Kinetic Art

ABSTRACT

From 1962 to 1966 the author was an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge. During this period awareness of Kinetic Art grew nationally and internationally. Two student-run magazines – Granta and Image – became important platforms for dissemination of information and critical discourse about Kinetic Art in the context of other avant-garde developments. Having met several pioneers in the field in Paris before University, the author soon made contact with Professor Richard Gregory in the Experimental Psychology Department of the Cambridge Psychology Laboratory with whom he then collaborated. He worked closely also with Mike Weaver, an academic in the English Literature faculty, who initiated the First International Exhibition of Concrete, Kinetic and Phonetic Poetry at St Catharine’s College in November 1964. They infused the Cambridge context with influences in Concrete Poetry and Kinetic Art from elsewhere. This article describes this period of early experimentation and reflects briefly on its legacy.     

Scottish Windpumps & Windmills: New Information

Abstract

The author has examined documentary sources concerning the pioneering Lombe's Silk Mill on the River Derwent in Derby. He has combined evidence from both Italian and British sources with the physical remains and provided a reconstruction of the mill and its machinery layout. Its importance as a precursor of factory production in Britain is discussed.     

A Review of Optimal Input Methods: Fixed Field,Free Field,and the Edited Text

Abstract

With the growth in interest in collective biography as a historical technique, many predominantly qualitative historians find themselves faced with large amounts of information. These data, collected from a variety of sources, are often highly irregular, making statistical analysis extremely problematic. Current practice is to ignore these problems and proceed with quantitative analysis suitable only for much more regular data. It is argued that a more satisfactory approach is to ascertain and directly confront the difficulties of analyzing such information. The three central problems are identified as missing data, systematic bias, and the lack of a representative sample. Using a practical example, the author explores the relationship between gender, the family, and political socialization within the Communist Party of Great Britain and shows how each of the issues can be dealt with in turn. The author first distinguishes truly missing data from “negative information,” which commonly appears to be missing in historical sources. He then stratifies the data to remove systematic biases relating to the issue at hand. Finally, he divides the sample into different populations, on the basis of the sources from which individuals are known, and compares the results obtained to examine whether his conclusions appear to depend on quirks of populations contained in the sources. These ideas open a new range of sources to quantitative analysis and raise the possibility of allowing new types of evidence to count in historical inquiry.     

Graphical Estimation of Military Heights

Abstract

The author analyzes the voting behavior of legislators in the Congresses of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. He shows that the occupation of Confederate Congressional districts by Federal troops led legislators to abandon their previous voting behavior and instead support the strengthening of the central government in Richmond. Specific case evidence involving voting on a number of salient issues is provided to further demonstrate the robustness of this result. Most importantly, the result leads to outcomes at odds with the logic of secession as enunciated by Southern elites.     

Fors and Forte in Vergil and the Problem of A. 1. 377

The author looks at Vergil’s treatment of fors and forte and finds that forte sua at A. 1. 377 is not only exceptional, but most probably a corruption not least due to forte being used in the previous sentence. He conjectures instead sorte sua “due to its (namely the storm’s) own (special and arbitrary) law”.     

Mazzini in Italian historical memory

Abstract

The essay examines the reasons for the difficult ‘reception’ of Mazzini's image in Italy. With particular reference to themes dear to Mazzini, like the role of public monuments and publications, the author explains why Mazzini's image has had a precarious hold on the collective memory of the Italian people. He goes on to offer a brief overview of the revival of Mazzinian scholarship in the last 15 years (1993–2008), underscoring how the renewed interest is related to the ongoing European and global debate on the meaning of democracy. The author concludes with a list of titles appearing since 1993 that suggest new approaches to the study of Mazzini, and that will be of use to scholars and students.     

The Eastern Sámi: A short account of their history and identity

During the last decade there has been a growing interest in the history and culture of the Eastern Sami, but information on this subject is insufficient. In this article the author starts from the quite problematical question about the use of the term Eastern Sámi, and presents further data about the main historical milestones for the Eastern Sami from olden times up to the end of the 20^th century. Among other things, the author considers changes which happened in the structure of Eastern Sami social life, the cultural and linguistic environment and its influence on the Eastern Sami culture and languages, influence of the state borders and state policies, and the relationship between the Sami and the Orthodox Church. Based on this historical background, the author elucidates the issue of Eastern Sami identity and their sense of affinity. Is there still a future for their culture, language and identity? The author, who grew up on Sami land in Russia, has for more than a decade been studying the Eastern Sami culture, folklore and religion. In this presentation, the inner point of view, native Sami terms and place‐names are especially emphasized.     

