bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Children's social competence and sociometric status: Further exploration of aggression, social withdrawal, and peer rejection
Authors: Volling Brenda L. , Mackinnon-Lewis Carol , Rabiner David , Baradaran Laila P.
Published: October 2008

Sociometric status differences in children's social competence were examined in a sample of elementary school-aged children using teacher ratings and peer nominations. Rejected children evinced significantly fewer competencies (e.g., peer group entry, responses to provocation) than popular, average, or neglected children but differed from controversial children only with respect to their inability to meet established social norms for cooperative behavior and teachers' expectations for classroom behavior. An examination of the heterogeneity of peer-rejected children revealed that rejected-aggressive children were deficient in all aspects of social competence assessed and were most disliked by their peers. Rejected-withdrawn children were seen by peers as most unhappy, whereas rejected-undifferentiated children (i.e., rejected children who were neither highly aggressive nor highly withdrawn) had problems with social withdrawal, disruptive behavior, and socially appropriate behavior. Rejected-aggressive and rejected-withdrawn children had more difficulties with reactive aggression combined with an inability to respond positively to peers than their nonrejected agemates. The need for further research on the heterogeneity of peer-rejected children and the long-term implications for these children are discussed.
Subjective experience and causes of affect in high-functioning children and adolescents with autism
Authors: Jaedicke Susan , Storoschuk Sharon , Lord Catherine
Published: October 2008

The ability to use language to identify causes for emotion and to describe the subjective experience of various emotions was examined in 28 male and female children and adolescents with autism compared to 28 normally developing and mentally handicapped subjects of equivalent chronological age and mean length of utterance. Mentally handicapped and lower functioning autistic subjects were also similar in verbal IQ. Individuals with autism did not grossly differ from other participants in their descriptions of emotion but were less likely to relate emotions to either reaching a goal or social interaction and more likely to attribute positive emotions to concrete events (e.g., going on a trip). Results are discussed in terms of current cognitive and affective theories of autism.
Intentional reasoning: A developmental study of behaviorally aggressive and normal boys
Authors: McKeough Anne , Yates Tim , Marini Anthony
Published: October 2008

The purpose of this work was to investigate the way in which boys, ages 6, 8, and 10 years, who are behaviorally disturbed, understand motives behind human behavior, compared to normally functioning peers. Four tasks were administered that differed in surface features but that shared an underlying conceptual structure. A structural analysis of response protocols was undertaken to assess the level of cognitive complexity of their productions. Age-appropriate performance required varying degrees of intentional understanding (i.e., the reciprocal causal relations between action and mental states such as feelings and desires). The results of this analysis supported our predictions that behaviorally disturbed children use developmentally naive reasoning in the domain of conflict resolution, compared with their normal peers. Additionally, a thematic analysis of the content of responses was performed. The results of this analysis showed that the two groups' reasoning also differed qualitatively, in that the aggressive boys showed greater evidence of socially maladaptive thought, whereas the comparison group's performance was largely adaptive. We propose that early-formed primitive defense mechanisms may interfere with the aggressive group's construction of prosocial mental models of the social world. The results suggest that this line of research, which integrates developmental and psychoanalytic theory, has the potential to offer insight into the mechanisms underlying behavioral aggression.
Personality disorder and the mental representation of early social experience
Authors: Patrick Matthew , Hobson R. Peter , Castle David , Howard Robert , Maughan Barbara
Published: October 2008

Controversy surrounds the role of early social experience in the development of personality disorder. In particular, little is known of the means by which continuities from infancy through adulthood might be mediated. One suggestion is that a person's mental representations of relations between him- or herself and other people, either in the form of “internal working models” or “internal object relations,” provide the essential link. We report on an investigation of this issue in which we focused on the formal qualities of accounts of childhood offered by adults who were drawn from two contrasting clinical groups; borderline personality disorder and dysthymia. The results lend support to the claims made by attachment theory and the object relations school of psychoanalysis, that at least in certain groups of individuals, adults' modes of representing early experience are intimately related to styles of interpersonal functioning. More specifically, the form of interpersonal Psychopathology characteristic of borderline personality disorder may be associated with enmeshed and unresolved patterns of responding to the Adult Attachment Interview of George, Kaplan, and Main (1985) and with reports of low maternal care and high maternal overprotection on the Parental Bonding Instrument of Parker, Tupling, and Brown (1979).
Morphogenesis and mental process
Authors: Brown Jason W.
Published: October 2008

