bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Towns, Industry, and Local Trade
Authors: Britnell Richard
Published: November 2023

For anyone accompanying Edward I northwards to Galloway in the summer of 1300, Britain was a showcase of different types of town and different degrees of regional urbanization. From Britain’s largest city, and the commercially vigorous south-east, a traveller passed through the small towns and village markets of provincial England and the Scottish burghs, into tracts of the Scottish mainland and the western isles that remained as remote from urban experience as any part of Europe, having few institutions of any kind to encourage formal trade. The route passed through regionial centres, small towns, and mere villages with markets, and the traveller would observe a continuum in size and institutional complexity from the largest down to the smallest. Very few of these centres of trade would have more than 2,000–3,000 inhabitants, and most would have fewer than 1,000. Britain had many small focal points of market demand but very few large ones.
Britain and Ireland in the Early Sixteenth Century
Authors: Britnell Richard
Published: November 2023

In the early sixteenth century, as we saw in Chapter 4, the population of Britain and Ireland was still much lower than it had been at its peak around 1300. There is no reason to suppose that England’s population was any higher in the years 1522–4 than it had been in the later eleventh century; the available estimates, of 1.8–2.3 million, are well within the margin of error for the precarious estimates derived from Domesday Book. There is less basis for assessing how far the populations of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland diverged from their eleventh-century levels. Wales is estimated to have had about 250,000 inhabitants, and Scotland probably had at most 700,000 (many fewer, if the estimate of 250,000 for the fifteenth century is to be believed), implying a total of perhaps only 2.75–3.25 million for Britain as a whole. Ireland’s population was perhaps less than a million.
Legal Change, 1140-1300
Authors: Reynolds Susan
Published: November 2023

There can be no doubt that the twelfth and thirteenth centuries began to bring important changes to the ideas and practices of law. The strengthening of government began to transform the law by emphasizing one source of its authority and enforcement among others. More and more crimes came to incur formal punishments, inflicted by the authority of the ruler, instead of being left to mutual negotiation by feud and wergeld. Although in practice the maintenance of law and order still depended in large measure on collective self policing, it was now the king’s (or sometimes the count’s or duke’s) peace which the law-breaker broke.
Villages and Rural Neighbourhoods
Authors: Reynolds Susan
Published: November 2023

Medieval historians talk a good deal about ‘the village community’ but the concept is one which needs some examination before the manifold evidence of collective activity in the thirteenth-century countryside can be evaluated. To start with, we need to consider how much of the rural population lived in villages rather than in more scattered settlements, and in particular, how many of them lived in the typical medieval village of the textbooks: a firmly nucleated settlement with its own church and single manor-house in the middle, and its open fields and common pastures spread round about.
Provinces and Lordships
Authors: Reynolds Susan
Published: November 2023

This chapter is concerned with the collective aspect of units of government or lordship, whether royal, seigniorial, or acephalous, which occupied the intermediate ground of status and geographical extent between the local communities of chapters 5 and 6 and the kingdoms of chapter 8. They form a large and amorphous subject which will be surveyed even more briefly than the smaller local communities. If any justification for that is needed, beyond the sheer difficulty of covering so many sorts of collectivity, then the best one may be that communities of this kind encompassed less of their members’ lives. They were communities primarily of judgement, government, and sometimes warfare, whose participants interacted with each other less often and in fewer ways than did peasants who lived in the same village and had to cooperate in its fields, or townspeople who tried to regulate their own economy and met regularly in the market-place and town hall.
The Community of the Realm
Authors: Reynolds Susan
Published: November 2023

The preceding chapters have argued that medieval ideas of custom and law facilitated collective action so that communities of all sorts and sizes were being easily and unselfconsciously formed, altered, and indeed superseded by each other, all through the period covered by this book. The highest, most honourable, and most perfect of all secular communities was the kingdom. Although at every date there were some kingdoms which looked less united than some smaller units of government, kingdoms as such nevertheless seem to have been normally perceived as the ideal type of political unit, just as kings were perceived as the ideal type of ruler. A kingdom was never thought of merely as the territory which happened to be ruled by a king. It comprised and corresponded to a ‘people’ (gens, natio, populus), which was assumed to be a natural, inherited community of tradition, custom, law, and descent. So much was this taken for granted that learned writers seldom argued about it directly when they discussed political subjects: they merely made remarks which suggest that it was an unreasoned premise of their political arguments.
Social groups and cultural practices
Authors: Dewald Jonathan
Published: November 2023

‘One faith, one king, one law’: the lawyers’ proverb circulated widely in sixteenth-century France and expressed important aspirations. Men and women wanted to see their society as a community, bound together by a common history and shared loyalty to their kings. They understood themselves to differ from other Europeans, to whom they attached cliched ideas of national character. Yet they knew also that they spent only part of their lives in a national culture. Much more of their time passed within smaller groupings, which they defined according to a series of overlapping criteria, distinguishing urbanite from peasant, noble from commoner, learned from ignorant, rich from poor, male from female. Within each of these categories, geography created further divisions. Residents of each region of France saw themselves as profoundly different from outsiders, whatever their apparent similarities of social position. They might even speak different languages.
Introduction: Europe since 1945
Authors: Fulbrook Mary
Published: November 2023

