Feature Reviews

Abstract

Deutsch, Kenneth L., and John A. Murley, eds. Leo Strauss, the Straussians, and the Study of the American Regime Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield 467 pp., $70.00 cloth, $29.95 paper ISBN 0-8476-8691-4 cloth, ISBN 0-8476-8692-2 paper Publication Date: October 1999

UNITED STATES: Politics and Public Policy: McElroy, John Harmon American Beliefs: What Keeps a Big Country and a Diverse People United Chicago: Ivan R. Dee 260 pp., $25.00 cloth, $14.95 paper ISBN 1-56663-231-5 cloth ISBN 1-56663-314-1 paper Publication Date: April 1999

Leo, Richard A., and George C. Thomas III, eds. The Miranda Debate: Law, Justice, and Policing Boston: Northeastern University Press 339 pp., $24.95 paper, $55.00 cloth ISBN 1-55553-338-8 cloth ISBN 1-55553-422-8 paper Publication Date: February 2000

Bums, James MacGregor, and Georgia J. Sorenson Dead Center: Clinton-Gore Leadership and the Perils of Moderation New York: Simon and Schuster 416 pp., $27.50, ISBN 0-684-83778-1 Publication Date: November 1999

Freeman, Jo, and Victoria Johnson, eds. Waves of Protest: Social Movements since the Sixties Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield 381 pp., $72.00 cloth, $23.95 paper ISBN 0-8476-8747-3 cloth ISBN 0-8476-8748-1 paper Publication Date: June 1999

Peters, Shawn Francis Judging Jehovah's Witnesses: Religious Persecution and the Dawn of the Rights Revolution Lawrence: University Press of Kansas 342 pp., $34.95, ISBN 0-7006-1008-1 Publication Date: April 2000

Pryor, Frederic L., and David L. Schaffer Who's Not Working and Why: Employment, Cognitive Skills, Wages, and the Changing U.S. Labor Market New York: Cambridge University Press 300 pp., $34.95, ISBN 0-521-65152-2 Publication Date: January 1999

Weber, Ronald E., and Paul Brace, eds. American State and Local Politics: Directions for the Twenty-first Century New York: Seven Bridges Press/Chatham House 361 pp., $29.95 paper ISBN 1-56643-071-2 paper Publication Date: September 1999

McAvoy, Gregory E. Controlling Technocracy: Citizen Rationality and the NIMBY Syndrome Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press 168 pp., $55.00 cloth, $18.95 paper ISBN 0-87840-740-5 cloth ISBN 0-87840-741-3 paper Publication Date: October 1999

Uslaner, Eric M. The Movers and the Shirkers: Representatives and Ideologues in the Senate Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press 234 pp., $44.50, ISBN 0-472-10943-X Publication Date: September 1999

Mazur, Eric Michael The Americanization of Religious Minorities: Confronting the Constitutional Order Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press 196 pp., $38.00, ISBN 0-8018-6220-5 Publication Date: November 1999

Sharpe, Elaine B., ed. Culture Wars and Local Politics Lawrence: University Press of Kansas 250 pp., $35.00 cloth. $16.95 paper ISBN 0-7006-0935-0 cloth ISBN 0-7006-0936-9 paper Publication Date: 1999

Orr, Marion Black Social Capital: The Politics of School Reform in Baltimore, 1986-1998 Lawrence: University Press of Kansas 241 pp., $35.00 cloth, $17.95 paper ISBN 0-7006-0981-4 cloth ISBN 0-7006-0982-2 paper Publication Date: October 1999

Scotchie, Joseph, ed. The Paleoconservatives: New Voices of the Old Right New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction 212 pp., $29.95, ISBN 1-56000-427-4 Publication Date: April 1999

Lamis, Alexander P., ed. Southern Politics in the 1990s Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press 490 pp., $39.95, ISBN 0-8071-2374-9 Publication Date: September 1999

Phillips, Kimberley L. Alabama North: African-American Migrants, Community, and Working-Class Activism in Cleveland, 1915-1945 Champaign: University of Illinois Press 334 pp., $59.95 cloth, $21.95 paper ISBN 0-252-02477-X cloth ISBN 0-252-06793-2 paper Publication Date: December 1999

