The Manufacture of Gunpowder: a Study of the Documentary and Physical Evidence Relating to the Woolley Powder Works near Bath

Abstract

The manufacture of gunpowder is perhaps one of the most under-rated aspects of the changes associated with the classical years of the British industrial revolution. With its roots in Chinese learning and its associations with alchemy and the search for longevity, this commodity was nevertheless of immense practical significance in the development of both mining and trade, especially the triangular trans-Atlantic trade which brought into Britain such important raw materials as sugar, tobacco and cotton. This article pursues the limited aim of exploring one powder manufacturing site in the light of the documentary and physical evidence relating to it, but it is hoped that this may prove the starting point of a more comprehensive study of this neglected subject.     

从跑马厅到人民公园人民广场:历史变迁与象征意义

Shanghai Racecourse was established at 1850, it was finally transformed into People's Park and People's Square in 1951. The Racecourse was originally just a simple recreational center. However, with the change of its own function and the trend of thought, it changed into a casino of cheating and murder, a place of discrimination against Chinese, a stage for the imperialists to show off their power and violence and a symbol of all evil things. The appeal to change the Racecourse echoed to the demand of opposing imperialism, taking back the concession, desire for civilization and democracy. From 1930s to 1950s, even though great change took place in the ruling party and the political power, there was an obvious continuity in the domain of thought and ideology. __________ Translated by Li Dan from the version submitted to the symposium of “Cultural succession and historical memory” held at Sichuan University, Oct. 17–18, 2007     

从三分到归一:唐朝前中期岭南政治地理格局的变迁

岭南僻处南疆,地理复杂。隋末大乱之时,地方势力纷纷割据,唐初和平统一岭南后,采取羁縻政策,以原有势力为基础设管州的"都府"。而在都府之上,朝廷以广州、桂州、交州为中心置"统府",以点控面,有效地维护了岭南地区的稳定。但是这种层层管理的"统府三分格局",到高宗乾封二年发生突变,随着邕府和容府的建立,原统府消失,遂形成并立的"五府格局"。可是,最迟8世纪初,唐朝设立岭南五府经略使,统一管理整个岭南的军事。在此前后,岭南选补使、岭南按察使、岭南采访使等陆续出现,在人事、监察、民政等领域,对岭南道全境实施管辖权。因此,"盛唐"的岭南道,表现出明显的"归一"趋势。     

From Grenfell Tower to the Home Front: Unsettling Property Norms Using a Genealogical Approach

The Grenfell fire was symbolic of an unequal urban landscape closely tied to material and aesthetic norms around property ownership and entitlement. The aim of this paper is to unsettle these norms by advancing a novel genealogical approach. Through systematic review of government archives seldom studied by property researchers, historical comparisons are mobilised to challenge the taken‐for‐granted way in which we approach property and ownership today. It is shown how, in the face of a comparable housing crisis and direct action, both Churchill's and Atlee's post‐war governments temporarily overlooked property norms by extending wartime requisitioning powers. Going further, however, the paper argues that by revisiting history, we can also rediscover a legacy of “forced entry” that might open up political possibilities in the present. By advancing a genealogical approach to ownership, the paper contributes to wider discussions around property norms, concluding that we have before (and can again) enact property differently.     

Supplementary Notices,Relating to a Gold Cup Found in a Sepulchral Cist Near the Cheese-Wring,and also to Some Other Gold Relics in Cornwall

The architectural development of Maxstoke Castle is described, in the light of its historical background and of relevant documents. It began as a meticulously planned fortified quadrangular house of the Earl of Huntingdon in c c.1345, and continued as a major residence of the Stafford family until 1521. After neglect in the sixteenth century, it was refurbished following its purchase by Sir Thomas Dilke in 1599. Despite further alterations, its total architectural history can be followed very clearly.     

Identity Politics: The Elephant in the Room at the Cape York Institute's Inaugural Conference

The Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership is dedicated to research and policy advice relevant to the remote Aboriginal communities of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Its inaugural conference, entitled ‘Strong Foundations: Rebuilding Social Norms in Indigenous Communities’, addressed widespread problems of social dysfunction that manifest in failure to attend school, substance abuse and sexual violence. Keynote addresses explained the dysfunction as an outcome of dependency on welfare, disincentives to work, poor governance and dispossession. They made a number of worthwhile proposals, including governmental intervention, recognition of shared Australian-ness and humanity, abandonment of victimhood and cultural security. However, they made only tangential allusion to Aboriginal identity politics, which I argue play a crucial role in constituting the dysfunction and, if understood, open new avenues to Aboriginal development. This essay constitutes a plea for more rigorous examination of the politics that present such a barrier to Aboriginal development.     

