Two Surveys of Islamic Civilization

Book reviewed in this article: The Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam: Rudolph Peters The Last Great Muslim Empires: History of the Muslim World: Hans J. Kissling et al     

Re(ge)ndering Gender(ed) Studies

McAuslan, Ian and Walcot, Peter (eds) Women in Antiquity Archer, Leonie J., Fischler, Susan and Wyke, Maria (eds) Women in Ancient Societies: ‘An Illusion of the Night’ Hawley, Richard and Levick, Barbara (eds) Women in Antiquity: New Assessments Richlin, Amy (ed.) Pornography and Representation in Greece and Rome Sorkin Rabinowitz, Nancy and Richlin, Amy (eds) Feminist Theory and the Classics Reeder, Ellen D. Pandora: Women in Classical Greece     

Review Article: Ancient Warfare

Richard A. Gabriel and Karen S. Metz. From Sumer to Rome: The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1991. Pp. xxi, 182. $45.00 (us)

Victor Davis Hanson, ed. Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience. London and New York: Roudledge, 1991. Pp. xvi, 286. $39.95 (us)

W. Kendrick Pritchett. The Greek State at War. Part V. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. Pp. x, 578. $60.00 (us)

Lionel Casson. The Ancient Mariners: Seafarers and Sea Fighters of the Mediterranean in Ancient Times. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. Pp. xviii, 246. $39.50 (us), cloth; $12.95 (us), paper.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Anthony D. Smith, The Nation in History: Historiographical Debates about Ethnicity and Nationalism. The Menahem Stern Jerusalem Lectures Uli Linke, Blood and Nation: The European Aesthetics of Race Chris J. Chulos and Timo Piirainen (eds.), The Fall of an Empire, the Birth of a Nation: National Identities in Russia Edward E. Cohen, The Athenian Nation Michael Jacobsen and Ole Bruun (eds.), Human Rights and Asian Value: Contesting National Identities and Cultural Representations in Asia Ronaldo Munck and Purnaka L. de Silva (eds.), Postmodern Insurgencies: Political Violence, Identity Formation and Peacemaking in Comparative Perspective Miroslav Hroch, Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe: A Comparative Analysis of the Social Composition of Patriotic Groups Among the Smaller European Nations Athena S. Leoussi, Nationalism and Classicism: the Classical Body as National Symbol in Nineteenth‐century England and France Umut Ozkirimli, Theories of Nationalism: a Critical Introduction     

The Grammar of Imperial History

FREDERICK MADDEN and DAVID FIELDHOUSE, eds. ‘The Empire of the Bretaignes’, 1175–1688: The Foundation of a Colonial System of Government: Select Documents on the Constitutional History of the British Empire and Commonwealth, Volume I. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985. Pp. xxix, 669; $55.00 (us); The Classical Period of the First British Empire, 1680–1783, Volume II. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985. Pp. xxxiii, 628. –65.00 (US).     

Ancient Greek Mercenaries: Facts,Theories and New Perspectives

This article presents an overview of the historiography of Greek mercenaries and the proliferation of the phenomenon during the fourth century BC. It evaluates theoretical approaches to the political, economic and military roles that mercenaries played in Classical Greece during that century. In doing so, it considers the ways that interstate relations between the poleis shaped the development and recruitment of this form of soldier. The article disentangles the mercenary from a rich body of scholarship in economic history, demonstrating that analysis of the roles and functions of this figure can shed light on other dimensions of the Classical period, including international relations. Finally, it signals paths that the study of Greek mercenaries might take in the coming years.     

The imperial gospel according to Frederick Madden

Select Documents on the Constitutional History of the British Empire and Commonwealth edited by Frederick Madden. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 8 vols., 1985–2000.

I. ‘The Empire of the Bretaignes’, 1175–1688 (1985, 0–313–23897–9)

II. The Classical Period of the First British Empire, 1689–1783 (1985,0–313–25176–2)

IE. Imperial Reconstruction, 1763–1840 (1987, 0–313–25916‐X)

IV. Settler Self‐Government, 1840–1900 (1990, 0–313–27326‐X)

V. The Dependent Empire and Ireland, 1840–1890 (1991, 0–313–27757–5)

VI. The Dominions and India Since 1900 (1993, 0–313–27317–0)

VII. The Dependent Empire, 1900–1948 (1994,0–313–27318–9)

VIII. The End of Empire: Dependencies Since 1948 (2000,0–313–29072–5, £83.95)     

Class cities: Classics,utopianism and urban planning in early twentieth-century Britain

This article examines the intellectual background to debates in the town planning movement in early twentieth-century Britain. The movement drew heavily on two traditions, that of the anarchists, who provided much of the theory, and that of the philanthropists. The reception of the Classical city influenced these debates through the provision of key paradigms. These paradigms were predominantly sociological rather than architectural and related to the ‘ideal’ societies to be generated by the new cities. The article argues that urban planning followed a path parallel to British sociology in adopting Classical ideas and forming itself around particular Classicising imaginings of society. Whereas the anarchist tradition exploited the Classical cautiously, differentiating the cities of Rome from the Classical poleis of Greece and finding in those Greek traditions the possibility of radical associative democracy, town planners in the British tradition came to engage with the Classical in a very different way. Through figures such as Patrick Geddes, the influence of Classicism served to divest British urban planning of its political radicalism and the Classical polis was used to offer a utopianism which was hierarchical and conservative.     

Xing: The Discourse of Sex and Human Nature in Modern China

In Modern Chinese, xing is the character most commonly used to denote sex, gender and sexuality. However, the character was a specialist Confucian term originally meaning ‘human nature’ in Classical Chinese, and only came to signify both sex and human nature in the early twentieth century. This usage was invented by Japanese intellectuals in the late nineteenth century for their translations of sexological texts from Europe, in which they encountered the concept of sex as a natural drive and the fundamental core of individuals. This article investigates the convoluted linguistic career of xing, and argues that in China in the 1920s, sex/xing became the point of anchorage for a new politics, which naturalised sex, legitimised talk about reproduction and desire, and made imperative the intensification of the production of scientific knowledge on sex (and by extension ‘human nature’). It is emphasised that the history of xing in China in the 1920s is not just a curiosity or appendage to more ‘mainstream’ history of sexuality; rather, it is impossible to appreciate the global nature of modernity without a thorough understanding of the circulation of sexual ideas.     

Spartan dependence on Laurion lead

This article presents contextual evidence for the interpretation of lead isotope analysis (LIA) of artefacts from the Archaic Greek Mediterranean. In particular, I make a response to Wood’s suggestion in Archaeometry (2022, first view, ‘Other ways to examine the finances behind the birth of Classical Greece’) that the end of the production of lead votive figurines in Sparta might have been caused by Athenian restrictions to Laurion lead exports, drawing on new LIA of the Spartan lead votives and wider considerations concerning the trade, cost and volume of lead in the 7th to 5th century bce Mediterranean.     

Book Reviews

Joseph Martos and Pierre Hégy, eds Equal at the Creation: Sexism, Society and Christian Thought Michael D. Coogan, ed. The Oxford History of the Biblical World Jon D. Mikalson Religion in Hellenistic Athens Wendy Dabourne Purpose and Cause in Pauline Exegesis: Romans 1.16–4.25 and a New Approach to the Letters David C. Sim The Gospel of Matthew and Christian Judaism: The History and Social Setting of the Matthean Community George A. Kennedy Classical Rhetoric and its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times Khaled Anatolios Athanasius: The Coherence of his Thought Joseph W. Trigg Origen. The Early Church Fathers Rebecca Moore Jews and Christians in the Life and Thought of Hugh of St Victor Alan J. Fletcher Preaching, Politics and Poetry in Late‐Medieval England Cary J. Nederman and John Christian Laursen, eds Beyond the Persecuting Society: Religious Toleration Before the Enlightenment H. J. Selderhuis, trans. by John Briend and Lyle D. Bierma Marriage and Divorce in the Thought of Martin Bucer John Patrick Donnelly, SJ and Michael W. Maher, SJ, eds Confraternities and Catholic Reform in Italy, France, and Spain. Kevin Herlihy, ed. Propagating the Word of Irish Dissent, 1650–1800 Joss Marsh Word Crimes: Blasphemy, Culture, and Literature in Nineteenth‐Century England David Nash Blasphemy in Modern Britain, 1789 to the Present Kathryn Teresa Long The Revival of 1857–58: Interpreting an American Religious Awakening Ruth Frappell, Leighton Frappell, Robert Withycombe and Raymond Nobbs, eds Anglicans in the Antipodes: An Indexed Calendar of the Papers and Correspondence of the Archbishops of Canterbury, 1788–1961, Relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Mark Hutchinson and Geoff Treloar, eds This Gospel Shall Be Preached: Essays on the Australian Contribution to World Mission Ian Gillman and Hans‐Joachim Klimkeit Christians in Asia Before 1500 Geoffrey Oddie, ed. Missionaries, Rebellion and Proto‐Nationalism: James Long of Bengal, 1814–87     

