bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Mapping the Landscape of our Ignorance
Authors: Graham Shawn
Published: September 2022

How can we deal with the problem of equifinality when modelling the Roman economy? In this chapter I describe one approach I built with Scott Weingart that uses agent-based simulation as a way of generating potential social networks as an artefact of an economy. We simulate our understanding of the Roman economy—not the economy itself, but rather, our stories, our theories, about the economy—and use the results of the simulation to guide our sense of what we might reasonably expect to find in the archaeology if our story about the economy is correct. We can explore the archaeology of the Roman economy to find archaeological networks, and see which of these match (or not) the outputs of the model. However, the models we build have to be ‘stupid’ in the sense that we only put in them what is there in the verbal model we as archaeologists describe in our essays and monographs. If we find that we have to add elements to make the model ‘work’, then that is an indication that our original verbal models are eliding critical points. Thus, the process of operationalizing someone’s description of the economy, of building a model, holds just as much value as (if not more than) the ostensible results of the simulation itself, in that it provides a method for iterating through different theoretical conceptions of the Roman economy.
Varieties of What Is Said
Authors: Jary Mark
Published: September 2022

Chapter 1 first outlines competing notions of what is said (minimal, contextual) and the reasons for defending these. It then goes on to consider why a theorist might posit a level of representation equating to what is said, and identifies two possible motivations: to account for intuitions, and out of explanatory necessity. The chapter then argues that neither of these justifies positing what is said as a level of representation in basic linguistic communication. Rather, what is said is a reflective concept, in terms to be developed more fully in chapter 4.
Ships at Risk
Authors: Cressy David
Published: September 2022

Early modern sailing vessels suffered ‘so many manglements, that it is a very great wonder to see the providence of God in the preserving of them’, marvelled the interregnum preacher Daniel Pell. Any ship could become ‘shipwreckful’, a catastrophe waiting to happen. ‘Even now worth this, and now worth nothing’, mused a shipowner in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice¸ as shipwreck reduced a maritime venture to rubbish. This chapter treats early modern ships as skilled constructions and vehicles for traffic that could be undone by misfortune. It reviews estimates of the size of the English and European merchant fleets and the frequency and cost of shipwrecks. Evidence suggests that 4–5 per cent of voyages went amiss, costing shippers hundreds of thousands of pounds per year. The price was high for the development of a global economy, but English coastal communities were among its beneficiaries as goods from the world’s oceans washed ashore.
The Perils of the Sea
Authors: Cressy David
Published: September 2022

This chapter turns to the textual representation of voyaging and shipwrecks in ancient, biblical, and early modern sources, and to contemporary accounts of ships and seamen in peril. Paying particular attention to the meteorological, navigational, and cultural hazards that brought ships to grief on English and Welsh shores, it explores how shipwrecks were imagined, moralized, and experienced. Storms and shipwrecks in the Bible (Jonah, St Paul), in the classics (Homer, Vergil), and in the writings of the Renaissance (Erasmus, Rabelais, Sidney, Shakespeare) served to punish the hubris of heroes and the sins of sailors. Preachers and moralists used this maritime imagery to warn of the shipwreck of the soul or the shipwreck of the state. While the master narrative of the age attributed disaster and deliverance to divine providence, reports by merchants and mariners described the actual mishaps of voyaging, extremities of weather, crises of foundering and abandonment, and the deaths and endurance of shipwreck victims. They told of ships being pushed beyond their handling, as mariners were overwhelmed by the fury of the waves, as navigational error, faulty seamanship, and blind misfortune played their parts.
The Great Profit of the Lords of Manors
Authors: Cressy David
Published: September 2022

This chapter builds on the observation by Samuel Pepys that ‘the great profit of the lords of manors upon the sea coasts lay in wrecks’, where they and their tenants ‘do most savagely make prey of all shipwrecked persons, goods, and vessels’. Though often overlooked, the energetic assertion of seigneurial rights around the coastline demonstrates that manorial courts and manorial claims remained active well beyond the Middle Ages. The lords of coastal manors claimed ‘benefit of wreck’ on their shores, and defended that right with vigour against rival proprietors, Admiralty officials, and their own tenants. Examples from Cornwall to Cumberland show aristocrats and gentlemen exploiting the materials that came ashore, filling their barns with ships’ timbers and their cellars with shipwrecked wine. Many went to law to preserve their privileges, and a few involved themselves in affrays and even duels. Extensive evidence, little of it previously examined, reveals customs and procedures of wreck retrieval, the distribution of moieties and rewards, disputes about manorial boundaries and precedents, and materials brought ashore, as the elite enriched themselves from the bounty of the sea.
Shipwreck Tales from Sea and Shore
Authors: Cressy David
Published: September 2022

