bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effects of storage condition and domestic cooking on the quality and nutrient content of African leafy vegetables (Cassia tora and Corchorus tridens)
Authors: Prabhu Snehal , Barrett Diane M
Published: June 2009

BACKGROUND: The main objective of this research was to determine changes in nutrient content of two African leafy vegetables, Cassia tora and Corchorus tridens, on cooking and storage under different temperature conditions, i.e. room storage (20 °C), refrigerated storage (4 °C) and frozen storage (−18 °C).

RESULTS: The leafy vegetables were analysed for moisture, colour (Hunter L, a, b), texture, total chlorophyll, ascorbic acid, dehydroascorbic acid and total phenolics. Results indicated that the degradation of ascorbic acid was highest as a result of frozen storage, followed by room temperature storage. The dehydroascorbic acid content was correspondingly high in frozen stored leafy vegetables, whereas it was undetectable in the room temperature and refrigerated stored materials. The total phenolic content of the leaves increased with storage time while the total chlorophyll content decreased under all storage conditions. Domestic cooking resulted in significant additional losses of ascorbic acid following storage under all temperature conditions, with only 1–10% retention in the leaves and 50–60% retention in the cooking water. The green colour of the leafy vegetables was retained best under refrigerated and frozen storage, while the peak force and toughness of the leaves increased upon storage under all conditions. The moisture content of the leafy vegetables did not show any significant difference on storage.

CONCLUSION: This study is one of few to report nutrient content changes on the same raw material stored under various temperature conditions and cooked domestically. Refrigerated storage resulted in the highest retention of ascorbic acid and green colour in the leafy vegetables. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry
Nanocomposite polymer films containing carvacrol for antimicrobial active packaging
Authors: Persico Paola , Ambrogi Veronica , Carfagna Cosimo , Cerruti Pierfrancesco , Ferrocino Ilario , Mauriello Gianluigi
Published: May 2009

Nanocomposite films based on low‐density polyethylene (LDPE) containing carvacrol were prepared and characterized with the aim to get antimicrobial active packaging. Organo‐modified montmorillonite (MMT) was used as filler. The weak interaction between LDPE and clay led to the formation of intercalated systems. On the other hand, strong interaction between carvacrol and organosilicate allowed a good dispersion of the oil into the clay galleries, promoting the swelling of MMT stacks and a higher polymer/clay interface. As a result, carvacrol was protected against thermal degradation and its release from the films was efficiently delayed. Moreover, outstanding thermal oxidative stability as well as improved oxygen barrier properties were detected in the nanocomposite containing carvacrol. The presence of clay and carvacrol also increased LDPE crystallinity, due to an enhanced nucleation activity, while the mechanical properties of the films were slightly affected. The antimicrobial properties of carvacrol containing films were tested, showing a significant activity against several bacterial strains, which is preserved in presence of the clay. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2009. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers
Selectivity of allylic coagent‐mediated polypropylene maleation
Authors: Sengupta Saurav S. , Parent J. Scott , Chaudhary Bharat I.
Published: May 2009

The peroxide‐initiated cografting of maleic anhydride (MAn) and allylic coagents to polypropylene (PP) is described. Both triallyl trimesate (TAM) and triallyl phosphate (TAP) are shown to be compatible with MAn, as the presence of either coagent has no apparent effect on the yield or distribution of anhydride grafts within functionalized PP. Therefore, the influence of chain scission on the melt‐state rheological properties of maleated PP can be mitigated using coagent‐assisted crosslinking. The success of this cografting strategy for controlling melt viscosity is shown to depend on the extent that a bimodal, branched architecture can provide the rheological properties demanded by a given application. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2009. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers
Quantitative measurement of the polydispersity in the extent of functionalization of glass‐forming calix[4]resorcinarenes
Authors: Wallace W. E. , Flynn K. M. , Guttman C. M. , VanderHart D. L. , Prabhu V. M. , De Silva A. , Felix N. M. , Ober C. K.
Published: June 2009

The polydispersity in the degree of functionalization for two calix[4]resorcinarenes was determined by measuring quantitatively their molecular mass distribution with matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry. A mathematical method for polydisperse materials is described that creates a calibration curve to correct the ion signal intensities in the mass spectrum to give a more reliable molecular mass distribution. Correction is required due to various sample preparation and instrumental effects that may produce a systematic mass bias in the number of oligomers measured. This method employs gravimetric mixtures of analytes with different degrees of functionalization. One calix[4]resorcinarene was found to give accurate molecular mass distributions with little correction, while another, having a very similar molecular structure, was found to exhibit strong over‐counting of the oligomers having a high degree of functionalization. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Abrogation of E-Cadherin-Mediated Cell–Cell Contact in Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells Results in Reversible LIF-Independent Self-Renewal
Authors: Soncin Francesca , Mohamet Lisa , Eckardt Dominik , Ritson Sarah , Eastham Angela M. , Bobola Nicoletta , Russell Angela , Davies Steve , Kemler Rolf , Merry Catherine L.R. , Ward Christopher M.
Published: May 2009

