Exhibiting Canada: Empire,migration and the 1928 English schoolgirl tour

This article examines an event in 1928 where the interests of post-war British colonialism and those of a group of pro-British Anglo-Celtic Canadians came together in a tour of English schoolgirls through Canada. A focus on the schoolgirls themselves shows how the girls were positioned to transmit an image of Canada to Britain, while themselves being on display so as to set an example to which Canadians should aspire. The tour itinerary itself constructs a narrative of superior British-based culture, economy and politics within a resource-rich, technologically advanced, democratic Canadian nation. Itineraries and diary entries, as well as the memories of two tour members, are used to reconstruct and interpret the tour. In both its itinerary and subjects, the tour of English schoolgirls can be read as a vivid geographical enactment of colonial identity that reveals fresh insights about the workings of gender, migration and empire.     

The “Warrior of the Lords”: Smbat Bagratuni at the Center and Periphery of Late Sasanian Iran

The Armenian general Smbat Bagratuni's remarkable rise to military and political preeminence in the late sixth- and early seventh-century Sasanian Empire presents a fascinating historical question: how did a liminal figure, a Christian from a frontier region, become the “Joy of ?usrō” and “Warrior of the Lords” of king ?usrō II Aparvēz (590–628 CE)? This essay argues that Bagratuni's accomplishments were rooted in Sasanian patterns of political decentralization, provincial regionalism and strategic politics. The Sasanians were ethnically Persian, but Parthian and Armenian aristocrats from the periphery of the empire played a central role in upholding the regime. Granting titles, wealth and personal support, the king sought to turn aristocratic families against each other to enhance royal authority. Simultaneously, regional aristocrats like Smbat Bagratuni used royal patronage to advance their local interests, often at the expense of the royal center. The life of Smbat Bagratuni illustrates how complex negotiations of individual and collective identity shaped relations of “center” and “periphery” in Sasanian Iran.     

从成吉思汗经略西北边疆的成败看文化力的作用——纪念成吉思汗登大汗位800周年

本文概括论述了成吉思汗经略西北边疆的出众文略,指出他组建新的依靠力量,经略中西驿路交通,短短几年便统一中国西北边疆,达到了建立欧亚帝国和促进人类古代最广大的一次“握手”的一代辉煌,以及成吉思汗处理西北民族关系和塑建开放性民族结构之成功。同时剖析了他因文化的局限性而造成的两大失误给他本人和子孙带来的悲剧。最后,剖析了领土观念、制度文化、利益依附关系如何成为边疆分裂的根本因素。     

David and Hazael: War,Peace, Stones and Memory

Abstract

This paper reexamines the rise and fall of two regional empires: the Israelite kingdom of David and Solomon, and the Aramaic kingdom of Hazael and his son Bar-Hadad III. The author presents a comparison between these two regional empires, discussing the following main points: the rise to power of the founders: David and Hazael and their charismatic character; their wars and peace treaties; the boundaries and the administrative organization of these two empires, and the decline and fall of the kingdoms in the days of the founder's sons: Solomon and Bar-Hadad III. The author is of the opinion that the existence of a regional empire in the days of Hazael and his son is of great significance for the reality of the empire of David and Solomon, since the former clearly proves that in certain geopolitical circumstances the making of a regional empire that controlled most of the area between the Euphrates and Philistia was entirely possible. The phenomenon of the Aramaean regional empire of Hazael and his son does not prove the existence of an Israelite regional empire, but it indicates that the biblical account of the rise and fall of an Israelite empire in the days of David and Solomon was possible, and even reasonable.     

Inducement and Coercion on the Trucial Coast: The First Oil Agreements

This examination of the processes which culminated in the signing of the first oil concessions on the Trucial Coast constitutes a case study of the interaction between political and commercial interests within Britain's informal empire. It looks at the extent to which the aims and approaches of the British political authorities and of the oil company overlapped, coincided or conflicted, and at the strategies adopted by both in their dealings with the third element in the negotiations, the local rulers. In addition, the nature, extent and variations of local collaboration are analysed. Finally, the outcomes of the negotiations are reconsidered, and the possibility raised that a qualified form of collaboration might achieve satisfactory results for a local ruler, despite the overwhelming odds stacked against him.     