In the early summer of 1945 the centre of Berlin was in ruins. Around Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse, one of the overground S-Bahn stations dose to Berlin’s central avenue Unter den Linden, women worked in human chains, handing rubble from one to the next to dear the bombed-out buildings. Like others all across the city, clearing the ruins and trying to reconstruct a semblance of normal life, these women and their children also spent much of their time bartering on the black market to sustain some form of physical existence. Many had to sleep in cellars and ruins, and, although no longer woken nightly by bombing raids, often lay awake with worry about the return of maimed and wounded menfolk from prisoner-of-war camps, or agonized about the possible fate of those from whom they had had no word. Filled with a combination of self-pity and exhaustion in the struggle for survival, the majority of them gave little, if any, thought to the fates of the millions who had been murdered by the Nazi policies of expansion, conquest, and genocide.
Conclusion
Authors: Fulbrook Mary
Published: November 2023

The year 2000 (like the accompanying millennium celebrations) is but a figment of an artificially imposed convention for counting the passage of time. Unlike 1945 or 1989–90, it is not a key turning-point in European history. But, given the human propensity to impose periods on history, the close of the twentieth century–and with it the close of two millennia of our dating system, inspired by European Christianity but now an intellectual convention accepted across faiths, across civilizations, and indeed across the globe–is a point at which to register and take stock of the wider course of historical change.
Rural economy and society
Authors: Bouchard Constance B
Published: November 2023

An appreciation of the French rural society of this period requires a discussion of both aristocrats and peasants, both of whom under went major transformations in position and status during the eleventh and twelfth centuries-changes that were linked. In addition, monasteries were very much part of the society and economy of the countryside at the time, serving as landlords and, especially in the case of houses of Cistercian monks, as innovators in the economic sphere. The current scholarly understanding of these topics has been developed in a series of regional monographs over the last generation or two. Curiously, most of these monographs concluded that their particular region was somehow ‘different ‘ from the rest of France. In fact, the various regions (at least those north of the Mediterranean and even the Mediterranean basin is now understood to be less different than once thought) have all turned out to be remarkably similar. Older paradigms and timetables have had to be modified, but the consensus now emerging is of a highly dynamic period of economic growth and social opportunity.
Aquinas
Authors: Finnis John
Published: November 2023

Founders of Modern Political and Social Thought Series Editor: Dr Mark Philp, Oriel College, University of Oxford Founders of Modern Political and Social Thought present critical examinations of the work of major political philosophers and social theorists, assessing both their initial contribution and continuing relevance to politics and society. Each volume provides a clear, accessible, historically-informed account of each thinker's work, focusing on a re-assessment of their central ideas and arguments. Founders encourage scholars and students to link their study of classic texts to current debates in political philosophy and social theory. This launch volume in the Founders of Modern Political and Social Thought series presents a critical examination of Aquinas' thought, combining an accessible, historically-informed account of his work with a re-assessment of his central ideas and arguments. John Finnis presents a richly-documented review of Aquinas's ideas on morality, politics, law, and method in social science, using the philosopher's own long-neglected distinctions between types of order and types of theory. Unique in his coverage of Aquinas' primary and secondary texts and his own vigorous argumentation on many themes, the author focuses on the Aquinas' philosophy while also demonstrating how this interconnects with the theological elements. In his fresh, far-reaching re-reading of Aquinas, John Finnis argues out such questions as: Is egoism rational? Why is Aristotle's paternalism wrong? Has sexual morality any reasonable principle? What's wrong with lying and usury? Why are democracy and the rule of law aspects of the best polity? Drawing on over 60 of Aquinas's works, the author shows how, despite some medieval limitations, Aquinas makes profound, powerful contributions to present debates.
Other Sonatas
Authors: Rowland-Jones Anthony
Published: November 2023

The purpose of considering ten further recorder sonatas, inevitably superficially, is twofold. First, these sonatas are drawn from different periods, countries, and styles, thereby providing an opportunity to refer more generally to the range of accompanied solo sonatas and some other related music for the recorder in each period. Secondly, some of the ten sonatas chosen raise interesting points of interpretation and technique that are not fully exemplified by the sonatas considered in Chs. 2-7. The sonatas in this chapter are presented in roughly chronological order.
How Music Matters: Poetic Content Revisited
Authors: Burnham Scott
Published: November 2023