We have previously demonstrated that differentiation of embryonic stem (ES) cells is associated with downregulation of cell surface E-cadherin. In this study, we assessed the function of E-cadherin in mouse ES cell pluripotency and differentiation. We show that inhibition of E-cadherin-mediated cell–cell contact in ES cells using gene knockout (Ecad−/−), RNA interference (EcadRNAi), or a transhomodimerization-inhibiting peptide (CHAVC) results in cellular proliferation and maintenance of an undifferentiated phenotype in fetal bovine serum-supplemented medium in the absence of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF). Re-expression of E-cadherin in Ecad−/−, EcadRNAi, and CHAVC-treated ES cells restores cellular dependence to LIF supplementation. Although reversal of the LIF-independent phenotype in Ecad−/− ES cells is dependent on the β-catenin binding domain of E-cadherin, we show that β-catenin null (βcat−/−) ES cells also remain undifferentiated in the absence of LIF. This suggests that LIF-independent self-renewal of Ecad−/− ES cells is unlikely to be via β-catenin signaling. Exposure of Ecad−/−, EcadRNAi, and CHAVC-treated ES cells to the activin receptor-like kinase inhibitor SB431542 led to differentiation of the cells, which could be prevented by re-expression of E-cadherin. To confirm the role of transforming growth factor β family signaling in the self-renewal of Ecad−/− ES cells, we show that these cells maintain an undifferentiated phenotype when cultured in serum-free medium supplemented with Activin A and Nodal, with fibroblast growth factor 2 required for cellular proliferation. We conclude that transhomodimerization of E-cadherin protein is required for LIF-dependent ES cell self-renewal and that multiple self-renewal signaling networks subsist in ES cells, with activity dependent upon the cellular context.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is found at the end of this article.
The relationship between nicotinic receptors and cognitive functioning in healthy aging: An in vivo positron emission tomography (PET) study with 2‐[18F]fluoro‐A‐85380
Authors: Ellis J.R. , Nathan P.J. , Villemagne V.L. , Mulligan R.S. , Ellis K.A. , Tochon‐Danguy H.J. , Chan J.G. , O'keefe G.J. , Bradley J. , Savage G. , Rowe C.C.
Published: May 2009

Extensive experimental and neuropathological evidence supports the general hypothesis that decline in the basal forebrain cholinergic system contributes significantly to age‐related cognitive impairment. Postmortem studies suggest reductions in neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs, particularly the α4β2subtype) with aging. This study aimed to determine the distribution of α4β2‐subtype nAChRs in vivo by 2‐FA PET in healthy subjects (aged 21–83) and to establish whether there is an age‐related decline in nAChRs. Furthermore, the relationship between PET measures of 2‐FA binding and neurobehavioral measures of cognitive function was investigated. All participants were nonsmokers and underwent extensive cognitive testing and a PET scan after injection of 2‐FA (200 MBq). Brain regional 2‐FA binding was assessed through a simplified estimation of distribution volume (DVS). As expected, increasing age was associated with poorer cognitive performance, particularly on tasks assessing episodic memory and attentional processes. No significant age‐related differences in regional nAChR DVSwere found. Furthermore, no significant correlations were found between cognitive measures and nAChR DVS. These results are consistent with recent studies suggesting the stability of cholinergic markers during senescence. It is plausible that changes in α4β2nAChRs do occur with advancing age, but are beyond detection by the clinical 2‐FA PET approach adopted here. However, this approach may be appropriate for use in pathologies considered to undergo extensive nAChR loss such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Synapse 63:752–763, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Serotonergic‐postsynaptic receptors modulate gripping‐induced immobility episodes in maletaieprats
Authors: Eguibar José R. , Cortés M.C. , Ita M.L.
Published: May 2009

TheTaieprat is a myelin mutant with a motor syndrome characterized by tremor, ataxia, immobility, epilepsy, and paralysis. The rat shows a hypomyelination followed by a progressive demyelination. During immobilitiestaieprats show a REM‐like sleep pattern and a disorganized sleep‐wake pattern suggestingtaieprats as a model of narcolepsy‐cataplexy. Our study analyzed the role of postsynaptic serotonin receptors in the expression of gripping‐induced immobility episodes (IEs) in 8‐month‐old maletaieprats. The specific postsynaptic serotonin agonist ±1‐(2,5‐dimethoxy‐4‐iodoamphetamine hydrochloride (±DOI) decreased the frequency of gripping‐induced IEs, but that was not the case with α‐methyl‐serotonin maleate (α‐methyl‐5HT), a nonspecific postsynaptic agonist. Although the serotonin antagonists, ketanserine and metergoline, produced a biphasic effect, first a decrease followed by an increase with higher doses, similar effects were obtained with a mean duration of gripping‐induced IEs. These findings correlate with the pharmacological observations in narcoleptic dogs and humans in which serotonin‐reuptake inhibitors improve cataplexy, particularly in long‐term treatment that could change the serotonin receptor levels. Polysomnographic recordings showed an increase in the awakening time and a decrease in the slow wave and rapid eye movement sleep concomitant with a decrease in immobilities after use of ±DOI, this being stronger with the highest dose. Taken together, our results show that postsynaptic serotonin receptors are involved in the modulation in gripping‐induced IEs caused by the changes in the organization of the sleep‐wake cycle intaieprats. It is possible that specific agonists, without side effects, could be a useful treatment in human narcoleptic patients. Synapse 63:737–744, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Fetal loss rate after chorionic villus sampling and amniocentesis: an 11‐year national registry study
Authors: Tabor A. , Vestergaard C. H. F. , Lidegaard Ø.
Published: June 2009

Objective

To assess the fetal loss rate following amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling (CVS).