Buried in local archives, state papers, and the barely catalogued records of the High Court of Admiralty, the correspondence of officials and the depositions of witnesses describe the removal of ‘findalls and things saved’ from English beaches. Vivid first-person testimonies combine the nautical perspective of mariners with the viewpoints and voices of salvors and scavengers. They show how shipwrecks happened, and how shore-dwellers took advantage of them. Wreck recovery emerges here as a social process, embedded in the structures and cultures of the community, animated by relationships of neighbourliness, opportunity, authority, and law. More than a dozen micro histories from the 1550s to the 1670s describe fatal voyages and the landsmen who benefited from them. Wrecking emerges as a community activity, by no means ‘barbarous’, subject to the overview of bailiffs and droit collectors, councils and commissions. Local dramas unfolded over the discovery of ships in distress, the treatment of survivors, the gathering of wreckage, and the concealment and distribution of goods. Highlights include a Northumberland wreck that embroiled the governments of three countries, the looting of a pirate ship from a beach in Elizabethan Sussex, goods ‘embezzled and purloined away’ from wrecks on offshore sandbanks, and the plunder of a stranded ship by tenants of the Earl of Arundel.
Mariners in Distress
Authors: Cressy David
Published: September 2022

This chapter follows the fate of ‘ship-broken men’ as they engaged with the people of the shoreline. It draws on evidence they presented to examiners and commissioners, after hundreds of fellow-mariners drowned. Survivors were fortunate to take to their boats, or cling to floating wreckage, hoping not to fall on ‘unneighbourly shores’. Their experience on the coast of England bore little relation to the shipwreck stories of literary romance. Though some complained of lawless looting, and grieved at their loss of goods, most acknowledged the assistance of local inhabitants. Survivors secured shelter, clothing, and medical attention, and some owed their lives to the ministrations of wreckers. Many, like the officers of the Golden Grape, engaged with salvagers to preserve parts of their lading, or sold material from the ship to meet their immediate needs. A few reported being cheated by agents of the Admiralty and stewards of lords of manors who took advantage of their plight. Justices of the Peace issued passes for shipwrecked mariners, asking local officials ‘not to molest or trouble’ them as they travelled to convenient ports. Foreign sailors needed repatriation, and even enemies in times of war had ways to go home.
Material Bounty Brought Ashore
Authors: Cressy David
Published: September 2022

The wreckage that came ashore from stricken vessels, and passed into the hands of villagers, gentlemen, and officials, varied enormously in content, condition, and worth. Everything consigned for passage at sea, including the ships and possessions of seamen, was at risk of loss. The transfer to shore could be chaotic, informal, and sometimes illicit, but reports, accounts, and inventories indicate the diversity of items recovered and the values sometimes attached to them. This chapter takes stock of the godsends and gatherings that constituted the goods and gains from wrecks. Building on recent work on material culture, it reveals interactions between maritime and terrestrial cultures, between coastal residents and officials, and between objects and their possessors. Rich records register the commodities retrieved from wrecks, and the gains they represented. Ordinary villagers did well to come clear with a few jars of oil, a few bushels of fruit, and small loads of salvaged timber, while their gentle landlords and masters enriched themselves with prime pickings. The Bacons of Norfolk and the Arundells of Cornwall, for example, stocked their stores with wrecked cargoes and took possession of salvageable ships. The Wardens of the Cinque Ports and agents of the Admiralty accumulated moieties and droits as fruits of office. The crown, as always, registered the most gains, especially when bullion was in view. While commoners performed the labour, and carried the opprobrium, the elite gained honour and status, as well as profit, from the material bounty of the sea.
Deep Recovery
Authors: Cressy David
Published: September 2022

Shoreline recovery extended as far into the sea as horsemen could reach with long poles. Salvagers worked with hooks and grapples in the waves. Anything deeper was lost, unless engines could be devised or divers could be found to descend. This chapter examines the organizational and technical challenges involved in the recovery of shipwrecked material from seas deeper than shoremen could reach. It tells the story of underwater recovery, from the daring free divers of the sixteenth century employed to locate anchors and cannons, to the enterprising syndicates of the late Stuart period using breathing apparatus to retrieve silver bullion. Most of this book treats shipwrecks as social dramas at the juncture of land and sea; here they are also considered as sites, in the archaeological sense, from which maritime bounty could be recovered by inventors and investors.
A Basic Characterization Inspired by the Past
Authors: Roy Louis
Published: September 2022

The approach of this chapter starts with the past, both biblical and Thomist, and continues with an exposition of the revelational language—symbolic and propositional—that we find in the Bible, in the thought of Thomas Aquinas, and in contemporary philosophy of religion. Hence the six divisions of this chapter: general considerations on the Bible; revelation as anthropological; revelation as evolutionary; revelation as christological; and revelation and inspiration according to Thomas Aquinas. Lastly, the chapter engages in a reflection on religious language that human intermediaries employ to express revelation; religious language includes symbolic and literal statements, which branch out into several literary genres. The chapter finally clarifies where most Christians think they can locate revelation.
Modernity’s Representations of Belief
Authors: Roy Louis
Published: September 2022

