Boserup revisited: Population and technology in tropical African agriculture, 1900–1940

The Oriental Renaissance: Europe's Rediscovery of India and the East 1680–1880 by R. Schwab, translated by G. Patterson‐Black and V. Reinking with a Foreword by E.W. Said. New York: Columbia University Press, 1984. Pp.xxiv + 542. $22.50 paperback.

Europe Reconsidered: Perceptions of the West in Nineteenth Century Bengal by T. Raychaudhuri. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1988. Pp.xvii + 369, £12.00.

Colonial Dutch Studies. An Interdisciplinary Approach edited by Eric Nooter and Patricia U. Bonomi. New York and London: New York University Press, 1988. Pp.xii + 141. $30.00.

The Economy of Colonial America by Edwin J. Perkins. Second edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988. Pp.xii + 251. $30.00 ($13.00 paper).

Jonathan Edwards and the American Experience edited by Nathan O. Hatch and Harry S. Stout. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Pp.viii + 298. £22.50.

The British Navy and the Use of Naval Power in the Eighteenth Century, edited by Jeremy Black and Philip Woodfine. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1988. Pp.xiv + 273; maps. £27.50.

The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom by Nicholas B. Dirks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Pp.xxiv + 458. £35.00.

Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire by C.A. Bayly, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Pp.xii + 230; maps, glossary and illus. £17.50.

Perfecting the World: The Life and Times of Dr. Thomas Hodgkin, 1798–1866 by Amalie M. Kass and Edward H. Kass. Boston: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988. Pp.xxx + 642; genealogy and illus. £24.50.

The Life of Charles Ledger (1818–1905): Alpacas and Quinine by Gabriele Gramiccia. London: Macmillan, 1988. Pp.xiv + 222. £30.00.

Benevolent Neutrality: Indian Government Policy and Labour Migration to British Guiana, 1854–1884 by Basdeo Mangru. London: Hansib Publishing, 1987. Pp.267; maps and illus. £12.95.

Sir Robert Falconer: A Biography by James G. Greenlee. Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press, 1988. Pp.407. £26.50; $43.00 (hardback).

Francophone Sub‐Saharan Africa, 1880–1985 by Patrick Manning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Pp.199; maps + figures, bibliographical essay. £25.00 (hardback); £8.95 (paperback).

Essays on African History: From the Slave Trade to Neocolonialism by Jean Suret Canale. Translated by C. Hurst. Preface by B. Davidson. Bibliography of works by Jean Suret Canale concerning Africa. London: C. Hurst and Co., 1988. Pp.232; index and bibliography. £25.00.

The Boer War and Military Reforms by Jay Stone and Erwin A. Schmidl. Lanham: University Press of America, 1988. Pp.xi + 345, maps. $22.75.

Rider Haggard and the Fiction of Empire: A Critical Study of British Imperial Fiction by Wendy R. Katz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Pp.ix + 171. £22.50.

The Commonwealth Armies: Manpower and Organisation in Two World Wars by F.W. Perry. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988. Pp.vi + 250. £27.50.

Imperial Rearguard: Wars of Empire 1919–85 by Lawrence James. London: Brasseys, 1988. Pp. + 242, maps and illus. £19.95.

Colonial Development. Die Grundlegung moderner Entwicklungspolitik durch Grossbritannien, 1919–1949 by Herward Sieberg. Wiesbaden: F. Steiner Verlag, 1985. Pp.736. DM 78.

Appeasement and Germany's Last Bid for Colonies by A.J. Crazier. London: Macmillan in association with King's College, London, 1988. Pp.x + 349, maps. £33.00.

Australians, 1938 edited by Bill Gammage and Peter Spearritt, the fourth volume of Australians: A National Library, edited by Alan D. Gilbert and K.S. Inglis. Sydney: Fairfax, Syme and Weldon Associates, 1987. Pp.xviii + 474. £350 (the set of 11 vols.).

Australians from 1939 edited by Ann Curthoys, A.W. Martin and Tim Rowse. Sydney: Fairfax, Syme and Weldon Associates, 1987. Pp.xvii and 474, maps, tables and illus.