Methods

This was a national registry‐based cohort study, including all singleton pregnant women who had an amniocentesis (n= 32 852) or CVS (n= 31 355) in Denmark between 1996 and 2006. Personal registration numbers of women having had an amniocentesis or a CVS were retrieved from the Danish Central Cytogenetic Registry, and cross‐linked with the National Registry of Patients to determine the outcome of each pregnancy. Postprocedural fetal loss rate was defined as miscarriage or intrauterine demise before 24 weeks of gestation.

Results

The miscarriage rates were 1.4% (95% CI, 1.3–1.5) after amniocentesis and 1.9% (95% CI, 1.7–2.0) after CVS. The postprocedural loss rate for both procedures did not change during the 11‐year study period, and was not correlated with maternal age. The number of procedures a department performed had a significant effect on the risk of miscarriage. In departments performing fewer than 500 amniocenteses, the odds ratio for fetal loss was 2.2 (95% CI, 1.6–3.1) when compared to departments performing more than 1500 procedures during the 11‐year period. For CVS the risk of miscarriage was 40% greater in departments performing 500–1000 and 1001–1500 as compared to those performing more than 1500 procedures.

Conclusions

The miscarriage rates (i.e. spontaneous loss and procedure‐related loss) after amniocentesis and CVS were 1.4% and 1.9%, respectively. This difference may be explained by the difference in gestational age at the time of the procedures. The miscarriage rate was inversely correlated with the number of procedures performed in a department. Copyright © 2009 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Analysing Turnout in European Elections: National Differences, The Peculiarity of the EU's System and the Abstention of Young People
Authors: Pini Sara
Published: May 2009

Since 1979 figures have shown an irregular yet overall decline in turnout in the European elections. In her article, Sara Pini analyses this phenomenon from the perspective both of the European Union and the various Member States individually. The author examines different factors which are believed to play a role in influencing citizens to vote or abstain. The level of information provided through communication and publicity by the national media make up crucial elements when it comes to mobilising the population, especially when it comes to young Europeans.
The histone methyltransferase, NSD2, enhances androgen receptor‐mediated transcription
Authors: Kang Hee-Bum , Choi Youngsok , Lee Jae Myun , Choi Kyung-Chul , Kim Han-Cheon , Yoo Jung-Yoon , Lee Yoo-Hyun , Yoon Ho-Geun
Published: May 2009

MINT‐7103733: P53 (uniprotkb:P04637) physically interacts (MI:0915) with alpha AR (uniprotkb:P10275) by two hybrid (MI:0018)
VI. Agricultural Trade Unionism and Emigration, 1872–1881
Authors: Horn Pamela
Published: June 2009

Unlike their fellows in a number of other industries, English farm labourers came relatively late to the idea of trade unionism. Admittedly, unsuccessful attempts at combination had been made by some few labourers from the 1830s onwards – and particularly during the later 1860s – but it was not until the years 1871–2 that appreciable numbers of them displayed real interest in the principles of trade unionism
IV. The Effect of the Second Reform Act in Lancashire
Authors: Vincent John
Published: June 2009

The remarkable gains made by the Conservatives in the general election of December 1868 in Lancashire have lately been widely recognized. Their extent may have suggested to some, either that there was a general movement of opinion in the area towards the Conservatives between the general election of 1865 and that of 1868, or that the newly enfranchised electors were more favourable to the Conservatives than the old constituency had been, or that some combination of the two elements was at work. It is the purpose of this article to ascertain what grounds exist for these explanations.
VIII. The National Democratic Party and the British Workers' League
Authors: Douglas Roy
Published: June 2009

The National Democratic Party (NDP) provides the most spectacular example of a ‘ mushroom ’ party in twentieth century British politics. It first fielded candidates in the 1918 general election, and ten of them were returned to parliament. Those of its M.P.s who defended their seats in 1922 all stood under different auspices; they were all defeated, and none of them was ever again elected. Yet in its short career the NDP and its predecessors underwent some very considerable changes in structure and purpose. Their origin must be sought in the widely different, and often confused, attitudes to the First World War which existed in the Labour party and the various Socialist groups.
The Political Ideas of Parnell
Authors: Lyons F. S. L.
Published: June 2009