This chapter charts the course over time of modernity’s sometimes overlapping and sometimes counterposed interpretations of belief. The first section retraces how the medieval distinction between the natural and the supernatural came to be seen as a diremption pitting the naturalists against the supernaturalists in the course of modernity, and ended in a repudiation of the supernatural by the naturalists. The second section characterizes conceptualism as an epistemological error that brought about its own rejection by people whom we may call the anticonceptualists. The third section portrays several thinkers who have granted primacy either to reason or to the heart in their reception of revelation. The fourth section introduces the philosopher Schelling’s construal of revelation as divine self-expression. The fifth section briefly depicts the contributions of Schleiermacher and Hegel, and mentions Kierkegaard’s vehement protest against Hegelian rationalism. The sixth section lays out and assesses the liberal Protestantism of Ritschl, Herrmann, and Harnack.
Paul Ricœur
Authors: Roy Louis
Published: September 2022

This chapter introduces some aspects of the thought of Ricœur (1913–2005) who, as a Protestant, was active in his Christian community. Moreover, he was probably the most profound among the French philosophers in the twentieth century. At first, he was influenced by the reflexive philosophy of Jean Nabert, by the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl, and by the great intuitions of Karl Jaspers; later he developed a complex philosophy of language. In his writings, the issue of truth comes into view with his comments on Gottlob Frege’s distinction between sense (Sinn) and reference (Bedeutung). The chapter begins with this distinction, then proceeds to expound Ricœur’s views on the world of the text and on the work of the text. After these literary-critical and epistemological pieces are in place Ricœur’s appraisal of religious illusion, testimony, revelation, truth in faith and hope is introduced. The chapter ends with four final questions. Readers will then be able to appreciate how several aspects of Ricœur’s thinking cast light on a renewed construal of revelation.
Claims Made by Other Religions
Authors: Roy Louis
Published: September 2022

This chapter examines understandings of revelation that we find in four religious traditions, two of them being pre-Christian, namely Hinduism and Buddhism, and two being post-Christian, namely Rabbinic Judaism and Islam. The chapter reviews diverse ways in which some of the principal religions of humankind have handled the issue of revealed truth. It successively dedicates a few pages to Hinduism, Buddhism, Rabbinic Judaism, and Islam, ending with concluding remarks about their claims to having access to the completeness of truth. A good number of nuances are lacking, especially among the myriad streams within those world religions. Nonetheless, considering current discussions in our pluralistic world, the interreligious comparisons will enhance the sense of the richness and complexity to be found there, and they will invite everyone to further explore the rich lore of non-Christian religions.
Proof Against Proof:
Authors: Sienkiewicz Stefan
Published: September 2022

This paper offers a new reading of the final chapters of Sextus Empiricus’ Against the Logicians (M 8.463–81), arguing against two orthodoxies: (i) that here we have an instance of the sceptic deploying his classic method of equipollence (opposing equally compelling arguments against one another and suspending judgement in light of them); and (ii) that the final argumentative manoeuvre of the sceptic’s is to accept that his arguments against proof eliminate themselves. The paper argues against both: the standard method of equipollence is not in play during the course of the argument and what the sceptic welcomes is not the self-elimination of his argument against proof, but the self-elimination of a higher-order argument—an argument that is about his argument against proof. It suggests that this alternative construal makes better sense of, as well as improves, the arguments of both the sceptic and his dogmatic opponent.
The Political and Ideological Context of the Epitome
Authors: Kampianaki Theofili
Published: September 2022

This chapter discusses the section of the Epitome dedicated to Roman and Byzantine history, which has elements of Kaiserkritik, namely the critique of an emperor. The chronicler’s severe criticism of Alexios I Komnenos constitutes very much a personal attack aimed specifically against the style of government established by the founder of the Komnenian dynasty and followed by later Komnenian emperors too. Evidently influenced by the conduct of government during his time, Zonaras vehemently reproaches various emperors who enforced similar policies in the course of Byzantine history. He conceives his Kaiserkritik as a form of rebuke to rulers, something that he believes is open to him as a private individual. Also, by amending relevant passages of his sources, Zonaras gives prominence to the qualities exhibited by aristocrats as well as men of culture, and thus argues in favour of an enhanced role for these groups at the imperial court. In Zonaras’ view, the ‘elite’ class comprises not only the nobility but also intellectuals who, like himself, were high-ranking members of the civil service.
Transnational Catholicism in Tudor England
Authors: Smith Frederick E.
Published: September 2022