The Politics of Persuasion by Desmond Dinan. Lanham: University Press of America, 1988. Pp.xii + 307.

King Abdullah, Britain and the Making of Jordan by Mary C. Wilson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Pp.xxii + 289; maps and photographs. £25.00.

Collusion Across the Jordan by Avi Shlaim. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988. Pp.x + 676; maps. £35.00.

The Commonwealth Armies and the Korean War: An Alliance Study by Jeffrey Grey. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988. Pp.xii + 244; maps and illus. £29.95.

The Oxford Book of Canadian Political Anecdotes edited by Jack McLeod. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. Pp.xiii + 273. £17.50.

Mastering Australian History by Ronald W. Laidlaw. Melbourne: Macmillan, 1988. Pp.vi + 477; illus. £5.95 (paperback).

British Review of New Zealand Studies edited by Ged Martin and Guy M. Robinson. No. I, July 1988.     

State policy and contraceptive choices: evidence from China 1979–2012

This study examines the relationship between China’s contraception policy and married women’s (20–49 years) choice between long-acting and short-acting contraceptive methods during two periods–1980–1994 and 1995–2012. The aim is to examine the link between strictness of the contraception policy and married women’s contraceptive choice. Using data from the 1988 and the 2006 National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Surveys, we estimated the effect of contraception policy in the tightened and the loosened policy periods using a permutation test. The results show that while contraception policy promoted long-acting contraceptive methods, many married women themselves preferred short-acting contraceptive methods. During the tightened policy period, we found married women on average were 2.7 times more likely to use long-acting methods. The effect was only 1.7 times during the loosened policy period. The effect was also parity dependent. The more stringent the contraception policy was, the more likely married women used a long-acting contraceptive method. This study provides the first ever proper estimation of China’s contraception policy effects during the two periods.     

Late Triassic palynoflora from the Pranhita–Godavari Valley,India: evidence from vertebrate coprolites

Vijaya, Prasad, G.V.R. & Singh, K., June, 2009. Late Triassic palynoflora from the Pranhita–Godavari Valley, India: evidence from vertebrate coprolites. Alcheringa 33, 91–111. ISSN 0311-5518.

The Upper Triassic Maleri Formation, represented by red clays and sandstones, has to date not produced any plant macrofossils or palynomorphs. Many spiral and non-spiral coprolites collected during this study from the Maleri Formation of the Pranhita-Godavari Valley were analysed for palynomorphs. Based on shape, nature of coiling and size, the Maleri coprolites are classified into seven groups. Of these, only Group-I, Type 5 (non-spiral) and amphipolar (spiral) types yielded diverse gymnospermous and pteridophytic spores, pollen, other plant debris and sparse fungal spores and algal remains. Occurrences of Antulsporites varigranulatus, Aratrisporites spp., Cadargasporites baculatus, Dubrajisporites isolatus, Enzonalasporites vigens, Foraminisporis coelatus, Grandispora spinosa, Kraeuselisporites saeptatus, Polycingulatisporites reduncus, Staurosaccites spp., Tethysispora unica and Tikisporites balmei confirm a Late Triassic age for the coprolite-bearing red clays. Records of Classopollis classoides and Callialasporites turbatus/dampieri in these assemblages more precisely suggest a Norian to Rhaetian age. The non-spiral coprolites were possibly produced by aquatic piscivorous animals whereas the spiral coprolites may have been produced by an as yet unidentified fish taxon. The coprolite-producing animals (spiral and non-spiral groups) possibly ingested gymnospermous and pteridophytic plant remains passively along with water or their herbivorous prey.     

Local labour markets and socio-economic change: evidence from Danish towns, 2008–2013

The recent financial and economic crisis had substantial but spatially differentiated impacts on growth. However, there is still a lot left to be understood about the local aspects of the crisis. One of these aspects is its socio-economic consequences. This paper investigates local socio-economic change to Danish towns from 2008 to 2013, with a focus on the impact of local labour market (LLM) structures on change. Socio-economic change in towns is measured both directly as mean income and employment growth, and indirectly as population and human capital growth. The paper relies on micro-data and uses robust regression to generate results. Several findings are presented, but the two main conclusions are: first, the LLM structures of towns still influence local socio-economic development; and, second, towns experience better socio-economic development if they are in close proximity to a larger labour market and/or have a large ratio of commuters in the working population.     