‘It is not easy to describe the mental life of a man who is neither expansive nor introspective’. Thus wrote T. P. O'Connor, one of Parnell's earliest biographers. Historians have never ceased to echo his lament, and however much they may have differed in their interpretation of Parnell, they have generally agreed that, while no Irish leader of the nineteenth century has been so intensively studied, none remains so enigmatic and inaccessible.
IV. Sir Charles MacGregor and the Defence of India,1857–1887
Authors: Preston Adrian
Published: June 2009

If anyone could be claimed the father of the school for the scientific study of Indian defence policy it would undoubtedly be Sir Charles Metcalfe MacGregor. With the re-opening of the Central Asian Question in the early 1860s, it became MacGregor's mission in life completely to recast the Indian defence structure and it counter-insurrectionary role to enable it to undertake large-scale offensive operations against a major European military power. Almost single-handedly, he began to create the machinery within the Indian Army establishment—the special departments, professional institutes, journals and literature—to stimulate a greater awareness of the special and peculiar nature of Indian defence problems that this new role involved, and to encourage an iconoclastic re-examination of prevailing defence assumptions. From MacGregor's groundwork there was logically bound to arise a sense of Indian Army professionalism separate and distinct from that of Great Britain, and the beginnings of the belief that obligations of national defence are inseparable from nationhood. It was MacGregor who first appreciated on the basis of systematic and scientific study that India constituted a vast manpower reservoir, greater than that of Ireland and Egypt together, upon which Britain relied for the prosecution of her imperial, military and foreign policies in the East; that the North-West Frontier presented the only strategic boundary that Britain had to defend; and that the geo-strategic and demographic facts of her existence had made India potentially a great military power bound to adopt a ‵Continental′ military policy and defence structure in many respects parallel to those of the major European military powers.
VI. British Politics and Blackburn Politics, 1900–1910
Authors: Clarke P. F.
Published: June 2009

Four notable General Elections in the years 1900–10 helped to undermine faith in the great fixed stars by which Victorian statesmen had set their course. A great Liberal majority filled the House of Commons and was augmented by the representatives of organized labour; within the Conservative party the votaries of Tariff Reform imposed their new orthodoxy. We now know a good deal about the attitudes and actions of men at the heart of politics, and something about the electoral calculations upon which their hopes of achieving or maintaining power were based. But, as Dr Kitson Clark has reminded us, ′elections are won or lost in the constituencies, and in order to learn what happened in any given general election it has proved to be necessary to make a rather close local study of particular constituencies′.1 Modern scholarship has cast a clearer light upon the relations between Labour and the Liberals in these years, as upon the Unionist attitude towards Tariff Reform.2 One aim of this article is to seek to explore these two themes by reference to electoral developments in one English borough. The merits of a case study of Blackburn from this point of view will, I hope, become apparent. There is also a complementary objective. While the study of ‵court′ politics may become jejune unless the Blackburns are taken into consideration, it is equally true that a parochial account would leave much about Blackburn politics unexplained. It is necessary to explore the interactions between two political worlds, to compare great things with small.
Hobbes, Sandys, and the Virginia Company
Authors: Malcolm Noel
Published: June 2009

The early years of Thomas Hobbes are almost entirely sunk in obscurity. Biographers from George Croom Robertson (1886) to Miriam Reik (1977) have added little, for the period before 1628, to the scant information provided by Aubrey and the Latin Vitae. If to this we add the handful of details which have been gleaned by modern scholarship, the picture remains a bare one, and one that can be briefly summarized.
The King's Scottish Revenues and the Covenanters, 1625–1651
Authors: Stevenson David
Published: June 2009

The ordinary revenue of the kings of Scotland in the early seventeenth century was drawn from a wide variety of sources. The comptroller received the revenues known as ‘property’ - fixed revenues and rents from Crown lands, payments from royal burghs, customs duties and the impost of wines. Out of these he met the"expenses of the royal household. The treasurer was responsible .for meeting nearly all other official and royal expenses out of the ‘casualty’, which included feudal casualties (irregular payments such as wards and reliefs), escheats, compositions and other profits of justice. The collector general and the treasurer of the new augmentations received various revenues from former church property. Administration of these revenues was simplified in 1610 when the earl of Dunbar, already treasurer, was appointed in addition comptroller, collector general and treasurer of the new augmentations, thus bringing responsibility for all branches of the ordinary revenue into the hands of one man, though he continued usually to be referred to simply as the treasurer. This amalgamation of offices became permanent, though the four offices all continued to exist in name until 1707, and separate accounting for the different branches of revenue continued until 1636.
Oxford, Bolingbroke, and the Peace of Utrecht
Authors: Hill B. W.
Published: June 2009

The peace treaties concluded at Utrecht in March 1713, and the subsequent related treaties, were made memorable by the controversy which surrounded the British Ministry's part in forcing them through in defiance of the wishes of the Allies. Britain obtained considerable territorial and commercial concessions from France and Spain, together with general recognition of the Protestant succession in the House of Hanover. The Allies had less cause for satisfaction. The House of Habsburg, whose claim to the whole Spanish empire had been recognized by Britain since 1703, had to be content with the Southern Netherlands and a part of the former Spanish possessions in Italy. The United Provinces received a less favourable military barrier against France in the Nedierlands than they had been led to expect. From the point of view of the predominantly Tory Ministry, however, the most dangerous critic of the peace was the eleotor of Hanover, the future George I, who allied himself closely with the Whigs in their efforts to continue the War of the Spanish Succession until the throne of Spain was obtained for the Imperial House. The insistence of the Whigs that the Bourbon incumbent should give up the Spanish throne, compelled if necessary by Louis XIV, had caused the breakdown of negotiations in 1709–10, and, together with their injudicious impeachment of Henry Sacheverell, hastened their own dismissal by Queen Anne in June-September 1710 to make way for the more pacific Tories. The continued alliance of the House of Hanover with the Whigs after Anne's death in 1714 was to prolong the controversy concerning the peace; for one of the first actions of George I's Ministry, after their consolidation in parliament in the general election of 1715, was to impeach Oxford, Bolingbroke and others responsible for the Peace of Utrecht.
Anglo-German Negotiations Concerning the Future of the Portuguese Colonies, 1911–1914
Authors: Langhorne Richard
Published: June 2009

The negotiations between England and Germany over the future of the Portuguese Empire which were in progress between 1911 and 1914 have been given little attention by historians. Such as there is has usually taken the form of en passant remarks to the effect that the successful conclusion of an agreement was part of the evidence for something like an Anglo-German détente just before war broke out. Although the view that the episode does not rate full treatment is certainly correct, considerable importance was attached to the negotiations at the time, and their course does reveal some interesting features. There is useful evidence for discussing such problems as the views and influence of the permanent officials at the Foreign Office, the importance of imperial considerations in international politics at the time, and the attitudes of Sir Edward Grey and Mr ‘Lulu’ Harcourt (Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1910–15). The resolution of the divisions on the British side and the way in which the negotiations were handled has not before been put together from the available papers, and to do so gives an opportunity to reconsider what was the true significance of the episode in Anglo-German relations.
I. The Admiralty Circuit of 1591: Some Comments on the Relations between Central Government and Local Interests
Authors: Hill L. M.
Published: June 2009

When the judge of the High Court of Admiralty, Dr Julius Caesar, rode south from London to Lewes on 26 June 1591 1 an important experiment was initiated in the Admiralty court's continuing quest for greater respect and authority. The judge was setting out on a circuit of the troubled south and west coast of England in hopes of forcing the local authorities in those regions to submit to the supremacy of the High Court of Admiralty.2An examination of the prelude to the circuit and of the circuit itself, as well as an appraisal of its aftermath, will provide us with an instructive view of the tension between the local authorities and the central Government at the end of the sixteenth century. If there were a marked reduction in the quality of central government leadership at the end of Elizabeth's reign, one cause was perhaps the unsubdued strength of the provinces
coupled with the corruption of Crown officers who were beyond the effective control of Westminster.
More on Utopia
Authors: Bradshaw Brendan
Published: June 2009

J. H. Hexter's brilliant analysis of More's Utopia in the Introduction to the Yale edition of the text in 1965 was favoured by a resounding endorsement from Quentin Skinner in a no-less-brilliant analysis of the Yale edition in Past and Present in 1967. Given the status of both scholars as interpreters of the political thought of the early modern period, Skinner's prediction that Hexter's analysis would ‘cause a reorientation of [the] entire historiography’ of the subject was bound to be something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Skinner, in any case, clearly considers the claim to have been justified in the event. In his recent masterly study of the history of political thought in the early modern period his treatment of Utopia is especially-and avowedly-indebted to Hexter's work. Meanwhile, the most stimulating challenge presented to Hexter's thesis-by Dermot Fenlon in the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society in 1975-serves in its way to vindicate Skinner's prediction. Fenlon is concerned not to contradict Hexter's basic hypothesis but to stand it on its head. Fenlon's thesis in turn was assimilated into the survey literature when it was adapted by G. R. Elton to hammer Christian humanism in his Reform and Reformation in 1977.
The Development of Socialism in France: The Example of the Var
Authors: Judt Tony
Published: June 2009

During the first half of the French Third Republic, before 1914, certain regions of France established themselves as ‘red’, areas where the extreme left of the political spectrum could rely on strong and regular popular support. One of the outstanding features of this geographical ‘partition’ of French politics was the extent to which the ‘red’ areas were located in the countryside, notably in the departments of small peasant property in the south. Radicals, socialists and latterly communists have all benefited from this fact of French political life, consistently carrying at elections departments such as the Creuse, the Haute Vienne, the Allier, Gard, etc. Contemporaries and historians alike have observed this phenomenon with some surprise, and we are now witnessing a concerted effort by French historians and political scientists to find convincing explanations for it. This article is intended as a contribution to the continuing debate.
V. African Interests and the South Africa Act, 1908–1910
Authors: Hyam Ronald
Published: June 2009

