea selection. Second, examples from Cameroon and Jordan show the suspicions and resentment that any decision is likely to generate among those who suffer from it. However, appropriate procedures are likely to overcome suspicions and to give a sense of fairness.
Industrial Relations
Authors: D’Iribarne Philippe , Chevrier Sylvie , Henry Alain , Segal Jean-Pierre , Tréguer-Felten Geneviève
Published: May 2020

The institutional mechanisms that regulate labour relations will be all the more effective that they make sense within the cultural universes of meaning of the negotiating partners. This close linkage is illustrated by two contrasting situations. The first, which stands as a counterexample, takes place in a French territory of the South Pacific where transferred institutions induce deep misunderstandings between managers from metropolitan France and Oceanian trade unionists. The second is located in the United States. In that case, the bargaining system fits the American interpretations of labour relations in terms of market relations. This coherence sheds light on the performance and longevity of a bargaining system that is unparalleled in the rest of the world.
Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
Authors: D’Iribarne Philippe , Chevrier Sylvie , Henry Alain , Segal Jean-Pierre , Tréguer-Felten Geneviève
Published: May 2020

The variety of values and customs strongly affects the behaviours considered to be morally acceptable, the motivations to behave ethically, and the types of control that a company can legitimately exercise over its employees. This chapter displays the benchmarks within which ethical approaches make sense in different cultures, both for company employees and for external stakeholders. First, the cultural embeddedness of social responsibility issues is examined with a focus on the differences between the approaches that prevail in France and in the United States. In the second part, the question of corruption is addressed through an Argentinian case. It is further developed by scrutinizing the differences between cultures in which an ethic of respect for principles prevails and those in which an ethic of loyalty towards relatives and friends is favoured.
A Company Odyssey in the South
Authors: D’Iribarne Philippe , Chevrier Sylvie , Henry Alain , Segal Jean-Pierre , Tréguer-Felten Geneviève
Published: May 2020

This chapter recounts the successive reforms experienced over almost thirty years by the Cameroon Electricity Corporation. Its history is emblematic of the issues facing companies in emerging countries. First of all, it illustrates the remarkable permanence, over the long term, of a set of Cameroonian cultural traits. However, these national culture specificities have only been addressed episodically during successive modernizations. The first part summarizes the analyses carried out in the early 1990s on the ‘hyper-centralization’ of the company and the subsequent implementation of a detailed procedures manual to reduce it. The second part displays the disappointing results of the universal management solutions later applied to comply with the privatization recommended by the World Bank. This story shows that changes in corporate culture are possible as long as they are in line with the persistent universes of cultural meanings.
Transferring Management Practices
Authors: D’Iribarne Philippe , Chevrier Sylvie , Henry Alain , Segal Jean-Pierre , Tréguer-Felten Geneviève
Published: May 2020

Transferring ‘good practices’ and management ‘tools’ is a recurring challenge for companies working internationally, particularly in emerging and developing countries. As regards management tools, distinguishing what is part of universal rationality from what should be adapted to the local universe of meaning is particularly tricky. This chapter discusses two cases of Total Quality implementations which highlight the key influence of cultural contexts. In the first case, a Japanese company failed in transferring their methods in the United States, in the second one, a French multinational company succeeded in transforming the Moroccan subsidiary’s management. Drawing lessons from both examples, the third part provides some clues to significantly improve management practice transfers. While companies are concerned with ‘knowledge management’, they lack an operational method for dealing with cultures. However, scrutinizing successful local practices will reveal the characteristics of the local culture and provide replicable solutions.
Guidelines for Deciphering Cultures
Authors: D’Iribarne Philippe , Chevrier Sylvie , Henry Alain , Segal Jean-Pierre , Tréguer-Felten Geneviève
Published: May 2020

In order to go beyond an oversimplified—even erroneous—interpretation of intercultural situations, the approach developed in this book offers a new avenue to uncover the cultural logics underpinning social intercourse. This chapter expounds on the methodological aspects of our comparative and interpretative approach. It provides readers with practical guidelines to apply this method to new management situations and/or cultural areas. Firstly, it presents the specificities of empirical surveys: how to conduct interviews so as to gather fruitful field data. Secondly, it provides a set of steps and criteria enabling to gradually decipher the universe of meaning of a culture. The seven criteria—Redundancy, Strangeness, Embarrassment, Self-evidence, Opposition, Coherence, Horizontality—are illustrated by examples taken from fieldwork done in France, the USA, Cameroon, and Tunisia. Finally, beyond these isolated examples, the chapter provides an illustrative demonstration of the way the method can be applied to a given management situation.
‘The traveller of taste, … the naturalist, and the antiquary’
Authors: Bainbridge Simon
Published: May 2020