North American–Asian aquatic bird dispersal in the Miocene: evidence from a new species of diving duck (Anseriformes: Anatidae) from North America (Nevada) with affinities to Mongolian taxa

Stidham, T.A. & Zelenkov, N.V., September 2016. North American–Asian aquatic bird dispersal in the Miocene: evidence from a new species of diving duck (Anseriformes: Anatidae) from North America (Nevada) with affinities to Mongolian taxa. Alcheringa 41, XXX–XXX. ISSN 0311-5518.

Prehistoric intercontinental dispersals are often used to explain the modern geographic distributions of various organisms, including birds. The extant Holarctic avifauna formed largely in the Neogene, and thus dispersals of various taxa during the Miocene likely have had a strong long-lasting effect upon the geographical pattern of the extant avian communities. However, the uneven fossil record of Neogene birds prevents accurate reconstruction of the biogeographic history of many bird clades, and the present evidence on dispersal of birds in the Neogene among continents is very limited. Past dispersals are most likely to be documented by taxa that are well represented in the fossil record, including diving ducks. Although these birds have a rather substantial fossil record in Europe and Asia, they remain very poorly known from the Neogene of North America. Here we document a new species of Miocene diving duck represented by a proximal humerus and a distal tibiotarsus from the Esmeralda Formation in Nevada (USA) and describe it as a new species of the primitive diving duck genus Protomelanitta Zelenkov (Protomelanitta bakeri sp. nov.), previously known only from the middle Miocene of Mongolia. Both species (from Mongolia and Nevada) are from the ca 11–12 Ma age range during the warm (though cooling) middle Miocene after the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum and Middle Miocene Climate Transition. Given their proposed close relationship, it appears that Protomelanitta dispersed between Asia and North America, and this instance is the first clear indication of an aquatic bird dispersal between North America and Eurasia in the middle Miocene. This palaeobiogeographical event predates the famous immigration of Hipparion horses to the Old World and the late Miocene dispersals between continental Eurasian and North American faunas in general, but likely reflects one prolonged faunal interchange related to global climatic conditions and its effects.

Thomas A. Stidham* [presbyornis@gmail.com], Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China; Nikita V. Zelenkov [nzelen@paleo.ru], Cabinet of Paleornithology, Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya 123, Moscow 117997, Russia.     

Phoenician–Punic amphorae in northern coastal Etruria: New evidence from Pisa (Italy)

This study outlines the circulation of Phoenician–Punic amphorae in northern coastal Etruria, with a particular focus on Pisa (Italy), where their presence has been attested since the mid-eighth century BCE. A set of specimens from Piazza del Duomo was analysed by minero-petrographic and geochemical techniques. The results were compared with literature data from Mediterranean production areas. The research allowed a better definition of the role of Etruscan Pisa in the frame of commercial and cultural routes in the Mediterranean, specifically in the Tyrrhenian area, also providing the opportunity to review the attestations of Phoenician–Punic amphora on a regional scale.     

Going green: Sustainable development as a model of socio‐economic development in European post‐communist countries

The aim of the article is to present a conception of eco‐development as a model for the shaping of a broadly understood lifeworld. It seems to be especially promising in the new social reality of the post‐Communist states, where the lifeworlds have deteriorated badly, both at each spatial level as well as in its biophysical, psycho‐social and technical‐production aspects. First, an interaction model of a lifeworld is presented, followed by a conception of eco‐development with its basic, i.e. social, economic and technological, determinants. The article closes with a list of arguments for eco‐development as both an effective and humanist conception of socio‐economic development in its spatial dimension.     