THE ORIGIN OF BLACK‐FIGURE GREEK CERAMICS FOUND IN NAUCRATIS (NILE DELTA)*

At the site of the Greek trading port of Naucratis, located on the Canopic mouth of the Nile inland from Alexandria, Flinders Petrie and later archaeologists encountered sherds of Classical Greek black‐figure pottery. We have characterized the pastes of 14 of these specimens, drawn from the collections of the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, by neutron activation analysis and numerical taxonomy. The ceramics agree in composition with a reference group centred on Athens. We also investigated a small number of additional black‐figure sherds from other sites. One specimen, from Ruvo di Puglia (Italy), actually originated in or near Marseilles. There was no evidence for local manufacture of black‐figure pottery at Naucratis.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Krishna Bharadwaj, Classical Political Economy and the Rise to Dominance of Supply and Demand Theories. Isaac Arnon, Modernization of Agriculture in Developing Countries. Resources, Potentials and Problems. Second Edition R.G. Lowe, Agricultural Revolution in Africa? Impediments to Change and Implications for Farming, for Education and for Society. C.K. Brown (ed.), Rural Development in Ghana. C.E. Barker, M.R. Bhagavan, P.V. Mitschke-Collande and D.V. Wield, African Industrialization: Technology and Change in Tanzania. Annika Rabo, Change on the Euphrates. Villagers, Townsmen and Employees in Northeast Syria. Studies in Social Anthropology, 15 M. Harper and M.F. de Jong (eds), Financing Small Enterprise. Proceedings of a Seminar organized by The Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) Norman E. Philp, The Cash Incentive. The Economic Response of Semi-subsistent Craftworkers in Papua New Guinea. Pacific Research Monographs 13 Michael Stevenson, Wokmani: Work, Money and Discontent in Melanesia. H.D. Kopardekar, Social Aspects of Urban Development — A Case Study of the Pattern of Urban Development in the Developing Countries. David B.H. Denoon, Devaluation under Pressure: India, Indonesia and Ghana. Ann Seidman, Money, Banking and Public Finance in Africa. Ugo Fasano-Filho, Currency Substitution and Liberalization. The Case of Argentina. Michael Posner (ed.), Problems of International Money, 1972–85. Washington DC: International Monetary Fund S.J. Tambiah, Sri Lanka. Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy. Fen Hampson, Forming Economic Policy: the Case of Energy in Canada and Mexico. Studies in International Political Economy Zuhayr Mikdashi, Transnational Oil: Issues, Policies and Perspectives. Studies in International Political Economy Poul Engberg-Pedersen, World Bank Management of Structural Crisis in Africa: The Energy Sector, CDR Research Report 9 Maria Mies, Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale. Women in the International Division of Labour. Swasti Mitter, Common Fate, Common Bond:     

‘Wanderer,kommst du nach Pforta …’: the tension between Classical tradition and the demands of a Nazi elite-school education at Schulpforta and Ilfeld, 1934–45

This paper explores the tensions which arose when Schulpforta, Germany's leading humanistic boarding school, was forcibly turned into a Nazi elite school (a Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalt, or Napola). The time-honoured traditions of Christianity and enlightened humanism previously cultivated at the erstwhile Landesschule zur Pforta (alma mater of Fichte, Ranke and Nietzsche) were swiftly subordinated to the demands of National Socialist ideology. Schulpforta, a former monastic foundation, was radically dechristianised, and the school's Classical curriculum soon served only to emphasise those aspects of Greco-Roman Antiquity which could ‘help the Third Reich achieve its destiny’, portraying the Greeks and Romans as proto-National Socialists, pure Aryan ancestors of the modern German race. The Napola curriculum focused on sport and pre-military training over academic excellence, and contemporary documentary evidence, memoirs and newly obtained eyewitness testimony all suggest that the Napola administration wished to assimilate Pforta with any other Napola. This idea is borne out by comparing the case of Napola Ilfeld, a former Klosterschule (monastery school) with a similar history. By the mid-1940s, Ilfeld had lost almost all connection with its humanistic past. Ultimately, we can see the erosion and Nazification of these schools' Christian and humanistic traditions as exemplifying in microcosm tendencies which were prevalent throughout the Third Reich.     