Horwitz, Morton J. The Warren Court and the Pursuit of Justice: A Critical Issue New York: Hill and Wang 132 pp., $10.00 paper ISBN 0-8090-1625-7 paper Publication Date: April 1999

Portz, John, Lana Stein, and Robin R. Jones City Schools and City Politics: Institutions and Leadership in Pittsburgh, Boston, and St. Louis Lawrence: University Press of Kansas 199 pp., $35.00 cloth, $16.95 paper ISBN 0-7006-0979-2 cloth ISBN 0-7006-0980-6 paper Publication Date: September 1999

Jones, Charles O. Clinton and Congress, 1993-1996: Risk, Restoration, and Reelection Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 221 pp., $26.95, ISBN 0-8061-3164-0 Publication Date: October 1999

UNITED STATES: Foreign Policy and National Security: Luck, Edward C. Mixed Messages: American Politics and International Organization, 1919-1999 Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press 374 pp. + xvii, $49.95 cloth, $19.95 paper ISBN 0-8157-5308-X cloth ISBN 0-8157-5307-1 paper Publication Date: November 1999

Ninkovich, Frank The Wilsonian Century: U.S. Foreign Policy since 1900 Chicago: University of Chicago Press 320 pp., $27.50, ISBN 0-226-58648-0 Publication Date: January 1999

Carothers, Thomas Aiding Democracy Abroad: The Learaing Curve Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 408 pp., $39.95 cloth, $19.95 paper ISBN 0-87003-168-6 cloth ISBN 0-87003-169-4 paper Publication Date: November 1999

Cossa, Ralph A., ed. U.S.-Korea-Japan Relations: Building toward a “Virtual Alliance” Washington, DC: CSIS Press 207 pp., $21.95 paper ISBN 0-89206-358-0 paper Publication Date: December 1999

Gienow-Hecht, Jessica C. E. Transmission Impossible: American Journalism as Cultural Diplomacy in Postwar Germany, 1945-1955 Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press 230 pp., $47.50 cloth, $22.50 paper ISBN 0-8071-2310-2 cloth ISBN 0-8071-2409-5 paper Publication Date: November 1999

Mermin, Jonathan Debating War and Peace: Media Coverage of U.S. Intervention in the Post-Vietnam Era Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 162 pp., $45.00 cloth, $14.95 paper ISBN 0-691-00533-8 cloth ISBN 0-691-00534-6 paper Publication Date: January 1999

CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA: Grandin, Greg The Blood of Guatemala: A History of Race and Nation Durham, NC: Duke University Press 343 pp., $54.95 cloth, $18.95 paper ISBN 0-8223-2458-X cloth ISBN 0-8223-2495-4 paper Publication Date: June 2000

Hanchard, Michael, ed. Racial Politics in Contemporary Brazil Durham, NC: Duke University Press 225 pp., $49.95 cloth, $17.95 paper ISBN 0-8223-2252-8 cloth ISBN 0-8223-2272-2 paper Publication Date: September 1999

Pollack, Marcelo The New Right in Chile, 1973-1997 New York: St. Martin's Press 235 pp., $65.00, ISBN 0-312-22278-5 Publication Date: November 1999

EUROPE/COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES: Sherrington, Philippa The Council of Ministers: Political Authority in the European Union New York: Pinter 213 pp., $69.95 cloth, $24.95 paper ISBN 1-85567-594-3 cloth ISBN 1-85567-721-0 paper Publication Date: April 2000

Dallin, Alexander, and F. I. Firsov, eds.; trans. Vadim A. Staklo (documents) Dimitrov and Stalin, 1934-1943: Letters from the Soviet Archives New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 278 pp., $35.00, ISBN 0-300-08021-2 Publication Date: April 2000

DeClair, Edward G. Politics on the Fringe: The People, Policies, and Organization of the French National Front Durham, NC: Duke University Press 261 pp., $49.95 cloth, $17.95 paper ISBN 0-8223-2237-4 cloth ISBN 0-8223-2139-4 paper Publication Date: August 1999

Ayçoberry, Pierre; trans. Janet Lloyd The Social History of the Third Reich, 1933-1945 New York: New Press 380 pp., $30.00, ISBN 1-56584-549-8 Publication Date: 1999

Huskey, Eugene Presidential Power in Russia Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe 295 pp., $64.95 cloth, $24.95 paper ISBN 1-56324-536-1 cloth ISBN 1-56324-537-X paper Publication Date: September 1999

AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST: Inbar, Efraim Rabin and Israel's National Security Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press/Woodrow Wilson Center Press 276 pp., $32.00, ISBN 0-8018-6217-5 Publication Date: March 1999

Lynch, Marc State Interests and Public Spheres: The International Politics of Jordan's Identity New York: Columbia University Press 327 pp., $49.50 cloth, $18.50 paper ISBN 0-231-11322-6 cloth ISBN 0-231-11323-4 paper Publication Date: September 1999

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC: Baker, Richard W., M. Hadi Soesastro, J. Kristiadi, and Douglas E. Ramage, eds. Indonesia: The Challenge of Change New York: St. Martin's Press 305 pp., $55.00, ISBN 0-312-22261-0 Publication Date: July 1999

Zheng, Yongnian Discovering Chinese Nationalism in China: Modernization, Identity, and International Relations New York: Cambridge University Press 189 pp., $64.95 cloth, $19.95 paper ISBN 0-521-64180-2 cloth ISBN 0-521-64590-5 paper Publication Date: April 1999

Oi, Jean C., and Andrew G. Walder, eds. Property Rights and Economic Reform in China Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press 354 pp., $60.00 cloth, $22.95 paper ISBN 0-8047-3456-9 cloth ISBN 0-8047-3788-6 paper Publication Date: Septmenber 1999

Jumper, Roy Davis Linville Orang Asli Now: The Orang Asli in the Malaysian Political World Lanham, MD: University Press of America 204 pp., $48.00, ISBN 0-7618-1441-8 Publication Date: August 1999

Gong, Gerrit W., ed. Taiwan Strait Dilemmas: China-Taiwan-U.S. Policies in the New Century Washington, DC: CSIS Press 171 pp., $21.95 paper ISBN 0-89206-363-7 paper Publication Date: March 2000

Ruffin, M. Holt, and Daniel C. Waugh, eds. Civil Society in Central Asia Seattle: University of Washington Press 331 pp., $19.95 paper ISBN 0-295-97795-7 paper Publication Date: July 1999

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, LAW, AND ORGANIZATION: Morgan, Patrick M., and Keith L. Nelson, eds. Re-Viewing the Cold War: Domestic Factors and Foreign Policy in the East-West Confrontation Westport, CT: Praeger 223 pp., $69.50 cloth, $24.95 paper ISBN 0-275-96636-4 cloth ISBN 0-275-96637-2 paper Publication Date: March 2000

Becker, David G., and Richard L. Sklar, eds. Postimperialism and World Politics Westport, CT: Praeger 393 pp., $69.50, ISBN 0-275-96613-5 Publication Date: July 1999

Levering, Ralph, and Miriam L. Levering Citizen Action for Global Change: The Neptune Group and Law of the Sea Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press 189 pp., $19.95 paper ISBN 0-8156-2794-7 paper Publication Date: January 1999

Clarke, Desmond M., and Charles Jones, eds. The Rights of Nations: Nations and Nationalism in a Changing World New York: St. Martin's Press 208 pp., $59.95 cloth, $18.95 paper ISBN 0-312-22594-6 cloth ISBN 0-312-22595-4 paper Publication Date: September 1999

Krasner, Stephen D. Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 264 pp., $49.50 cloth, $16.95 paper ISBN 0-691-00702-0 cloth ISBN 0-691-00711-X paper Publication Date: September 1999

COMPARATIVE POLITICS: Christensen, Tom, and B. Guy Peters Structure, Culture, and Governance: A Comparison of Norway and the United States Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield 194 pp., $65.00 cloth, $22.95 paper ISBN 0-8476-9313-9 cloth ISBN 0-8476-9314-7 paper Publication Date: September 1999

Setälä, Maija Referendums and Democratic Government: Normative Theory and the Analysis of Institutions New York: St. Martin's Press 200 pp., $69.95, ISBN 0-312-22101-0 Publication Date: May 1999

THEORY AND METHODOLOGY: Duncan, Christopher M. Fugitive Theory: Political Theory, the Southern Agrarians, and America Lanham, MD: Lexington Books 243 pp., $69.00, ISBN 0-7391-0088-2 Publication Date: December 1999