Lithic technology and social transformations in the South Indian Neolithic: The evidence from Sanganakallu–Kupgal

Here we examine patterns in stone tool technology among Mesolithic, Neolithic and Iron Age localities in the Sanganakallu–Kupgal site complex, Bellary District, Karnataka, South India. Statistical tests are used to compare proportions of raw materials and artefact types, and to compare central tendencies in metric variables taken on flakes and tools. Lithic-related findings support the inference of at least two distinct technological and economic groups at Sanganakallu–Kupgal, a microlith-focused foraging society on the one hand, and on the other, an agricultural society whose lithic technologies centred upon the production of pressure bladelets and dolerite edge-ground axes. Evidence for continuity in lithic technological processes through time may reflect indigenous processes of development, and a degree of continuity from the Mesolithic through to the Neolithic period. Lithic production appears to have become a specialised and spatially segregated activity by the terminal Neolithic and early Iron Age, supporting suggestions for the emergence of an increasingly complex economy and political hierarchy.     

Partisan sorting in the United States, 1972–2012: New evidence from a dynamic analysis

Whether Americans have “sorted” into politically like-minded counties and to what extent is hotly debated by academic and journalists. This paper examines whether or not geographic sorting has occurred and why it has occurred using a novel, dynamic analysis. Our findings indicate that geographic sorting is on the rise, but that it is a very recent phenomenon. In the 1970s and 1980s, counties tended to become more competitive, but by 1996 a pattern of partisan sorting had emerged and continued through the present. Results suggest this pattern is driven by Southern re-alignment and voting behavior in partisan stronghold counties. Lastly, we find evidence that migration can drive partisan sorting, but only accounts for a small portion of the change.     

Split phalanges from archaeological sites: evidence of nutritional stress?

Broken animal phalanges from archaeological sites have been widely used as an indicator of nutritional stress of the prehistoric people due to the low caloric return rate (caloric yield/processing time) of the phalanges. Although it sounds logical, this widely popular argument is based on Binford’s (1978) interview with the Nunamiut and lacks empirical support. In this study, we present the results of experimental studies conducted on 142 modern cow (Bos taurus) and deer (Odocoileus virginianus) first phalanges to document the processing of phalanges, such as the required force and processing time to break them open, possible methods of breaking phalanges, and the resultant breakage and surface modification patterns. This comparative dataset and ethnographic data from contemporary hunter-gatherer groups indicate that broken phalanges in and of themselves cannot be taken as evidence of resource stress. The phalanges do not require substantial amount of processing time and marrow from the phalanges could have been preferred for its taste and soft texture during the period when resources were not scarce. This may explain the bone breakage pattern from an 8800 year old archaeological assemblage from Tangzigou in southwest China, where phalanges were intensively broken without any other evidence of resource stress.     

The Berlin West Africa conference of 1884–85 revisited: A report

The Blackwell Dictionary of Historians edited by John Cannon with R.H.C. Davis, William Doyle and Jack P. Greene. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988. Pp.xiv + 480. £50.00.

Atlas of the British Empire, with Foreword by Norman Stone, edited by C.A. Bayly. Hamlyn Publishing Group/Amazon: London, 1989. Pp.256; illus. £25.00.

The First Imperial Age: European Overseas Expansion c. 1400–1715 by G.V. Scammell. London: Unwin Hyman, 1990. Pp.xix + 281; maps. £30.00 (hardback); £10.95 (paperback).

The History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilisation to the End of Raj by Christopher Tadgell. London: A.D.T Press, 1990. Pp.IX + 336. £65.00.

Saints, Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society 1700–1900 by Susan Bayly. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Pp.xv + 504. £40.00.

A Dictionary of Modern Indian History, 1707–1947, by Parshotam Mehra. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1985 (reprinted 1987). Pp.xiii + 823; £25.00.

Navies, Deterrence, and American Independence: Britain and Seapower in the 1760s and 1770s by Nicholas Tracy. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1988. Pp.207. £21.80.

The Imperial Challenge: Quebec and Britain in the Age of the American Revolution by Philip Lawson. Montreal and Kingston: McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1989. Pp.x + 192. £29.65.

