Buttressing the West in the North: The Atlantic Alliance,Economic Warfare,and the Soviet Challenge in Iceland, 1956–1959

MICHAEL MCCORMICK. Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce, AD 300-900. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xxviii, 1,101. $60.00 (US). Reviewed by Warren Treadgold     

Glassmaking in Bagot’s Park,Staffordshire, in the 16th Century

Abstract

Out of 15 glass-making sites found in Bagot’s Park during land reclamation, one, Site 4, was left for examination. Two furnaces were excavated; the larger was for the melting of glass in six crucibles, and was typical of late medieval English practice, being built of brick and stone with a clay dome; it was the first to be excavated with clear evidence of an all-over timber and tile roof. The second, built partly of brick, was for annealing. The main product was Crown window glass; the amount of Broad glass and vessel found was insufficient to say with certainty that they were made on the site.

Archaeological evidence supported by documentary references suggested that the site was in use in the early 16th century, well before the agreement of 1585 between the Bagots and the Lorrainer Henzey family. Such evidence of glass production in this period suggests that the weakness of the English glass industry before 1567 may have been exaggerated.     

Masculinity, ‘race’, and family in the colonies: protecting Aborigines in the early nineteenth century

Much of British imperial society in the early nineteenth century was characterised by a reformulated sensibility of manliness and family. Integral to this sensibility was the notion of men's responsibility for dependants. However, the story of Charles Wightman Sievwright, appointed as Assistant Protector of Aborigines in colonial New South Wales, serves to demonstrate that a man's duty of care for very different, racialised kinds of dependants could be emphasised in conflicting ways by British settlers on the one side and by humanitarians on the other, under conditions of colonial expansion. Sievwright's story also encourages more explicit attention to both the tensions and the mutual intrusions between men's public and private roles within colonial society. Sievwright's own efforts as an active, humanitarian man in the political life of the New South Wales frontier were scandalously undermined by his failure to perform the role expected of him in his domestic, familial relations.     

Changes in the ethnic vote in Australia, 1967–79

Recent empirical research has revealed the existence of distinctive voting patterns among some of Australia's overseas‐born electors. This paper extends this research by analysing changes over time in the voting patterns of the three major birthplace groups, applying multi‐variate techniques to three large nationwide surveys conducted in 1967, 1973 and 1979. In all three surveys, Northern Europeans (most British) emerge as politically indistinguishable from the Australian‐born majority, while Eastern Europeans are consistently anti‐Labor. Mediterranean voters, by contrast, were significantly anti‐Labor in 1967 and 1973, but had become significantly more likely to support Labor by 1979. Two hypotheses tested to explain these patterns, length of residence in Australia and the timing of the migrant's first vote, are both rejected. Instead, anti‐Labor preferences of Eastern Europeans seem to follow from long standing anti‐communist sentiments, while the switch in the political allegiances of Mediterranean voters is probably a result of the efforts of the Whitlam government to capture the migrant vote in the mid 1970s.

Changes in the Ethnic Vote in Australia, 1967–1979     

Life in the kitchen: Television advertising,the housewife and domestic modernity in Britain, 1955–1969

The modern kitchen was emblematic of a cold war obsession with household consumer durables as a measure of national progress. Its roots lay in a largely American idea of the ‘new household’ and the modern housewife. The article explores how television advertising in Britain played its part in helping to promote these co-joined aspects of the cross-Atlantic domestic ideal. In pursuing this argument, the article emphasises the way American domestic ideals took distinctive directions in Britain. Contributing to this adaptation of American ideals was a range of home-grown influences that shaped the remaking of the post-war home and women’s social role.     

