bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
In Defense of Presentism
Authors: Armitage David 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
Most historians know one thing about presentism: that they are against it. Yet what exactly presentism is, they cannot agree. Is it a focus on modern history or a novel way of thinking confined to the present at the expense of both past and future? Does it mean speaking only to the concerns of the present or recognizing that “all history is contemporary history”? This confusion is a symptom of a deeper quandary: the very purpose of history writing itself. With the help of scholarship on presentism in other disciplines—philosophy, psychology, history of science, literary criticism—this chapter disentangles the various meanings of presentism, presents their ethical implications, and offers a tempered defense of presentism in history as a key to human flourishing.
Well-Being and a Usable Past
Authors: Stearns Peter N. 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
This chapter first briefly considers the ways historical work has already contributed, or sought to contribute, to well-being, and how much change is needed for a tighter linkage. Its main argument focuses on the links between the tremendous expansion of topics historians now consider and the kind of work that will directly support well-being research and strategy. Many of the components currently urged as part of well-being have a history, or can guide further historical work, that will in turn show how trends in modern history support well-being (as in the growing interest in love) but also how certain trends will need to be modified (as in the plea to transform acquisitive consumerism into a greater interest in enriching experiences). Well-being analysis should be anchored in a historically informed understanding of what modern patterns can be built upon, and what need to be explicitly redirected. In addition to love and consumerism, the chapter furthers this argument by briefly noting historical work (or potential work) on trust, anxiety, parenting, gratitude, and loneliness, where research connects directly with well-being priorities. The chapter concludes by noting the need for history to help expand the context in which well-being is discussed, to move away from an unduly individualistic approach toward considering broader social and cultural factors.
Toward a History of Black Happiness
Authors: Bay Mia 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
Happiness is a highly problematic subject in African American history and culture because discussions of happiness or human flourishing among African Americans have often mobilized in support of white supremacy. This chapter offers a brief exploration of the history of black happiness and asks what we can learn from it. In this era of #Black Lives Matter and racism reascendant, can we draw meaningful connections between the study of African American history and positive psychology—or any form of study of the cultivation of well-being? Proponents of positive psychology tend to see human flourishing as a positive ideal; however, this overview of the history of black happiness will suggest that discourses about human happiness and well-being can have many uses, not all of which are positive.
Before and after Babel
Authors: Van De Mieroop Marc 
Published: December 2022

Abstract“The Lord confused the language of all the earth,” so says the Tower of Babel story in the Hebrew Bible to explain why people communicate in countless languages while previously they spoke only one. This book argues that something like the biblical confusion really happened in the ancient Near East, not in speech but in writing. It examines the millennia-long history of writing there and shows a radical change from the third and second millennia to the first millennium bc. While before Babel any intellectual who wrote did so as a participant in a cosmopolitan tradition with its roots in Babylonia, its language and its cuneiform script, after Babel people from all over the eastern Mediterranean, including Greece, used a profusion of vernacular languages and scripts to express themselves. Yet they did so in dialogue with the Babylonian cuneiform tradition still maintained by the successive empires that controlled their world, oftentimes as acts of resistance, aware of cosmopolitan ideas and motifs but subverting them. As a way to frame the rich intellectual history of this region in the ancient past, the book describes and analyzes the cosmopolitan and vernacular systems, how they interacted in multiple and intricate ways, and what the consequences were.
Mystery Guardians of an Ancient Tradition
Authors: Van De Mieroop Marc 
Published: December 2022

AbstractWhen Babylon’s control over southern Babylonia ended in 1712, literary productivity there seems to have ceased, although it continued to flourish in northern Babylonia. Teachers and scholars in the north worked with the same materials as their southern Babylonian predecessors but modified them and they developed Akkadian language materials further. This activity persisted until the end of Hammurabi’s dynasty in 1595, when a Dark Age to last until the 14th century descended all over Babylonia. Yet scribes from other regions maintained the literate tradition during the Babylonian Dark Age. Evidence from Hattusas, Tikunani, the Sealand, and Susa shows a sustained interaction with existing materials and their elaboration involving a high degree of creativity. This chapter describes the work of scribes in these places and argues that they are to be seen as essential figures in the history of Babylonian literate culture, who turned that culture into a truly cosmopolitan one.
The Height of Cosmopolitanism
Authors: Van De Mieroop Marc 
Published: December 2022