It has often been argued that British ministers in the years leading up to the Union of South Africa in 1910 were so obsessed with the principle of white self-government that they forgot their obligations to the African majority.1 The result, it is alleged, was that African interests in general were sacrificed on the altar of Anglo-Afrikaner reconciliation, and in particular betrayed in the South Africa Act of 1909. If there is a partial exception allowed—the withholding of Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland from the Union—then, it is assumed, the credit for this could not possibly be given to the imperial government. The recent article in the Journal of African History by Alan R. Booth argues that, in the apparent absence of any actual imperial policy or concern, local African tribal and missionary pressures on the high commissioner were decisive in bringing this about.
VIII. Sir Robert Borden, Lloyd George and British Military Policy, 1917–1918
Authors: Cook George L.
Published: June 2009

‘Let the past bury its dead, but for God's sake let us get down to earnest endeavour and hold this line until … the end.’ No other words can more adequately express, after four years of war, the sheer agony of the Canadian Prime Minister, Sir Robert L. Borden. These words also suggest both his attitude to the war in general and his intense frustration with die supreme direction. Like Lloyd George, Borden was an exponent of total war and of victory. His proclamation that Canada was ‘fighting not for a truce but victory’, was strikingly similar to Lloyd George's own declaration that ‘the fight must be to a finish—to a knockout’. The objective, proclaimed at die conclusion of the Somme battles, seemed no less remote in the middle of 1918. Over the last two, and most critical, years of the First World War there was constant contention within Britain over how the objective was to be secured. One aspect of the contention was the direct involvement of Dominion leaders, especially Sir Robert Borden.
The ‘Supposed Infidelity’ of Edward Gibbon
Authors: Turnbull Paul
Published: June 2009

For the last two centuries Edward Gibbon has been regarded—either favourably or disparagingly - as the Enlightenment's greatest celebrant of the ‘triumph of human reason’. He has been almost invariably portrayed as an essentially optimistic believer in rational man's potential for social progress and moral advancement. Much of Gibbon's modern reputation as the Enlightenment's historian par excellence is due to early and widespread acceptance of certain assumptions about his religious sentiments. There has been a strong tendency to assume that Gibbon stood in the vanguard of what Peter Gay has called ‘modern paganism’: ‘The French philosophes and British infidels like Hume or Gibbon rejected revealed religion so vehemently and so completely that the Christian contribution to their ideas was modest and subterranean; they were usually unaware of it’. Gibbon has been traditionally seen as a vocal deist, while the account of the rise and consolidation of the Christian church contained within The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire (1776–88) has often been thought intrinsically anti-christian.
A Courtier's Progress: Greed and Consistency in the Life of the Earl of Holland
Authors: Donagan Barbara
Published: June 2009

Historians have not been kind to Henry Rich, earl of Holland. When they have noticed him, it has been to express moral disapproval. William Godwin spoke austerely of his ‘superficial and gaudy levity’; Clarendon imputed mercenary motives for his trimming in the English civil war; other writers have deplored his general unreliability or his frivolity and cowardice; and his career has been magisterially dismissed:

The personal beauty and untimely fate of Holland [have] thrown an interest over his history which neither his capacity nor his conduct would otherwise have justified.
IV. French African Policy and the Anglo-French Agreement of 5 August 1890
Authors: Kanya-Forstner A. S.
Published: June 2009

In June 1890 Lord Salisbury negotiated an agreement with Germany ceding Heligoland in return for the renunciation of German claims to Uganda, the cession of the German protectorate over the East African coast north of Witu, and the recognition of a British protectorate over Zanzibar. Although France was a party to the Joint Declaration of 1862 which guaranteed the independence of Zanzibar, Salisbury did not consider himself bound to consult her about the proposed change in the island's status. More surprisingly, he offered no assurance that French rights in Zanzibar would continue to be respected. When the French protested, Salisbury apologized for this oversight and entered into negotiations with their ambassador, W. H. Waddington. On 5 August a new agreement was signed whereby France recognized the British protectorate over Zanzibar in exchange for the recognition of her own protectorate over Madagascar and of her sphere of influence ‘south of her Mediterranean Possessions, up to a line from Say on the Niger, to Barruwa on Lake Tchad, drawn in such a manner as to comprise in the sphere of action of the [Royal] Niger Company all that fairly belongs to the Kingdom of Sokoto’.
Big Business and the Failure of Right-Wing Catalan Nationalism, 1901–1923
Authors: Harrison Joseph
Published: June 2009

The rise of modern Catalan nationalist sentiments dates from the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In essence, these sentiments reflected a growing political, intellectual and, to a lesser extent economic resentment within the region of Catalonia against the Restoration regime which was imposed upon Spain in 1875. The breakthrough of Catalan nationalism, or regionalism as it is sometimes called, to become a significant force in Spanish politics followed the victory of four Catalanist candidates in the elections to the Cortes of 1901. Shortly afterwards the groups responsible for that electoral success came together to establish what was, with the possible exception of the Socialists (P.S.O.E.), the first modern political party of Spain, the Lliga Regionalista. Significantly, the foundation of the Lliga marked a turning point in the nature of Catalan nationalism, or at least its dominant strain. Of the four candidates elected in 1901, all for Barcelona seats, three represented economic interests. Indeed, much more than that, they were, or had been, presidents of three of the most powerful big business organisations of the region.
Great Britain and Greater Greece 1917–1920
Authors: Goldstein Erik
Published: June 2009