Bridgeheads, ‘Colonial Places’ and the Queensland Financial Crisis of 1866

This article provides a new perspective on the links between British imperialism and metropolitan finance by showing how formal power reinforced ‘money power’ at a formative stage in the political development of the colony of Queensland. In 1866, despite the contraction of the bridgeheads of formal British authority in eastern Australia, local imperial representatives quickly aligned with private interests when British investments appeared to be threatened by a proposal to introduce a fiduciary note issue. Subsequently, Queensland politicians continued to contest the control of money and the scope of government intervention in the colonial economy. Ultimately, however, the inflow of British capital created new bridgeheads of British power in Queensland, re-constituting it as a ‘colonial place’ in the informal empire of investment and influence.     

Reformist hagiography: the Life of St Roding of Beaulieu and the struggle for power in early eleventh-century Lotharingia

This article explores an example of ‘reformist’ hagiographic production in early eleventh-century Lotharingia by focusing on the Life of St Roding of Beaulieu, a small monastery in the diocese of Verdun. Until recently, this text was interpreted exclusively in terms of the scant information it provides for this institution's early medieval history and in terms of its ideological message regarding monastic discipline and leadership. By integrating the composition of this text into the then-current regional geography and political context, this article proposes a new approach to its interpretation and to the understanding of Beaulieu’s ‘monastic reform’ in general. Close analysis of the narrative reveals that its production was inspired by specific issues relating to local and regional politics in the mid-1010s, and that parts of the institution's recent history were veiled allegorically behind the portrayal of Roding. However, rapid changes in power relationships rendered those aspects of the text outdated within a few years. This raises significant questions regarding the long-term relevance of such hidden stories and the degree to which their ideological, political and other messages remained accessible to medieval audiences.     

Foreign rule? Transnational,national, and local perspectives on Venice and Venetia within the ‘multinational’ empire

The history of the Habsburg Empire in the post-Napoleonic era is frequently approached from the perspective of its various component nationalities. These were traditionally portrayed in the historiography as engaged in more-or-less open struggle with control from Vienna. This article argues that the over-privileging of such national categories can distort the picture. By looking at a number of case studies – the naming of Lombardy-Venetia, the Biblioteca italiana, the Panteon veneto – the relationship between Venice (and its Terraferma) and Habsburg rule during the second Austrian domination is examined. It will be argued that it is more profitable to see Venetian identities (municipal, local, Italian, and as part of a wider transnational European culture) as capable of working for as well as against the empire, and that Habsburg policy was as often concerned with managing potential local rivalries (notably between Lombards and Venetians) as with controlling a perceived Italian threat. It is also suggested that, while cultivation of local identity was often used to reinforce the national, the Austrian authorities were also happy to annex both to further imperial interests.     

Challenging the grammar of difference: Benoy Kumar Sarkar,global mobility and anti-imperialism around the First World War

The new imperial history has advanced our understanding of empires in many ways: it enhanced a networked interpretation of empires, brought space back into the discussion, and suggested a fresh reading of imperial careers to comprehend early forms of global inter-dependencies. This article discusses selected aspects of the life and work of Benoy Kumar Sarkar (1887–1949), a Bengali social scientist and political activist, to illustrate that anti-imperial biographies were simultaneously rooted in local as well as transnational spaces. They thus connected national struggles with globe-spanning processes. Biographies like this are underacknowledged in their meaning for how empires functioned and failed, and in their potential for understanding transnational actors. Sarkar’s efforts to challenge the legitimacy of the British Empire were the result of his life in a transnational social field, which was equally shaped by his extensive experience abroad and his continuous rootedness in local Bengali affairs. Sarkar’s anti-imperialism was enhanced by the mobility structures of the British Empire and resulted in new constellations of imperial, cosmopolitan, local and regional orientations and attachments. In this view, anti-imperialism was less the result of local struggles but of life practices reaching beyond the borders of the empire and a high awareness of acting in a global context that located its protagonists in numerous social and spatial contexts.     

