The Weight of the Moment: J. G. A. Pocock's Politics of History

One of the great intellectual productions of the postwar period, J. G. A. Pocock's The Machiavellian Moment was also an intervention in the American polity of the 1970s. The book's content, its rhetorical style, its methodology, and even its physical printed form were all designed to effectuate a political gesture. The crises of 1968 to 1973 invalidated the optimistic liberalism of Pocock's academic circle. The history of political language offered a refuge and a programmatic foundation for Pocock's pragmatic conservatism. The Machiavellian Moment was designed to reinforce the weight of tradition in contemporary political debate.     

Archaeology and Politics in the Holy Land: The Life and Career of P. L. O. Guy

Abstract

Philip Langstaffe Ord Guy's (1885–1952) career in archaeology began as Woolley's assistant at Carchemish and as Chief Inspector for the Department of Antiquities of Palestine during the 1920s. He is best known as director of the Megiddo Expedition (1927–1934), where he employed innovative techniques in balloon photography, and provided a highly influential identification of the pillared buildings found there as stables. He dated these buildings to the Solomonic era, sowing the seeds of a long-running debate over the role of the Bible in archaeological interpretation. Guy was later appointed director of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (1935–1939), initiating the short-lived Archaeological Survey of Palestine. After World War II and Israel's War of Independence, Guy became a senior figure within the fledgling Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums as Director of Excavations and Surveys. Active involvement in Zionist politics through his marriage into the Ben-Yehuda family was a controversial factor that impacted on his career within 1920s and 1930s Palestine. Recent archival research allows an assessment of Guy's double life as archaeologist and political activist and the degree to which these areas intersected. His name can be added to the diverse spectrum of archaeologists working in the Holy Land during this formative but turbulent colonial and post-colonial era.