The idea that music is graced with poetic content is as old as the mythical history of music itself. Orpheus, after all, was the ultimate poet, and it was not simply the words he sang, but rather his musical skills as singer and player that could move even the inorganic world to sympathy. The choruses of ancient Greek drama brought music, words, and dance together (or, rather, chose not to separate them) in order to represent something like the concerted mores of contemporaneous society when faced with the action on the stage. But if the Greeks thus felt that music, in conjunction with poetry, communed with and about nature, as well as human nature, it is only at the outset of the nineteenth century, the threshold of our modern aesthetic values, that artists and thinkers began to seek in instrumental music itself something higher than poetry, something to which poetry might now aspire.
The Importance of Good Diction
Authors: Hemsley Thomas
Published: November 2023

Music and poetry, have ever been acknowledged Sisters, which walking hand in hand, support each other: As poetry is the harmony of words, so music is that of notes: and as poetry is a rise above prose and oratory, so is Music the exaltation of poetry. Both of them may excel a part, but sure they are most excellent when they are joind; because nothing is then wanting to either of their perfections: for thus they appear like wit & beauty in the same person. (Dryden) A Master that disregards Recitative, probably does not understand Words, and then how can he ever instruct a Scholar in Expression, which is the Soul of vocal Performance, and without which it is impossible to sing well? (Tosi)
Breath
Authors: Hemsley Thomas
Published: November 2023

It is essential, of course, for the singer ‘s breathing apparatus to be in good working order. It is necessary, particularly at a time when bad postural and breathing habits are so widespread, to have exercises at our disposal which can help to ensure that this is so; but it is also important to realize that the sort of breathing designed specifically for exercising and developing the breathing apparatus is not the same as that needed for singing. There are many ways of breathing, appropriate to different human activities; and it is important that the breathing should adjust spontaneously to the activity in question. In ordinary quiet respiration, which can be observed in, say, a sleeping child, the breathing is predominantly what is called ‘abdominal ‘ (although of course it is nothing of the sort-the term ‘abdominal breathing ‘ indicates diaphragm breathing with minimal expansion of the ribs), whereas in vigorous, voluntary activities, such as singing, public speaking, athletic pursuits, or in a howling infant, intercostal and clavicular breathing also come into play. That means expanding and raising the chest.
Betsy Jolas Monami (female/child)
Authors: Jolas Betsy
Published: November 2023

An intriguing and wistfully charming one-woman showpiece, from this distinguished French composer, who spent some of her early life in the USA and whose work combines intellectual rigour with musical sensitivity. To sing and play at the same time is not at all easy, as singing teachers and others will know. The composer Michael Head regularly gave one-man recitals of his own songs, and many of today’s singers are good pianists well able to accompany themselves informally. However, I recall only one other example of a ‘modernist’ work to be played and sung by the same person: a piece by the American composer Roger Reynolds, ‘Sketch Book’, in which, fortunately for myself, the piano part was not too arduous, consisting of gentle chords in between more florid vocal lines. The emphasis was on the voice part; here the roles are reversed.
Beside the Depths of A River
Authors: Avni Tzvi
Published: November 2023

I first came across the work of the distinguished Israeli composer Tzvi Avni in the seventies, when I had the opportunity of singing his delightful piece for voice and clarinet ‘Leda and the Swan’. It featured many of the special effects associated with post-sixties’ experimentalism: chords on the clarinet, extremes of register, aleatoric sections, and so on. This song cycle is somewhat less radical in style, and easily accessible to all performers, and as expected, the composer’s excellent ear is evident. The voice part is rewardingly comfortable and there is nothing of great technical or musical difficulty.
Five Songs for Children
Authors: Farrell Eibhlis
Published: November 2023

Thanks to the work of the excellent Contemporary Music Centre in Dublin, music from Ireland is now much easier to obtain. This is a delightful discovery from one of the younger generation of Irish composers, a set of miniatures with a direct appeal to performer and audience, immensely practicable yet by no means simplistic. It will make a charming effect in a recital.
Six Songs
Authors: N0rgard Per
Published: November 2023

These brief but charming songs by the leading Danish composer of today are examples of modern Lieder stemming from the German tradition, yet with echoes of Grieg. The delicacy and precise detail recall Wolf’s vocal writing in particular and the accompaniments are especially well integrated. Trickier than they might at first appear, they are well suited to a young singer with a light flexible voice and tone neatly placed. The idiom is fresh and clear and the voice flows naturally in gently articulated rhythmic fragments: staccato is used frequently in the first three songs and so there is every chance for the singer to perfect the art of placing each note precisely and lifting it without taking unnecessary breaths.
Three Japanese Lyrics
Authors: O’Leary Martin
Published: November 2023

Ireland has produced so many of the world’s great literary figures that other aspects of her rich cultural life have perhaps tended to be overlooked. Thanks to the excellent work of the Contemporary Music Centre in Dublin, information and material on Irish composers is now readily available. It is all immaculately presented and co-ordinated, performing a most valuable service to all concerned, especially to performers seeking fresh repertoire. Formerly, just a few leading figures had attained international recognition, but this sterling project reveals a wide variety of gifted composers. As would be expected, a sensitivity to language, atmosphere, and imagery is a common feature, and singers and teachers are exhorted to investigate further.
Five Songs
Authors: Seeger Ruth Crawford
Published: November 2023