The First World War saw the collapse of the old order in the Eastern Mediterranean with the disintegration of the Ottoman empire, an event which threatened to create a dangerous power vacuum. Great Britain for the pastcentury had attempted to prevent just such a crisis by supporting the maintenance of the territorial integrity of the Ottoman state. Britain had a number of crucial strategic concerns in the Eastern Mediterranean, in particular the Suez Canal and the Straits. The former was the more critical interest and Britain was determined to keep this essential link to its Indian empire firmly under its own control. As to the Straits Britain, which was concerned about over-extending its strategic capabilities, was content to see this critical waterway dominated by a friendly state. The question inevitably arose therefore as to what would replace the Ottoman empire. One alternative was Greece, a possibility which became increasingly attractive with the emergence of the supposedly pro-British Eleftherios Venizelos as the Greek leader in early 1917.
‘Undouted Realities’: Clarendon on Sacrilege
Authors: Dzelzainis Martin
Published: June 2009

The phrase in the title is Charles I's. Writing from Newcastle to Henry Jermyn, John Culpepper and John Ashburnham in September 1646, he voiced his ‘unexpressable greefe andastonishment’ at the advice on the church which he had received from them during the course of his negotiations with the parliamentary commissioners. For they had assured Charles that, if he was no doubt‘ obliged’ by his conscience ‘to doe all’ that was in his ‘power to support and maintain that function of Bishops’, then he had already discharged that obligation to the full, as ‘all the world can witness’. Conscience, in this sense, had no further claims on him, nor could it be more strictly interpreted:

if by conscience is intended to assert that Episcopacy is jure divino exclusive, wherby no Protestant (or rather Christian) Church can be acknowledged for such without a Bishop, we must therin crave leave wholly to differ. And if we be in an errour, we are in good company; ther not being (as we have cause to believe) 6 persons of the Protestant Religion of the other opinion. Thus much we can add, that at the treaty of Uxbridge none of your Divines then present (though much provoked thereunto) would maintain that (we might say uncharitable) opinion, no not privatly amongst your commissioners. Nether doeth it follow that in this, or any the most riged, sence you are obliged to perish in company with Bishops meerly out of pitty (and certainly you have nothing els left to assist them with) or that monarchy ought to fall, because Episcopacy cannot stand.
The Strategic Air Offensive against Germany: the Early Phase, May – September 1940
Authors: Koch H. W.
Published: June 2009

Given the vast amount of literature that has been published about bomber command's role during the Second World War, it might seem, at first sight, that there was not much to add. The magisterial volumes of the official history written by Sir Charles Webster and Dr Noble Frankland appear to have said all there is to say; and to them must now be added numerous books which they have helped to engender, such as – to mention but the most recent two – those of John Terraine and Max Hastings.
Oldham Radicalism and the Origins of Popular Liberalism, 1830–52
Authors: Winstanley Michael
Published: June 2009

The emphasis on class, industrial structure and workplace relations proffered by Foster and others as an explanation of the nature and development of popular politics in this period is rejected. Continuities in personnel, values, motivation, policies and strategies suggest that militant grass-roots liberalism of the 1850s, and the culture of self-improvement which pervaded it, were essentially continuations of a radical platform of the 1830s which was preserved, even enhanced, through the Chartist period. Radicals' emphasis on retrenchment, tax reform, democratic accountability and local self-government represented a commitment to a democratic, capitalist environment capable of sustaining material progress and promoting moral and spiritual self-improvement and individual responsibility. They sought, rather than rejected, cooperation with more moderate reformers, seeing no contradiction in combining support for Chartism with more limited campaigns to repeal the corn law or to reform local government. Radicals, however, were also divided amongst themselves. This was particularly evident in Oldham with Cobbettism drawing support from an extensive semi-rural hinterland and a more aggressive petit bourgeois artisan, nonconformist radicalism, associated with respectability and moral reform, based in the town itself. Cobbettism was progressively marginalized from the mid-1830s, however, drifting, for a variety of reasons, into the tory camp. For urban radicals, the liberalism of the 1850s represented a logical extension of their campaign, not a betrayal.
Queen Victoria's civil list: what did she do with it?
Authors: Kuhn William M.
Published: June 2009

Queen Victoria made important financial concessions to parliament over the course of her reign. She accepted a smaller civil list and a smaller annuity for her consort than had been paid to any of her predecessors. She disclosed the accounts of the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, both of which had formerly been considered private property. She also reduced her income by subjecting it to the newly re-instituted income tax. Despite these concessions, she managed to acquire a considerable private fortune. The principal sources of this fortune were improving incomes from the two duchies and better management of the civil list. Both sources benefited from reforms imposed by the prince consort. The queen used her private fortune to pay for items formerly paid for from public funds. She built houses and erected monuments. She paid partly for the golden jubilee and wholly for the debts that accumulated when the civil list became inadequate from the 1880s. Parliament in turn used evidence of her private fortune to decrease the size and number of public grants to her offspring. Thus, increased parliamentary supervision and better regulation of the civil list improved the queen's private financial position, but also reduced the public burdens.
Morality and Politics: the free churches and the Labour Party between the wars
Authors: Catterall Peter
Published: June 2009

