John Murray: 'a bold and skilful engineer'

Abstract

Between 1832 and 1859 the essential structure of the harbour at Sunderland was completed. A divisive debate over the siting of a dock led to the establishment only of the small and irrelevant Wearmouth Dock in preference to a series of very imaginative schemes. The two piers were further improved and extended and this involved the remarkable feat of the movement of the North Pier lighthouse. The period culminated with the conception and construction of the great South Dock. The dominant figure throughout these events was the resident engineer John Murray.     

China and India: The Institutional Roots of Differential Performance

At the start of the so‐called development race sixty years ago, China, showcasing revolutionary socialism, and India, boasting parliamentary democracy, had close similarities in economic structures and levels of development, but striking differences in terms of cultural cohesion, institutional flexibility and political orientation. The outcome of the race is unambiguous: the question is not who won, but why and how? It is argued here that a wide margin had already opened up in China's favour by the time of the systemic or policy‐regime switch‐points, 1978 in China, and shortly thereafter in India. The author seeks explanations for this differential performance in the divergent institutional configurations of the two societies and economies, especially in the rural sector in the pre‐reform period, and highlights the contrast between the power of the Chinese mass mobilization mode of transformation and the persistent institutional rigidities and obstacles in the Indian case. Post‐reforms, processes of ‘pervergence’— an emerging congruence in negative social features — appear to dominate over tendencies towards conventional convergence. The author reflects on the historical significance of the two development paths: did Nehruvian state‐led planned development and Maoist socialism serve essentially as pioneers of capitalism, leveraging the re‐launching of the two once‐powerful Asian giants back into the global capitalist game on dramatically revised terms of engagement?     

Familial Purposes: An Argument Against the Promotion of Family Uniformity

William Galston (1996) and Jean Bethke Elshtain (1991) argue that law and policy should be used to promote the intact two-parent married heterosexual fondly. Galston advocates divorce reform to discourage single-parent families and Elshtain opposes extending the right to marry to same-sex couples. In response, I defend a multipurpose definition of family, oppose making divorce more difficult, and support same-sex marriage.     

汉万石君族系与祖地研究

本文在对汉代万石君石奋家族研究的基础上,通过对石奋家族相关的先秦诸支石氏进行系统分析和梳理,从而确定东周时期卫国石氏不仅分布时段较长,内容较为丰富,而且还应该是中华石氏的主支脉系。卫国石氏不仅是汉万石君家族的直系祖根,曾属于赵国所有的石城,也应该是卫国石氏封邑以及中华石氏的祖根地。