Clarendon,Cavour, and the Intervention of Sardinia in the Crimean War, 1853–1855

The notorious arms trader Sir Basil Zaharoff is remembered as the archetypal ‘merchant of death’. During the First World War, he is alleged to have exercised a malign influence over statesmen in London and Paris. Recently released Foreign Office files now allow us to document Zaharoff's wartime activities on behalf of the British government as an agent of influence in the Levant. The new sources reveal that Sir Vincent H.P. Caillard, the financial director of the arms-maker Vickers, played a key role in making Zaharoff's services available to prime ministers Asquith and Lloyd George. While Zaharoff has often been portrayed as a sinister force, manipulating statesmen into pursuing his financial and political interests, the reality was the reverse. Zaharoff was a convenient tool of two prime ministers rather than a powerful political manipulator in his own right.     

Cerebral Automatism,the Brain,and the Soul in Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Neither literary critics nor historians of science have acknowledged the extent to which Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) is indebted to late-Victorian neurologists, particularly David Ferrier, John Burdon-Sanderson, Thomas Huxley, and William Carpenter. Stoker came from a family of distinguished Irish physicians and obtained an M.A. in mathematics from Trinity College, Dublin. His personal library contained volumes on physiology, and his composition notes for Dracula include typewritten pages on somnambulism, trance states, and cranial injuries.

Stoker used his knowledge of neurology extensively in Dracula. The automatic behaviors practiced by Dracula and his vampiric minions, such as somnambulism and hypnotic trance states, reflect theories about reflex action postulated by Ferrier and other physiologists. These scientists traced such automatic behaviors to the brain stem and suggested that human behavior was “determined” through the reflex action of the body and brain—a position that threatened to undermine entrenched beliefs in free will and the immortal soul. I suggest that Stoker’s vampire protagonist dramatizes the pervasive late-nineteenth-century fear that human beings are soulless machines motivated solely by physiological factors.     

The Poor Law,the Parish Apprentice,and the Textile Industries in the North of England, 1780–1830

Abstract

This article combines evidence from a variety of Poor Law sources, including apprenticeship registers and indentures, and minutes of discussions of parish officials, and information from business records, to assess the relationship between textile entrepreneurs and Poor Law officialdom in the development of the early textile factory labour force in the North of England, of which parish children formed an important component. It reveals the distribution of parish apprentices over long and short distances to the early northern textile mills. The impact of such labour on textile manufacturing in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries will be considered; and finally the experience of parish children as they became accustomed to novel working conditions will be explored. The analysis of Poor Law and business documentation reveals a meticulous record-keeping process, and a formality of procedure not previously acknowledged. It has been possible to trace apprentice children, both individually and in groups, from their parish of origin through their years of apprenticeship to adult employment. Reports of factory visits and correspondence between parish officials and employers are examined to analyse the relationship between parish and employer through the course of the apprenticeship term. It concludes that parish children were more important to the formation of the early textile factory workforce than conventionally believed, and that their apprenticeship enhanced their longer term employability.     

Czechoslovak–Liechtenstein relations in the shadow of the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia,February 1948

When in 1945 the Czechoslovak authorities confiscated the estate of the Princes von und zu Liechtenstein, the two countries became involved in a dispute which had not been resolved until recently, at least on a diplomatic level. For several decades, the 1948 Communist coup d'état in Czechoslovakia dashed the hopes of the Liechtenstein family for a restitution of their confiscated assets. However, officials responsible internally admitted that the property confiscation had been questionable in the case of the Liechtenstein family. The court had not confirmed the confiscation until after the Communist coup. However, the Liechtenstein family did not renounce their claims, and after the collapse of the Communist regime in 1989 they brought them up again.     

Mapping the arts: industry concentrations,distribution, and change in the US, 1980–2010

This paper studies arts industries in all 366 US metropolitan statistical areas between 1980 and 2010. Our analysis provides evidence that the arts are an important component of many regional economies, but also highlights their volatility. After radical growth and diffusion between 1980 and 2000, in the last decade, the arts industries are defined more by shrinkage and reconcentration in fewer metropolitan areas. Further, we find that the vast majority of metros have strengths in particular sets of arts industries. As we discuss in the conclusion, these conditions present challenges and opportunities for urban cultural policy that goes beyond the current focus on the arts as consumption amenities.     

