Myxomatosis in 1950s Britain

In 1953 myxomatosis, a viral disease of rabbits, broke out inBritain for the first time. It rapidly killed tens of millionsof the animals from Kent to the Shetlands. Many farmers andforesters welcomed a disease that virtually eliminated a long-standingand serious agricultural pest. Others were horrified by thesight of thousands of dead and dying animals. With meat stillrationed, consumers rued the loss of a cheap and nutritiousfoodstuff. Rough shooters deplored the loss of prey and hattersand furriers the unavailability of the fur on which their businessesdepended. Rabbits also had champions within the ‘establishment’;these included Winston Churchill who was personally influentialin making deliberate transmission of the disease a criminaloffence. The arrival in Britain of myxomatosis presented theauthorities with difficult questions: should they try to containit, spread it or do nothing; should they take advantage of rabbitdepopulation and try to exterminate such a destructive animal?In the event the outbreak was allowed to run its course andrabbit extermination became government policy. This articleconsiders who or what was responsible for the disease reachingthe UK and how it then spread throughout the country. It examinesthe responses of government, other institutions and membersof the public. Finally, it explores the impact of rabbit de-populationon agriculture, the natural environment and public opinion.     

英国对台湾地区的政策特点及原因浅析(1950-1960年)

在东西方冷战的背景下,英国对台湾地区的政策受到多方面因素的影响,是一个棘手且无法回避的敏感问题。20世纪50年代,英国对台湾地区的政策呈现“政经分离”的特点:政治上保守慎重,强调与台湾当局保持距离;经济上积极主动,努力促进双方贸易的发展。英国政府之所以采取这一政策,不仅考虑到台海局势的严峻性、复杂性,也受英国重商主义传统与灵活务实外交思维的影响。英国对台湾地区的“政经分离”政策,使其在兼顾自身政治与经济利益的同时,也加剧了台海局势的复杂性。     

Post-war smoking policy in the UK and the redefinition of public health

Current analyses of UK smoking policy within two frameworks--the 'heroes and villains' view of journalist accounts and a political science emphasis on rival 'producer' and 'issue' networks in policy making. It is often assumed that the US experience provides a universal historical model. This paper sees smoking policy in the UK as a case study in the relationship between 'scientific fact creation' and policy, which has also been emblematic of wider changes in public health ideology. The issue of smoking and lung cancer symbolized the post-war shift from infectious to chronic disease and the rise of a new 'lifestyle'-oriented public health. In the 1980s passive smoking brought a revival of environmentalism; in the 1990s the rediscovered concept of addiction symbolized developments in public health in which curative and preventive initiatives were entwined. Despite the rise of a militant 'healthism' within both anti-smoking and public health since the 1970s, British policy retained a dual focus, an emphasis on risk reduction as well as risk elimination in which policy networks were entwined rather than distinct. Some public health scientists worked in policy milieux, notably the expert committee, which crossed this apparent divide and which linked with industry. Connections between government and industry changed as public health 'treatment' brought the pharmaceutical industry into the picture.     

The particularities of place: geographies of gendered moral responsibilities among Latvian migrant workers in 1950s Britain

It is now widely accepted that gender relations take a spatially specific form. Distinctive national, regional and local patterns in the ways in which men and women divide paid labour and caring work result in an uneven geography of the total work of social reproduction and, it has been argued, distinctive regional or local gender cultures. It is also clear that the overall gender order and its geography undergo periodic change. Currently in Britain, and in many other industrial nations, the old gender order of industrial Fordism is collapsing and the traditional moral certainties of that period, perhaps most dominant in Britain in the 1950s, are being renegotiated. In the 1950s, women were expected to seek personal development by the direct care of others, whereas men fulfilled their moral obligations towards others by sharing the rewards of their independent work achievements. However, even during the 1950s, there was considerable diversity in the ways in which women and men undertook the social obligations of care and the division of responsibility for the total burden of social reproduction, especially among households in which women's labour market participation was significant. In this paper, drawing on oral histories undertaken with migrant women who came to Britain in the late 1940s from Latvia, I examine the gendered divisions of labour they established in the 1950s and critically assess the significance of spatially differentiated gender cultures for this group.     