Parcellation and heterochrony (neoteny) reflect the pattern and rate of a growth mechanism in morphogenesis. Structure (morphology) and function (behavior) are staged realizations of morphogenetic process. This process continues into adult cognition in the actualization of the mind/brain state. Parcellation obtains in the pruning of cells and connections in early growth, whereas inhibition obtains in a relatively stable morphology with constraints on context: item transforms in microgeny. Selective retardation in process (neoteny) leads to growth at earlier (juvenile) phases. This accounts for the specification of the language areas and elaboration at preliminary phases in mind — for example, dominance, introspection, and creativity.
Orienting in normal and pathological development
Authors: Rothbart Mary K. , Posner Michael I. , Rosicky John
Published: October 2008

The term plasticity is often confined to changes due to learning. We believe, however, that the rapid lability of human behavior as different mental contents receive attention represents an important form of plasticity. Recent research in temperament and cognitive neuroscience provides an account of the development of a specific neural system involved in attentional self-regulation. In this paper, we concentrate on a network involved in orienting. We describe what is currently known about this network and its development during the first years of life. This network interacts with other attentional networks that come to control orienting to remembered events as well as those currently present. Orienting reflects processes that are both deeply biological and also open to cultural influences through learning. Attention is influenced by the current emotional state and is also important in achieving control over the emotional state. We present evidence on how learning influences eye position between 4 and 18 months of life and indicate influences of orienting on important aspects of infant behavior. Like any biological system, problems can arise in these mechanisms. We speculate on how individual differences in distress proneness and orienting may relate to the development of psychopathology.
Neural plasticity and development in the first two years of life: Evidence from cognitive and socioemotional domains of research
Authors: Fox Nathan A. , Calkins Susan D. , Bell Martha Ann
Published: October 2008

Three models that can be used to investigate the effects of different environmental events on brain development and organization are explored. Theinsultmodel argues against brain plasticity, and theenvironmentalmodel regards the brain as infinitely plastic. Our work is guided by thetransactionalmodel, which views brain development and organization as an interaction between (a) genetically coded programs for the formation and connectivity of brain structures and (b) environmental modifiers of these codes. Data are reported from our cognitive and socioemotional research studies that support the notion of plasticity during the first 2 years of life. From our work with normal developmental processes, we draw parallels to abnormal development and speculate how the transactional model can be used to explain abnormal brain organization and development.
Friendship and fighting: A developmental approach to the study of risk and prevention of violence
Authors: Selman Robert L. , Schultz Lynn Hickey , Nakkula Michael , Barr Dennis , Watts Caroline , Richmond Julius B.
Published: October 2008

This article describes the evolution of a psychosocial intervention,pairing, from its initial utilization as an interpersonally oriented therapy for severely emotionally disturbed pre- and early adolescents in a special needs school, to its current usage as a public school prevention technique for at-risk youngsters, both aggressive and withdrawn, who are living under conditions of poverty and limited community supports. The evolution of the intervention is described parallel to both the evolution of its theoretical foundations and its associated empirical analysis and evaluation. Given that our approach to both intervention and basic research is clinical-developmental (each part of the discipline influencing the other), the facilitation of greater social competence through the intervention provides the impetus for our research inquiry into the nature of psychosocial development. A generic evaluation model that integrates both outcome behavior and psychosocial development is described as it is applied to the evaluation of this specific intervention's effectiveness.
Infant-parent psychotherapy with toddlers
Authors: Lieberman Alicia F.
Published: October 2008

Infant-parent psychotherapy in the second year of life presents specific challenges related to the child's developmental characteristics. The concept of projective identification is discussed as a mechanism for understanding the toddler's specific contribution to attachment disorders with the parent. A versatile clinical format is recommended including joint parent-child sessions, individual work with the toddler and the parents, and the use of therapeutic modes of communication specifically geared to the toddler's needs (“toddlerese”). Clinical examples and research applications are given to illustrate these points.
Development as the aim of clinical intervention
Authors: Noam Gil G.
Published: October 2008

This paper introduces a new, clinical-developmental approach to research, theory and intervention. A line of research is described exploring the relationship between developmental organizations of meaning and symptom expression in adolescence. These cross-sectional and longitudinal studies demonstrate needed distinctions between self-complexity and self-maturity/integration—concepts that are described in the context of an overarching framework. In the final section of the paper, clinical methods are introduced for different adolescent developmental worlds and are exemplified with two cases.
From data to definition
Authors: Egeland Byron
Published: October 2008

Researchers and practitioners working in the area of child maltreatment have been frustrated by the lack of a concise definition of maltreatment, especially psychological maltreatment. The study of child abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, and other forms of maltreatment has been impeded by the failure to establish a commonly accepted definition. Numerous definitions have been developed at different times, for very different purposes and by professionals from many different disciplines, but as Giovannoni (1989) noted, their only common feature is that they are vague and ambiguous. Not surprisingly, the research findings from the field are as varied as the heterogeneous samples of maltreating individuals being investigated. The lack of an operational definition of maltreatment greatly limits the generalizability of the research findings.
Social policy considerations in defining psychological maltreatment
Authors: Giovannoni Jeanne
Published: October 2008

The term “child maltreatment” is of relatively recent origin in its present usage: an umbrella term to refer to a variety of phenomena, child abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, and subcategories of these, including “emotional abuse” and “emotional neglect.” As such, it carries with it all of the definitional ambiguities and confusion of the terms designating the subcategories. The emphasis in this discussion is not on what is “psychological,” but rather what is “maltreatment”? However “psychological” might be defined, or whatever phenomena are subsumed under it, the first issue is the criteria under which these might be considered as “maltreatment.” Ultimately, the utility of any definition lies in the purposes for which the classification is being made. Wisely, McGee and Wolfe (1991) point to this in their opening statements in referring to “the diverse reasons for classifying psychological maltreatment” and delineate “clinical assessment and intervention and legal and statutory requirements,” as distinct from their own purpose, “to develop conceptual and operational definitions of psychological maltreatment that are suitable for research purposes.” Clarification of the different purposes of defining “mal-treatment” can avoid contamination of irrelevancies pertinent to one purpose but not another. Toward that end, I examine Address reprint requests to: Jeanne Giovannoni, School of Social Welfare, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90024. the definitional purposes and issues in one of the cited arenas, the “statutory and legal.” Historically, that designation of “child maltreatment” precedes both the clinical and the research endeavors. Historical precedence carries with it the danger that subsequent definers, pursuing the term for different purposes, might contaminate their own pursuits by carrying over connotations of the term inappropriate to their purposes.
Psychological maltreatment: Can an integration of research, policy, and intervention efforts be achieved?
Authors: Toth Sheree L.
Published: October 2008

McGee and Wolfe's (1991) article has emerged at a critical time, a period during which child abuse and neglect has been declared a national emergency. In the last decade, reports of child abuse have increased dramatically. Unfortunately, the resources available to address the needs of maltreated children have not kept pace with the demand. This distressing state of affairs has caused some social policy theorists to conclude that only the most seriously abused and neglected children should be identified and served so as not to weaken further an already fragile service delivery system (Besharov, 1988; Wald, 1975). In fact, in the absence of greatly enhanced resources, some child advocates have argued that intervention into family life in other than life threatening circumstances may prove to be more detrimental than helpful (Goldstein, Freud, & Solnit, 1979).
Between a rock and a hard place: Where do we go from here in defining psychological maltreatment?
Authors: McGee Robin A. , Wolfe David A.
Published: October 2008

Including our own (McGee & Wolfe, 1991), there are 13 articles in this volume on psychological maltreatment — and there appear to be 13 different opinions regarding the subject. Psychological maltreatment and its measurement are controversial topics. We were delighted that our article served to stimulate such thoughtful discussion. Unfortunately, there are several instances in the critiques where we were quoted out of context or our arguments were misconstrued. We do not have the space to deal with every such instance; rather, we will respond to the general themes arising from the articles. The first theme concerns the role of research on psychological maltreatment in the social policy process. The second theme deals with assumptions regarding measurement. We provide a brief description of our own research efforts in an effort to illustrate how we are dealing with the problems inherent in our definition.
Dyadic play behaviors of children of well and depressed mothers
Authors: Rubin Kenneth H. , Both Lilly , Zahn-Waxler Carolyn , Cummings E. Mark , Wilkinson Margaret
Published: October 2008

The purpose of this study is to examine the relations among maternal depression, security of attachment, and peer interactive behaviors in early childhood. Drawing from the literature, we posited that socially inhibited play behaviors in childhood would be associated with maternal depression as well as with an insecure mother-child attachment relationship. Forty-three 5-year-olds and their mothers participated in the study. There were 21 depressed and 22 affectively well mothers. Security of attachment was assessed via a variation of the Strange Situation procedure when the children were 2 years old. At 5 years of age the children were observed during free play with a familiar same-sex agemate. Results supported the hypotheses that social inhibition is associated with maternal depression and with an insecure mother-infant attachment relationship.
Mothers with zero Beck depression scores act more “depressed” with their infants
Authors: Field Tiffany , Morrow Connie , Healy Brian , Foster Tamar , Adlestein Diane , Goldstein Sheri
Published: October 2008

Mothers who scored zero on the Beck Depression Inventory (N = 25) were compared to “depressed” mothers (high scores on the Beck) (N = 39) and nondepressed mothers (N = 98) during face-to-face interactions with their 5-month-old infants. The interaction videotapes were rated on the Interaction Rating Scales and were coded second-by-second for attentive/affective behavior states. The zero Beck mothers and their infants received lower ratings and were in less positive behavior states (alone or together) than the high scoring Beck “depressed” mother/infant dyads and even more frequently than the nondepressed mother/infant dyads. The lower activity levels, lesser expressivity, and less frequent vocalizing were suggestive of “depressed” behavior in both the mothers and their infants. In addition, the infants of the zero Beck mothers had lower vagal tone and lower growth percentiles (weight, length, and head circumference) than the infants of nondepressed mothers, although they did not differ from the infants of depressed mothers on these measures. These data suggest that mothers who report no depressive symptoms may present as much, if not greater risk, for their infants than mothers who do report depressive symptoms on the Beck Depression Inventory.
Distinguishing family-level and child-level influences on the development of depression and aggression in children at risk
Authors: Downey Geraldine , Walker Elaine
Published: October 2008

This study examined family-level and child-level influences on diversity in depression and aggression among children at risk. Data were from 144 children aged 7–14 years. A procedure introduced by Lavori, Keller, Beardslee, and Dorer (1988) was used to correct for the inclusion of more than one child from each family. Family-level influences examined were maltreatment and parental psychopathology. Maladjustment was highest in children of psychiatrically ill parents from maltreating homes and lowest in children of psychiatrically ill parents from nonmaltreating homes. Child-level influences examined were social cognition, intelligence, early developmental difficulties, sex, and age. Independent of family risk status, younger male children with high social-cognitive skills and no early developmental difficulties were least depressed. Child characteristics were less predictive of aggression. Overall, this study shows that efforts to explain diversity in high-risk children's development benefit from attending to all the offspring of high-risk parents and to multiple interacting family risk factors.
Co-occurrence of conduct problems and depressive symptoms in early adolescent boys: II. A 2-year follow-up at Grade 8
Authors: Capaldi Deborah M.
Published: October 2008

The current study examines outcomes at Grade 8 for boys who, at Grade 6, displayed elevated, though not necessarily clinical, levels of conduct problems and depressive symptoms. An at-risk community sample of 203 early adolescent boys in the Oregon Youth Study, a multimethod/multiagent study, was divided into the following groups at Grade 6: (a) co-occurring conduct problems and depressed mood, (b) conduct problems only, (c) depressed mood only, and (d) neither problem. The four groups were compared at Grade 8 on family management and boy's adjustment, using multivariate analyses of variance. The groups were compared also on relationships with parents, delinquency, and suicidal ideation. As hypothesized, conduct problems showed higher stability than depressive symptoms from Grade 6 to Grade 8. The conduct-problem-only boys and boys with co-occurring conduct problems and depressive symptoms continued to show considerable adjustment deficits at Grade 8, whereas boys with only depressive symptoms showed some improvement. The co-occurring group showed elevated levels of suicidal ideation. As hypothesized, conduct problems at Grade 6 were predictive of increases in depressed mood by Grade 8, but depressed mood was not predictive of an increase in the conduct problems measure. Results are consistent with a failure model whereby lack of skill and noxious behavior lead to pervasive failures and vulnerability to depressed mood.
Schizophrenia and the normal functional development of the prefrontal cortex
Authors: Breslin Nancy A. , Weinberger Daniel R.
Published: October 2008

Schizophrenia is being increasingly viewed as a neurodevelopmental disorder, that is, one in which early, fixed pathology becomes manifest clinically during the normal course of maturation of the brain. Evidence for this position comes first from neuroimaging research, such as (1) studies that demonstrate morphologic brain changes (such as ventriculomegaly on CT scans) even in first break patients; and (2) a lack of correlation between these morphologic changes and duration of illness. Another source of evidence is studies of normal brain development in rodents and primates, including research that shows (1) the prefrontal cortex is a late maturing part of the brain, and (2) lesions of the prefrontal cortex may be initially silent and show delayed onset of dysfunction as the brain matures. A neurodevelopmental approach to schizophrenia, in turn, has stimulated further work into the normal development of brain regions implicated in the illness, such as the frontal cortex. Thus, the fields of neuropsychiatry and neurodevelopment have been mutually stimulated during the course of this work. In addition, viewing schizophrenia in developmental terms may have implications for the understanding of changes in cognition and behavior during normal adolescence.
A longitudinal study of executive function and theory of mind development in autism
Authors: Ozonoff Sally , McEvoy Robin E.
Published: October 2008

