South Africa: The politics of pre‐negotiations, 1989–1991

The international community has hailed South African state president, F.W. de Klerk, a ‘liberator’. De Klerk liberalised the political process and deracialised aspects of state and society. But how committed to racial reform are be and his government? The regime's policies, strategies and tactics over the last two years raise many concerns that the international community has either baulked or simply ignored. The argument that the government must be rewarded and encouraged is fallacious. The South African government reacts only to pressure. The international community acted prematurely by lifting some sanctions and is undermining the prospects for a post‐apartheid society based on equal rights.     

Social change and sexual mores: a comparison between pre‐20th‐century Norway and 20th‐century Botswana

This article compares pre‐20th‐century Norway and 20th‐century Botswana—two settings separated by time and space but sharing a sharp rise in non‐nuptial births. The comparison seeks to create a synergetic analytical effect by combining firsthand, experience‐near field data from Botswana with solid historical analyses of bastardy in Europe. This radical comparison provides a perspective that highlights the importance of treating “culture” not as a residual category, but as an integral part of everything social. This implies that there is a need not only for a proper sociocultural contextualization of localities, but also for an analysis of extra‐local power structures as fundamentally cultural, reflecting not only bureaucratic and political concerns but also values and existential perspectives.     

Mechanics,thermodynamics and locomotive design: The machine‐ensemble and the development of industrial thermodynamics

The need to treat history of technology as history of ideas is stressed and a definition of philosophy by G.C. Lichtenberg is adapted to serve as a tool for analysing technological change.

A case study of locomotive design is introduced, and the influence of rational mechanics, on the machine‐ensemble or locomotive‐track union, beginning with the work. of L. Carnot, is briefly outlined. The development of industrial thermodynamics from S. Carnot (1824) to H. Riall Sankey (1898) is summarized to serve as a reference for later papers.

The general influence of Mechanical Philosophy, and Thermodynamical Philosophy, on the development of the machine‐ensemble, is traced. It is concluded that the United Kingdom steam‐railway machine‐ensemble was the grand exemplar for technology from 1830 to 1880, after which date American railway practice served as model for railway engineering and business methods, whilst electrotechnology became the exemplary technology.

Mechanical Philosophy shaped the machine‐ensemble throughout the 19th C to a much greater extent than did thermodynamics. First Law Analysis, and the use of improved test methods and concepts as standardized by Sankey, together with the introduction of stationary and controlled road trials improved locomotive performance between 1880 and 1910, but Second Law Analysis was of little significance until the 1920s when attempts were made to reform the classic Stephenson‐Goss archetype which rational method had evolved by 1910.