This is a book about the relationship between transnational mobility and the development of Tudor Catholicism. Almost two hundred Catholics felt compelled to exile themselves from England rather than conform with the religious reformations inaugurated by Henry VIII and Edward VI. This book explores how these émigrés’ physical mobility reconfigured their relationships with the men and women they left behind, and how it forced them to develop new relationships with individuals they encountered abroad. It analyses how the experiences of mobility and displacement catalysed a shift in their religious identities, in some ways broadening but in others narrowing their understandings of what it meant to be ‘Catholic’. And, it examines the role of these émigrés as agents of religious exchange, circulating new doctrinal and devotional ideas throughout western Europe and forging new connections between them. By focussing particularly upon those individuals who subsequently returned to their homeland during Mary I’s Catholic Counter-Reformation, this book also explores the lasting legacies of these émigrés’ displacement and mobility, both for the émigrés themselves as they grappled with the difficulties of re-integration, but also for the broader development of English Catholicism. In this way, this book deepens our understanding of the complex and sometimes contradictory ways in which exile could shape religio-political identities, but also underlines the importance of international mobility as a crucial factor in the development of English Catholicism and the wider European Catholic Church over the mid sixteenth century.
Introduction
Authors: Smith Frederick E.
Published: September 2022

The introduction sets out this book’s central thesis. It suggests that, by paying more attention to a neglected group of almost two hundred Catholics who exiled themselves from England rather than conform with the religious policies of Henry VIII and Edward VI, we can challenge longstanding historiographical assumptions regarding the nature of early modern religious exile, Tudor Catholicism and the wider European Counter-Reformation. Not only were these émigrés possessed of far more agency than often assumed, but through their actions they helped connect Catholicism in England with developments in the wider European Catholic Church, and vice versa. Indeed, this book argues, it is impossible to understand one without considering its relationship to the other.
Theologies and Spiritualities in Translation
Authors: Smith Frederick E.
Published: September 2022

This chapter demonstrates how Henrician and Edwardian émigrés became not only linguistic translators of foreign texts, but also religio-cultural translators, incorporating the religious ideas and practices they encountered abroad into their own spiritualities and theologies. These texts and ideas ranged from works of impeccable Catholic orthodoxy to those associated with prominent heterodox and evangelical thinkers. This chapter explores why English émigrés might have been attracted to such an eclectic range of ideas, and asks how this might complicate common historiographical interpretations regarding the nature of mid sixteenth-century Catholic reform, and regarding the experience of displacement as a catalyst for ‘confessional radicalisation’.
Exile, Radicalisation and Reconciliation
Authors: Smith Frederick E.
Published: September 2022

This chapter uses Henrician and Edwardian émigrés’ changing relationships with their compatriots in England in order to assess the development of their religious beliefs and identities. Using a series of detailed case studies, it traces the development of a growing rift between the émigrés and religious conservatives who were conforming with the Reformation back home—a rift seemingly linked to a hardening understanding in the émigrés’ minds as to what was and was not consonant with Catholic orthodoxy, and a more uncompromising and militant desire to enforce it. Thus, somewhat paradoxically, at the same time as the experience of exile appears to have functioned as a fillip to inter-confessional dialogue and exchange (as discussed in Chapter Two), this chapter suggests that it may also have catalysed a process of intra-confessional radicalisation. After exploring why exile might have had such effects upon these émigrés’ religious identities, the conclusion attempts to explain this paradox.
Conclusion
Authors: Smith Frederick E.
Published: September 2022

Exile is still often seen as an experience defined by separation and isolation. However, this book suggests that exile could be just as much about connection and creativity. Henrician and Edwardian émigrés’ peripatetic movements throughout Europe facilitated the circulation of reforming religious ideas and forged connections between people, ideas and movements often seen as separate or opposed. As a result, they became powerful agents of Catholic reform: their encounters with different beliefs throughout Christendom, both of their co-religionists and of their religious adversaries, functioned as powerful stimuli for the generation of new syncretic approaches to reform. In this sense, this book reaffirms the value of the term ‘Counter-Reformation’ for describing early modern Catholicism in England and throughout Europe—a faith which was renewed and reinvigorated by transnational religious encounter, exchange and cross-fertilization.
Food Insecurity in India's Agricultural Heartland
Authors: Narang Harpreet Kaur
Published: September 2022