Both executive function and theory of mind impairment have been suggested as primary deficits of autism. One test of the primacy of a deficit is its persistence and stability throughout development. This longitudinal study examined development of executive function and theory of mind abilities over a 3-year time period, comparing nonretarded autistic adolescents with learning-disabled controls matched on age, IQ, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES). Results indicate that both executive function and theory of mind abilities are seriously deficient in autistic individuals, improve little with development, may never reach normal functioning levels, and appear to eventually hit a developmental ceiling. Developmental variables showed little relationship to overall task performance or improvement in either cognitive domain. The similar developmental trajectories of executive function and theory of mind performance found in this investigation suggest that these skills may be related and interdependent, rather than independent modules of cognitive function. Implications for the neurological basis of autism and intervention are also discussed.
Depressive symptoms over first grade and their response to a developmental epidemiologically based preventive trial aimed at improving achievement
Authors: Kellam Sheppard G. , Rebok George W. , Mayer Lawrence S. , Ialongo Nick , Kalodner Cynthia R.
Published: October 2008

This article is about the course of depressive symptoms during a classroom-based randomized preventive field trial aimed at improving reading achievement among first-grade children in an urban population of mixed ethnicity and lower middle to low socioeconomic status. In the fall, children reported high levels of depressive symptoms, a risk factor for major depressive disorder. There was a linear relationship in the fall between depressive symptoms and achievement test scores. Among male children in intervention classrooms whose gain in achievement was at least the national average, depression from fall to spring was decreased, compared to those whose achievement gain was lower. Among female children both in the control and in the intervention classrooms, there was also a significant relationship between gain in achievement and the course of depression.
Custom, Festival and Protest in Early Modern England: The Little Budworth Wakes, St Peter's Day, 1596
Authors: Hindle Steve
Published: October 2008

The myriad forms of ‘popular culture’ have attracted an increasing amount of attention from historians of early modern and modern England. Students of English social relations are now familiar with several episodes of ‘cultural conflict’ in which there was putative friction between ‘elite’ and ‘popular’ (or ‘patrician’ and ‘plebeian’) notions of acceptable behaviour. As the epigraphs to this article suggest, two particular era of ‘cultural polarisation’ have attracted considerably more attention than any others. On the one hand, historians of the Reformation, and especially of its ‘enforcement’ in late Elizabethan and Jacobean local communities, have identified the suppression of traditional, festive culture as one of the ‘cultural reverberations’ of the spread of protestantism. On the other, Edward Thompson has encouraged students of eighteenth-century England to think in terms of a tension between ‘patrician society’ and ‘plebeian culture’, and of the possibilities that this ‘field of force’ raised for ‘class struggle without class’.
Family, Kin and Community in Eight Lincolnshire Parishes, 1567–1800
Authors: Johnston J.A.
Published: October 2008

The purpose of this study is to examine the changing proportions of bequests made by the inhabitants of eight Lincolnshire parishes to various categories of heirs between 1567 and 1800. Six of the parishes are located in the clay vale of western Lincolnshire, the other two are on the fen edge in the south of the county. There are 1,442 wills from these parishes which made 10,763 bequests. These bequests can be divided into three categories, those made to the immediate family, those made to kin and those made to unrelated people who must represent the community in which the deceased had lived. The share each of these categories enjoyed changed significantly in the period. By the eighteenth century the immediate family had become predominant and, apparently, the community occupied a less important place in the social environment of the will makers.
Mechanisation and Risk: Kansas Wheat Growers 1915–1930
Authors: Fearon Peter
Published: October 2008

After the Civil War, settlers surged into the western two-thirds of Kansas occupying a region which only a few decades previously had been identified as part of the Great American Desert, and therefore too parched for farming. Many of those newly exploiting the virgin soil had learned their farming in a humid climate and were poorly equipped for survival in an arid region. Failure rates were high amongst pioneers who could not withstand the periodic droughts which destroyed not only their crops but also the gardens which were designed to provide vital subsistence foodstuffs. Farms thrived for a few years but then withered in the relentless sun; eventually hard-hit families gave up the struggle and moved on.
Exclusion Crises: Poverty, Migration and Parochial Responsibility in English Rural Communities, c. 1560–1660
Authors: Hindle Steve
Published: October 2008

‘Community’ is ubiquitous in the historiography of early modern England. Although the term is almost universally employed and appealed to, however, itsmeaningremains controversial, and its use by historians much criticised. Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that the very concept of ‘community’ is not the creation of modern social scientists: its origins lie in traditional notions ofcommunitas, that quality of oneness claimed by mediaeval associations of various kinds. Consequently, modern historians and sociologists tend to agree only on two issues: first, that ‘community’ implies geographical propinquity, common ties, and focused interaction between and amongst its members; and second, that these characteristics have generally undergone a historical process of decline or disintegration. Rather vaguely-defined as this common ground is, it is sufficiently clear to render modern users of the term vulnerable in turn to two criticisms in particular. It is argued, first, that the mythic status of community begs both historical and sociological questions, relying merely on untested assumptions; and, second, that the strongly emotive overtones and inherent value judgements of such a nostalgic term introduce confusing elements of normative prescription to social-historical analysis. From this perspective, community is not only an elusive concept but also a flawed ideal, and calls for its abandonment have increased.
Some Aspects of Sugar Beet Production in England, 1945–1985
Authors: Douet Alec
Published: October 2008