Walzer, Michael, Menachem Lorberbaum, and Noam J. Zohar, eds.; and Yair Lorberbaum, coeditor The Jewish Political Tradition: Vol. 1, Authority New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 578 pp., $35.00, ISBN 0-300-07822-6 Publication Date: June 2000

Kolnai, Aurel; ed. Daniel J. Mahoney “Privilege and Liberty” and Other Essays in Political Philosophy Lanham, MD: Lexington Books 187 pp., $65.00 cloth, $23.95 paper ISBN 0-7391-0076-9 cloth ISBN 0-7391-0077-7 paper Publication Date: January 2000     

Feature Reviews

Abstract

Thomas Jefferson, in his Notes on the State of Virginia, first published and distributed to the American public in 1787, presented his mature thoughts on politics, amid a vast array of themes reflective of his own encyclopedic studies. The diverse contents and unusual form of the work have often led modern readers to neglect its overarching political purpose. We argue that when read as a unified whole shaped by an explicit literary structure and rational method, Jefferson's Notes lays the foundation for a new science of republican politics. By engaging and revising key aspects of both the Bible and Enlightenment science, whenever either asserts authoritative claims beyond rational scrutiny that obscure or distort nature, Jefferson overturns false idols that impede our inquiry into natural laws and natural right, and the proper grounds of republican government.     

Law,Courts, and the Judicial Process

Abstract

In I Am Charlotte Simmons, Tom Wolfe explores how precarious the pursuit of happiness is in our liberal society, which provides insufficient moral support for individuals to resist following popular opinion in their pursuit of happiness. For Wolfe, the first step of the pursuit of happiness requires the courage to resist popular opinion and to seek an answer to what happiness is for oneself. As Wolfe shows, our universities are neglecting their task to prepare individuals with a liberal education to guide them on how to live as politically and morally free beings who are responsible for pursuing happiness. Despite appearing to be proud and independent, Charlotte Simmons's education fails to provide her with the moral courage to resist peer pressure. At her university, she adopts scientific viewpoints that undermine political and moral liberty and teach her that her superior intelligence and education are tools of domination. Charlotte puts them in service of gaining popularity. Instead of bringing her happiness, her pursuit of popularity leads to discontentment. Since liberalism provides incomplete moral guidance, Wolfe turns to ancient thinkers to find support for the courage to use political liberty to think about what happiness is and how it is to be pursued. In contrast to Charlotte, Jojo, a star basketball player, turns toward the pursuit of a liberal education to live as a free being and to seek happiness.     

A comparative survey of the economic decline of Empires

Abstract

On 15 December 1965 Tanzania broke off diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom (UK) because of Harold Wilson's policy towards Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). Although Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere took this course of action to comply with a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Organisation of African Unity, he made the support for Rhodesian independence a central pillar of Tanzania's nation-building project. Since 1967 human dignity, African liberation and opposition to racialism and colonialism became central tenets of both Tanzania's foreign policy as well as the Ujamaa socialist policy implemented internally by its government. The loss of a British £ 7.5 million loan notwithstanding, Tanzania's unyielding criticism of British policy towards UDI strengthened Nyerere's national and international legitimacy and reinforced the Tanganyika African National Union's hegemony over the national political space. Relations between Tanzania and the UK were finally restored in July 1968, after the other African governments had re-established them. Nyerere felt sure that this policy reversal would not put at risk his government's political legitimacy.     

The Later Jefferson and the Problem of Natural Rights

Abstract

The late Jefferson presents a puzzle to scholars. In his last years the author of the Declaration of Independence strongly opposed the Missouri Compromise and set important precedents for the political strategy of the antebellum South. This essay argues that these problematic aspects of Jefferson's career are more closely linked to his natural rights doctrine than is generally recognized and extend tendencies already present in Jefferson's draft of the Declaration. Unlike previous scholars who explain Jefferson's problematic politics by his racism or the inherent selfishness of Lockean natural right, I argue that the core flaw in Jefferson's natural rights doctrine is the encouragement it gives to self-righteousness. Because he responded to the problem of slavery in a spirit of angry self-defense, Jefferson's understanding of natural rights blinded him to the ways in which his actions strengthened slavery and undermined his own most cherished political achievements.     