This chapter traces mountaineering’s evolution from one-off ascents, usually undertaken for a specific utilitarian purpose, into a leisure pursuit participated in by an increasingly large section of society. It examines how the practice of climbing developed out of three cultures that were well established in late eighteenth-century Britain: scientific research, antiquarianism, and picturesque travel. Investigating a wide range of writing from these three cultures (with key texts including Horace Bénédict de Saussure’s Voyages dans les Alpes, Thomas Pennant’s Journey to Snowdon, and Thomas West’s A Guide to the Lakes), the chapter shows how the summit became appreciated for the role it played in these pursuits, as an elevated viewing station, an observatory, a source of scientific specimens, and even as an outdoor laboratory.
‘Curiosity’, ‘dangerous adventure’, and ‘the perilous point of honour’
Authors: Bainbridge Simon
Published: May 2020

This chapter investigates how reaching a mountain summit came to be seen as a meaningful act in the Romantic period. It examines three case studies of texts by pioneering climbers who played significant roles in the development of mountaineering and who can be seen as representatives of different emerging cultures of ascent. Joseph Budworth’s A Fortnight’s Ramble to the Lakes (1792 and 1810) illustrates how mountaineering developed as a ‘curious’ pursuit. William Bingley’s A Tour Round North Wales (1800) and North Wales (1804) reveal how a culture of mountain ‘adventure’ evolved out of the scientific pursuit of botany. John MacCulloch’s The Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland (1824) shows the developing conception of mountaineering as a heroic pursuit that enabled those undertaking it to claim a specific identity, articulated particularly through the language of chivalry. The case studies illustrate mountaineering’s development in the Lake District, Snowdonia, and the Scottish Highlands.
‘Master[s] of the prospect’?
Authors: Bainbridge Simon
Published: May 2020

This chapter explores how William Wordsworth and John Keats invested their climbing exploits and the mountain-top position with symbolic significance. Placing the poets’ work within the context of the period’s wider mountaineering literature, it examines how the new ways of seeing gained through mountain-climbing became linked to new ways of being. It investigates how elevation was seen to offer self-transformation and place the climber in a position of power, an idea both Wordsworth and Keats called upon in their definitions of poetic identity. The omniscient position of the summit view, with what Wordsworth termed its ‘visual sovereignty’, raised significant questions about the politics of ascent. The chapter argues that even as both poets made mountain ascent crucial to their poetic identities and missions, they came to adopt a more nuanced response to climbing that challenged the simple equation of the summit with a position of unqualified authority.
Romanticism on the Rocks
Authors: Bainbridge Simon
Published: May 2020

This chapter examines the influence of mountaineering’s demanding physical activities and challenging situations on Romantic-period literature, contesting later constructions of ‘Romanticism’ that see the period’s response as essentially imaginative and transcendent. It investigates the development of rock climbing from the 1790s to the 1820s, examining the activities and writings of a number of pioneer climbers. It then focuses on William Wordsworth’s and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s climbing writing, showing how the specific physical activities, environment, and emotions involved in climbing were productive of visionary states. It investigates Wordsworth’s presentation of the role of ‘fear’ in his mountain-based development in The Prelude. The chapter concludes with an examination of Coleridge’s mountaineering writings, exploring the relationship between mountaineering and writing, the poet’s attitude to risk, and his ambivalent construction of his mountaineering identity.
‘I was a bauld craigsman’
Authors: Bainbridge Simon
Published: May 2020

Walter Scott played a major role in popularizing mountain-based adventure, particularly through his best-selling novels. Examining the dramatic rock-climbing episodes in The Antiquary, The Pirate, and Anne of Geierstein, this chapter argues that Scott helped turn rock-climbing into a pursuit undertaken for pleasure, and reconstructed the figure of the climber from one associated with particular occupations, such as fowling, into a heroic identity to which his readers could aspire. Unlike many of the other period’s writers, Scott resisted the allure of the mountaineer, whom he associated with less civilized communities. Rather, Scott embodied a redefined manliness in his ‘cragsman’ heroes, whom he constructed against a range of other masculinities, one of which was that of the mountaineer. The chapter explores how Scott helped create the identity of the heroic recreational climber and provided what many contemporaries regarded as the authentic articulation of the climbing experience.
An Ocean Untouched and Untried
Authors: Philo John-Mark
Published: May 2020