Through its goal of ‘Zero Hunger’, the SDG 2 is committed to end hunger and malnutrition for all by 2030. India is a signatory to this commitment, and all the earlier international declarations on eradication of hunger and poverty. Yet, India is home to the world’s largest food insecure population and is rated as a country with ‘serious’ hunger levels Not even a single state in India is, in the ‘low hunger’ or ‘moderate hunger’ categories. The food abundant state of Punjab, which has been largely responsible for India’s self-sufficiency in food grains production also lies in the ‘serious’ category. Punjab not only makes an ideal case study for exploring the paradoxical issue of ‘Hunger amidst Plenty’, but also ideally represents the Indian economy. Being a primarily rural and agrarian economy, Punjab exhibits an exclusive and unsustainable growth process that has failed to trickle down and generate livelihood security to its masses leading to an agrarian and ecological crisis marked by soaring farmer’s indebtedness and suicides. By exploring the multidimensionality of the concept of food security, in Punjab, this book brings to fore a multiplicity of issues that affect food security, including education, health, employment, gender and caste-based discrimination, and environmental conditions such as health care, availability of safe drinking water and sanitation as well as nutrition practices and knowledge that promote absorption and improve health status.
Introduction
Authors: Narang Harpreet Kaur
Published: September 2022

The first chapter introduces the concept of food security and the historical evolution of the understanding and the importance of the issue at the global level. It goes on to describe the definitions based on past and contemporary ideas of the concept along with the dimensions of food security. By providing the cost-benefit analysis of investment in food security, it reveals the crucial importance of investing in human resource.
Access to Safe and Nutritious Food
Authors: Narang Harpreet Kaur
Published: September 2022

The fourth chapter addresses the issue of ‘livelihood security’ or ‘access’ as measured by indicators like depth of hunger, employment, poverty, etc. The two basic aspects of access at the household level, physical and economic, have been investigated in the first part of the chapter. The second part of the chapter is devoted to the issue of discriminatory access at the individual level. This involves issues like, caste, gender, etc. reflected in indicators like literacy differentials, wage differentials, sex ratio, land rights to women, etc.
Nutritional Security in Punjab II
Authors: Narang Harpreet Kaur
Published: September 2022

The sixth chapter takes a look at the role of environmental factors in determining nutritional security. The aim is to bring about the impact of a lack of these basic facilities in a developing and a primarily rural economy. By providing data on the social determinants of health, an attempt has been made to investigate the extent of access of the people of the state to these environmental parameters related to education, health, drinking water supply and sanitation and hygiene practices.
The Road Ahead
Authors: Narang Harpreet Kaur
Published: September 2022

The last chapter covers the post-2015 SDG Era. The indicators of the SDGs that reflect and impact the hunger dimensions of India/Punjab have been explored up to the year 2019. The year 2020 being a pandemic year has not been used purposely. In the end, the results have been summarized to provide a clear perspective on the current level of present and potential food security in Punjab, in terms of all its major dimensions—availability, access, absorption, and sustainability. Based on this, an attempt has been made to provide recommendations for the future development of human resources in the state of Punjab.
Parasites in a social world: Lessons from primates
Authors: Sadoughi Baptiste , Anzà Simone , Defolie Charlotte , Manin Virgile , Müller-Klein Nadine , Murillo Tatiana , Ulrich Markus , Wu Doris
Published: September 2022

Social behavior and parasitism interconnect at all levels of sociality, from the community to the population and from the group down to the individual. This chapter explores key findings on the parasite-related costs and benefits of sociality, focusing on primates. The research spans across social networks, dominance and affiliative relationships, and individual behavior and physiology, highlighting established links between primate sociality and parasitism and identifying important gaps for future research. Given the use of nuanced conceptual frameworks and new analytical methods, combined with experimental studies and growing empirical data from long-term field projects, primates are a particularly exciting and helpful taxon for studying sociality-parasite interactions.
Competitions
Authors: Owens David
Published: September 2022

Competitions such as games are meant to be enjoyed but we must explain why competitions are worthy objects of enjoyment. It is widely assumed that the value of competition is purely instrumental. In the case of market competition or academic competition, competitors strive to produce an outcome that is desirable independently of the contest. In the case of games, though their official objective (namely, the thing that counts as winning) is often worthless, trying to win has various beneficial side effects. None of this can be the whole story about the value of competition for such benefits cannot explain why we owe it to our opponents to obey the rules. This chapter examines and rejects various attempts to explain the authority of game rules, e.g. the idea that fairness requires us to obey them or the notion that we have promised to obey them. It instead compares conventions such as game rules to the obligations of friendship. Like friendship, rivalry is a form of human involvement good for its own sake, in part because it binds the parties to obey its rules. Rivals owe it to each other not to cheat, to try hard to win, and so forth, and that fact gives their competitive interactions a special significance. The rules of a competition bind us in part because they realize this deontic value.
The Family
Authors: Owens David
Published: September 2022

Many of the rules governing family life vary from one society to another. For example, local mores require Italians to do more for both their parents and their children than is required of the British. One might try accounting for these variations by claiming that they reflect obligations laid down by pre-conventional principles, principles sensitive to the differing economic and demographic circumstances of Italy and Britain. On the other hand, one might explain these variations by maintaining that though pre-conventional morality mandates neither Italian mores in Italy nor British mores in Britain, once a given family structure has taken root the way it serves our non-normative interests means that we are all obliged to go along with it. This chapter argues that neither explanatory strategy works. We must recognize that part of the function of a family structure is simply to bind relatives to each other. Family structures are composed of hybrid conventions which reflect our deontic as well as our non-deontic interests. The chapter concludes by rebutting critiques of the institution of the family put forward by egalitarians, voluntarists, and universalists.
Privacy and Public Space
Authors: Owens David
Published: September 2022

Norms of privacy draw a line between a private sphere and a public domain by requiring us to control how and when we observe and are observed by others. The function of that boundary is less clear. According to the Traffic Model the line protects an individual’s private sphere from intrusion; the public sphere is simply the space in which these zones of privacy subsist, and the rules governing the public sphere facilitate their peaceful coexistence by rendering persons unobtrusive to one another. As Nagel demonstrates, the Traffic Model can explain certain rules mandating both reticence and discretion. Still, the content of these rules (as described by Goffman, for instance) is simply too rich for this to be the whole story. My alternative, the Theatre Model, gives the public sphere a life of its own, treating norms of privacy as a subset of the rules governing self-presentation in public. Like walking onto the stage, going out in public requires us to play certain social roles, to present ourselves to strangers in a particular fashion; controlling how and when we observe and are observed is one aspect of that self-presentation. Many of these rules are impersonal conventions and it is hard to account for their authority, as Scanlon tries to do, in terms of pre-conventional principles and without allowing that they serve collective deontic interests.
Labor in Hot Climates
Authors: Johnston Katherine
Published: September 2022

Chapter 1 examines the seventeenth-century English Caribbean, analyzing both the transition to enslaved African laborers on plantations and European conceptions of hot climates. Although colonial residents overcame ancient theories of the dangers of hot places, a series of events, including the Western Design and the Port Royal earthquake, solidified the region’s reputation as dangerous and unhealthy. At the same time, the chapter demonstrates that the transition to enslaved Black laborers had nothing to do with perceived climatic suitability. Ultimately, white residents of warm climates learned that they could capitalize on the region’s reputation to achieve various ends.
A Climatic Debate
Authors: Johnston Katherine
Published: September 2022

Chapter 5 examines Parliamentary debates in the 1780s and 1790s over the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. West Indian planters insisted that plantations could never be cultivated without African labor. But others maintained that European bodies could stand the heat of the Americas as long as they were inured to labor. In their repeated petitions to Parliament, though, planters dismissed all history of European labor in the Caribbean colonies, insisting instead on its impossibility. By doing so, they solidified a rhetoric linking climate, race, and the ability to labor and portrayed differences between Black and white bodies as a product of nature.
Conclusion
Authors: Johnston Katherine
Published: September 2022

The conclusion demonstrates how the myth of the labor transition—or the idea that planters in the Caribbean and parts of the American South turned to Black laborers because white people could not stand the climate—became the prevailing narrative of the history of these places. This narrative remained the dominant story even though it had no basis in history, and was instead the product of planters’ determination to use enslaved Black laborers. Because of planters’ claims, and because of the way these claims became ingrained in the public consciousness, ideas about racial difference between Black and white people came to seem natural.
Spanked
Authors: Erickson Christina L.
Published: September 2022

Tracing the history of spanking from our earliest records, the trail of spankings’ influence on society and individuals is explored. The book covers the slow transition from the whip and rod to the hand, the first questioning of spankings’ utility, and the inception of spanking stigma. Stories of religion, school paddling, and the development of child protection in the United States highlight historical factors on the edges of spanking and show their connections to our modern conundrum—why do we hit people smaller than us who we love so much? To understand the real meaning of spanking, the book explores the private lives of family and the public sphere of our social lives. Spanking has been a common and accepted discipline for hundreds of years. Filled with stories of families, researchers, and community organizers, the book helps us see varied angles of family spanking we have avoided for far too long. The research outcomes on spanking are causal and clear, and the data have been repeated in many studies. Brain research, parent child synchrony, touch, trauma, and communication all lead us to new understandings of spanking’s impact on adults and children alike. Maybe most important of all is the question never asked before: Is spanking a child good for the parent? Book group questions and prompts for organizations and professionals provide a framework for conversation and dialogue. A rich appendix includes laws on physical discipline from each state, laws on school paddling, and corporal punishment laws around the world.
Money, Violence, and Connections
Authors: Naqvi Ijlal
Published: September 2022

At the heart of the relationship between citizen and state over access to electrical power lies a personal encounter between consumer and street-level bureaucrat. The parameters of this encounter are shaped by power in the form of money and personal connections, with an underlying threat of violence that usually remains hidden. This is the lowest of the three nested fields that form the scaffolding of this book and in many senses forms the basis for the phenomena discussed at higher levels. Codified rules exist, and certainly matter, but access to them is wrapped in layers of social negotiations and contestations. In this chapter the arc of the book descends to the most basic and direct form of contest over the terms of engagement with the state, which is mostly conducted face to face.
Finding and Vetting Sources
Authors: Ghorayshi Azeen
Published: September 2022

In this chapter, New York Times science writer Azeen Ghorayshi looks at the way journalists both vet their sources and build relationships with them, which can empower important stories. As she notes, establishing trust is essential, and that requires a journalist to show sensitivity and thoughtfulness with sources—and publish stories that are both diligent and fair. Such ethical work can help gain a broader network of people who may come to the journalist with future tips and become sources to turn to for information time and time again. But those relationships also require maintenance. As she also notes: Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and just call sources to chat. Open-ended conversations can often yield story ideas where least expected.
Data Storytelling
Authors: Seife Charles
Published: September 2022

In this chapter, Charles Seife, a journalism professor at New York University and the author of seven books about science, provides sharp and useful advice for journalists working with data. Data sets, he writes, are a never-ending font of ideas for stories that aren’t dependent on scientific journals, conferences, preprints, or scientists’ willingness to talk. Still, he cautions, never make a data set bear the weight of a story alone any more than depend on a single interview for a news story. And though the process of getting a data set to spill its secrets uses a different set of tools than extracting information from interview subjects, the two complement each other beautifully. Human sources often lead to new data sets—and a good data set give information that can sharpen an interview.
Book Writing
Authors: Fagin Dan
Published: September 2022

In this chapter, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Dan Fagin argues that books require more of everything: more planning, more pitching, more research, more travel, more interviews, more outlining, more writing, more rewriting, and then more rewriting. Identifying a central idea—and ensuring that it is an idea that the writer’s passion—is key. Fagin offers practical advice on how to find an agent, put together a proper proposal, and get that proposal in front of publishers. But most importantly, he emphasizes clear strategies for the complex, multiyear process of research and writing that any book project will demand. Organization is critical, as is writing as the book progresses rather than waiting until all research is done. Fagin also offers thoughts on self-marketing and book promotion.
Investigative Science Journalism
Authors: Eban Katherine
Published: September 2022

In this chapter, Katherine Eban, one of the top investigative science journalists working today, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and author of the bestselling Bottle of Lies, offers an insightful overview of the challenges and rewards of a good investigation. The worlds of science and medicine—awash with money and life-and-death stakes—offer the perfect terrain for investigative journalists, she points out. As a journalist becomes more expert, he or she will be able to find and break stories that few others will. It’s not for the faint of heart. Sometimes, the stories are so complex, and the consequences of getting it wrong so serious, that writers might feel like they are doing open heart surgery themselves. But the most rewarding part of the beat is that stories actually have the potential to save lives or explore what took them in the first place.
Medicine
Authors: Rice Sabriya
Published: September 2022

In this chapter, Sabriya Rice, the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism at the University of Georgia, draws on her experience working at outlets such as the Dallas Morning News and CNN to give readers a crash course on navigating the health and medicine beat. Featuring insights from some of the beat’s top reporters, the chapter considers lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, explains what every journalist needs to know about Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) laws, and introduces readers to fundamental strategies for working with health data. Reporters of all stripes will find something useful to take away. As Rice writes, the Covid-19 pandemic has proved that there’s a place on the health and medicine beat for every journalist.
Physics
Authors: Smart Ashley
Published: September 2022

In this chapter, Ashley Smart, former editor at Physics Today and current associate director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, meditates on the challenges of being a physics reporter. Featuring anecdotes and insights from several of the world’s best physics writers, the chapter offers tips on developing a nose for important stories, advice on reporting on difficult subject matter with savvy, and techniques for telling scintillating stories without sensationalizing. As Smart writes, physics reporters strive to capture the wonder and weirdness of a pursuit that continually pushes the limits of human understanding. This chapter gives aspiring physics reporters the tools they need to get started on their journey.
Space
Authors: Drake Nadia
Published: September 2022

In this chapter, Nadia Drake, space reporter for National Geographic, looks at how to cover worlds beyond this one with insight and precision. She notes, the same journalistic practices that produce a solid science story in any beat are applicable here. Journalists should cast a wide net when choosing sources, vet information, check assumptions, and seek outside opinions. Always get the name of the dog or the space robot. But space does have some peculiar challenges: first, aliens. Next, the chief U.S. government agency involved in space happenings is very popular and very concerned with its own image. Space is one of a few beats where a reporter can write a story that has literally nothing to do with Earth—but everything known about the universe starts here, with imperfect humans. Last, space stories can often feel like distractions but the wonder they can inspire is priceless.
Earth Sciences
Authors: Mason Betsy
Published: September 2022

