The Provisioning Crisis during the First World War

Although the agricultural region of Voronezh Province did not experience a food supply crisis during the First World War and up to 1917, it did suffer from a prolonged provisioning crisis, the result of administrative problems and mistakes, that in turn contributed to popular unrest, both in the province and throughout the empire.     

盐统王朝:唐代后期的盐业、财政以及国家安全(英文)

盐业在唐代占有重要地位,至公元780年,唐王朝至少一半的收入来自国家的盐的垄断。安禄山叛乱之后,盐业垄断所得主要用于重建战后破败的国家、服务于君王群臣享乐。唐代对盐业的垄断成为广大贫民遭受不平等和剥削的主要根源,同时也是朝廷与地方之间贪婪与权力斗争,乃至更多利益冲突的关键因素。本文以四川、陕北、以及东南沿海等产盐地区为研究对象,从社会与国家的角度来探讨唐代晚期盐的重要性。     

The Institutionalization of the European Internal Cross-Border Co-operation Policy: A First Appraisal

In the space of just 20 years, internal cross-border co-operation (CBC) has transformed from a marginal issue for European integration into an important strand of the third objective of European Union's (EU's) regional policy. How might this process of transformation be explained? This study intends to reconstruct the chronology of its development through interviews and use of archival material. The emergence of the current CBC policy was not, we argue, an inevitable solution to the problem of border management but, rather, the result of a struggle between the actors of that policy sub-system. The dramatic rise of CBC is the result of a series of factors that originated with the signing of the Single European Act in 1986. The construction of CBC as a set of problems and solutions by a network of policy actors at the margins of the EU through a series of technical reports, together with the policy window opened by the appointment of the Delors Commission, allowed the launching of an innovative CBC policy which has consolidated over time.     

The National Insurance Acts 1911-1947, the Approved Societies and the Prudential Assurance Company

The role of the British major life assurance companies in administeringthe National Insurance Acts in the guise of approved societieshas long been controversial. The companies have been accusedof profiteering rather than civic duty or social altruism. Thisarticle, using the Prudential Assurance Company as a case study,questions this argument. Life assurance companies such as thePrudential were fundamental to the operational running of nationalhealth insurance in the first half of the twentieth centurydue to their scale, scope and expertise. In addition, they werekeen to extend the scope of national health insurance and campaignedto make the acts more comprehensive. Finally, while the companiescertainly did see benefits in administering the acts, thesewere related more to corporate identity, branding and publicrelations than to direct pecuniary gain. An analysis of theinclusion of the life insurance companies in the administrationof the National Health Insurance Acts is thus as important foran understanding of twentieth-century Britain as it is for thedevelopment of modern social welfare.     

社会主义时期党的少数民族统一战线政策的完善和发展

中国共产党领导的统一战线,是团结少数民族群众,调动少数民族群众的积极性,维护国家稳定,实现社会主义现代化全面发展的重要保证。社会主义时期党的少数民族统一战线政策大体经历4个完善发展阶段,即新中国建立初期、全面建设社会主义时期、“化大革命”时期、社会主义建设新时期．     

On the Battlefront: Canadian Soldiers,an Imperial War,and America's National Pastime

“The moment our men get out of the trenches they begin to play baseball… .” ¹ 1. Coningsby Dawson, Living Bayonets: A Record of the Last Push (New York: John Lane Co., 1919), 129.

—Lieutenant Coningsby Dawson, an officer in the Canadian

Expeditionary Force during the First World War

The Great War is credited by some historians for giving direction to Canadian nationalism. Success on the battlefields provided many citizens with patriotic pride, as well as a sense of brotherhood as Canadian troops fought alongside the British in an imperial struggle. Despite an environment that favoured nationalism and imperialism, Canadian soldiers embraced America's national pastime. For many of the rank and file, baseball was an important part of their war experience. The commanding officers' support for sport, however, was essential to baseball's existence in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. Despite the enjoyment baseball brought soldiers, a handful of officers in the military's high command were apprehensive about sport's rising status. By 1917, after years of uncertainty about how to incorporate baseball into the soldiers' training regimen, the military could no longer ignore the need and role for sport in military life. Perhaps spurred by American entry into the conflict, the CEF issued a report that officially authorized baseball and like games.