The President and the Public: Inaugural Addresses in American History

This article examines presidential inaugural addresses to gain a perspective on the changing relationship between the people and the presidency throughout American political history. The analysis suggests three distinct models of inaugural address—constitutional, party, and plebiscitary—each articulating a different understanding of presidential leadership and the relationship between the presidency and the people. The constitutional presidents see themselves largely as restrained, constitutional officers with a minimal relationship to the people. The party model yields a role for the president which is more tied to the people's will, especially as expressed through party. Even though tied more strongly to the public, party presidents recognize constitutional limits on their roles and powers. Plebiscitary presidents often eschew party affiliation and the guise of constrained constitutional officer, and cast themselves as engines of the American political system fully tied to public opinion. Plebiscitary presidents often make few references to other political actors or to the Constitution. Beyond helping us to better understand the contours of American political development, this analysis challenges the prevalent assumption in studies of the presidency that nineteenth-century presidents were not popular or “public” leaders.     

高丽文献中的蒙、丽"兄弟之盟"——事实、认同与话语

在蒙古将征服高丽正式作为目标前,高丽人出于对"夷狄"的不认同,不承认"兄弟之盟"事实的存在,代之以"约和""和亲"的话语.在将征服高丽正式作为目标后,蒙古人亦不承认"兄弟之盟"的存在,而以"投拜"话语置换.正式臣服蒙古后,同盟史与高丽人在认同背景下建构的臣服史之间存在张力,他们又试图对之进行重构或覆盖.但在某些关键时刻,高丽人又会将同盟史的记忆唤起,发挥其特殊功用.     

Villages that Never Were: The Museum Village as a Heritage Genre

Villages of relocated buildings now constitute a phenomenon of the world’s repertoire of heritage. They go by a multitude of names depending on particular inflection: open air museum, folk museum, living history museum, heritage village, museum village and so forth. ¹ [1] On the range of villages, see Thompson, ‘The Social Significance of Folk Museums’; Marshall, ‘Folklife and the Rise of American Folk Museums’; Leon and Piatt, ‘Living History Museums’; Shafernich, ‘On‐site Museums, Open‐air Museums, Museum Villages and Living History Museums’; Moolman, ‘Site Museums’; de Jong, ‘Approaches and Concepts’; Chappell, ‘Open‐air Museums’; Corbin, ‘Representations of an Imagined Past’. This paper reviews the context of the form of the genre’s manifestation in Australia, where it is often known as the ‘pioneer village’. They are the fruit of a populist vision of national history which celebrates white rural settlement as its central theme. In practice, the villages manifest a deep commitment to collecting and saving old buildings as the meaningful construction of a favourite historical identity. But the generation that established Australia’s villages has been overtaken. Today, the intersection of museum villages with the managerialist pressures of local economy enhancement and modern professional standards of heritage management challenge most villages’ survival.     

New Strategies for an Old Medium: The Weekly Radio Addresses of Reagan and Clinton

Charisma is one of the most common explanations for the success of political leaders in obtaining the support of the mass public. Yet authors employing the concept typically begin their analyses by simply assuming the presence of charisma, foregoing more rigorous analyses, including the consideration of alternative explanations for public appeal. Thus, charisma becomes a post hoc attribution, a residual category of explanation that is difficult to evaluate objectively. This article examines the concept of charisma in the context of the American presidency by testing for its consequences, including presidents obtaining unusually high levels of support, support from unusual sources, or especially intense and committed support, or successfully leading public opinion on matters of public policy. I particularly focus on the best-case tests of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Unable to find systematic evidence of some special form of leadership that we might characterize as "charismatic," I conclude that the concept of charisma is neither salvageable analytically nor helpful empirically.     

The Structure,Genre, and Meaning of Psalm 129

Psalm 129 depicts the distress of the people in exile. The common understanding is that vv. 6-8 is a lament for the downfall of its present adversaries. This article proves that this is not the meaning of the second half of the Psalm. It contains no appeal to God for salvation or thanksgiving for an ameliorated situation. Verses 6-8 depict the transience of the peoples exilic existence. The psalmist likens the people to the roof-top grass that withers rapidly. The rooftop grass evokes the poverty and the landlessness of the people that compel them to utilize their rooftops to grow crops that yield so little that there is almost nothing to harvest. This situation stands in contrast to the divine blessing of the agriculture in the Land of Israel. The psalmist’s objective is to convey the harsh reality of the exile. He juxtaposes this situation against the much awaited future and against the abundant Divine blessing of the past.     

桐城派的阅读、知识谱系与流派风尚

桐城派效法韩愈的读书旨趣,逐渐形成独具特色的读书法。这也规定了桐城派的书籍选择范围,甚至推衍成独具桐城风味的书单。其书单的增删,能反映桐城派在不同时期的新气象及其酝酿的缘由。桐城派的说经实践又是其读书法的具体运用,“文本于经”“文能通经”“说经之文是古文”是其三个重要内涵。而对桐城派“空疏”的批评因此得以展开,这一批评直接影响到对桐城派学术品格的判断。由此还可以进一步得出桐城派的经典化与知识系谱建构一直处于“进行时”的结论。     

Stories in Space: The Geographies of Children's Literature

This paper argues for the uses of children's literature in the study of children's geographies. It focuses in particular on the nature of representations of urban space in children's literature, a genre more usually connected with the pastoral and explores the narrative strategies and approaches of children's literature which does venture into the city. I propose five modes in which the city is written for children and ask, from the position of literary criticism which distrusts children's stories' ability to speak for children, how far these modes can be said to coincide with children's lived experience of the city.     

蒙古国最后的驯鹿部落

在蒙古国与俄罗斯的接壤处库苏古尔省的查冈努尔地区,辽阔的大草原上散布着牛、羊、马儿和各种野生动物,一汪碧翠深邃的库苏古尔湖宛若一颗坠落草原的明珠,2700平方千米的宽阔湖面被茂密的针叶松林所围绕,不远处是海拔3000多米的峰峦,     

Motifs in The Arabian Nights and in Ancient and Medieval European Literature: A Comparison

This paper is a contribution to the ongoing debate about the origins of parallel motifs in The Arabian Nights and in ancient and medieval popular and learned literature about exotic lands of the East. This preliminary survey focuses on seven related motifs: the magnetic mountain, the congealed sea, flying griffins, automata and genies, the mysterious walled city, the living island, and the underground river. This paper is intended as a contribution toward a motif-Index of The Arabian Nights in order to facilitate further comparative study of the motifs involved.