In this chapter, award-winning freelance journalist Betsy Mason takes readers on an insider’s tour of an “underappreciated gem” of a journalistic beat: earth sciences. Mason identifies pitfalls to watch out for when reporting on earthquakes, volcanoes, and other natural catastrophes. She maps out the best places to find fresh and compelling story ideas—from perennial topics like satellite sensing to fringe subjects like stratospheric winds. And she highlights some of the common mistakes reporters make on the beat, along with simple tips to avoid them. Earth science has a little of everything, Mason writes, from geology and geodesy to oceanography and meteorology. This chapter will inspire budding journalists and veteran reporters alike to wet their feet on the beat.
Cybersecurity and National Security
Authors: Zetter Kim
Published: September 2022

In this chapter, veteran cyber- and national security reporter Kim Zetter makes one thing abundantly clear: sourcing matters. Cultivating good sources, and avoiding bad ones, is perhaps the most important aspect of covering a beat populated by experts from the hacking and intelligence worlds—denizens accustomed to operating in the places where deception and anonymity are the norm, and where smoking-gun evidence is classified, out of reach, or easily manipulated. Becoming comfortable with those worlds and the characters that inhabit them is the only reliable way to navigate a subject area that can leave journalists uniquely vulnerable to being duped.
Measuring Success in Science Journalism
Authors: Travis Kate
Published: September 2022

In this chapter, Kate Travis, a freelance journalist and the former digital director of Science News, offers a sharp, savvy guide to measuring story success in terms of impact and the use of analytics to help direct publishing decisions. Analytics are just one part of a larger puzzle in defining what a successful story is and in figuring out what stories readers want from you. Audience metrics should inform journalism, but shouldn’t dictate it. Instinct should also be a factor: Is a particular story idea novel? Surprising? Important? Standard news values still apply when deciding what to cover and when evaluating success. Know the goals and know the audience. Learn the best ways to measure success and how to use the data—and trust a gut reaction—in making decisions about what stories to cover and how best to cover them.
Social Media in Science Journalism
Authors: Neporent Liz
Published: September 2022

Liz Neporent, the executive editor of social media and community at WebMD/Medscape and author of the bestseller Fitness for Dummies, argues that social media is now an integral part of science journalism. Employers want their journalists out there spreading the word about their work, sussing out sources, and becoming “influencers” in their specialties. She shows how to fine-tune and boost your social media voice. It is a nuts-and-bolts beginner’s guide to help you understand the platforms that will work best for you, to learn the rules, to practice the right etiquette, to measure success—and to stay out of trouble.
Narrative Reporting Abroad
Authors: Enserink Martin
Published: September 2022

In this chapter, Martin Enserink, international news editor for the journal Science, elegantly dissects cross-border narrative reporting and explains how to best find a story in different countries and unexpected places. Going on far-flung reporting trips is one of the most exciting and challenging things that a science journalist can do. His advice for such assignments ranges from tips on planning a trip in advance, to connecting with the proper experts, to how to best write a cinematic story even while on the road. With good planning, curiosity, and writing flair, he adds, new worlds will open for readers and produce some of the most rewarding stories of a career.
Reporting in Authoritarian Regimes
Authors: Stone Richard
Published: September 2022

Richard Stone, senior science editor for HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and former international news editor for the journal Science, combines experience and insight from reporting under risky circumstances to craft this chapter on science journalism under authoritarian regimes. Prep hard before a reporting trip, he writes, to gather independently verified information, and be ready to work diligently after you return to vet the reporting you’ve gathered. Avoid flying in under the radar: Reduce risks to yourself and to your sources by obtaining a journalist visa. You may end up burdened with a government minder, but in some countries, few scientists and officials would dare speak with you without such a chaperone. And take care to protect your sources and fixers, especially if your story ends up criticizing or embarrassing a regime.
Collaborative Journalism Across Borders
Authors: Carrillo Iván
Published: September 2022

In this chapter, Mexican journalist Iván Carrillo, host of radio and television science programs broadcast to more than 20 countries, draws on his experience as a cofounder of a cross-border reporting project to look at the rewards and risks of international collaboration. The project, Historias Sin Fronteras (Stories Without Borders), had network journalists throughout Central and South America report on science stories of shared importance, from Covid-19 to environmental destruction of the Amazon and to medical treatment of transgender citizens of Latin American Countries. Carrillo wrote: Cross-border journalism is more than just a tool to publish regional stories—it can put a lens on often-neglected health and environmental issues that affect millions of people. But it’s important not only to practice it but also to maintain and to continue building networks that support such ambitious science journalism.