This is a study of the translation and reception of the Roman historian Livy in early-modern England. The work examines the four Tudor translations of Livy’s history of Rome, the Ab Urbe Condita, into the English vernacular during the sixteenth century and their engagements with the most pressing political and cultural debates of the day, from Henrician appropriations of Hannibal to arguments over the status of women. The first chapter examines Livy’s initial reception into print in Europe, outlining the attempts of his earliest editors to impose a critical order onto his enormous work. The subsequent chapters consider the respective translations undertaken by Anthony Cope, William Thomas, William Painter, and Philemon Holland, situating them among the wider trends in Classical Reception during the early-modern era. Each translation is compared in detail with the Latin original, highlighting the changes Livy’s history experienced in the process of translation. The study considers how these translations responded to and were shaped by the most recent developments in European scholarship on Livy’s history and classical historiography more generally. So too the study examines Livy’s impact on more popular forms of English literature during the Renaissance, especially the works of Shakespeare. Ultimately this research demonstrates that Livy played a fundamental though underexplored role in the development of vernacular literature, historiography, and political thought in early-modern England.
Introduction
Authors: Philo John-Mark
Published: May 2020

The Introduction offers an outline of Livy’s life, classical reputation, and particular style of historiography. The study is then situated amid the major recent works on Classical Reception and Translation Studies, identifying its main contributions to the field. The introduction also sets out the main critical impulses at the heart of this monograph. Much like recent works on classical reception in English literature, this study of Livy’s early-modern reception is concerned with exploring how the classical work enriched the native tradition, uncovering the ways in which the AUC pushed literature in the English vernacular in new and politically challenging directions. And while giving deserved attention to the political and cultural contexts from which each of these translations emerged, this study, as the introduction explains, also attempts also to offer a detailed comparison of the Latin original with the English version, tracing the shifts in meaning and emphasis across the linguistic divide.
The European Reception of Livy (1469–1600)
Authors: Philo John-Mark
Published: May 2020

Chapter 1 explores Livy’s early reception and translation in Renaissance Europe, examining the first, key decades in which the history reached a wider audience through its publication on the continent. The chapter first examines the literary fame enjoyed by Livy in Europe towards the end of the fifteenth century as well as the attempts of his earliest editors in print to impose some kind of critical order onto this monolithic work. The focus then moves to the first vernacular translations of Livy to have appeared in Europe, including the first renderings of the history into French and Italian. The final section considers the various translation styles at work in early-modern England and how these manifest themselves in each of the sixteenth-century translations of Livy.
Anthony Cope’s Livy
Authors: Philo John-Mark
Published: May 2020

Chapter 2 explores how Sir Anthony Cope (1486/7–1551) translated Livy’s account of the Second Punic War for his The Historie of Two the Moste Noble Capitaines of the Worlde (1544), showcasing the martial prowess of Scipio and his Carthiginian opponent, Hannibal. Cope deliberately reworked the third decade as a commentary on contemporary foreign policy and war with Scotland. Cope, as this chapter explores, imbued his translation with a diplomatic lexicon which was becoming standardized under Henry VIII. By doing so, Cope produced a translation which supported the official Henrician view that all peaceful avenues of negotiation with Scotland had been exhausted. The struggles between Rome and Carthage thus became, in Cope’s hands, an endorsement of Henry’s renewal of hostilities with Scotland, complementing wider trends in Tudor Propaganda. In Cope’s Livy, as in Henrician England, there are limits to diplomacy.
Conclusion
Authors: Philo John-Mark
Published: May 2020

The conclusion draws together the main themes and concerns of the book: namely how the translation and application of Livy in Tudor England was intricately connected to the most pressing political and cultural concerns of the day. So too it reflects on Livy’s impact on the vernacular literatures of the period, including William Painter’s novellas and Shakespeare’s poetry and prose. It also underlines the fact that, rather than a diminishing interest in Livy, the seventeenth century saw the historian at the heart of the constitutional debates underpinning the English Civil War. The translation of Livy in the early-modern period, as the conclusion underlines, functioned not only as a reflection of the political concerns of the moment, but also as an active attempt to reshape, refashion, and urge forward those concerns. Though Livy’s part in the Classical Reception of the early-modern era is sometimes underplayed, it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of Livy’s contribution to the culture and politics of sixteenth-, and indeed seventeenth-, century England.
The Prudential Value of Autonomy
Authors: Pugh Jonathan
Published: May 2020