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Clandestine Marriage in England, 150–850. By R.B. OUthwaite The Later Tudors. England, 1547–2603. By Penry Williams Thonias Nortorz: The Parliament Man. By Michael A.R. Graves Absolute Monarchy and the Stuart Constitution. By Glenn Burgess The Political World of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, 1621–1641. Henry Parker and the English Civil Way. The Political Thought of the Pirhlic's ‘Privado’. By Michael Mendle Classical Humanism and Republicanism in English Political Thought, 1570–1640. Republicanism, Liberty, and Commercial Society, 1649–1776. By Markku Peltonen Republicanism, Liberty, and Commercial Society, 1649-1776. Politics and Society in Great Yarmouth 1660–1722. By Perry Gauci Ireland in the Stuart Papers. Correspondence and Documents of Irish Interest from the Stuart Papers in the Royal Archives, Windsor Castle. Cuto's Letters. Or, Essays on Liberty, Civil and Religious, and Other Important Subjects. By John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon The Correspondence of Sir Roger Newdigate of Arbury, Warwickshire. Imagining the Middle Class. The Political Representation of Class in Britain, c. 1780–1840. By Dror Wahrman Popular Politics and British Anti-Slavery. The Mobilisation of Public Opinion Against the Slave Trade, 1787–1807. By J.R. Oldfield Religious Routes to Gladstonian Liberalism. The Church Rate Conzict in England and Wales, 1832–1868. By J.P. Ellens Parliament, Party and Politics in Victorian Britain. By T.A. Jenkins The Era of the Reform League: English Labour and Radical Politics, 1857–1872. Documents Selected by Gustav Mayer. Politics and Law in the Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen. By John Hostettler Conceptualizing the State. Innovation and Dispute in British Political Thought, 1880–2914. By James Meadowcroft Turncoats: Changing Party Allegiance by British Politicians. By Robert Leach SDP: The Birth, Life and Death of the Social Democratic Party. By Ivor Crewe and Anthony King The Conservative Party and the Trade Unions. By Peter Dorey Party Politics and Decolonization. The Conservative Party and British Colonial Policy in Tropical Africa 2951–1964. By Philip Murphy The Winds of Change. Macmillan to Heath 1957–1975. By John Ramsden     

Culture and Truth: Nietzsche and Classical Philology

Several recent studies have returned to the famous controversy over the reception of Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music (1872). By reinterpreting it within the immediate context of Germany in the early 1870s, James Whitman understands this controversy as a Methodenstreit within Classical Philology and James I. Porter claims that, through this controversy, Nietzsche developed an extensive critique of modern culture. I contend that Nietzsche’s reaction to the scholarly rejection of his first publication resulted in no immediate response on his behalf; rather, it led to three years of intense rethinking and strengthening of the position he took in The Birth of Tragedy. This is evidenced in his early published essays and notebooks of 1872–1875. From the first readers of these early notebooks, Karl Schlechta and Anni Anders, to its most recent interpreters, Richard T. Grey and Alexander Nehamas, these scholars are unanimous in understanding them as Nietzsche’s attempt to work through a number of conventional philosophical problems. I argue that Nietzsche developed in these essays and notebooks a type of criticism that broke away from all traditional philosophical problems and creatively introduced such notions as cultural horizon, background phenomena, and life as a philosophical measure — all of which would be further refined in his mature texts of the 1880s and underpin his innovative concepts of the will to power and eternal recurrence.     

The origin and evolution of the concept of mixin (superstition): A review of May Fourth scientific views

