Combined Arms Warfare in the Spanish Civil War: The Assault on the Republican Defence Line at Fatarella Ridge

Abstract

In terms of approaches to warfare, the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) has traditionally been seen as a transition between the First and Second World Wars. The idea is based on several reports written by designated observers from Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union. Certainly, some of the tactics and equipment of these armies made their first appearance during this conflict.

However, this view raises several questions, as the experience and tactics observed in the Spanish battlefields often do not match those seen during the first phases of the Second World War. Were the innovations adopted by all sides and units? How did the new tactics influence the outcome of the conflict? Which tactics were tested and discarded for better ones?

It is difficult to address these questions using only textual sources, given the particularities of this war. To improve our understanding of the evolution of warfare, we need to combine textual sources with archaeological data and spatial analysis, and integrate the knowledge.

This study examines the assault on Republican positions at Fatarella Ridge during the last phase of the Battle of the Ebro (1938). In particular, the work explores, using spatial analysis of archaeological and textual sources, the level at which combined arms warfare was applied during the final months of the war. The use of an integrated methodology has allowed us to reconstruct the engagement and provides interesting insights into the evolution of tactics and fortification during this conflict.     

民国初年的童工研究

民国初年的童工劳动是与民国初年资本主义的发展和帝国主义对华经济侵略的扩大联系在一起的。与其它国家不同的是,中国的资本主义企业(包括民族资本主义和官僚资本主义)发展的并不充分,倒是帝国主义国家在华设立的企业,无论是在规模上还是在数量上都要超过民族资本主义的企业。     

Picturing Pasargadae: Visual Representation and the Ambiguities of Heritage in Iran

For Graham Seal

This paper probes the relationship between visual representations and visitation practices at Pasargadae, a UNESCO World Heritage site in southern Iran. Presenting a systematic analysis of publicly available online images of Pasargadae, the paper examines the complex relationship between the place and its visual representations. Through analysis, the paper elaborates on a sense of intimacy that, while grounding Pasargadae, is also a potential common ground in pre-Islamic heritage in which the Iranian state and society could at once meet and contest versions of identity. Examining this relationship facilitates reflections into both heritage and the peculiarities of its visual representation in the Iranian context.     

日文档案中的清末革命者和流亡者

20世纪踟年代,日本外务省藏“日本外交书”第一门“政治”第六类“诸外国内政”第四目“各国内政关系杂纂”的“支那之部”中“有关革命党及亡命”档案,在少数日、中近代史学的论中已有引用。从90年代至今,中国学应用此件档案较多为陈锡祺先生主编的《孙中山年谱长编》、毛注青先生编的《黄兴年谱长编》、俞辛焯先生编的《黄兴在日活动秘录》(俞先生另一书《孙中山     

Marine Creatures and the Sea in Bronze Age Greece: Ambiguities of Meaning

Like most cultures, prehistoric Greek communities had an ambiguous relationship with the sea and the creatures that inhabit it. Positive and negative associations always co-existed, though the particular manifestations changed over time. By drawing together evidence of consumption of marine animals, seafaring, fishing, and iconography, this article unites disparate strands of evidence in an attempt to illuminate the relationship prehistoric Greeks had with marine creatures and the sea. Based on the marked reduction in seafood consumption after the Mesolithic and the use of marine creatures in funerary iconography in the post-palatial period, it becomes apparent that the sea—then as now—is an inherently ambiguous medium that captures both positive and negative emotions. On the one hand, the sea and the animals residing in it are strongly associated with death. On the other hand, the sea’s positive dimensions, such as fertility and rebirth, are expressed in conspicuous marine consumption events.     

The Ambiguities of Homelessness Governance: Disentangling Care and Revanchism in the Neoliberalising City

Whilst “caring” responses to homelessness (e.g. shelters, drop-in centres) have been held up by some as a counter-current to the revanchist city, recent US studies highlight how the structural dynamics of neoliberalisation can implicate caring spaces in revanchist processes of discipline and spatial control. In this paper, we employ an assemblage approach to examine the intersections between care, revanchism and neoliberalisation in Brisbane, Australia. We extend the insights of recent studies by showing how the vulnerability of care to the revanchist pressures of neoliberalisation play out outside the US, despite the prominence of care rationalities and a milder revanchist politics. However, we also push beyond this insight to demonstrate the ongoing progressive potential of care in the neoliberalising city, despite its vulnerabilities to revanchism. Specifically, we highlight the capacity of housing-focused responses to homelessness to shield people from criminalisation and to prefigure and call-forth post-neoliberal practices and spaces.     

Expertise Marginalized: Quality Inspection and the Grain Market in Republican China

With the help of professionally trained agricultural scientists, the Guomindang’s Nationalist government drafted a large-scale program for agricultural reconstruction in the late 1920s and early 1930s. At the heart of the program was a scientific rice-breeding experiment with the potential to produce great numbers of new high-yield rice varieties. However, this scientific achievement could not assure success of the new rice varieties in the market because the marketability of rice was determined not by the scientific productivity improvement but by a series of processes required before the rice reached consumers. For this, local and practical contexts had to be considered. By juxtaposing two different forms of “rice expertise,” this paper illuminates the incompatibility between the state’s productivist understanding of agricultural improvement and the quality issue in the grain market.     

断裂与传承:沦陷时期北平的文化生态

1937年7月全面抗战爆发之后,北平成为沦陷之区,众多高校与文化、学术机构南迁,大批文化人离平避难,曾经的文化中心陷入沉寂。日伪政府利用中日地域接近、文化相似等特点,鼓吹"同文同种"、"中日亲善"理论,通过构建严密的管制体系,在文艺、教育、学术、媒体等领域推行一系列殖民政策与措施,力图将北平的文化发展纳入到"日化"的轨道中。但文化建设并非一朝一夕,亦非仅靠强制力可以推行。在殖民统治之下,北平的文化生态虽然受到很大程度的破坏,但作为具有数百年历史的国都与国家文化中心,城市的文化传统也在断裂中实现着传承。     

The Ambiguities of Christian Sexual Discourse in Post‐War Britain: The British Council of Churches and Its Early Moral Welfare Work

This article extends and develops recent historical discussion on the relationship between British Christianity, sexuality, and modernity, proposing some ways forward for future scholarship. Recent accounts have concentrated on liberal Anglican positions on issues of sexuality, but here the focus is on the British Council of Churches, its early moral welfare work, and interdenominational efforts to reconsider Christian sex teaching in the immediate post‐war years. While examining broader trends towards positive statements about sex and attempts to assemble self‐regulating sexual citizens in Christian moral welfare thinking, the article suggests that, far from a narrative of relatively untroubled and gradual acceptance of progressive Christian views on sex, this was a halting and uncertain process. The article reflects closely on the complexities of post‐war Christian attempts to work with new ideas about sexuality and to formulate their own version of them, the difficulties and ambiguities involved in developing a cogent position in a debate where Christian opinion was so fiercely divided, as well as the complicated nature of institutional decision‐making. As a case study, the British Council of Churches reflects earlier, problematic attempts to alter Christian sex teaching, as well as the unfolding of later difficulties for the British churches.     

试论民国时期的灾荒

在半殖民地半封建的民国时期,灾荒之多,灾情之重,灾区之广,灾民之众,为历史所罕见。据国民政府的官方统计,仅1912年至1937年的26年间,重大灾荒77次,平均每年达3次之多。民国时期的灾荒特点是：