苏秉琦重建中国古史框架的努力和中国文明起源研究--苏秉琦与中国文明起源研究之五

从考古学角度研究中国古史,是苏秉琦晚年学术研究的主要奋斗目标,但明确提出考古学研究要直接面对中国古史,则是在他论述了重建中国史前史之后.1992年9月苏秉琦在<迎接中国考古学的新世纪>一文中全面阐发了构建中国古史框架的重要学术思想,提出了中国国家起源发展经历了"古国--方国--帝国"三个阶段和对中华民族多元一体格局形成与发展的宏观认识,肯定玉器的出现作为"上万年的文明启步",辽西地区由民族向国家发展的转折点的时间在距今七八千年,开始将红山文化"坛、庙、冢"等遗存的文化性质确定为早期城邦式原始国家,即古国,并将陶寺文化的社会定位于方国进而又改定为古国.     

Framing the past: time,space and the politics of heritage tourism in Ireland

Recent work has emphasised that heritage tourism is not just a set of commercial transactions, but the ideological framing of history and identity. While some commentators celebrate heritage as a complementary or alternative way of mediating the past to popular audiences, others regard it as little more than bogus history. Through an examination of a planning strategy devised by Bord Fáilte, the state's tourism board, this paper addresses the relationship between time and space in the development of heritage attractions in Ireland, and emphasises the mechanisms through which space is privileged over time in a manner that loses sight of the complexities of localised historical processes. This argument is illustrated through the example of an open-air museum which focuses on the display of material culture independent of the historical contingencies of its creation. By contrast, an examination of a stately home, opened to the public by an independent trust, demonstrates how the past can be provocatively explored to a mass audience by being anchored in local historical geography and eschewing an approach that reifies local events into national processes.     

Boundary commissions as tools to safeguard British interests at the end of empire

Despite the many differences between Britain's decolonization of South Asia in 1947 and its withdrawal from the Palestine Mandate in 1948, there were important similarities in the British approach to boundary commissions in the two cases. As imperial interests evolved, boundary commissions proved flexible tools to preserve British prestige in the face of limited policy options. They were particularly useful in the years before and after World War II, when, with the empire facing potential disaster, its leaders sought to preserve its prestige in the eyes of domestic audiences and international allies. With its power fading, it was all the more important that the empire appear to be firmly in control. In particular, an examination of the Peel, Woodhead, and Radcliffe commissions shows that British leaders intended them to contribute to a façade of power. This article demonstrates that in retrospect they reveal the decline of imperial sway and the rise of nationalist influence.     

Silences of Grass: Retrieving the Role of Pasture Plants in the Development of New Zealand and the British Empire

This article discusses the role of grasslands and their products in the development of empire between 1850 and 1930. It explores the paradox that, despite the significance of introduced grasslands in terms of environmental transformation and imperial trade, most contemporary observers ignored this or took it for granted as, generally, have today's historians of empire. The article charts relations between grassland development, improvement and empire building, and examines how retrieval of this neglected story might encourage reconceptualisation of empire relationships, focusing particularly on those between New Zealand and Britain.     

The geography and natural resources of Bolivia

This paper tries to show the main thread of Scottish national identity in the nineteenth century and how Scotland's close connection with the empire did not asuage Scottish desires to retain a national identity. The paper tries to illustrate that the interpretation of the union connection by the Scottish political classes was central to the understanding of Scotland as a nation during the period. Examples are also provided of the way in which the union could be questioned in this century, but this was with the caveat that this would necessarily be limited; for such was the extent to which national identity was played out on an imperial stage. Although Scots never lost sight of their distinctiveness, any extension of the critique of union would have ultimately worked against their ability to confidently display their identity as they did quite successfully in the nineteenth century.     

Work and social presence: French public engineers in Nineteenth‐century provincial communities∗

Abstract

This article discusses how the civil engineers of the Corps des Ponts et Chaussées relied on a complex network of social, familial and technical relations to mediate between the central government and various local interests as they sought to introduce modern infrastructure in provincial France. It argues that local social integration, which was defined, measured, and encouraged by the Corps, enabled engineers to tailor projects to local needs while also strengthening the national reputation and centralized power of the Ponts et Chaussées. It hypothesizes that the illusion of uniform, centralized national planning was in fact the result of how the Corps’ engineers independently designed and regulated thousands of small local projects. This emphasis on satisfying local concerns as a means of introducing standardization and reinforcing the Corps’ national prestige underscores the importance of regional dynamism and local diversity in the centralization and modernization of France.     