AbstractIn the second half of the second millennium bc, Babylonian literate cosmopolitanism was at its height with courts all over the Near East, including in Egypt, employing scribes who could write the language and the cuneiform script. Alongside it, other languages appeared, some of them written in distinct scripts. The multilingualism is extremely well documented in Hittite Hattusas, where a variety of local and translocal languages were used. The evidence on lexical materials and belles-lettres from various sites in Syria, Canaan, Elam, and Egypt shows multiple attitudes toward the Babylonian tradition but also a widespread familiarity with it. In their letter correspondence, scribes wrote a variety of contact languages, mixing local features with the cosmopolitan, but the latter held the system together. Early alphabetic scripts emerged, each one of them used in restricted areas in Syria-Palestine alone, while the use of Babylonian cuneiform to write local languages also expanded throughout the Near East. In this world Babylonia and Assyria stood out, the former under a dynasty speaking the foreign Kassite language and with little preserved evidence of literate creativity, the latter adopting Babylonia’s literate culture wholesale.
Coda
Authors: Van De Mieroop Marc 
Published: December 2022

AbstractCuneiform, the script invented in southern Babylonia in the late fourth millennium BC, was soon used there to write two very distinct languages, Sumerian and Akkadian, as well as the two combined in bilingual texts. Part I of this book showed that already in the third millennium the script and languages became the only acceptable means to record highly literate materials throughout the Near East. Irrespective of what language writers throughout the region spoke, they all contributed to the preservation and development of Babylonian literate culture. The upheavals of 1200 BC ended this cosmopolitan system, however, and triggered a new world in which vernaculars became acceptable means of literate expression. That new world will be discussed in Part II.
Scrupulous Continuity
Authors: Van De Mieroop Marc 
Published: December 2022

AbstractWhile empires with their political centers in Assyria and Babylonia dominated the history of the first-millennium bc Near East, the supremacy of Babylonia in literate cultural terms ended at the time. Yet in Mesopotamia itself cosmopolitan literature and scholarship written in cuneiform script and in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages separately and bilingually flourished, with scribes rigorously maintaining old traditions and proudly proclaiming intellectual connections with sages and scholars of the past. Rich evidence from several libraries, both institutional and private, shows intense scribal activity in the preservation, elaboration, and analysis of older works as well as the creation of new ones in all three idioms.
Luwian
Authors: Van De Mieroop Marc 
Published: December 2022

AbstractFrom around 1200 to around 700 bc, rulers of various states in southern Anatolia and northern Syria commissioned inscriptions in Luwian and in the logo-syllabic hieroglyphic script uniquely used for that language, both already attested in the second millennium for monumental royal proclamations. The first millennium texts were mostly building inscriptions and often appeared in multilingual and multiscriptual contexts in combination with Akkadian, Aramaic, and Phoenician texts. They show how the lords of small principalities communicated to diverse local populations and at the same time interacted with the ever-expanding Assyrian Empire, which ultimately would end the region’s political independence. The inscriptions show a revival of a second millennium scribal system but in an entirely new context, emphasizing local identity in an imperial world.
From Minority Languages to World Literatures
Authors: Van De Mieroop Marc 
Published: December 2022

AbstractSometime in the early first millennium bc, Greek speakers borrowed the alphabet from the Phoenicians and adapted it to render vowels as well as consonants. All aspects of these processes are much debated in scholarship. Alongside the transmission of the technology of writing, elements of the literate culture of the Near East became familiar to Greeks. A comparison of stories about creation, the concept of the “bitter sea,” and law codes shows the repetition and reformulation of Near Eastern ideas. A major question is how elements of Babylonian writings could have found their way to Greece, and considering the latter as part of a Greco-Levantine cultural world provides an answer. The Greek attitude toward writing was fundamentally different from the Babylonian one, seeing it as an inferior reproduction of speech and as an instrument of oppression. Yet after the 5th century the technology flourished with a rich production of literary and scholarly works, the latter based on empirical principles rather than philological ones.
The Vernacular and Its Consequences
Authors: Van De Mieroop Marc 
Published: December 2022

AbstractThe writings produced in the Near East and eastern Mediterranean in the first millennium bc document how many vernaculars, each with its own script, were used simultaneously and that the region was characterized by its multilingualism (a feature true throughout its history). The interactions with the cosmopolitan tradition preserved by a succession of empires (Assyrian, Babylonian, Achaemenid, Seleucid, and Parthian) show a range of attitudes that can be analyzed through a postcolonial lens as forms of resistance. For most genres of writing the switch to the vernacular required choices not only of language and script but also of the writing tools. The agents in the movement to write vernaculars were members of the courts, not the wider population, which refutes the commonly accepted idea that the alphabet triumphed in writing because it did not require a palace infrastructure to be taught. The multilingualism that often appears in inscriptions also challenges the notion that vernaculars were expressions of national identities. The rise of vernaculars in writing needs to be seen within the context of local elites in dialogue with the empires and the cosmopolitan literate tradition. Their emergence in alphabetic scripts had as consequence, albeit unintended, that the focus on the written text in epistemology was replaced by one that investigated physical reality instead.
Epilogue
Authors: Van De Mieroop Marc 
Published: December 2022