CONVRT: A COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR THE CONVERSION OF FREE-FIELD DATA TO FIXED-FIELD DATA FORMAT

Abstract

Historians of the U.S. Congress often draw claims from interpretations of legislators’ rhetoric and the outcomes of key votes. In this article, the author tells a cautionary tale: Such strategies ignore the correspondence between roll-call voting on select issues and broader coalitional structures in Congress. He does so by examining contrary positions about a key issue during the New Deal: On the one hand, some researchers claim that reasoned congressional deliberation on the issue of administrative oversight was separate from the prevailing legislative concerns of the day. Other scholars, on the other hand, assert that the prevailing issue dimensions in Congress included administrative oversight. Using a Bayesian measurement method, Ordinary Least Squares, and probit regression, and a novel selection of roll-call data, the author tested these claims, concluding that broader coalitional structures subsumed issues of administration.     

Reflections on Tudor Green

Abstract

In this article the author suggests that the time has come to revise ideas on Tudor Green ware. He puts forward the suggestion that there was no such thing as a Tudor Green industry, and that it would be more appropriate to group together comparable ceramics from this region under the term Southern Whiteware.     

The limits of library user education: arguments for a lecturer‐led,student‐centred approach

Abstract

The author discusses some of the thinking behind programmes of library instruction in higher education. The shortcomings of such courses are examined, with particular reference to a course for first‐year students at Portsmouth Polytechnic. The author argues that library instruction can only succeed when fully integrated with the teaching of the subject. This requires greater consideration by geography teachers of the relationship between bibliographic knowledge and substantive knowledge.     

La prose metrique de l'ancienne historiographie romaine

In this attempt at an overall interpretation of Hadrian's poem (Büchner fr. 3) the author discusses the meaning of vagula and blandida in 1. 1 and puts a comma after vagula. He assesses in particular the two most disputed lines of the poem, 3 and 4, taking quae as an exclamation and adding some reasons for combining loca with pallidula rigida nudula. As to the marked use of diminutives ‐ 5 in as many lines ‐ the author sees no reason for giving them a uniform emotional meaning, but argues for grouping them into three categories according to the semantic value of the primitive involved. He discusses also how to read 1. 5 syntactically. In the last part of the study the aim is to show in what particular sense the poem can be reasonably taken as a product of the emperor's pen on his very deathbed.     

Anarchism,utopianism and hospitality: the work of René Schérer

Abstract

René Schérer (born 1922) is lamentably almost unknown to the Anglo-American world as his work has, as yet, not been translated. He is one of the main specialists of the French ‘utopian socialist’, Charles Fourier (1772–1837), and a major thinker in his own right. He is the author of more than twenty books and co-editor of the journal Chimères. Colleague and friend at Vincennes University (Paris 8) of Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Rancière, Jean-François Lyotard, François Châletet, Alain Brossat, Georges Navet, Miguel Abensour, Pierre Macherey..., he continues to host seminars at Paris 8 (now located at Saint-Denis). He is a living testimony to a radical past, and a continuing inspiration to a new generation of young thinkers. This article aims to convey the original specificity of his understanding of anarchism. By so doing, it will stress the importance of his work for any thinking concerned with a politicised resistance to social conformity and the supposed ‘state of things’ today.     

The European Union—a Reflection: The Theological Challenge

Abstract

The advisor on religious affairs of the European Commission's President recently suggested the need for a European political theology. He was acknowledging Christianity's past impact on European culture. He was also intimating that a creative Christian contribution to the making of Europe's future might partly depend upon some systematic theologically informed reflection upon the nature of the challenges which the continent currently confronts. This paper does not purport to supply such a theology which, by the nature of things, must be the fruit of a long-term collaborative exercise. It does, however, seek to provide a few pointers that might become the subject of further discussion. Following clues provided by Vatican II we may seek to discern some of those "signs of the times" which might disclose the issues at stake and which, in the light of general Christian understandings, may ultimately provide some guides for subsequent action.     

