The State Legislature in American History: A Review Essay

Abstract

The author discusses a very rich resource for studying the Great Depression: the Censuses of Manufactures from 1929, 1931, 1933, and 1935. He highlights the strengths and weaknesses of this source in terms of the information available on the schedules and the quality of the data. In terms of information collected, these censuses compare favorably with the modern Census of Manufactures with some limitations. The author also draws on some published studies to argue that the records held at the National Archives are (in general) complete enumerations of the establishments existing at the time. He then conducts tests for the presence of measurement error and finds a limited role.     

《美国历史评论》:第一份科学的美国历史杂志

《美国历史评论》是美国主流的核心历史刊物,更是“第一份科学的美国历史杂志”。它是19世纪末西方史学职业化的产物,也是美国史学科学化、职业化的标志。100多年来,它坚持严肃的专业态度,坚持和发展了自己的栏目内容和形式,主旨是为了繁荣和发展美国的历史学术。它最初不是美国历史协会的机关刊物和出版物,但由于业务发展的需要,《评论》最终成为美国历史协会的“旗舰”。有人批判《评论》内容方面的保守,但细心考察会发现它是美国史学发展的晴雨表,尤其反映了第二次世界大战前后美国史学发展的趋势和变化。     

American Historical Demography: A Review Essay

Abstract

American historians of modern art routinely assume that after World War II New York replaced Paris as the center of the western art world. An analysis of the illustrations in French textbooks shows that French art scholars disagree: they rate Jean Dubuffet as the most important painter of the era, ahead of Jackson Pollock, and they consider Yves Klein's anthropometries of 1960 as the greatest contribution of a single year, in front of Andy Warhol's innovations in Pop Art. Yet the French texts also show that the French artists' practices and conceptions of art paralleled those of the Americans. Thus, whereas French and American scholars disagree over the relative importance of their nations' artists, there is no disagreement that the most important art of the 1950s was produced by experimental seekers, and that of the 1960s by conceptual finders.     

Review Article: Soviet Behaviour in the Cold War

JACQUES LÉVESQUE. The Enigma of 1989: The USSR and the Liberation of Eastern Europe, trans. Keith Martin. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. Pp. ix, 267. $35.00 (US);

JEFFREY T. CHECKEL. Ideas and International Political Change: Soviet/Russian Behavior and the End of the Cold War. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997. Pp. xv, 191. $26.00 (US);

MIKE BOWKER. Russian Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War. Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing, 1997; dist. Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate. Pp. xi, 297. $72.95 (US);

VOJTECH MASTNY. The Cold War and Soviet Insecurity: The Stalin Years. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Pp. xi, 285. $44.50 (CDN).     

Fieldwork Methodology in South American Maritime Archaeology: A Critical Review

In archaeology, data obtained from the analysis of material evidence (i.e., the archaeological record) from extensive excavations have been a significant means for the ultimate development of interpretations about human life in the past. Therefore, the methodological procedures and tools employed during fieldwork are of crucial importance due to their effect on the information likely to be recovered. In the case of maritime archaeology, the development of rigorous methods and techniques allowed for reaching outcomes as solid as those from the work performed on land. These improvements constituted one of the principal supports—if not, the most important pillar—for its acceptance as a scientific field of study. Over time, the growing diversity of sites under study (e.g., shipwrecks, ports, dockyards, and prehistoric settlements) and the underwater environments encountered made it clear that there was a need for the application of specific methodological criteria, in accordance with the particularities of the sites and of each study (e.g., the research aims and the available resources). This article presents some ideas concerning the methodologies used in South American investigations that have exhibited a strong emphasis on the analysis of historical shipwrecks (the sixteenth to twentieth centuries). Based on a state-of-the-knowledge review of these research projects, in particular where excavations were conducted, the article focuses on the details of the main strategies adopted and results achieved. The ideas proposed in this article can be useful as a starting point for future activities of surveying, recording, and excavating shipwrecks.     

On Greenfield's Review of The Encyclopedia of African and African American Religions: A Response

Jack M. Potter. Thai Peasant Social Structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.     

The Soviet Union and Mosaddeq: A Research Note

Although it is generally accepted that the Soviet Union did not play a significant role in the events leading to the overthrow of Mohammed Mosaddeq in 1953, little has been written about how the Soviets perceived the Iranian leader and the movement he inspired. This article argues that Soviet leaders generally saw Mosaddeq as weak and ill-disposed towards the Soviet Union. The Soviet failure to secure an oil concession in Iran in 1946 and general conservatism about anti-colonial movements during the late Stalin period conditioned their assessment of Mosaddeq's premiership. After Soviet policy towards the Third World changed in the mid-1950s, Mosaddeq's movement was reinterpreted as a genuine “struggle of national liberation.”     

Defiant Innovation: The Adoption of Medical Marijuana Laws in the American States

Diffusion research often characterizes the role of the federal government in innovation adoption as a supportive one, either increasing the likelihood of adoption or its speed. We examine the adoption of medical marijuana laws (MMLs) from 1996 to 2014 to shed light on what motivates states to adopt innovations that are in explicit defiance of federal law. Furthermore, we examine whether federal signals have any influence on the likelihood of adoption. In doing so, we utilize implementation theory to expand our understanding of how the federal government's position impacts state policy innovation adoption. We find mixed evidence for the influence of federal signals on the adoption of MMLs. The results suggest that medical marijuana policies are much more likely to be adopted in states when proponents have the political or institutional capital, rather than a medical or fiscal need. Moreover, this political capital is sufficient independent of the federal government's real or perceived position.