The Diffusion of Sovereignty

Summary

The transmission of ideas about sovereignty and its related practices from one time, place, or intellectual context to another is sometimes characterised as a process of ‘diffusion’ or even ‘contagion’. Intellectual historians may use such metaphors but the explanations they provide are historical, not scientific. Sovereignty was transmitted when European states brought their forms of government to other peoples and when those peoples embraced such forms in declaring their independence from imperial rule. It was also transmitted when the idea of sovereignty was itself transformed in the course of these and other historical passages. In Foundations of Modern International Thought, David Armitage explores some of these historical passages, the outcome of which he sees as the world of sovereign states that defines the modern period and the disappearance of which would signal its end. In doing so, he illuminates the larger enterprise of writing the history of international thought or, as he prefers to call it, international intellectual history, inviting reflection on its relationship to other kinds of historical inquiry and the opportunities and dangers it poses.     

A Little Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing: What We Know about the Role of the Media in State Politics

Abstract

This article explores the intellectual itinerary of the contemporary French political philosopher Pierre Manent. In particular, it highlights his efforts to do justice to the three great “poles” of human existence: philosophy, politics, and religion. Manent is shown to be a philosophically minded Christian, one who thinks politically and who rejects the temptation to “despise the temporal order.” Manent's reservations about the European project in its present form are shown to be rooted in a understanding of politics that emphasizes the need to weave together “communion” and “consent” if Europeans are to avoid administrative despotism and those postpolitical fantasies that prevent them from thinking and acting politically. The article ends with a reflection on Manent's impressive history of “political forms” in the Western world.     

Lincoln,Race, and the Spirit of ’76

Abstract

This essay examines how Lincoln dealt with race, slavery, and emancipation in antebellum America. It argues that despite a few controversial statements and policies regarding black Americans, Lincoln sought to preserve the American union and its system of self-government by reclaiming the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. Unlike U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who exploited white bigotry in his promotion of local “popular sovereignty” as a solution to the slavery controversy, Lincoln highlighted the natural rights of blacks as a way to prevent the spread of slavery and thereby save what he would later call “the last best hope of earth.”     

Strauss,Anastaplo, and Crosskey on "One Hard Nut to Crack": The Declaration of Independence

Abstract

What liberal arts and science faculty's regalia must and must not represent, and why liberal education should endure.     

The theatricality of eating in the life of St. Francis of Assisi

I examine the role of food, eating, and meals in the life of St. Francis of Assisi. I observe that his experience significantly differs from that of the female fasting saints. I show that his concern lies with the justifiability of eating, and that food is associated with dramatic lessons that instruct or chastise others. I argue that, like Christ, Francis uses food and eating to teach, to share a message, or to accept outsiders.     

Teresa's experiences

ABSTRACT

In this article, I examine the notion of personal experience in relation to mysticism. I observe that St. Teresa of Jesus includes both her ordinary and extraordinary experiences in her writings on prayer, and I argue that these experiences are essential to her theology.     

Do we have any genuine works by Aristotle? Francesco Patrizi da Cherso’s discussion of the corpus Aristotelicum

ABSTRACT

This paper deals with the scrutiny, as found in the Discussiones Peripateticae 1, 2–4, to which Francesco Patrizi da Cherso subjected the works of the transmitted corpus Aristotelicum, and those attributed to Aristotle outside the corpus. It explains why Patrizi rejected most of the transmitted ?uvre as spurious, and shows what would have been the most radical consequence of his hyper-critical stance, had it carried the day. Particular attention is paid to contemporary (i.e. sixteenth-century) scholarship available to, and used by, Patrizi.     

The voices of female pilgrims in medieval wills. The Jacobean devotion in Apulia (Italy)

The main topic of this study is to contribute to the study of female sacred mobility in the Middle Ages by proposing a new approach for the analysis of historical sources (wills and bequests), combining quantitative and qualitative methodology. We have set three aims: (1) Reinforcing the female presence within historical documents through their empirical analysis; (2) Reflecting upon female participation in the public sphere; (3) Investigating women’s agency in religious terms. Concerning the geographical context of the research, the historical sources have been retrieved from the Historical Archives of the Italian Region of Apulia (Italy); where we have studied the above mentioned topics in relation to the devotion to St. James (Spain). The first part of the article introduces female mobility to the city of Santiago de Compostela; then, it moves to the forms of devotion to the Apostle St. James the Greater and female pilgrims in Apulia. The present empirical study has the differential to propose a transversal interpretation of the selected historical texts according to the following criteria: (1) Devotion to the Apostle St. James the Greater (2) Female devotion. As well as reinforcing the use of these historical documents to investigate female social behaviour, the research contributes to the study of the female role within the geography of pilgrimage in the following terms: sacred mobility; territorial history and experiential and devotional value.     