The importance and exceptional quality of the work of the American pioneer composer Ruth Crawford Seeger is at last beginning to be recognized after years of neglect. These fine settings of poems by Sandburg, who was a personal friend of hers, have recently become available in a new printed edition prepared from material in the Library of Congress. The songs were not originally conceived as a cycle, but were performed in this order at their premiere. There is a shortage of true contralto repertoire, and these songs are especially welcome. They exploit the deep range particularly well.
Epigrams
Authors: Archer Violet
Published: November 2023

One of Canada’s most distinguished and prolific senior figures, Violet Archer has written a good quantity of solo songs. Her music is not as widely known as it should be, and this short and extremely witty cycle is a gift for a performer: a most delightful addition to the male voice repertoire of lighthearted fare so often needed for recitals. A great deal of musical skill and variety is contained within its brief length, and the stylistic idiom is immediately attractive. Texts are taken from The Pocket Book of Humorous Verse by David McCord. The composer displays a fondness for bitonality and ‘wrong-note’ harmony, always used skilfully and to the point, never sounding ugly.
Altra Risposta
Authors: Kruse Bj ørn
Published: November 2023

A vibrant and haunting one-movement dramatic scena which exploits the natural glowing colours of the female voice, this is an especially happy discovery, and thoroughly deserves to be taken up by young performers. Bj0rn Kruse, one of the middle generation of Norwegian composers (he was actually born in England), is extraordinarily versatile, with first-hand experience of jazz and popular music, and the widest possible range of musical sympathies. His awareness of practicalities and of the desirability of performer-satisfaction is always evident, and there is meticulous attention to detail, informed by innate musicianship, in an attractively presented score.
A Little Snow
Authors: Marsh Roger
Published: November 2023

This magical little piece is sure to appeal at all levels. It has a delicate quality that is truly fascinating, even on a first read-through. Roger Marsh has written a number of vocal pieces, and, though his work shows the strong influence of Berio and his followers, the special lightness of touch is all his own. The combination of unpretentious musicality and a permanently youthful freshness is very winning. The music is presented in a clear, uncluttered way, immediately attractive to the eye.
Our Lady’s Hours
Authors: Milner Anthony
Published: November 2023

The choice of texts for this beautifully conceived cycle by a major, yet unaccountably neglected, composer, proclaim the deep religous faith which pervades all his works, and contributes so strongly to their conviction and integrity. Stylistically the songs are assured and vigorous, with shades of neo-classicism combined with English Romanticism. The appearance of the score is conventional, especially in its notation, with traditional key and time signatures, but the personality of the composer comes through strikingly and the music is by no means simple with its wide-ranging lines often highly decorated.
Love Songs
Authors: Singer Malcolm
Published: November 2023

Malcolm Singer is a composer whose works always give pleasure to performers and audience alike. Clearly imagined, precise, and beautifully wrought, they linger in the memory as models of unpretentious style and charm. He belongs to no particular movement but has often employed the techniques of minimalism with ingenuity and wit, to delightful and innately musical effect. The material is always meticulously organized and presented. The musical idiom is fresh, uncluttered, and accessible, yet not at all derivative.
Pines Songs
Authors: Asia Daniel
Published: November 2023

I first came across these magnificent and strongly individual songs in a version with chamber ensemble, but the richness and colour of the harmonic and textural detail is equally well suited to the medium of voice and piano. They are warmly recommended to singers and pianists of some proficiency, who are seeking something strikingly different for their repertoire. The five settings can be sung as a complete cycle or performed separately. Each is satisfying in its own right; the composer, however, states that the final number ‘I walk out to the end’ should not appear alone.
Two Sonnets of Sir Philip Sidney
Authors: Haladyna Jeremy
Published: November 2023

This powerful cycle shows his dramatic flair, sense of colour, and musical vitality. The musical idiom, though modernist and atonal, skilfully incorporates a taste of Olde England in response to the historical setting of the poems. Subtle references to the music and dance of Elizabethan times are most deftly worked into the writing, yet the general effect is not obviously English, but rather an intriguing fusion of New and Old Worlds that is strongly individual.
Dives and Lazarus
Authors: King Matthew
Published: November 2023

Here is a most impressive and original short cantata by a gifted and exceptionally versatile composer whose work I have known well since his student days. His Christian faith is the consistent focus of his musical vision. As a fine keyboard-player he has created a most fascinating part for the pianist, in which he acknowledges a homage to Elizabethan models such as Byrd. The vocal gestures are intended to evoke the lute songs of Dowland and his contemporaries. It is a tribute to this composer’s skill that he brings off this considerable feat of technique and imagination in combining these styles in updated form, yet retaining his individuality.
Three Sonnets to Orpheus
Authors: Ward David
Published: November 2023