The principle of respect for autonomy is undeniably afforded particular salience in Western bioethics. At least part of the reason for this is that autonomy is often understood to have a central role in the good life. In this chapter, the author argues that autonomy does not have merely instrumental prudential value; instead, autonomy is at least partly constitutive of well-being, since there is a special value in living a life that is one’s own. He defends a well-known argument that speaks in favour of this conclusion, before going on to consider the value of different elements of autonomy, according to the framework adopted in this book. The author concludes by assessing how autonomy can conflict with other central values in bioethics, and how the claim that autonomy has significant prudential value has important implications for how we should understand the concept of beneficence in bioethics.
Great Britain, International Law, and the Evolution of Maritime Strategic Thought, 1856–1914
Authors: Frei Gabriela A.
Published: May 2020

The book addresses the interaction between international maritime law and maritime strategy in a historical context, arguing that both international law and maritime strategy are based on long-term state interests. Great Britain as the predominant sea power in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries shaped the relationship between international law and maritime strategy like no other power. The book explores how Great Britain used international maritime law as an instrument of foreign policy to protect its strategic and economic interests, and how maritime strategic thought evolved in parallel to the development of international legal norms. The book offers an analysis of British state practice as well as an examination of the efforts of the international community to codify international maritime law in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As the predominant sea power and also the world’s largest carrier of goods, Great Britain had to balance its interests as both a belligerent and a neutral power. With the growing importance of international law in international politics, the book examines the role of international lawyers, strategists, and government officials who shaped state practice. Great Britain’s neutrality for most of the period between 1856 and 1914 influenced its state practice and its perceptions of a future maritime conflict. Yet, the codification of international maritime law at The Hague and London conferences at the beginning of the twentieth century demanded a reassessment of Great Britain’s legal position.
Introduction
Authors: Frei Gabriela A.
Published: May 2020

The Introduction provides an outline of the theme of the book, explaining the focus on state practice, custom, and the codification of international maritime law. State practice and custom were important reference points for the codification of international maritime law, and William E. Hall’s definition of international law serves as a starting point for the reflection on the importance of state practice for the making of international law. History was also an important reference point for early international lawyers, and Theodore D. Woolsey’s explanation helps to understand the close relationship between history and law more generally. The history of international law has become a vibrant research area in recent decades thanks to Martti Koskenniemi, whose works have contributed to the understanding of the construction of a legal argument and the philosophical basis of international law.
The Law of Neutrality and State Practice
Authors: Frei Gabriela A.
Published: May 2020

Chapter 3 explores how Great Britain applied and implemented its neutrality policy after 1870, building a coherent state practice based on its Foreign Enlistment Act. Several case studies from various conflicts after 1870 highlight the main areas of dispute between neutral Great Britain and belligerent powers, dealing with the sale of ships, coaling, contraband, and the destruction of ships. More broadly, the chapter shows the challenges which Great Britain faced in the application of its domestic legislation. It shows the important role of the Foreign Office and the Law Officers of the Crown in dealing with these matters, and how they shaped the understanding of neutrality more generally.
The Hague and London Conferences and the Rise of an International Legal Order
Authors: Frei Gabriela A.
Published: May 2020

Chapter 5 deals with the codification of international maritime law at the second Hague peace conference and the London naval conference. In addition, it is concerned with Great Britain’s position on the process of codification, as well as how Great Britain shaped an international legal order as guidance in a future maritime conflict. As the foremost sea power at the time, Great Britain not only possessed the most comprehensive state practice on international maritime law but also significantly influenced the process of codification. The chapter illuminates Great Britain’s preparatory work for the conferences and evaluates the importance of state practice for the process of codification. The three topics which were particularly important for Great Britain are treated in detail in this chapter: blockade, contraband, and neutrality. Although the Declaration of London provided a comprehensive legal framework, it also illustrated the challenges and limitations of codification with regard to a future maritime conflict.
A Bank with a Divided Mandate
Authors: Lie Einar
Published: May 2020