Seventeenth-Century Glass Trade Beads from La Salle's Fort St. Louis and the Grand Village of the Kaskaskia

Abstract

Glass trade beads are described here from two seventeenth-century sites located in the upper Illinois Valley, La Salle's 1682–1691 Fort St. Louis and the nearby Grand Village of the Kaskaskia, destroyed during an Iroquois raid in 1680. Simple monochrome drawn beads characterize both bead assemblages and each contains significant percentages of very small (<2 mm) and small (2–4 mm) size beads. Dominant colors are blue, white, and black. Turquoise-blue beads were a staple of the French trade at this time in the Illinois Country, particularly in transactions involving La Salle and his successors based at Fort St. Louis. Comparative treatment provided as part of this research indicates that there are significant similarities between the bead assemblage from Fort St. Louis and the beads recovered from the 1686 wreck of La Salle's ship Belle in Matagorda Bay off the Texas coast.     

Liminality Wanted. Liminal landscapes and literary spaces: The Way of St. James

Abstract

The term limen was introduced to anthropological studies following Van Gennep’s theories (1960) about liminality. Among them, Victor and Edith Turner (1978) defined pilgrimage as a liminal experience, as it implies being between two existential levels that, through rituality, favours reflection. In this sense, the case of The Way of St. James (Spain) is an interesting field or research as it is loaded with contemporary meanings. Its landscapes assume the nature of spiritual and therapeutic ones; here, the physical and built environment, social conditions and human perceptions produce an atmosphere favourable to spiritual healing. On the basis of these emotions, liminality is the essence of this pilgrimage experience, not only during the same, but especially afterwards. As a matter of fact, this spiritual journey involves the search for one’s self once back home, thus acting in the process of formation of the individual. Drawing on the need for improving researches on landscape perception approach in tourism studies, we pretend to singularise the pilgrimage landscape from a liminal perspective in order to point out the need for liminality before, during and after the pilgrimage. This is achieved by exploring perceptions and emotions expressed in a corpus of travel literary production. These narrative works are not limited to describe the pilgrimage experiences; rather they make liminality a literary theme to magnify their experiences. As a result, the concept of liminal literary landscape is used to refer to pilgrims’ desire to revive liminality through the pages of travel narratives, in order to continue enjoying these emotions and feelings. These travel narratives are producing new literary modes based on the geographical exploration of the landscapes of The Way in relation to human feelings.     

Skeletal trauma in the burials from the royal church of St. Mary in medieval Oslo

The considerable collection of skeletal remains from the royal Church of St. Mary (c.1050–1540 AD) in Oslo constitutes part of The Schreiner Collection at the Department of Anatomy, University of Oslo. The remains reveal a high incidence of skeletal trauma, especially injuries caused by sharp‐edged weapons and extensive violence. Evidence of sharp force trauma was primarily observed on the crania. There were a surprisingly few injuries on postcranial skeletal elements. The injuries were mostly observed on middle‐aged and older men, but also on women and subadults. Some of these injuries may be linked to the civil wars in Norway during the 12th and 13th centuries. In most cases, the trauma distribution pattern suggests standardized fighting techniques. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Environmental Degradation of Russian Coastal Regions: Exploring the Gulf of Finland

An American geographer and Russian ecologist discuss current and prospective environmental hazards precipitated by large-scale infrastructure projects on Russia's southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. The region, investigated by both authors during the course of regular field research from 1999 to 2009, is one of the best environmentally preserved coastlines of the Baltic Sea with abundant potential greenfield sites, largely due to its closed-border-zone status during the Soviet period. A favorable location for trade also places the region under intense development pressure. The authors devote particular attention to two major developments, a multifunctional port complex (which inter alia serves as a major pipeline terminus and oil export port) and expansion of an existing nuclear power plant. Based on extensive personal observations and government documents, they analyze the emerging environmental threat posed by these initiatives as well as the challenging political environment that discourages public participation and local involvement in spatial planning.