Sugar beet occupies only a minor proportion of the total area of agricultural land in Britain, but it is of major importance to mixed cropping farms in the Eastern Counties of England, where soil and climate combine to give ideal growing conditions. This region produces more than half the annual United Kingdom output, and forms part of the major beet producing area in the European Community, which stretches from the Ile de France and Champagne-Ardenne in France, through southern Belgium to the western regions of the Netherlands. This paper is based on an extensive series of studies of beet production and reports on farming in the Eastern Counties of England, prepared since the mid-1920s by the Farm Economics Branch, and later by the Agricultural Economics Unit, of the Department of Land Economy at the University of Cambridge. After sketching the historical background, it discusses some of the more significant developments – in crop husbandry, structural change, in the substitution of labour for capital and specialisation, and accession to the European Community – which took place in the four decades of unprecedented progress up to 1985.
‘Stolen Goods’: The Sexual Harassment of Female Servants in West Wales during the Nineteenth Century
Authors: Barber Jill
Published: October 2008

‘How came I to be his property? What right has he in me, but such as a thief may plead to stolen goods?’ cried Pamela, the virtuous servant maid of Richardson's novel. Pamela was written in 1740, but the assumption that masters had sexual rights over their servants cast a long shadow. The questions Pamela raises about powerlessness and ‘worth’ are crucial to understanding the plight of female servants in the nineteenth century. This study examines why servants were particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment, the consequences of sexual abuse for victims and offenders, and underlying male attitudes which affected both the incidence of assaults and the justice meted out by the courts.
Rural Reconstruction in Aisne after the Great War
Authors: Clout Hugh
Published: October 2008

Generations of scholars have analysed and interpreted the events of the Great War which wrought havoc across landscapes of ten départements in northern France (figure 1). By contrast, the processes whereby these areas were restored in the immediate post-war years have received very little attention, although the desperate circumstances in which recovery took place have been powerfully evoked in Bertrand Tavernier's recent film La vie et. rien d'autre (1989). Common problems were encountered throughout the devastated regions but just as the intensity of damage varied between départements so did the speed and efficiency of reconstruction and recovery. Rather than attempting to embrace the revival of urban or industrial life or to explore the complex financial transactions which made all forms of reconstruction possible, the present discussion focuses on the dual imperative of restoring rural land and rebuilding rural settlement within a single département.
Green History — The Evolving Agenda
Authors: Sheail John
Published: October 2008

In a recent issue of Rural History, Malcolm Chase wrote a somewhat frustrated commentary, ‘Can history be green?’ Against a general intellectual background that was increasingly preoccupied with environmental issues, historical scholarship remained largely impervious to ‘green’ issues. His timely commentary set out the consequences of this neglect for both the environmental movement and the historian.
Women and Rural History
Authors: Bellamy Liz , Snell K.D.M. , Williamson Tom
Published: October 2008

This is a special issue on Women and Rural History — a subject which needs no editorial justification. It represents, especially for agricultural history, an enormous breadth of historical experience that has been sadly neglected over many decades. In commissioning and then reading the work produced for this issue, we became ever more convinced that there are huge areas of debate and research, into questions at the heart of rural history, that involve detailed consideration of the lives of women. Brief perusal of the contents list for this issue gives some sense of the potential for enlarged work. The history of rural life in any country could be dramatically rewritten with a greater focus on women, and the way such history could be written – the subjects that could be highlighted, and the approaches taken towards them – could be highly innovative in historiographical terms.
American Rural Women and the Transformation of Dairy Processing, 1820–80
Authors: McMurry Sally
Published: October 2008

Among the global transformations that have involved rural women, few have been as historically significant as the removal of dairy processing from individual farms to central plants. In most cases, as butter and cheese manufacture left the farm, the workforce also changed: men replaced women. This ‘defeminization’ of dairying took place at varying paces and in different ways, but the ultimate result was the same throughout the West: women's participation in dairying was dramatically reduced.
Women in Rural Ireland in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries – How the Daughters, Wives and Sisters of Small Farmers and Landless Labourers Fared
Authors: O'Dowd Anne
Published: October 2008