ABSTRACT

This article explores the evolving connotations of the concept of “superstition” up to the establishment of “superstition studies,” in an examination of the process of secularization experienced by early modern Chinese thought under the impact of Western science. In traditional texts, the Chinese term mixin (迷信, literally “delusional beliefs”), modernly translated as“superstition,” carries diverse and variable meanings: aside from referring to the proper or improper content of ideas and beliefs, mixin also has political connotations, broadly referring to beliefs or behaviors differing from the official rituals. On an ideological level, the traditional concept of mixin refers to a category of thought opposed to Confucian concepts such as the cosmology of Heaven, Earth, and Man, or the idea that “for a man to sacrifice to a spirit which does not belong to him is flattery.” In the late Qing Dynasty, as the idea of “superstition” as opposed to “science” was introduced via Japan, the traditional connotations of mixin evaporated, and it merged with other neologisms. From the late Qing to the early Republic, the parameters of “superstition” were expanded to encompass anything at odds with “reason.” This was also a reflection of China’s shift from the “Classical Age” to the “Age of Science,” as Confucian concepts and scientific ideas successively served as the criteria for judging “superstition.” As of the present, a consensus has yet to be reached on how to distinguish between “religion” and “superstition.” This paper shall seek to clarify the connotations of mixin or “superstition” in different contexts and their connection to the changing times, which may aid in understanding the complex facets of this issue.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Lin Foxhall and John Salmon (eds), When Men Were Men: Masculinity, Power and Identity in Classical Antiquity Emily A. Hemelrijk, Matrona Docta: Educated Women in the Roman Elite from Cornelia to Julia Domna Bella Vivante (ed.), Women's Role in Ancient Civilisations Susan Kingsley Kent, Gender and Power in Britain, 1640–1990 Martha C. Howell, The Marriage Exchange: Property, Social Place and Gender in Cities of the Low Countries, 1300–1550 Julie Hardwick, The Practice of Patriarchy: Gender and the Politics of Household Authority in Early Modern France Tim Stretton, Women Waging Law in Elizabethan England Mary E. Giles (ed.), Women in the Inquisition: Spain and the New World Deborah Simonton, A History of European Women's Work: 1700 to the Present Pamela Sharpe (ed.), Women's Work: The English Experience, 1650–1914 Jane Long, Conversations in Cold Rooms: Women, Work and Poverty in Nineteenth‐Century Northumberland Carol Mattingly, Well‐Tempered Women: Nineteenth‐Century Temperance Rhetoric Faith Wigzell, Reading Russian Fortunes: Print Culture, Gender and Divination in Russia from 1765 Marjorie Theobald, Knowing Women: Origins of Women's Education in Nineteenth‐Century Australia Jane Martin, Women and the Politics of Schooling in Victorian and Edwardian England Paula M. Krebs, Gender, Race and the Writing of Empire: Public Discourse and the Boer War Natalia Pushkareva, Women in Russian History from the Tenth to the Twentieth Century Jane McDermid and Anna Hillyar, Midwives of the Revolution: Female Bolsheviks and Women Workers in 1917 Sue Bridger (ed.), Women and Political Change: Perspectives from East‐Central Europe Claudia Nelson and Ann Sumner Holmes (eds), Maternal Instincts: Visions of Motherhood and Sexuality in Britain 1875–1925 Kathleen Kiernan, Hilary Land and Jane Lewis, Lone Motherhood in Twentieth‐Century Britain: From Footnote to Front Page Judith Tydor Baumel, Double Jeopardy: Gender and the Holocaust Julia Hell, Post‐Fascist Fantasies: Psychoanalysis, History, and the Literature of East Germany Norbert Finzsch and Dietmar Schirmer (eds), Identity and Intolerance: Nationalism, Racism, and Xenophobia in Germany and the United States Emiko Ochiai, The Japanese Family System in Transition Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin, Borders and Boundaries: Women in India's Partition Becky Conekin, Frank Mort and Chris Waters (eds), Moments of Modernity: Reconstructing Britain 1945–1964 Celia Briar, Working for Women? Gendered Work and Welfare Policies in Twentieth‐Century Britain Victoria de Grazia (ed.) with Ellen Furlough, The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective Christopher Breward, The Hidden Consumer: Masculinities, Fashion and City Life 1860–1914 Irene Cieraad (ed.), At Home: An Anthropology of Domestic Space     

NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM,LONDON

Neutron activation analysis was used at the British Museum from 1978 until 2002 for provenance studies on ceramics and marble. Significant numbers of the items analysed were of high quality and value, and careful sampling was necessary to avoid damage to the object. An in‐house British Museum Standard Pottery was established and inter‐calibrated with a number of standards used by other archaeometry laboratories. The results of the projects have been published in many papers, and the databases established will be of use to future scholars interested in the ceramic groups represented. Projects on Greek and Near Eastern pottery have been undertaken. Relatively large numbers of north European medieval and post‐medieval pottery samples were analysed, as well as the tin‐glazed ceramics of Spain and Italy. Classical marble has also formed the subject of another project and a database of quarry material has been established.