The inter-war period saw the decline of the Liberal party, the traditional political ally of the free churches, and the rise of the Labour party. This article traces the responses of the free churches to these developments. The relationship of the free churches with the Labour party in this period is examined at three different levels; that of the free church leadership, that of the chapels and the ordinary people in the pews and that of the nonconformists who became active in the Labour party. Whilst attitudes towards the Labour party changed within free church institutions during the inter-war years they did not become important supporters of the party, or greatly influence it. The number and proportion of individual nonconformists who were active and influential in the party in this period was however considerable. In the process not only did Labour M.P.s become the main carriers of the nonconformist conscience on issues such as drink and gambling. They also made a distinctive and important contribution to the development and ideals of the Labour party.
Anne Boleyn's Religion
Authors: Bernard G. W.
Published: June 2009

It has become fashionable to characterize Henry VIII's second queen, Anne Boleyn, as evangelical in religion and as a patron of reformers. But this rests heavily on the later testimony of John Foxe and of one of Anne's chaplains, William Latimer. Contemporary evidence of Anne's activity, under critical scrutiny, turns out to offer a different impression, as does an analysis of episcopal appointments in the early 1530s. A remarkable sermon preached by John Skip, the queen's almoner, a few weeks before her death, casts further doubt on the claims for Anne's reformist zeal.
Reason of state and constitutional thought in the crown of Aragon, 1580–1640
Authors: Rubiés Joan-Pau
Published: June 2009

The political significance of Spanish reason-of-state literature has been studied almost exclusively from the perspective of imperial institutions, in particular the monarchy. This article argues that there was a distinctive political perspective in the crown of Aragon, based on its constitutional traditions, which inspired a particular kind of ‘reason of state’. Focusing on the works of a Catalan nobleman, Don Francisco Gilabert, the argument goes on to show that this constitutional thought was able to articulate a project of reform alternative to that of the minister of Philip IV, the count-duke of Olivares, and that therefore it cannot be merely analysed (as it often has been) as an anachronistic form of aristocratic self-seeking. On the contrary, by denying the king the power of absolute sovereignty, and by insisting on the idea of a mixed constitution, Gilabert's approach was able to articulate republican ideals, even though at the cost of some fundamental ambiguities concerning the idea of empire. It is suggested that the recognition of this distinctive intellectual tradition has important implications for the overall interpretation of the course of Spanish history in the seventeenth century, before and after the Catalan revolt of 1640.
Britain, South Africa and the sterling area: gold production, capital investment and agricultural markets 1931–1961
Authors: Henshaw Peter J.
Published: June 2009

South Africa was part of the sterling area (an international currency and payments system centred on Britain) from 1933 until the area itself collapsed in the early 1970s. This was despite the fact that throughout this period, and especially after 1948, Afrikaner nationalists were actively undermining other elements of the British connection. The South African government was compelled to enter and remain in the area above all because of its dependence on Britain both as a customer for South African agricultural goods (the production and export of which were disproportionately significant in South African politics) and as a source of capital funds and goods (particularly for the highly capital-intensive gold-mining industry which dominated the South African economy as a whole). The British government promoted South Africa's membership of the area not just for reasons of economics (the flow of South African gold to London facilitated the maintenance of sterling as an international currency; trade with South Africa could generate substantial net earnings of convertible currency which helped to sustain British trade on a largely multilateral basis) but also for reasons of strategy, geopolitics and prestige.
Winston Churchill and the Soviet Union during the Second World War
Authors: Kitchen Martin
Published: June 2009

When thinking of Churchill's attitude towards the Soviet Union one automatically thinks of him as the most outspoken of the advocates of armed intervention during the civil war, or as the author of the speech in Fulton, Missouri, which many people regard as the opening salvo in the Cold War. During the war, however, when the Soviet Union became a great ally without whose help the war in Europe could never have been won, his attitude was bound to be quite different. Even before the Germans launched ‘Operation Barbarossa’ thus forcing the Soviets into the Allied camp, Churchill had been thinking of the Russians as possible partners in the struggle against Nazi Germany, for however much he detested the Soviet regime, his passionate determination to destroy Nazism was a far more powerful emotion, and, as he put it, if Hitler were to invade Hell he would promptly sign a pact with the Devil.
Capital and Capitalists in the Transvaal in the 1890s and 1900s
Authors: Denoon Donald
Published: June 2009

Historians have become increasingly concerned to describe and to explain the role of capital and capitalists in three related episodes of Transvaal history: the Jameson Raid at the end of 1895, tne outbreak of the South African War in 1899, and the Reconstruction period after that war. This article reviews recent analyses, and seeks a new synthesis of the published evidence.