This chapter examines the two mandates of Norges Bank. In autumn of 1818, Norges Bank began providing ordinary services to the public, discounting bills and lending directly against real estate. The institution was now both the nation’s bank of issue and its sole bank. Expectations of what the bank was to achieve pulled in two diametrically opposed directions. On the one hand, the bank was to take control of the inflated monetary system and bring the value of money back to par, namely the silver value guarantee issued when the Storting established the bank in 1816. Based on both contemporary and modern wisdom, this would speak in favour of tightening the money supply. On the other hand, the bank was to meet the country’s considerable need for credit, which would speak in favour of adding liquidity. However, a desire to supply more credit to farmers, merchants, timber traders, and others competed with the long-term goal of returning money to par. Indeed, the reason why the road to par became so long and winding has to do with the desire to supply the nation with credit: both the money supply and credit volumes were expanded repeatedly to meet the country’s borrowing needs.
A Relieved Norges Bank
Authors: Lie Einar
Published: May 2020

This chapter assesses the emergence of financial institutions that would cater to individuals and businesses, which relieved Norges Bank of some of its tasks such as providing short-term business credit and long-term mortgage loans. Both private banks and government lending institutions were established within a framework of close cooperation between government officials and private operators. At the same time as new institutions were born, the dividing lines between Norges Bank and the government’s role in financial markets became more clear. The chapter then looks at developments up to 1857, a year that was dominated by a deep crisis in Western economies. Norges Bank had established broad contact directly with international finance houses and was better equipped structurally and intellectually to cope with external crises that spilled over into the Norwegian economy.
Gold and Coins in the Age of Standardization
Authors: Lie Einar
Published: May 2020

This chapter addresses the changeover from a silver standard to a gold standard for the Norwegian monetary system. On 8 May 1873, after a long and heated debate, the Storting decided to establish a new metal basis for the Norwegian monetary system, by transitioning from silver to gold. In the same resolution, the Storting rejected the proposal to join Sweden and Denmark in a monetary union. The gold standard eventually prevailed, thanks to Great Britain’s financial weight and pragmatic arguments regarding gold’s superiority to silver as a basis for metal-based monetary systems. However, the larger dream, partly forgotten because it did not materialize, was the establishment of a universal coin (universal coinage), intended to give all people access to the same monetary unit for cross-border payments. In its first round, this initiative was aborted as a result of international events and national politics. Two years later, as a strictly regional solution, Norway finally joined its two neighbouring countries in the Scandinavian Monetary Union. Along with two other national banks, Norges Bank contributed to the ever-expanding monetary union in its area of influence and improved it with new and efficient ways of settling payments, the main objective being the promotion of trade.
Blurring the Borders
Authors: Lie Einar
Published: May 2020

This chapter looks at the criticism of Norges Bank’s role during the First World War. In particular, historian and economist Wilhelm Keilhau severely criticized Norges Bank in his comprehensive review of economic policy during the war. Keilhau commented that, together with the captains of finance, the central bank contributed to ‘the destruction of the Norwegian monetary system, which the first generation after 1814 had made tremendous sacrifices to establish and which had been in pristine order for 62 years’. By suspending the banks’ obligation to redeem banknotes for gold, and then issuing massive amounts of notes, in addition to the financing of and integration into government activities, Norges Bank’s monetary policy has been largely held responsible for the sharp rise in inflation and krone depreciation—and by implication for the strongly criticized parity policy of the 1920s. As a non-belligerent country, one would have thought that the mandate for Norges Bank’s activities would have remained more or less intact. The chapter explains why that did not come to be.
Occupation and Loss of Autonomy
Authors: Lie Einar
Published: May 2020

This chapter focuses on Norges Bank during the Second World War. The Second World War came to Norway on 9 April 1940, when German forces invaded the country. This was one of the darkest days in Norwegian history, but still one of the finest in Norges Bank’s history. In the chaotic morning hours, the large gold reserve was evacuated and, by a long journey in inland Norway and along the coast, finally brought to safety overseas. However, the rest of the war, and of the first pre-war years, brought less glory to Norges Bank. Already before the gold had departed Norway, a gradual inflation of the Norwegian monetary system had started because of the Germans’ requisitions of legal tender through the central bank. In the following years, large sums of Norwegian kroner were withdrawn from Norges Bank as a part of the financing of the occupational force’s activities in Norway. This created a large liquidity surplus, which made monetary policy more or less inefficient, until the surplus was finally eliminated around 1950.
The Foreign Currency Exchange Rate Policy Up Until 1986
Authors: Lie Einar
Published: May 2020