The surge in writing by and about women in recent decades in Ireland is contributing to a good understanding of the place of women in Irish society. It is research which shows that women often had to be exceptionally good at their chosen or allotted role in life in order to be recognised and noted, or had to be capable and highly efficient at tasks ordinarily and traditionally done by men. This is especially true of the women who were the wives, sisters and mothers of the labourers and small farmers of nineteenth-century Ireland, with which this article is concerned. It is freely noted at this point that writing about the lives of so-called ordinary people – both men and women – in all centuries is difficult because of a lack of source material. Writing about women, without reference to male siblings, spouses and fathers is extremely problematic and one must seek out information by a very close examination of available facts and by a full understanding and awareness of the usefulness of the collected folk tradition.
The Mawkin on Herrick's Hock-cart
Authors: Simpson Jacqueline
Published: October 2008

In a poem written at Dean Prior in Devonshire sometime between 1630 and 1648, and addressed to the Earl of Westmoreland, Robert Herrick invites the Earl to watch a procession of harvesters bringing in the last load:

Come forth, my Lord, and see the Cart

Drest up with all the Country Art.

See, here a Maukin, there a sheet,

As spotless pure as it is sweet:

The Horses, Mares, and frisking Fillies

(Clad, all, in Linnen, white as Lillies.)

The Harvest Swaines, and Wenches, bound

For joy, to see the Hock-cart crown'd.
Mediation and the Discourse of Property Transfer in Early Modern Europe.
Authors: Siddle David J.
Published: October 2008

On the 25th June 1789, Jean Louis Varey, of the village of St Ferreole near Faverges in Haute Savoie, met Jean Burdet in the local inn to discuss the future of a field the latter had rented from Varey's father. After the conclusion of this business they took a glass of wine specifically with four others: Jean Baptiste Prevost, the son of the notary, and three local peasant householders Jean Roderigue, Pierre Raucaz and Aime Guignon. Many others were also in attendance. Varey had recently returned to his home after a period of time trading in France, and he clearly fancied himself as something of an enterpreneur. The others thought him a bit above himself.
Urban Dreams and Rural Reality: Land and Landscape in English Culture, 1920–45
Authors: Miller Simon
Published: October 2008

On May 12th, 1926 Stanley Baldwin announced the end of the General Strike in a radio broadcast to the nation. The announcement was followed by a choir singing Parry's now familiarJerusalemwith its resounding climactic affirmation of ‘England's green and pleasant Land’.1It is hard to resist the speculation that this was Baldwin's choice as much as Reith's, since the Conservative Prime Minister had from the outset of his political career been identified as an ordinary man rooted deeply in the English countryside.2Baldwin's private correspondence demonstrates that his attachment to ‘our eternal hills’ was entirely genuine, but there can be little doubt that this was also an image that he consciously cultivated, and which – via his mastery of the new instruments of mass communication – he was able to convey to a wide and popular audience. To this extent he might be thought of as a Tory populist: as J.C. Squire noted in theObserverreview of Baldwin's 1926 collection of his speeches, entitledOn England(released just before the General Strike), ‘this is the work of a thoroughly representative Englishman: not the common man, but one expressing what the common man feels and cannot say for himself’. These ‘common’ themes and sentiments ranged across a number of issues from Shakespeare to the topical ‘Peace in Industry’, but pride of place in the volume was granted to his definitive statement on national identity, given in May 1924 ‘to celebrate our country and our Patron Saint’ at the Annual Dinner of the Royal Society of St. George, and entitled plainly and unambiguously ‘England’.
The Political Power of Farmers: An English Perspective
Authors: Flynn Andrew , Lowe Philip , Winter Michael
Published: October 2008

England has one of the longest histories of industrialisation and urbanisation of any West European country. This has inevitably had a formative influence in the structuring of its social science research. For political scientists it has involved an almost overwhelming concern with urban political systems and industrial cleavages. An analysis of class based voting has been a major focal point with its implicit assumption that any other cleavages based, for example, on religious or regional identities are marginal or atavistic. Certainly there has been little acknowledgement of any significant urban–rural divide. In consequence the study of rural politics has been something of an intellectual backwater and there has been no attempt to define or identify rural politics as an object of study. The blinkered vision of political scientists is disappointing. It unduly ignores a number of studies that have engaged with mainstream debates and frequently made worthwhile contributions, most notably, with reference to the case of agriculture, in the understanding of relations between government and industry (Cox et al, 1986; Grant, 1983). There are also signs that some political scientists are beginning to reject models of national (i.e. urban) voting behaviour and political systems in favour of more spatially sensitive work in which greater prominence is given to regional and local differences (Dunleavy, 1990; Johnston, 1985, 1987; Johnston et al, 1988).
Cunning-Folk in England and Wales during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Authors: Davies Owen
Published: October 2008

