The rise of cultural landscapes

The new interest in cultural landscapes is forcing a reappraisal of concepts of countryside heritage. First the traditional split between cultural and natural values is challenged. Second, modern landscape studies emphasise the subjectivity of landscape assessment, and this is subverting the former tendency to aspire to objectivity in evaluation. The acceptance of ‘associative’ value in landscape is an indicator of this. Modern landscape studies also emphasise the interrelationships between processes and aspects of value, and this is encouraging specialists to communicate across disciplinary frontiers. The desire by ecologists in the mid‐1980s to have cultural landscapes inscribed on the World Heritage list caused a re‐assessment of the World Heritage Criteria, and an initiative by ICOMOS brought this process to a conclusion in 1992. However the reappraisal of concepts of countryside value imply that there are many other philosophical and practical matters still to be resolved.     

The rise of the new model army

In this paper the contribution of Robert R. Palmer to the now booming Atlantic history is put into perspective. It describes the main features of the political and historiographical context that inspired the writing of his book, The Age of the Democratic Revolution in the early 1950s (first volume published in 1959, second volume in 1964). It also argues that the war experience Palmer had in the historical section of the Army Ground Forces has been important in reviving the interest for the transatlantic dimension in modern history that was central in his PhD dissertation. This paper shows how the liberal-tocquevillian approach that Palmer adopted to explain the multiple revolutions that shook North America and Europe in the last quarter of the 18th century earned him the attacks of the Marxist historians. In its last part this paper makes use of private letters to claim that in the 1970s and 1980s the Italian historian Franco Venturi revived the scholarly interest in Palmer's perspective despite methodological differences between his Settecento riformatore and Palmer's analysis. Settecento riformatore and The Age of the Democratic Revolution have contributed to the interest in a transatlantic approach to 18th-century history that is now pursued under the heading of “entangled histories”.     

The Anatomy of Russian Foreign Trade Statistics

The study, by a noted Japanese economist and observer of Soviet and post-Soviet economic affairs, represents a pioneering effort to evaluate the statistical data base reflecting Russian foreign trade. The author examines in minute detail the inconsistencies and deficiencies of data compiled from 1985 to mid-1994, focusing on classification and highlighting the changing and conflicting methods of compilation. Tracing and tabulating data valued in dollars and foreign trade rubles, he also covers and analyzes Russian statistics detailing trade in commodities. Also discussed is the geographic distribution of Russian exports and imports to foreign countries in the late 1980s and 1990s. 1 figure, 10 tables, 37 references.     

The farmer interpretation of Danish history

This paper is an overview of the Anglo‐Icelandic fishery disputes from 1952–1976. Its main emphasis is on the negotiations between the British and the Icelandic governments but it also addresses other aspects of the disputes, such as the effects they had on Iceland's relations with NATO and the United States and the effect on the balance of power between the Eastern and Western bloc in the North‐Atlantic.     

The challenges facing forest interpretation

Abstract

The article examines the development of forestry interpretation programmes in Cumberland State Park, near Sydney, Australia. The programme seeks to conserve the environmental resources by raising community awareness of the issues. The aim is to empower the greater community to take responsibility for its own actions and its effect on the environment.