This chapter studies how Norges Bank came to play a central, technical role in maintaining and defending a stable krone exchange rate during the years 1946–86. This role was reflected in how the bank advised on the basis of a loyal position to the fixed krone exchange rate regime and to binding international exchange rate cooperation. In 1978, Norway backed out of the European fixed exchange rate cooperation, and during 1976–86, the krone was devalued ten times. Even though Norges Bank officially came to contribute to both recommending and carrying out this policy, the policy defied the strong ideals and viewpoints of the organization. The exchange rate policy, and the problems it led to in relation to the central bank, caused the government, in the first half of the 1980s, to push Norges Bank completely aside when it came to the shaping of Norwegian exchange rate policy. Nevertheless, much of the policy was still shaped inside the walls of the institution.
In Search of an Anchor
Authors: Lie Einar
Published: May 2020

This chapter details how, in 1993, Norges Bank argued in favour of supplementing the fixed exchange rate target, and in 1997 in favour of replacing it with an inflation target, with a view to maintaining inflation at a low and stable level. The introduction of an inflation target provided Norges Bank with greater scope for the exercise of independent judgement. Controversial increases in the policy rate in 2000 and 2002 demonstrated that Norges Bank was willing to use its increased independence. Moreover, amendments to the Norges Bank Act in 2003 weakened the scope of action available to the government and parliament to influence the bank’s decisions, and the Executive Board largely became a council of economic experts. In addition, Norway’s slightly inefficient central bank organization underwent major changes, with extensive outsourcing of non-core tasks, as defined by the new guidelines.
Marvell
Authors: Allsopp Niall
Published: May 2020

Chapter 2 revisits the question of Marvell’s place in the Engagement controversy, to map his ambivalent use of arguments from sovereignty. It contextualizes the mode of cavaliering activism celebrated in several of Marvell’s poems within contemporary republican and Engager challenges to the royalist doctrine of passive obedience. This includes a rapprochement with, and appropriation of, Davenant. This context provides the basis for, first, a new reading of Marvell’s ‘Horatian Ode’ in comparison with the Engagers Marchamont Nedham and Anthony Ascham; and, second, a survey of Marvell’s poetic engagements with Davenant, and their political implications, in the 1650s poems ‘Tom May’s Death’, ‘Upon Appleton House’, and ‘Music’s Empire’. Marvell’s habitual emphasis on modest and participatory government is strategically suspended when he uses defactoist and absolutist arguments to magnify the personal authority of Oliver Cromwell.
Conclusion
Authors: Allsopp Niall
Published: May 2020

The Conclusion briefly narrates the decline of the model for political poetry explored in this book, with the deaths of Davenant and Cowley, Charles II’s short-lived experiment with prerogative toleration in 1672, and the political divergence of Dryden and Marvell. It then draws together the forms of sovereignty explored in this book. First, it reflects on the case for reading the poets’ views as secularizing, to the limited extent that they emphasize anti-clerical erastianism. And second, it considers the flexible yet absolute form of artificial sovereignty imagined through poetic imagination.
‘Peacocks in the Rain’
Authors: Amunugama Sarath
Published: May 2020

This chapter relates the first involvement of the American theosophists with the Buddhist revival in Sri Lanka and subsequent developments. The theosophists, having become aware of the Buddhist revival in Sri Lanka, had come there. Col Olcott and his co-theosophists were enthusiastically received and the Buddhist Theosophical Society was formed. Funds were established to finance various Buddhist causes: Buddhist schools were established; a Buddhist press was started; and a Sinhalese newspaper was inaugurated. One important event that occurred around this time was the attack on a Buddhist procession by the Catholics in Kotahena. In the aftermath, as an outcome of the offenders not being prosecuted by the colonial authorities, the Sri Lankan Buddhists took various measures: representations were made to the Colonial Office in London; a Buddhist flag was devised; and an agitation for a new legislation to prevent abuse of Buddhist temporalities was started. One outcome of this was Dharmapala’s falling out with the theosophists and the formation of the Mahabodhi Society.
A Sinhala Buddhist ‘Babu’
Authors: Amunugama Sarath
Published: May 2020

This chapter is primarily a recounting of Dharmapala’s early work in India supported by prominent personalities of the nationalist Bengali elite—the Bhadralok. He forged close personal links with these personalities. He was also able to win some support from the press in Bengal. This chapter presents a brief account of the early phase of the Indian national movement centred on Bengal. This is around the time when Dharmapala’s disagreements with the theosophists begin. In the next phase of Dharmapala’a activities, castigating the British colonial administration and Christian missionary activities in Sri Lanka as well as the slavish mentalities of his own compatriots become prominent.