A welcome new cycle from this composer, who is now resident in Shetland, and continues to write steadily. Frequently influenced by High German Romanticism, he has produced several carefully crafted vocal chamber works, including some for music theatre. A small output of high quality pieces reveals a strong and individual voice, rigorous in finely honed detail, and uncompromisingly committed to his own high standards, irrespective of popularity. He does admit, however, to adapting his vocal style to suit the language, and his settings of English texts, which clearly reflect his heritage and present environment, are palpably different from these Rilke songs.
Third-level Dominants—and beyond
Authors: Pratt George
Published: November 2023

The driving force of dominants reaches beyond V (7)( → I) and ii(7)/II(7)(→ V). The submediant, vi/VI, similarly has a dominant thrust towards the chord a perfect fifth below or fourth above, namely the supertonic. As V is the dominant, and ii/I is the dominant’s dominant, so vi/VI is the dominant of the dominant’s dominant—the third-level dominant.

Once again, the addition of a seventh increases the thrust still more.

Again, too, the major version of the chord has more forward drive than the minor because the third becomes a temporary leading note; it has a powerful gravitational pull towards the supertonic.
Further Exploration
Authors: Pratt George
Published: November 2023

The previous chapters have been designed to develop various skills and clarify various concepts. Your ability to read silently, to conceptualise the sounds implied by the symbols, should be greater, though you should not expect to pick up a score and read it fluently and up to speed unless you have an aural imagination granted to few.

Part of this skill will stem from an awareness of what is most likely to be happening in the music you read. Indeed, a familiarity with the style of both a period of music and a particular composer within it helps this reading ability enormously: as with reading prose, the less each letter, each word, needs to be consciously absorbed, assessed and interpreted, the more will speed and fluency increase.
Thyroid overactivity caused by Graves’ disease
Authors: Vanderpump Mark P J , Tunbridge W Michael G
Published: November 2023

Overactivity of the thyroid gland, also known as hyperthyroidism or thyrotoxicosis, is a disease in which increased amounts of thyroid hormones are present in the bloodstream. Usually the levels of both thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) are increased above normal; however, in some people with thyroid overactivity only the T3 level is raised but the symptoms and the findings are just the same in this so-called T3-toxicosis as when both T4 and T3 levels are raised.
Thyroid problems during and after pregnancy
Authors: Vanderpump Mark P J , Tunbridge W Michael G
Published: November 2023

Changes in the thyroid gland and in thyroid hormone secretion occur during pregnancy in parallel with the other major hormone adjustments that occur at this time. In a normal thyroid gland these changes are of no clinical importance, although family doctors and obstetricians will be aware that the levels of thyroid hormones and of the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) change during pregnancy.
Miscellaneous disorders of the thyroid gland
Authors: Vanderpump Mark P J , Tunbridge W Michael G
Published: November 2023

A number of miscellaneous disorders of the thyroid gland, not adequately dealt with elsewhere in this book or in need of further consideration, are discussed in this chapter. Although the relationship between the pituitary gland, its secretion of thyroidstimulating hormone (TSH), and the thyroid gland has been discussed in Chapter 1, little mention has been made of the thyroid disorders that may develop as a consequence of pituitary disease.
Other diseases associated with thyroid disorders
Authors: Vanderpump Mark P J , Tunbridge W Michael G
Published: November 2023

Certain people and certain families are more prone to autoimmune diseases than others, hence other autoimmune diseases are associated with thyroid autoimmune disorders. For example, if a person develops Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, they may find that their grandmother had Graves’ hyperthyroidism. In other words, two different types of autoimmune thyroid disease are occurring in the same family but skipping a generation, as often happens. Autoimmune thyroid diseases certainly run in families, as do other autoimmune diseases, although not all members of a family are so affected. There are several other autoimmune diseases that may rarely occur in the person or a relative of a person with autoimmune thyroid disease.
Early Years: Education
Authors: Toomer G J
Published: November 2023

John Selden was born on 16 December 1584 at a cottage named ‘Lacies’ in Salvington, a hamlet in the parish of West Tarring, Sussex, and baptized in the parish church four days later. He was the eldest child and only surviving son of John Selden and his wife Margaret, née Baker. His father was a ‘yeoman’, i.e. a small landed property owner. His mother, however, came from a higher class: she was the only child and heir of Thomas Baker Esq. of nearby Rustington, who was supposed to be related to the well-known Baker family of Sissinghurst, Kent.
Early Works
Authors: Toomer G J
Published: November 2023

Before examining in detail the earliest works written by Selden (up to and including Illustrations to Poly-Olbion of 1612), I offer two general observations. First, from the very beginning of his public appearance as an author, he carefully documented the authorities for almost every statement of fact, either in the text or more usually in the margin. While many earlier examples of such elaborate citation are known, it was very far from being standard scholarly practice at the time. On the other hand, the references given by Selden are not necessarily the places whence he first derived his information.
Writings on English Legal History
Authors: Toomer G J
Published: November 2023