In a recent article Willem de Blécourt highlighted how little we really know about cunning-folk in the context of European witchcraft, and stressed the need for further substantial research. The study of English cunning-folk in the early modern period has been well served by the work of Keith Thomas and Alan Macfarlane, but their respective chapters are, nevertheless, tantalising rather than conclusive. Although in the last twenty-five years early-modern historians have continued to take a strong interest in the witch-trials, and the social dynamics of witch-accusations, cunning-folk have, by and large, been neglected. De Blécourt also remarked upon the paucity of relevant research on cunning-folk in the period after the trials. This observation is particularly applicable to British historiography, and it is the purpose of this present paper to begin to redress this imbalance. Most work on cunning-folk has tended to concentrate on what they did, rather than on who they were.
Locality and Pleasure in Landscape: A Study of Three Nineteenth-Century Scottish Watercolourists
Authors: Helland Janice
Published: October 2008

Helensburgh is a Scottish town whose quiet streets lead uphill away from the North Clyde Estuary. A short walk from the waterfront esplanade, almost hidden behind a naval housing estate (1957), an observant tourist can contemplate the stone remains of Ardencaple Castle, parts of which might date to the thirteenth century but more of which dates to the eighteenth century. Walking near the stone wall which runs parallel to the small street, it is difficult to imagine that a large, imposing, perhaps intimidating, building once stood upon vast grounds, housing the chief of the Clan MacAuley (or Macaulay). Recently, I stood with a friend in the warm September sun looking at the grey wall, trying to imagine the visage and the determination of nineteenth-century watercolourist Kate Macaulay as she might have gazed, sketchbook in hand, at the then extant house, once the property of her dispersed clan. She may have turned her eyes and her pencil away from the house toward the river or toward the rolling, treed and rocky terrain that stretched beyond the castle walls toward Loch Lomond. She, after all, preferred to draw and paint land and water more than the buildings sprouting from the stone and the soil. But she did paint ‘MacAuley’ land, recording numbers of scenes in and around Loch Lomond, Gare Loch and Loch Long, sometimes moving beyond clan boundaries to Oban and Skye or to the area around her own ‘Ardencaple House’ in North Wales.
The Friendly Society Movement and the Respectability of the Rural Working Class
Authors: Lord Evelyn
Published: October 2008

In the introduction to his practical manual on the organisation of friendly societies published in 1851 J.H. James writes:

The character of a nation may be pretty well ascertained from the general features of its public institutions. When these are directed to the morals, social and intellectual training of the human mind, and to the privilege of a cultivation of religious principles we may be sure of the existence of that high degree of buoyancy and healthiness of mental vigour, accompanied by great physical energy not to be found in any other condition of society.
Threshing Out the Common in Community: The Great Tey Riot of 1727
Authors: Pearson Jane
Published: October 2008

What is common in community is … the fact that the members of a community are engaged in the same argument … the same discourse … in which alternative strategies, misunderstandings, conflicting goals and values are threshed out.
A Country at War: Mass-Observation and Rural England, 1939–45.
Authors: Howkins Alun
Published: October 2008

The … history of the rural areas during the Second World War is virtually unstudied. There is some work on agriculture and agricultural policies, but the extent to which these rely on K.A.H.Murray's ‘official’ history, published in 1955, is testimony both to the quality of Murray's work and the general paucity of more recent published research. Moving away from the directly official, or economic history, we move into the field of memoir and reminiscence. Good as many of these are, they obviously seldom make any attempt at sustained analysis. Crucially, the rural areas have been left out of accounts of the social history of the war, such as Angus Calder's magisterial studyThe People's War, first published in 1971.
Exmoor Village Revisited: Mass-Observation's ‘Anthropology of Ourselves’, the ‘Feel Good Factor’ in Wartime Colour Photography and the Photograph as Art or Social Document
Authors: Sarsby Jacqueline
Published: October 2008

In 1988, HTV made a series of programmes about a Somerset village called Luccombe. Their starting point was the Mass-Observation survey carried out over forty years before and described in Exmoor Village. No mention was made of the larger project - the ‘wholesome’ British export, for which the survey and perhaps even more importantly, the photographs, were commissioned. The difficulties of producing and reproducing fine-quality colour photographs at that time, however, suggest that the social investigators and the photographer were pursuing widely differing goals. The different approaches of social documentary photography and pictorial photography may not be obvious in a beautiful print, embedded in an anthropological text, but the use of photographs, which were essentially reconstructions of idealised village life disguised as documents, indicates how much importance the Ministry of Information attached to exporting the image of the wholesome, ‘traditional', English rural community.