Journeys to Italian East Africa 1936–1941: narratives of settlement

During the 1930s a huge amount of writing was produced on Italy's imperial activities and colonial possessions. The article centres on the written accounts of journeys to the empire which were made in the wake of its conquest.These texts were written by influential correspondents of the time; by writers of colonial literature; by Fascist ideologues and by occasional, though highly curious, visitors to the empire. All these official and semi-official commentators participated in the rapid settlement of East Africa specifically as observers. The article isolates the different narratives which run through each of the many travel texts: the transition from military to civilian rule,the population of a supposedly empty land surface; the implementation of an empire of work; the translation of Italian culture from the mainland to the colony. It explores the relationship between these paradigmatic narratives of settlement and shows how the vision offered by the travel accounts converged with the institutions and practices of the new empire. The article concludes by analysing the subject positions adopted by Italian men and women within the system of Fascist imperial discourses and some of the ways in which the indigenous population was represented within different narratives of settlement.     

Time to Grow Up? Canadian Understandings of Revolutionary Cuba to the Missile Crisis of 1962

The Cuban missile crisis was a moment during the Cold War when rhetoric, brinkmanship, and politics intersected with notions of masculinity, empire and colonization to nearly disastrous ends. The crisis occurred at a moment of transition in Canada in which Canadians were profoundly concerned over the state of Canadian–Cuban relations and Canada’s place in the world. This article examines how previous understandings and preconceptions of “Cuba”—such as feminized and infantilized images of Cuban leader Fidel Castro in political cartoons and editorials in newspapers – influenced how Canadians understood the crisis, their nation and how the Canadian government should interact with other powers. While both negative and positive images of Castro and Cuba were present in Canadian public discussion, Canadians utilized the same imagery to argue that their government should act in its own best interests after the missile crisis.     

“地方”与“国家”文化权力的博弈——明代以降云南腾冲地区汉景帝神祠考论

汉景帝神是滇西腾冲地区的重要神明,它象征着中原王朝入主西南以前云南本土政权的存在。自明代以来关于汉景帝神的身份便有多种说法,入清后官方与民间围绕着汉景帝神的身份更是展开了"论辩"。在论战中,地方士绅将汉景帝神与中原"正统政权"建立起联系,使之成为掌控地方资源及话语权的一种手段。另一方面,这种论战同样发生在滇西其他地区乃至整个西南,体现了在国家开发地方的过程中当地人运用自己的智慧与国家展开互动,更是区域历史观念与"国家"历史观念之间的博弈。与汉景帝神祠建立关联的娘孃庙则展现出在长时段的历史过程中地方对于"不同来源"的文化的接纳与"本地历史传统"的延续。     

Empire and Cultures of Militarism in Canada and the United States

While Canadians have been described as an “unmilitary people,” their historic affections for empire have contributed to a conspicuous reluctance to criticize past military exploits. A tradition of anti-imperialism, meanwhile, has colored American attitudes to war, and produced a powerful current of antiwar sentiment throughout US history – even as that nation developed into a dominant imperial power. This essay finds the source of these national discrepancies in the founding myths of each country and in subsequent demographic, economic, strategic, and ideological transformations which have both reinforced and challenged each nation's traditional responses to empire. The result is a relationship between war, imperialism, and national identity that is multifaceted, often paradoxical, and in certain instances, surprisingly antiquated.     

北京美术产业对地方文化的嵌入性程度分析

北京十一五规划指出北京将大力发展文化产业,尤其是文化创意产业。美术是文化产业中最具有创意色彩的产业部门,北京是中国最重要的美术产业中心,近5年来出现了一批美术创意产业集中区。本文使用近十多年来国外经济地理学家频繁使用的嵌入概念分析北京的美术产业。本文所采用的嵌入概念更强调KarlPolanyi的观点,以北京三个主要美术产业区798艺术区、宋庄画家村、观音堂文化大道为研究地点,通过分析实地访谈资料、艺术家和画廊的网站资料,探讨企业和艺术家在作品风格、市场定位、企业分布、企业制度等方面是如何嵌入北京地方制度文化和意识形态文化的。本文认为在把握嵌入程度,避免过度地方化的程度上有待未来讨论。