Theorising Ethnicity and Ethnic Communalisations at the Margins: From Quebec to the World System

Abstract. This article explores the changing and competing relations between multiple forms of ethnic communalisations in Quebec, as the Quebecois nation is now confronted by pressures to redefine its boundaries in more inclusive terms. This specific case allows me to address two major theoretical questions. First, I re-examine the usefulness of the dominant mode of classification of nations, the binary opposition between ethnic and territorial nations. I then develop a perspective which makes visible the construction of the external and internal dimensions of ethnic boundaries as well as their interrelations. Focusing on processes of ethnic communalisation allows me to transcend both the former static, primordialist, empiricist, essentialist, naturalist and absolutist conception of ethnicity and some of the more recent radical constructivist conceptions which envisage ethnicity as an infinite slide of the signifier, a fantasy, a game. Finally, I locate ethnic communalisations and their theorisation within the framework of modernity and of the world system; by recognising the unequal relations which often underlie ethnic forms of communalisation, it becomes possible to decentre the conceptualisation and the theorisation of ethnicity, which are inseparable from ethnic relations themselves and from the position held by different countries within the world system.     

From humanitarian exceptionalism to contingent care: Care and enforcement at the humanitarian border

Throughout the world, increasingly securitized and militarized border enforcement efforts have made transnational migration an increasingly deadly endeavor for unauthorized migrants. The deadly consequences of unauthorized migration has compelled the emergence of what William Walters refers to as the humanitarian border—the concentration of humanitarian aid and services along the edges of the global North. This paper expands on Walters work through an in-depth analysis of the emergence and transformation of the humanitarian border in southern Arizona, USA. Through an examination of transformations in how migrant care is provisioned, overseen, and regulated in southern Arizona, this paper traces a shift from humanitarian exceptionalism to contingent care whereby care is increasingly linked with enforcement efforts. In doing so, this analysis illustrates how care functions as a technology of border enforcement, increasing the reach of the state to govern more bodies and more spaces.     

孔祥熙等有关1942年五亿美元借款函电三件

太平洋战争爆发后,美国政府向中国提供了5亿美元的借款,作为中国政府的法币准备金、外币公债基金及储蓄券保证金,以应抗战急需。本刊公布之3件史料均为函电,从中可看出中美双方在借款事件上为各自利益而反复争执的情形。     

From infrastructure to digital networks: accessibility and connectivity in transport geography research at Aberdeen

ABSTRACT

This paper considers the contribution made to transport geography research at the University of Aberdeen over the last century. In section one, the earliest work in transport geography emphasised the physical connectivity provided by transport through infrastructure networks. Section 2 discusses the contribution made at Aberdeen to debates around accessibility and connectivity. This work had a strong rural dimension and evidenced a growing recognition of the importance of technology in transport. It provided the springboard for research on digital connectivity with important contributions to the wider domain of transport studies in the fields of flexible transport, rural connectivity, transport and energy and social media and big data as reported in Section 3. Section 4 brings the story of transport research at Aberdeen up to the present. It frames research under the banner of intelligent mobility (IM), which links technology and mobility to the wider societal objective of enabling the smarter, greener and more efficient movement of people and goods. Contributions are reported to the fields of shared mobility, smart rural mobility, transport security and privacy and accessibility. Finally, a return to the theme of infrastructure networks and connectivity is highlighted in work on global production networks in aviation.     

Original DocumentsExtracts from the Pipe Roll of the Exchequer, 21 Edw. III. (A.D. 1353), Relating to the Early use of Guns and Gunpowder in the English Army

This report is concerned with a sampling excavation of Bronze Age, Roman and late Saxon/early medieval settlement traces near the church at Wraysbury, Berkshire. The most extensive evidence is for an agricultural settlement of the late ninth to twelfth centuries A. D. based on a series of ditched enclosures and trackways. The settlement moved location during the eleventh century. The environmental evidence is particularly important. A large faunal assemblage including extensive fish remains exists for the late Saxon and medieval phases as well as an unusual collection of charred plant remains. There are important groups of Late Bronze Age and Saxon pottery.     

From Historicism to Postmodernism: Historiography in the Twentieth Century

Book reviewed in this article:
Georg G. Iggers, Historiography in the Twentieth Century: From Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge