Approaches to the Roman Empire: A Perspective

MIRIAM T. GRIFFIN. Nero: The End of A Dynasty. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1984. Pp. 320. $25 (US); RICHARD J.A. TALBERT. The Senate of Imperial Rome. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984. Pp. xviii, 583. $60 (US); J.B. CAMPBELL. The Emperor and the Roman Army 31 BC-AD 235. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984. Pp. xx, 468. $54 (US); ROBERT L. WILKEN. The Christians as the Romans Saw Them. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1984. Pp. xx, 214. $18.95 (US); HOWARD CLARK KEE. Miracle in the Early Christian World: A Study in Sociohistorical Method. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983. Pp. xii, 320. $25 (US).     

Voluntary Approaches to Environmental Problems: Exploring the Rise of Nontraditional Public Policy

Government reliance on voluntary programs represents a significant shift in public policy: moving from command and control regulations to market based mechanisms. This article explores the determinants of Voluntary Remediation Programs (VRPs) in the American States. During the 1980s and 1990s, 44 states adopted VRPs to facilitate remediation of existing hazardous waste sites. Relying on diffusion of innovation theory, I develop a model of state policy adoption that explores the influence of internal state political and economic factors, as well as testing the influence of regional and top‐down diffusion forces. I utilize a discrete‐time event history approach to test this model. The results indicate that state policymaking is responsive to interest group pressure and the pace of cleanup at hazardous waste sites. Additionally, state policymaking is consistently influenced by the actions of surrounding state governments; the probability of adopting a voluntary program increases if surrounding states have already developed these policies.     

Modernising colonialism: The British Labour movement and Africa

The article evaluates the widely held view that the Attlee governments lacked a distinctive approach to colonial affairs by examining the Labour movement's post-war, institution building activities in Kenya. In Labour's colonial policy deliberations, Kenya was the focus of particular attention and is used as a case study to shed light on the Labour leadership's wider imperial concerns and objectives. From the 1920s, the Labour party advocated that the colonies be encouraged to develop trade unions, co-operatives and local government. Some tentative moves in this direction were made in 1930 by Ramsay MacDonald's administration but it was not until Labour came to power in 1945 that, in response to international pressure and the nationalist challenge, significant steps were taken to promote institutions which would organise the African masses. The argument advanced is that Labour leaders drew on their movement's historical traditions to encourage forms of African economic and political activism which were likely to stabilise colonial rule.     

Perspectives on the Rise and Fall of Swedish Cardiac Epidemics

Morbidity and mortality in cardiovascular diseases (CVD) can be described as an ongoing epidemic, although a very protracted one, lasting more than 100 years. Cardiovascular diseasesstill top mortality rates in the world today, accounting for about 30% of all deaths around the globe. But it is in the industrialized world that CVD dominate, although differences are great among various regions. Myocardial infarctions are significantly more common in Sweden than in southern Europe, but less common than in Eastern Europe. The overall question concerns the consequences for health in areas on the road to a post-industrial society. Over the years a clearer link has become visible between lifestyle and health. In Sweden, infectious diseases diminished as result of rising living standards. At the same time cardiovascular diseases were beginning their upward phase, reaching a peak in the 1960s. Deaths due to CVD bring to light significant discrepancies related to socio-economic and cultural factors. A comparison of the Swedish twin cities Linköping and Norrköping show considerable differences in death rates in favour of Linköping, amounting to about 30% fewer in the 1920s with a tendency toward rising differences thereafter. A preliminary investigation of diagnoses has shown that links commonly made between health and socio-economic patterns need revision. The differences in cardiovascular morbidity show another pattern than was expected. It is obvious that the neighbourhood environments themselves have significance, and that the inequalities need additional research based on complementary explanatory models.     

A Parliamentary Victory: The British Labour Party and Irish Republican Deportees, 1923

After the 1918 general election the Labour Party became the official opposition party at Westminster. In response to the growing Irish republican campaign to establish an independent Irish state the Labour Party had to re-assess its relationship with Irish nationalism. The Labour Party was now acutely conscious that it was on the verge of forming a government and was concerned to be seen by the British electorate as a responsible, moderate and patriotic government-in-waiting. Although it had traditionally supported Irish demands for home rule and was vehemently opposed to the partition of Ireland, the Labour Party became increasingly wary of any closer relationship with extreme Irish nationalism which it believed would only damage its rapidly improving electoral prospects. Therefore the Labour Party supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 even though it underpinned the partition of Ireland and sought to distance itself from any association with Irish republicanism as the new Irish Free State drifted into civil war. In early 1923 the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) alighted upon the new issue of the arrest and deportation without trial, to the Irish Free State, of Irish republicans living in Britain who were obviously British citizens. The attraction of this campaign for the Labour Party was that it enabled the party to portray itself as the defender of Irish people living in Britain without having to take sides in the Irish civil war. In addition the Labour Party was able to present itself as the protector of civil liberties in Britain against the excesses of an overweening and authoritarian Conservative government. One of the main reasons the issue was progressed so energetically on the floor of the House by the new PLP was because it now contained many Independent Labour Party (ILP) ‘Red Clydesiders’ who themselves had been interned without trial during the First World War. Through brilliant and astute use of parliamentary tactics Bonar Law's Conservative government was forced into an embarrassing climb-down which required the cobbling together of an Indemnity Bill which gave tory ministers retrospective legal protection for having exceeded their authority. By any standard, it was a major achievement by a novice opposition party. It enhanced the party's reputation and its growing sophistication in the use of parliamentary tactics benefited it electorally at the next election which led to the first Labour government.     

Pushed into Pragmatism: British Approaches to Science in Post-War Occupied Germany

One of the most important dilemmas facing the British authorities when they occupied their zone of Germany at the end of the Second World War was what to do with German science. The contributions made by scientists and engineers to the Nazi war machine, in fields such as rocketry and submarines, meant that German science was both revered and feared, and was therefore closely linked to concerns about a post-war military resurgence in Germany. This article aims to chart the changing approaches which the British occupation officials adopted towards German science in this period. While the initial intention was to prevent Germany from ever waging war again, through demilitarisation, denazification and dismantling, the focus changed as British enmity shifted from a former adversary, Germany, to a former ally, the Soviet Union. Policy reflected this shift as technology transfer and the reconstruction of domestic German science won greater favour. This article aims to show that, in the face of growing hostility from the USSR and in the deeply suspicious climate of the early Cold War, Britain was forced to abandon its moral mission towards German science and adopt a far more pragmatic strategy instead.     

The Evolution of British Labour Party Policy on Israel from 1967 to the Intifada

The formation of Israel and the succeeding rival nationalistclaims have been particularly taxing for the social-democraticleft committed in principle to national self-determination.This article explores how the British Labour Party respondedto the Israel—Arab conflict in the post-1967 period. Itshows that Labour's consensus of support for Israel outlastedthe challenge of the 1967 war. It was not until the early 1980sthat a significant shift towards the Palestinian cause tookplace. However, a combination of internal controversies andexternal historical and political developments led to a furtherpolicy revision, ending in a new consensus of support for bothIsraeli and Palestinian nationalism in the late 1980s and early1990s. In outlining these changes, the article sheds light notonly on the intrinsically interesting issue of Labour's attitudetowards Israel but also on the more general question of partypolicy change.     

Unmasking Britannia: The Rise and Fall of British National Identity

Abstract. British national identity is a supranational identity deriving from an imperial past. Warfare created Britain in the eighteenth century, and at first glance mass war in the twentieth century seemed to reinforce it. War, however, was a twoedged sword. On the one hand, it dominated the lives of Britons between 1900 and 1945, yet war and its social-political demands weakened the fabric of the British state which was designed to be a nation-state, rather a state-nation. The more it demanded loyalty to its national icons, the more it became clear that these were not ‘national’ at ail. In many ways war forged state and nation but in a way that has led to its possible break-up.     

美国“地区研究”兴起的历史考察

太平洋战争爆发后,特别是冷战初期,美国联邦政府、三大私人基金会以及相当一部分学者逐渐意识到深入了解非西方世界对维护国家安全的重要性,着手共同推动"地区研究"。联邦政府、私人基金会和学者三位一体体制运作的结果是复杂的:地区研究在迅速成长为一门显学的同时也不可避免地在很大程度上沦为政治的附庸;在满足了国家对地区专家和知识需求的同时也为一些地区研究者挑战美国对非西方世界的政策创造了条件。就美国地区研究兴起与国家安全考虑的密切关系而言,政治没有给学术留出太多独立生存的空间,而知识分子本身也并非都希望远离政治,学术与政治难以彻底分离。     

The British Parliamentary Labour Party and the Government of Ireland Act 1920

Immediately after the First World War the British Labour Party was forced to reconsider its relationship with an increasingly militant Irish nationalism. This reassessment occurred at the same time as it was becoming a major political and electoral force in post‐war Britain. The political imperative from the party's perspective was to portray itself as a responsible, moderate and patriotic alternative governing party. Thus it was fearful of the potential negative impact of too close an association with, and perceived sympathy for, extreme Irish nationalism. This explains the party's often bewildering changes in policy on Ireland at various party conferences in 1919 and 1920, ranging from support for home rule to federalism throughout the United Kingdom to ‘dominion home rule’ as part of a wider evolving British Commonwealth to adopting outright ‘ self‐determination’ for a completely independent Ireland outside both United Kingdom and empire. On one aspect of its Irish policy, however, the party was adamant and united – its opposition to the partition of Ireland, which was the fundamental principle of Lloyd George's Government of Ireland Bill of 1920 which established Northern Ireland. Curiously, that aspect of Labour's Irish policy was never discussed in the party at large. All the running was made by the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) in the house of commons in 1920. The PLP's outright opposition to the bill acted as balm throughout the wider party, binding together the confusing, and often contradictory, positions promulgated on the long‐term constitutional future of Ireland and its relationship with Britain.     

The geography of the political party: Lessons from the British Labour Party's experiment with community organising, 2010 to 2015

This paper highlights the geographical contributions made to academic debate about democracy, representation and the role of the political party. It argues that while geographers have made important arguments in relation to the structure and operation of representative democracy, there is scope for paying greater attention to the internal spatial dynamics of the political party. A successful political party requires a balance between the national party machine and its local membership base. This paper draws on research to explore the way in which the British Labour Party sought to renew its local membership base by adopting community organising techniques and establishing a new arms-length organisation, Movement for Change (M4C), between 2010 and 2015. It uses this research material to highlight the importance of the internal balance of power within any political party, and the need for a multi-scalar approach to understanding the successful operation of any political party.