AbstractWith the creation of the Hellenistic world, people in a vast region came in contact with the literature and scholarship that had developed previously in Greece and in the Greek language. Those included inhabitants of Babylonia who still maintained the age-old cuneiform heritage, a small but creative group who continued to do so 400 more years. The interactions between the two cultures involved both the adoption of Babylonian practices by Greeks rulers such as Antiochus I Soter and attempts to present them to the new audience in Greek terms by scholars like Berossus. Some members of the Babylonian elites adopted Greek names and may have acted as intermediaries between the two cultures. Babylonian astronomy and astrology radically influenced these sciences throughout the Hellenistic world, something that required individuals with expertise in both Babylonian and Greek practices. The so-called Greco-Babyloniaca tablets suggest that Babylonians literate in cuneiform studied the Greek alphabet, but this was an epistemological dead end. Within this cultural mix Aramaic is often considered to have been a continuation of Babylonian practices, more accessible to people who did not know cuneiform, but we should regard Aramaic and Greek together as a literate tradition distinct from the Babylonian one. Finally a Hellenistic cosmopolis came to dominate, one that in turn was replaced by later multilingual Middle Eastern examples.
Justice Black
Authors: Silber Norman I. 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
This chapter relates Guido’s experience as a clerk to Justice Hugo Lafayette Black. Black joined the Supreme Court in August 1937, as the first appointee of Franklin D. Roosevelt. As a Senator from Alabama, Black had taken a leadership role supporting New Deal measures, including FDR’s court-packing proposal. Roosevelt named seven more allies as vacancies occurred: Stanley Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Frank Murphy, James [“Jimmy”] Byrnes, Robert Jackson, and Wiley Rutledge. The New Deal justices were initially all deferential to FDR’s executive and legislative programs, but incursions on civil liberties and assertions of executive power exposed sharp divisions among them. Twenty years after Black took his seat, Guido joined Justice Black’s chambers for the 1958–1959 term of the Court. By then only three New Dealers remained—Black, Douglas, and Frankfurter. There were two Truman appointees—Harold Burton and Tom Clark; and four Eisenhower appointees—Earl Warren (the “Chief”), John Marshall Harlan, William J. Brennan, Jr., and Charles Whittaker. Potter Stewart replaced Harold Burton during the term.
Teaching Aware
Authors: Silber Norman I. 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
This chapter speaks to Guido’s teaching over the years. Professors of law who began their teaching closer to the middle of the twentieth century had few chances to learn to teach before they began and not a lot of feedback from their peers. They mainly looked to their own learning experiences and to colleagues as models and for advice. Teaching his first law school class in 1959, Guido drew chiefly on these sources and on the traditions of teaching he found in his family. As he matured, so did his teaching. Guido reflects on the evolution of his personal approaches, and his more general views about the nature of legal education.
Seeds of Doubt
Authors: Mazaheri Nimah 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
In the Middle East, hydrocarbon citizens hold more negative attitudes about democracy compared to people in the oil-poor states. People in oil-rich states are more likely to believe that economic performance is weak in a democratic system, democratic systems are indecisive and full of problems, democratic systems are not effective at maintaining stability, a democratic system is not better than other political systems, and democracy is inappropriate for their country. These attitudes hold after controlling for many factors in a basic statistical analysis. However, not all hydrocarbon citizens hold the same beliefs about democracy. Age, education, and economic status are positively associated with democratic attitudes. Women are more likely to fear the potentially destabilizing effects of democracy. Since the Arab Spring, democratic attitudes grew more positive in oil-poor Jordan than in oil-rich Algeria.
Conclusion
Authors: Mazaheri Nimah 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
Oil’s transformative impact on Middle Eastern nations can be vividly observed in the ways that citizens think about their government and national politics. Compared to citizens in countries without oil, hydrocarbon citizens tend to hold more positive perceptions about their government’s performance across many policy areas, and they are more skeptical about the merits of democracy. These findings are crucial to keep in mind as these countries chart their own political futures in a region increasingly swept up by chaos and disorder. There are forces that push some hydrocarbon citizens to endorse political change and support democracy, but there are more powerful forces that pull them away.
Introduction
Authors: Berman Greg , Fox Aubrey 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
The introduction makes the argument that gradualism is well suited to the current moment in which a shared sense of reality has fractured. Far from being a tired concession to an unjust status quo, incremental reform is the best way to address social problems in a climate where it is difficult to agree on basic facts, let alone expensive, large-scale government intervention. In making the case for the virtues of incrementalism, the book is organized into three sections, each drawing on a diverse set of case studies. The first section examines the real-world considerations that made radical change difficult in the American context. The second looks at successful examples of incrementalism in action, and the final section fleshes out the details of a brand of gradualism well suited for the current moment. The book concludes by helping readers understand how to avoid the disappointment that comes from living in a world of overinflated expectations.
