Exercise and perfection: embodying the nation in nineteenth‐century Germany

In the nineteenth century the German Turner movement used bodily exercise as a programme for national improvement. This was not only directed at the self‐cultivation of the individual but was also considered a duty to the nation. Exercise thus incorporated and embodied national identity while enemies within and without demanded ever more exertion. Exercise was also considered the true test for national unity in the face of modern dangers such as immorality and materialism. Both goals were, however, under constant threat, since the ultimate vulnerability rested in the body itself and in the demand for its ultimate perfection.     

Mesolithic in South‐Eastern Norway

This article discusses the reliability of shore‐line displacement curves based on pollen analysis in the Oslo Fjord area. The conclusion is that only small parts of the curves ‐ in the late Atlantic period ‐ are fairly reliable for the purpose of dating Mesolithic coastal sites.

Twelve Mesolithic settlement sites from Østfold, south‐eastern Norway are classified morphologically. The author suggests a chronological lineal model with four succeeding phases: 1. The Fosna culture, 2. Late Boreal/early Atlantic group, 3. The N?stvet culture, 4. Late flint‐point using group. A connection between the Fosna culture and early Maglemose culture is claimed.

A study of the ecological adaptation in the four phases is based on topographical conditions, on the distribution and situation of settlement sites, and on animal bones from three Mesolithic sites in south‐eastern Norway. Hypotheses on seasonal migrations are suggested.     

Some shore features in South‐East Ireland

The Peoples and Politics of the Far East: Travels and Studies in the British, French, Spanish, and Portuguese Colonies, Siberia, China, Japan, Korea, Siam, and Malaya. By Henry Norman. With 60 Illustrations and 4 Maps. Pp. xvi + 608. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1895. Price 1 Guinea.

The Story of Africa and Its Explorers. By Robert Brown, M.A., Ph.D., etc. Vol. IV. Europe in Africa—Colonies and Colonists—The Scramble for an Empire—A Continent under Companies. With 200 . original Illustrations. London : Cassell and Co., Limited, 1895. Pp. 300 and Index to the four volumes. Price Is. 6d.

A travers l'Afrique Australe. Par Jules Leclercq. Paris: Plon, 1895. Pp. 312.

The Diversions of a Prime Minister. By Basil Thomson. Edinburgh : Black‐wood and Sons, 1894. Pp. viii + 407. With a Map and numerous Illustrations. Price 15s.

Mes Grandes Chasses dans L'Afrique Centrale. By Edouard Foa, Explorateur. Paris: Firmin‐Didot, 1895. Gr. 8vo, pp. 340. 76 Figs.

Korea—Eine Sommerreise nach dem Lande der Morgenruhe, 1894. Von Ernst von Hesse‐Wartegg. Dresden and Leipzig : Carl Eeissner, 1895. Pp. iv + 220.

La République d'Haïti : Son Présent, Son Avenir Économique. Par Paul Vibeht. Paris : Berger‐Levrault &; Cie., 1895. Pp. 360. Price 5 frs.

The Story of the L.M.S., 1795–1895. By C. Silvester Horne, M.A. With Maps and many Illustrations. London : Snow &; Co., 1894. Pp. 444. Price 2s. 6d

Letters and Sketches from the New Hebrides. By Maggie Wiiitecross Paton. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1894. Pp.382. Illustrations and Map. Price 6s.

Supplement au Volume V. du T'oung‐Pao. Die Lander des Islam nach chinesischen Quellen. Von Prof. Dr. Friedrich Hirtii. Leyden : E. J. Brill, 1894. Pp. 64.

Instructions to Observers of the Indian Meteorological Department. By J. Eliot, M.A., F.E. Met. Soc., Meteorological Reporter to the Government of India. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1894. Pp. iv + 103. Price 3 Rupees.

Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel (new issue). Africa: Vol. I., North Africa. By A. H. Keane, F.R.G.S. London: Edward Stanford, 1895. 8 Maps, and 77 Illustrations. Pp. 624. Price 15s.

The Great Dominion. Studies of Canada. By George R. Parkin, M.A., Hon. LL.D., University of New Brunswick. With Maps. London : Macmillan &; Co., 1895. Pp. viii + 251.

Outlines of English Industrial History. By W. Cunningham, D.D., and Ellen A. M'Arthur. Cambridge : University Press, 1895. Pp. xii+274.

Egypt. Handbook for Travellers. Edited by Karl Baedeker. Part First: Lower Egypt and the Peninsula of Sinai. With 14 Maps, 7 Views, and 7 Vignettes. Third Edition, revised and augmented. Leipsic: Karl Baedeker, 1895. Pp. 280 and Index. Price 12s.