Australasian Rural Geographies: At the Core,in the Antipodes?

This paper reviews ‘Antipodean’ rural geography research published over the period 2012–2014 inclusive. A broad, inclusive stance was adopted to what should be regarded as Antipodean rural geography. Key publication outlets were identified and scanned for what were deemed to be relevant paper titles and abstracts, then the institutional and disciplinary affiliations of authors, bearing in mind a general concern for ‘rural issues’. The review concentrates on the prominent themes of the recent mining boom and its externalities, new perspectives on agrarian and regional development, and population issues. Australasian rural geographers have not only become adept at ‘writing back’ to the centre but have played leading roles in the intellectual development of the sub‐discipline and cognate areas (e.g. rural sociology). Indeed, at least in the short period covered by this review and in the admittedly selective scope of that survey, Australian and New Zealand rural geographers have been at the forefront in advancing the sub‐discipline internationally. In doing so, they have not only placed the discussion of Australasian rural issues within a global context but have further refined the philosophical and conceptual approaches and tools used. In important respects, then, Australasian rural geographers are very much at the core of the international project of contemporary rural geography. Moreover, they have made – and continue to make – important contributions to the broader discipline of human geography.     

The role of the internet in removing the ‘shackles of the saleroom’: Anytime,anyplace, anything,anywhere

Abstract

The alliance of the internet with the antiquities industry has seen the market grow at an unprecedented rate. E-commerce has facilitated an increase in flexibility and access to the market, which has encouraged an influx of new people to the trade. Anyone can now buy and sell antiquities.

The expansion and extension of the market has created new threats to our cultural heritage. Indeed, my research suggests that this has had a significant impact on the organisation, extent and intensity of site destruction. Furthermore, the increased demand for artefacts has led to the proliferation of fakes, increasingly obvious with the widely circulated images on the world wide web. Consequently we are faced with a progressively more confused and fragmentary archaeological record, challenging efforts to piece together the past.

All assessments of the future must accept that the e-market is vast, that it remains largely unsupervised, and that it is impossible to police. Evidence suggests that the illicit trade is filtering into the cyber-sphere, which provides an ideal means of placing material onto the market quickly and quietly. The extent of this unwelcome development is unknown and remains difficult to assess. What is certain is that action needs to be taken if the ‘Age of Technology’ is not to consume the present as well as the past.     

Russia,Turkey, and the Problem of the Black Sea Straits in 1898–1908

The article deals with the main geopolitical problem in Russian—Ottoman relations at the turn of the twentieth century. Using ample archive sources the author shows the course of Russia’s struggle for influence in the straits. He concludes that the Ottoman policy was more flexible and the Turks proved able to assert their interests in the region. At the same time the straits question did not become the cause of any serious escalation between the two powers.     

Science in the pits: Michael Faraday,Charles Lyell and the home office enquiry into the explosion at Haswell Colliery,country Durham,in 1844∗

Abstract

The explosion at Haswell colliery in September 1844 in which ninety five men and boys were killed has attracted considerable historical attention. This is in some measure due to Michael Faraday and Charles Lyell taking part in the inquest and writing a subsequent report on the cause of the explosion and how to prevent such explosions in the future. Using evidence not used before, this paper examines the context in which the explosion occurred, the inquest process, the political pressure which led to the involvement of Faraday and Lyell, their role at the inquest, their subsequent report and the way in which it was dealt with by the Government of Robert Peel.     