When we reflect that most of Selden’s scholarly work was connected with law (this is true, for instance, of all of his publications on Jewish topics), it is remarkable how few, and how slight, were those essays of his specific- ally on the history of English law. There is of course a great deal relevant to that topic in many other works of his, especially Titles of Honor, Historie of Tithes, Eadmer, and Mare Clausum, which reveal an expertise unrivalled in his own time and perhaps never surpassed; but only two of his published works, Fortescue and Dissertatio ad Fletam, are directly con- cerned with English law. To these we may add two slight treatises pub- lished only after his death, Original of Testaments and Intestates Goods.
The Historie of Tithes
Authors: Toomer G J
Published: November 2023

Just as De Diis Syris introduced Selden’s name to the Republic of Letters, so his next work made him known in England outside the literary and legal circles in London to which his fame had hitherto been confined. The circumstances of its publication, and the events which followed, made it a turning point in his life. In contrast to De Diis Syris, which has long been completely obsolete, Historie of Tithes has never been replaced as a comprehensive treatment of its topic. Since it was a book which occasioned great controversy, some account of the background to that controversy is necessary.
Introduction
Authors: Gibson Andrew
Published: November 2023

The discovery of the square root of two is a capital event. The accumulation of plague-stricken corpses in the streets of Athens is not. According to Alain Badiou, this is the Platonic view. Badiou thinks Plato was right. For a mathematical discovery is testimony to the affirmative capacity of thought and, as such, of interest to the philosophical mind. The same can be conceded of Lucretius’ poetic response to the Athenian pestilence at the end of De Rerum Natura, for the same reason. But, though brute catastrophe may rightly concern the poet or scientist, or, if it is a political catastrophe, the political activist, it is of no concern to the philosopher.
The Break with Doxa: Murphy, Watt
Authors: Gibson Andrew
Published: November 2023

Badiou has recently called for an end to talk of the ‘end of representation’ (CR, 85) and shown interest in novelists whose work is comparatively representational (Melville, Conrad, Faulkner). His aesthetic position has none the less always been closely linked to radical abstraction in art. Not surprisingly, then, he has nothing to say about Murphy or Beckett’s early realism, or Beckett’s turn away from realism after Murphy. This is one of the more striking lacunae in his narrative of Beckett’s career. There are very good reasons, however, for not neglecting Murphy here.
The Emergence of Distinctive Features
Authors: Mielke Jeff
Published: November 2023

This book makes a fundamental contribution to phonology, linguistic typology, and the nature of the human language faculty. Distinctive features in phonology distinguish one meaningful sound from another. Since the mid-twentieth century they have been seen as a set characterizing all possible phonological distinctions and as an integral part of Universal Grammar, the innate language faculty underlying successive versions of Chomskyan generative theory. The usefulness of distinctive features in phonological analysis is uncontroversial, but the supposition that features are innate and universal rather than learned and language-specific has never, until now, been systematically tested. In his pioneering account Jeff Mielke presents the results of a crosslinguistic survey of natural classes of distinctive features covering almost six hundred of the world's languages drawn from a variety of different families. He shows that no theory is able to characterize more than 71 per cent of classes, and further that current theories, deployed either singly or collectively, do not predict the range of classes that occur and recur. He reveals the existence of apparently unnatural classes in many languages. Even without these findings, he argues, there are reasons to doubt whether distinctive features are innate: for example, distinctive features used in signed languages are different from those in spoken languages, even though deafness is generally not hereditary. The author explains the grouping of sounds into classes and concludes by offering a unified account of what previously have been considered to be natural and unnatural classes. The data on which the analysis is based are freely available in a program downloadable from the publisher's web site.
The First Decade: Credibility, Identity, and Institutional ‘Fuzziness’
Authors: Dyson Kenneth
Published: November 2023

The story of the first decade of the euro centres on the European Central Bank (ECB), a new European institution whose challenge was to establish the credibility of a new currency, the euro, in the unpropitious setting of a ‘weak‘, incoherent, and potentially indecisive European polity and of ‘strong’, opaque, and potentially volatile financial markets.
Germany: A Crisis of Leadership in the Euro Area
Authors: Dyson Kenneth
Published: November 2023

German elite and public opinion has continued to view the euro as a fundamentally political project: as an indispensable part of completing and making ‘irreversible’ European unification, not least around German leadership on the single market and economic stability. Despite the anxieties that it provoked, the euro was seen as securing vital, long-term national interests in a peaceful and prosperous Europe. The contentious issues in German debates about the euro were functional, spatial, and temporal. Functionally, the euro’s creation and operation had to be on terms that met fundamental, historically conditioned German concerns about firmly anchoring economic stability in Europe. This issue was delegated to the German Bundesbank, in which public opinion retained high confidence, and framed around the central Ordo liberal principles of price stability, central bank independence, and firm fiscal rules. Spatially, the euro had to comprise a ‘stability’ community of ‘convergent’ economies that shared core policy beliefs (especially in stability-oriented monetary and fiscal policies) and economic requirements (cyclically convergent). Finally, the launch of the euro had to take place at an ‘appropriate’ time in the integration project, at least in parallel with political union so that monetary union was also anchored in a ‘solidarity community’.
Ireland: The Outlier Inside
Authors: Hay Colin , Riihelinen Jari Matti , Smith, Nicola J , Watson Matthew
Published: November 2023