Town Houses in Taunton, 1500-1700

Abstract

In this article the author traces the evolution of the small to medium-sized town houses in Taunton in the period 1500–1700. He describes surviving examples of three, two and single cell houses, L-shaped, detached and semi-detached houses of the period, and after discussing building materials, compares them with developments elsewhere in the South West.     

Tell el-Ful Revisited: The Assyrian and Hellenistic Periods (with a New Identification)

Abstract

This article deals with the settlement history of Tell el-Ful from the Iron Age until the Hellenistic period. The author rejects past theories that a great fortress was built at the site in the Iron I period and that the settlement was protected by a casemate wall in the Iron IIC. He also rejects the identification of Tell el-Ful as biblical Gibeah/Gibeah of Saul. The author proposes that the tower excavated by Albright and Lapp was first constructed in the Iron IIC as an Assyrian watchtower commanding the northern approach to Jerusalem, and that it was one link in a system of such forts around the capital of Judah. The author maintains that the building served as a Hellenistic fort in a later phase and suggests the possibility, however speculative, of identifying Tell el-Ful with Pharathon, mentioned as one of the forts constructed by Bacchides in Judea in the early 2nd century BCE, and with Perath/Parah of late-monarchic times.     

The Rhetoric of the Expressions in the Song by the Sea (Exodus 15,1-18)

The author considers the expressions used in the Song by the Sea (Exodus 15,1-18) in connection with the commonly accepted bipartite structure of the Song. He analyzes the expressions by categorizing them, grouping them, and considering their rhetoric. This literary analysis, supported by tables and graphic illustrations, highlights the basic rhetoric of the Song. The two parts of the Song have different themes but an interconnected rhetoric centered in Yahweh and his relationship with Israel and her enemies.     

Wartime Emergency and the Displacement of Indians in Fiji: Cost and Compensation

From 1939, under wartime regulations, land was resumed for military purposes in Fiji. Among the lands taken were plots leased by Indian tenant farmers from Fijians, mainly in western Viti Levu. In some cases this caused loss of livelihood and even destitution, as Indo-Fijian historian Brij V. Lal has shown in his book Broken Waves . Unlike Lal, this author argues that in spite of individual cases of suffering, Indians received adequate government compensation, comparable to other displaced occupiers. The real loss for some was that the resumption of cultivated land still with long unexpired terms was in part an opportunity, if not a pretext, for transferring these to the new Native Land Trust Board to be reserved exclusively for Fijians. This was in contravention of Colonial Office policy on the type of land suitable for reservation. Many Indians saw their former lands reserved, but remaining uncultivated for years.     

Schicksalsmächte

In the first and longer part of his study (I)? the author seeks to reassess both the word‐for‐word meaning and the contextual function of the much debated line 183 nee nulla interea est inaratae gratia terrae. He sees the reason for the impasse of commentators (recently Mynors) in the fact that inaratus is wrongly taken as a negated adj. ("unploughed") whereas it makes better sense taking it as the past participle of inarare (i.e. “ploughed"). St. Ambrose may have read the line in this way. In the second part (II) the author tries to find out how the controversial nullo tantum se Mysia cultu / iactat et ipsa suas mirantur Gargara messis (I 102–103) makes sense in its context. Basing his understanding on the parallel at Aen. 6,876f. he ends up with pleading that cultus should be understood in a more general way ‐ something in the vein of “beautiful quality”;, “refined condition”;.     

Erasmus Darwin: Master of Interdisciplinary Science

Abstract

Dr Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) was by profession a physician, at Lichfield and later Derby, and was widely regarded as the leading doctor in Britain, author of the massive treatise Zoonomia (1794–6). His many original contributions to science cover a wide range of disciplines, including physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, plant growth and nutrition and evolutionary biology. He was a prolific inventor, a close friend of Boulton and Watt, and a leading spirit in the ‘Lunar Society’ of Birmingham. In the 1790s he became the most famous poet of the day with his Botanic Garden, which greatly influenced Coleridge, Wordsworth and others.