History's Anthropology. The Death of William Gooch by Greg Dening. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1988. Pp.xix + 122; maps and illus.

Thomas Clarkson: A Biography by Ellen Gibson Wilson. London: Macmillan, 1989. Pp.xiv + 269. £35.00.

The Caribbean in Europe; Aspects of the West Indian Experience in Britain, France and the Netherlands. Edited by Colin Brock. London: Frank Cass, 1985. Pp.ix + 243. £20.00 (hardback).

The Transformation of Theology, 1830–1890. Positivism and Protestant Thought in Britain and America by Charles D. Cashdollar. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1989. Pp.xii + 489. $35.00.

Social Welfare, 1850–1950: Australia, Argentina and Canada Compared edited by D.C.M. Platt. London: Macmillan, 1989. Pp.xii + 208. £35.00.

Scientist of Empire: Sir Roderick Murchison, Scientific Exploration and Victorian Imperialism by Robert A. Stafford. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Pp.xii + 293. £30.00 (hardback).

Stanley: The Making of an African Explorer by Frank McLynn. London: Constable, 1989. Pp.410; maps and illustrations. £17.95.

Baden‐Powell, by Tim Jeal. London: Hutchinson, 1989. Pp.xxi + 670. £18.95 (hardback).

Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Volume XII: 1891–1900 edited by Francess G. Halpenny and Jean Hamelin. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990. Pp.xxix + 1305. £48.50; $78.00.

The Weary Titan: Britain and the Experience of Relative Decline, 1895–1905 by Aaron L. Friedberg. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988. Pp.xvii + 321, maps. $14.95 (paperback).

Lost Children of the Empire: The Untold Story of Britain's Child Migrants by Philip Bean and Joy Melville. London: Unwin Hyman, 1989. Pp. ix + 177; illus. £12.95 (hardback).

The History of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Volume III: The Hongkong Bank between the Wars and the Bank Interned, 1919–45; Return from Grandeur by Frank H.H. King. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Pp.xxxviii + 705; maps and illus. £60.00.

Menzies and Churchill at War by David Day. London: Angus &; Robertson, 1987. Pp.xi + 271. £12.50.

Documents on Australian Foreign Policy 1937–49, Vol. VII: 1944, edited by W.J. Hudson. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1988. Pp.lvi + 749; illus. AS39.95.

Empire and Islam: Punjab and the Making of Pakistan by David Gilmartin. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. Pp.xii + 258. $32.00.

The Expedient Utopian: Bandaranaike and Ceylon by James Manor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Pp.xiii + 338. £30.00.

Britain, the United States, and the End of the Palestine Mandate, 1942–1948 by Ritchie Ovendale. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press for the Royal Historical Society, 1989. Pp.332. £37.50 (hardback).

Palestine and the Arab‐Israeli Conflict by Charles D. Smith. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988. Pp.viii+ 308; maps. £10.99 (paperback).

Hearts and Minds in Guerrilla Warfare: The Malayan Emergency 1948–1960 by Richard Stubbs. Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1989. Pp.xiv + 286. £25.00.

Britain and the Korean War by Callum MacDonald. Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1990. Pp.vii + 112; map. £17.50 (hardback); £8.95 (paperback).

The Politics of Africa's Economic Stagnation by Richard Sandbrook with Judith Barker. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. Pp.xvi + 180; maps. £17.50 (hardback); £7.95 (paperback).     

The existence of open areas during the Mesolithic: evidence from aeolian sediments in the Elbe–Jeetzel area,northern Germany

Traditionally Mesolithic hunter–gatherer cultures are supposed to have lived in a primeval forest environment with a closed vegetation cover during the Early and Mid-Holocene. It is not until the onset of subsequent Neolithic agricultural societies that the development of more expansive open areas is assumed. Therefore our perception of the Mesolithic economy in the European lowlands is highly affected by the idaea of adaptation to dense forest environments and a very stable system of resource exploitation. However, recent palaeoenvironmental studies provide evidence that areas of open landscapes must have existed at least temporarily during the Mesolithic and evoke the question whether human impact may be accountable for this.