Ireland inhabits a unique position within the Euro Area. It is an outlier in almost every relevant respect, being the sole liberal market economy within the Euro Area, the most distant geographically of the Northern European members from the heart of the Euro Area, the most heavily dependent in terms of trade and investment on non-Euro Area economies (in particular the UK and the USA), and one of only three members that are not part of the continental land mass. Partly as a consequence, its business cycle (at least on entry) was not at all closely aligned with that of the core Euro Area economies, and, owing to its trade dependence on the Anglophone economies in particular, its economy was characterized by relatively low levels of intra-industry Euro-Area trade. On the face of it, it had less to gain from Euro-Area membership than other prospective participants in EMU. The relative size of the anticipated microeconomic advantages— principally, reduced transactions costs, more effective price signalling mechanisms and the elimination of exchange rate uncertainty with its Euro Area trading partners—was always likely to be less than for other member states. And, in macroeconomic terms, it arguably had much to lose— in adapting itself to a sub-optimal interest rate setting and to the loss of competitiveness in key export markets that might arise from an appreciating currency.
Baltic States: When Stability Culture is Not Enough1
Authors: Feldmann Magnus
Published: November 2023

In August 1991 the Baltic States re-emerged as independent after half a century. The reforms that lay ahead were daunting, as these three states had been fully integrated in the economic and political structures of the Soviet Union and had to build most of the institutions of an independent state from scratch. Many observers were sceptical about their prospects as independent states at the time. Within a few years most of these doubts had dissipated. In 2004 Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania joined both the EU and NATO, marking the culmination of their transformation and reintegration with the West.
Sweden: Stability without Europe1
Authors: Lindvall Johannes
Published: November 2023

For more than three decades, ever since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971–3, Sweden has faced a strategic political and economic choice: to align its economic policies with the European core—represented by the ‘Snake’ (1972–9), the European Monetary System (1979–99), and the Euro Area (1999 onwards)—or to develop its own macroeconomic policy regime. Sweden made brief attempts to participate in both the Snake (in 1973–7) and the EMS (as a de facto member in 1991–2, when the krona was unilaterally pegged to the ecu). However, on both occasions the country ended up in economic crisis after a few years, and politicians abandoned the ‘European’ strategy in favour of other arrangements: a trade-weighted exchange-rate index (1977–91) and a floating exchange rate (1992 onwards).
Banking and Financial Market Regulation and Supervision
Authors: Macartney Huw , Moran Michael
Published: November 2023

A similar chapter in the volume which is the ancestor of the present one (Moran 2002) identified three critical entanglements that shaped the politics of finance and banking in the transition to the euro. Our chapter investigates how far they continue to be critical in the age of the euro itself. The first entanglement concerns the governance of financial markets. Despite great national and regional variations, there is a consistent pattern to governance over the last quarter of the century, at least in the markets of the advanced capitalist world. On the one hand, there was a sustained crisis of the dominant institutions of prudential regulation and supervision, manifested in a continuing series of regulatory failures. The upshot of that crisis was the dismantling of dominant institutions of self-regulation, and their replacement by specialized regulatory agencies of a legal, or quasi-legal, character. On the other hand, this spread of public control over regulation was counterbalanced by a radical shift in the governance of central banking: by the rise of central bank independence, which largely meant the insulation of key decisions— notably control of short-term interest rates—from the influences of majoritarian democracy. This tendency was part of the wider rise of non-majoritarian institutions in economic government (Thatcher 2005; Thatcher and Coen 2005).
Content, Context, and Composition
Authors: Pagin Peter , Pelletier Francis Jeffry
Published: November 2023

It is traditional, at least since Grice, to make a distinction between what is called the literal meaning of an utterance and what is meant by that utterance. The former notion is sometimes thought of as “the dictionary meanings of words plus standard semantic effects of the syntactic rules” that were employed in the utterance. The latter notion is often thought of as the “all things considered” information that is conveyed by the utterance in the context it is used. The former is often said to be the “context independent meaning” or “the meaning that is constant across all contexts of use”. The latter is often called “what is conveyed in a context”. The former is sometimes called “the timeless meaning” or “the meaning-in-the-language” or ;“the meaning of the linguistic type of the utterance”. The latter is sometimes called “the meaning of the speech act being performed” or “the meaning of the token being uttered”.
A Little Sensitivity Goes a Long Way
Authors: Taylor Kenneth A
Published: November 2023