How New York City Reduced Crime and Incarceration
Authors: Berman Greg , Fox Aubrey 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
Chapter 5 offers a case study in “accidental incrementalism.” A generation ago, New York City’s jail population ballooned to more than 22,000, and the city seemed stuck in a downward spiral of soaring crime rates and ever-expanding incarceration. Today, New York is in a very different place. Even after a rise in shootings during the pandemic, it is still one of the safest big cities in the country and it has fewer than 5,500 people in jail. One of the striking things about New York City’s jail population is that it has gone down almost every year since 1989. No single policy change sparked the decline. Instead, a series of mostly unheralded innovations—what New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik has called “a thousand small sanities”—set the wheels in motion. The reduced use of incarceration in New York City is a case study of how years of gradual improvement can add up to sweeping change.
The Immigration System’s Hidden Strengths
Authors: Berman Greg , Fox Aubrey 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
Chapter 6 looks at one of the most controversial issues in American politics: immigration. The history of immigration policy in the United States is messy, ugly, and rife with racism—for decades, immigrants from “White” countries were explicitly favored over immigrants from non-White nations. Yet, for all of its flaws, American immigration policy has also helped fuel much of the social, cultural, and economic dynamism of the United States. Immigration policy is an example of “hidden incrementalism”: when it has worked best, it has done so out of the spotlight of public and political scrutiny. The American approach is also oriented to immigrant self-selection rather than top-down identification of particularly desirable immigrants, which offers distinct benefits as well.
The Four Core Values of Incrementalism
Authors: Berman Greg , Fox Aubrey 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
Despite the demonstrable success of the incremental approach to change, it remains highly unpopular amongst the chattering class. Chapter 8 articulates four core elements of incrementalism and explains how each of these values is under threat at the moment. In particular, the authors offer a plea for greater honesty and humility in the public square. They argue that people of good faith have been attempting to solve problems like violence, racism, and poverty for generations. These are complicated problems that defy easy solutions. Indeed, there are no solutions – only trade-offs. Greater honesty about this reality would help reduce political polarization and improve public trust in government.
Toward Principled Contextualism in Responding to Organized Non-State Violence
Authors: Ohlin Jens David , Regan Mitt 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
States responding to violence by non-state organized armed groups must decide whether to proceed either under law enforcement standards governed by human rights principles—the crime paradigm—or by the law of armed conflict—the war paradigm. Each paradigm is premised on a standard conception of either policing, which imposes stringent limits on the deprivation of life and liberty, or combat, which provides more expansive permissions. Many hostilities between states and non-state armed groups, however, do not conform to the standard conception of either paradigm. This can lead states to turn to the war paradigm based on the belief that proceeding under the crime paradigm will be ineffective to quell violence. This tendency has been especially pronounced in the US response to transnational terrorist organizations. The chapters in this book question whether this binary approach is sensible and discuss possibilities for relying on a more contextual approach that combines elements of both paradigms. They examine whether this approach can draw in a principled way on the underlying concerns of each paradigm to avoid purely ad hoc decision-making. This introductory chapter provides a short description of the contributions and the ways in which they apply this perspective to a range of issues.
Non-State Actors, Terrorism, and the War Paradigm Revisited
Authors: Cantey Seth 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
This chapter revisits the debate that emerged in the aftermath of 9/11 about how best to conceptualize the ongoing politico-military struggle against violent extremism. It draws on ideas from legal, academic, and policy circles in the United States to examine the allure of metaphors and analogies in the struggle against terrorism, as well as arguments for and against the war paradigm. The principal argument is that adoption of the war paradigm since 9/11 has been detrimental to our understanding of what counterterrorism is and should be. Although this understanding seems to have resonated with President Barack Obama, the stickiness of the paradigm has facilitated the treatment of counterterrorism as war across three presidencies. The corollary augmentation of executive power over the past two decades has implications for the future course of the struggle, including with regard to domestic and international law.