Working in the shade: agriculture,race, and recreational landscapes in Connecticut, 1940–1950

During the middle decades of the twentieth century, shade tobacco growers in the state of Connecticut employed white high school students from Florida and Pennsylvania, as well as African Americans from southern black colleges and high schools to harvest and process their crop. This paper traces the history of these workers as a means for examining overlooked processes of racialization in rural New England, and for expanding on discussions of race, agriculture, and rural landscapes through the context of leisure. I argue that racialization among student workers unfolded according to the structure, management, and representation of leisure and the recreational landscapes that were opened (or closed) to them. Additional contexts bearing on this process included gender, class, and status as resident or non-resident, each of which informed race-based discussions about leisure and recreational landscapes. This empirical study infuses cultural geographic studies of race and agriculture, whether in New England or beyond, with a depth of perspective not normally associated with rural landscapes. It argues for the extension of cultural geographic inquiry on leisure and racialization into the contexts of agricultural and rural landscapes.     

Freedom,Religion and the Making of the Modern State in Japan, 1868–89

This paper rethinks the article of religious freedom of the Meiji Constitution of 1889 and calls into question the liberalist paradigm employed to understand the Constitution and modern Japanese history. In this liberalist framework, the Constitution manifests the peculiar and authoritarian nature of the pre-war Japanese state. In particular, the 28^th article, which provides for the conditional freedom of religious belief, is seen as no more than a cover for social control by the state. This paper examines the histories of the ideas of religion and freedom, and the religious freedom article, and argues that the most appropriate task is not to measure how much religious freedom the Meiji Constitution failed to guarantee against a de-historicised liberalism, but rather to consider the function of the very inclusion of religious freedom in the Constitution. I argue that the inclusion of religious freedom as a generic type of liberty in the Meiji Constitution was instrumental in the creation of the private modern individual as a subject-citizen. It is through this private individual citizen that the modern state as a public, secular authority was created.     

Arid-Zone Studies in the USSR, 1956–60

The Soviet Union, along with other countries, has been investigating the potential uses of geothermal energy as a renewable substitute for fossil fuels. Interest in the applications of geothermal energy appears to have quickened in recent years. The country's geothermal resources have been surveyed, a Research Council on Geothermal Studies functions in the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and geothermal development has been made the responsibility of the Ministry of the Natural Gas Industry. The use of geothermal energy for electric power generation has been limited to two small stations on the Kamchatka Peninsula, but low-temperature uses of geothermal energy have been more widely developed, particularly in Kamchatka, southern Siberia and the Caucasus. They include such applications as space heating of buildings, greenhouse operation and balneological uses.     

Sports,Politics and Ethnicity in the North. Workers’ Sport in Western Finnmark in the Late 1930s

Abstract

Internationally, ethnicity in sports has become an independent field of research amongst sports historians focusing on phenomena such as colonialism, immigration and indigenous populations. Studies demonstrate that sports have simultaneously been able to assimilate different groups, promoting majority concepts of identity and majority values, and enable groups to fashion their own singular ethnic identities in contrast to those of majority societies. In Norwegian historical research, sport and ethnicity has been given only scarce attention. Norwegian sports historians have mainly seen Norway as an ethnically homogenous society where sport has played an essential part in creating a unifying national identity. A major concern for Norwegian sports history research has been the political split in Norwegian sports in the 1930s. Research on this event has mainly been occupied with the relationship between the Workers’ Sports Association (AIF) and the “bourgeois” National Sports Federation (NLI), and by AIF's significance as a political movement. Less attention, however, has been given to its cultural impact. This article investigates the establishment and function of AIF in the multi-ethnic area of West Finnmark, a geographically and politically peripheral region of Northern Norway, at the end of the 1930s. The town of Alta, the main focus of attention, was in the 1930s a small fiord community with an ethnically mixed population of indigenous Sámi, Kvens and Norwegians, sharp political divisions and a vibrant sporting milieu. Although the political division of Alta's sports establishment displays many of the traits that characterize similar events in the country at large, the ethnic factor brought another, important, dimension to it. This highly politicized period in Finnmark sports underlines the importance of sports as an arena for the construction and reinforcement of not only political identity, but also for the production of ethnic and local identities.