In Insensitive Semantics, Cappelen and Lepore do several things and they do them with great rhetorical flourish. They distinguish radical from moderate contextualism. They argue that moderate contextualism collapses into radical contextualism. But radical contextualism, they claim, is a crazy and inconsistent doctrine. On the positive side, they defend the combination of semantic minimalism and speech act pluralism. In my estimation, hardly any of it succeeds. They’ve shown neither that moderate contextualism collapses into radical contextualism nor that radical contextualism is inconsistent. Their defense of semantic minimalism is unsuccessful. What they call speech act pluralism is either old news or false. But truth is not the sole virtue and falsity not the sole vice. There are interesting ways of being mistaken and uninteresting ways of being right. Cappelen and Lepore have the virtue of being mistaken in quite interesting ways, ways that help us see what is really at stake in a sometimes difficult to untangle thicket of argument. So despite the fact that I mostly disagree with their premises, their conclusions, and their arguments, I find myself considerably provoked by their book.
Charles Darwin
Authors: Desmond Adrian , Moore James , Browne Janet
Published: November 2023

Definitive, concise, and very interesting. From William Shakespeare to Winston Churchill, the Very Interesting People series provides authoritative bite-sized biographies of Britain’s most fascinating historical figures—people whose influence and importance have stood the test of time. Each book in the series is based upon the biographical entry from the world-famous Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Upbringing and education
Authors: Desmond Adrian , Moore James , Browne Janet
Published: November 2023

naturalist, geologist, and originator of the theory of natural selection, was born on 12 February 1809 at The Mount, Shrewsbury, the fifth child and second son of Robert Waring Darwin (1766–1848), Shrewsbury’s principal physician, and Susannah Wedgwood (1765–1817). His sisters were Marianne, Caroline, Susan, and Emily Catherine, his brother Erasmus Alvey.
Early life and upbringing
Authors: Collinson Patrick
Published: November 2023

Elizabeth I (1533–1603), queen of England and Ireland, was born between 3 and 4 o’clock on the afternoon of Sunday 7 September 1533 at Greenwich Palace, Kent, the only child of Henry VIII (1491– 1547), king of England and Ireland, and his second wife, Anne (c.1500–1536), queen of England, the second of three children of Thomas Boleyn, earl of Wiltshire and earl of Ormond (1476/7–1539), courtier and nobleman, of Blickling, Norfolk, and his wife, Elizabeth ( d . 1538).
A man of science and invention
Authors: Downes Kerry
Published: November 2023

Architect, mathematician, and astronomer, was born at East Knoyle, Wiltshire, on 20 October 1632, the only surviving son of Christopher Wren DD (1589–1658), at that time rector of East Knoyle and later dean of Windsor, and his wife, Mary, the daughter of Richard Cox of Fonthill, Wiltshire. His paternal grandfather, Francis Wren (1553–1624), was a London mercer, but the family came from Durham and, they believed, origin- ally from Denmark. A previous child, born on 22 November 1631 and baptized Christopher, had died the same day; the antiquary John Aubrey’s confusion of the two persisted occasionally intolate twentieth-century literature.
The [ɚ] Suffix
Authors: Duanmu San
Published: November 2023

Historically, the [ɚ] suffix is related to the word [ɚ] ‘ son’ , which can also mean ‘ smallness’ . For this reason the suffix has been called the diminutive suffix. However, [ɚ] can also be added to adjectives (e.g. gao-gaor-de [kau-kaɚ-də] ‘ rather tall’ ) and some verbs (e.g. wanr [waɚ] ‘ to play’ ), which undergo the same merger process. Many Chinese dialects do not use it as much, and some (such as Shanghai) do not use it at all. Besides, the suffix does not always add a meaning of smallness, but is often a stylistic feature rather than a grammatical one. When people who are not from Beijing speak SC, they often do not use the [ɚ] suffix, which causes no problem in communication. The analysis of [ɚ]-coloured syllables is rather complicated and this chapter examines it in some detail.
Electoral Systems, Efficacy, and Voter Turnout1
Authors: Banducci Susan A , Karp Jeffrey A
Published: November 2023

One of the least disputed conclusions to emanate from the research on electoral systems and turnout is that countries with proportional representation (PR) have higher voter turnout. Some estimate that PR systems have a turnout advantage as high as 12 percent (Franklin 1996). There is, however, disagreement over the mechanisms by which PR produces higher turnout. Some believe that PR helps to foster higher turnout by increasing a citizen’s perception that his or her vote matters in an election.
The shoals of diplomacy, 1646–1647
Authors: Morrill John
Published: November 2023

As this campaign progressed Cromwell’s conviction that he was flghting God’s cause became ever clearer to him. After the taking of Bletchingdon House in Oxford shire in April 1645 he told his colleagues on the committee of both kingdoms that ‘this was the mercy of God … God brought them to our hands when we looked not for them’ (Letters and Speeches, 1904, letter 25, 9 April 1645). After Langport he was even more emphatic: ‘thus you can see what the Lord hath wrought for us. Can any creature ascribe anything to itself ? Now can we give all the glory to God!’ But he added that when the ‘mercy’ of Langport be added to the ‘mercy’ of Naseby, then, ‘is it not to see the face of God?’ (ibid., 3.246–7, July 1645).