Leitfaden der Qeographie für höhere Lehranstalten. Von Dr. E. Lanqenbeck, Oberlehrer am protestantischen Gymnasium zu Strassburg. Leipzig : Wilhelm Engelmann, 1894. 2 Teile. Pp. viii + 125 and vi + 340. Price 2 M. 10 Pf.; boards, 2 M. 40 Pf.

L'Afrique : Anthologie Géographique. Par Noël Garnier. Paris : Delagrave, 1894. Pp. 566. Price 4 Frs.

D'Alger à Tanger. Par Marius Bernard. 120 Illustrations, par A. Chapon. Paris : Henri Laurens, n.d. Pp. 388. Price 10 Frs.; bound, 13 Frs.

Bibliotheca Geographica, herausgegeben von der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin. Bearbeitet von Otto Baschin unter Mitwirkung von Dr. Ernst Wagner. Band i. Jahrgang 1891 und 1892. Berlin : W. H. Kühl, 1895. Pp. 506.     

The importance of national parks to nation‐building: Support for the National Parks Act (2000) in the Scottish Parliament

In 2000 Scotland finally introduced legislation to enable the establishment of its first national parks, 50 years after England and Wales. This paper considers interpretations of this event and reflects on the importance of national parks to nation‐building. Grounded within a framework which holds landscape to be an important signifier of national identity, these issues are explored through a case study of the Cairngorms National Park. This study found that it was the ‘nation‐building’ agenda which was a key factor in securing the unanimous support of the Scottish Parliament for the National Parks Act (2000) but that this agenda hid competing definitions of what shape Scotland's landscapes should be. This suggests that the National Parks Act appealed as a form of institutional, as opposed to cultural, nation‐building.     

Discourses of nation among migrants from Northern Ireland: Irishness,Britishness and the spaces in‐between

Narratives of nation and identity are highly contested in Northern Ireland, with allegiance usually given to an Irish nation or a British nation, or located somewhere along a continuum between the two. The negotiation of one's identity along this continuum can become particularly complex once one migrates outside Northern Ireland. Adopting a sense of belonging to or exclusion from an Irish diasporic community is part of this process of negotiation. This paper explores these negotiations of identity among both Catholic and Protestant migrants from Northern Ireland to England. It utilises an oral history archive of interviews with individuals who migrated in the latter half of the 20th century, and focuses on narratives of nation and identity among these migrants. Drawing on the notion of England as a diaspora space, in order to make sense of these narratives, the intersections between diasporic Irishness and different British identities are untangled in an attempt to draw out the spaces ‘in‐between’ two, often polarised, narratives of nation.     

Domestic events,ideological changes and the post-cold war US–South Korea alliance

How can we account for the weakening of the US–South Korea alliance after the cold war? After the cold war, the US–South Korea alliance was expected to remain strong due to North Korea's threats of weapons of mass destruction. For the past decade and a half, this realist projection has not fully come to pass: rather, it has changed inversely. How can we account for this puzzle? In explaining this counter-intuitive development, the author employs the critical juncture approach. The author argues that in South Korea, certain domestic critical events readjusted domestic ideologies that affected its alliance policy towards the USA. With the initiation of Nordpolitik after the end of the cold war (the first critical juncture), conservative anti-communism and progressive nationalism became coexistent in South Korea, thus causing frictional policy towards the USA. The 2000 North–South Korean Summit (the second critical juncture) made the progressive nationalistic move more dominant in Korea, and this ideological change made its alliance policy towards the USA less friendly.     

Delineating the nation: South African censuses 1865–2007

The census plays a significant role in delineating the nation in statistical terms. The decisions as to whom to enumerate, what questions are to be asked and how the results are presented all modify the view of the population offered to contemporary observers and to posterity. Although census officials tend to be conservative in retaining a large body of questions in similar form from one enumeration to the next in order to promote inter-census comparisons, those concerned with identity have tended to shift with the political evolution of the state and nation. Nowhere has this been more in evidence than in South Africa where the state and nation have been redefined several times since the commencement of modern scientific censuses in 1865. Administrations run by the British Empire, Boer republics, Union of South Africa, apartheid republic, African ‘bantustans’ and now democratic republic have each brought their own concepts to national identification and the framing of the questions of national identity in the census. As a result the set of nearly forty censuses present an often contradictory and complex image of the South African population, ranging from comprehensive inclusive censuses to narrowly restrictive enumerations of a single ethnic group. There was thus little of the continuity in census taking between the colonial and post-colonial states noted elsewhere. South African censuses therefore offer an insight into how the nation was viewed at the time the census was undertaken.