Immigration as a Political Dilemma in Britain

Informed by evidence drawn from the British case, this article assesses three competing explanations for how and why political elites in Western Europe lost control of postwar immigration and immigrant policy: the liberal thesis, the political-historical perspective, and the political institutional breakdown explanation. The British case casts doubt on the assumption that West European elites did lose control of policy, although, to the extent that perfect control was not exercised, the political-historical argument best explains this phenomenon.     

Masculinity and Cultural Contestation in the Australian 1950s

Enduring popular narratives posit the 1950s as a time of gendered oppression and conservative stability. While previous historians have pointed to the social and political changes of the period, their work has understood culture as a passive reflector of these transformations. Through analysis of four Australian films, this article argues that the contemporary cultural landscape was a dynamic space that actively negotiated between competing ideals. Exploring the representation of distinct albeit legitimate models of masculinity in these films, this article reveals the complex and unsteady gender order unfolding in the cultural world of the 1950s.     

The U.S. Public Health Service and smoking in the 1950s: the tale of two more statements

During the 1950s, the United States Public Health Service prepared two statements on the link between smoking and lung cancer that have not been recognized by other historians. This article employs extended discussions of these two statements as vehicles to explore both internal developments at the federal health agency and larger questions surrounding the disciplinary emergence of chronic disease epidemiology. The primary cast of characters includes Surgeons General Leonard A. Scheele and Leroy E. Burney, Lewis C. Robbins (a lower-ranking Public Health Service officer, who had chief responsibility for the agency's smoking-related programs from 1958 through 1962 and who left behind a daily professional diary), and Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) editor John H. Talbott. These men, and others, are seen grappling (at varying levels of engagement) with the appearance of what we now recognize as a profoundly different way of understanding chronic disease causation, which centers on survey-taking and statistical analysis of risk factors.     

20世纪五六十年代中国史学的基本走向

20世纪已经结束了。 2 0世纪的中国发生了天翻地覆的巨大变化。2 0世纪的中国史学同样经历了急剧的演变。在跨入新世纪的时刻 ,为了更好地推动中国史学的发展 ,我们很有必要认真地总结和反思它在 2 0世纪的发展。大家都承认 ,2 0世纪的中国史学取得了重大的成就 ,同时也存在许多问题。在学界中对这些成就和问题至今存在着不同的看法 ,这本是很正常的现象。重要的是 ,我们应该通过不同意见的交流和切磋来加深我们的认识 ,更好地进行总结和反思 ,从而促使我国的史学在新世纪发展得更快更健康。这就是本刊举办这次学术讨论的目的。应该说明的是 :一 ,这次学术讨论的题目和范围是 2 0世纪中国史学的发展 ,重点是 1 94 9年新中国成立以后。二 ,讨论的重点是对 2 0世纪的中国史学或其中的某个阶段 ,或某个学派 ,某个学术思潮 ,某个史学分支 ,某个重大专题 ,某个史学领域 ,某种重要现象等从总体上进行观察和评述。一般不对某个具体学者进行讨论和评述。三 ,讨论必须坚持“百花齐放 ,百家争鸣”的方针。欢迎发表各种不同意见 ,进行平等的讨论。四 ,讨论中的任何意见均不代表编辑部的看法。文责均由作者自负。     

20世纪五六十年代《大公报》的改组与转型

新中国成立后,《大公报》之所以能够成为新中国财经战线的机关报,与它作为民办报纸的影响力有关,与它政治立场的适时转变有关,与它对于资本主义的了解、对于国际问题报道的熟捻有关。《大公报》的成功改组和转型,反映了中共对于优秀文化资产改造和利用的有效性,有成功的经验和可资吸取的教训。     

Reforming Connoisseurship: State and Collectors in Shanghai in the 1950s and 1960s

This paper examines the relationship between the state and art collectors during the 1950s and 1960s in Shanghai. It explores how the state gained control over art and collecting, by building state museums, by co-opting connoisseurs and their collections, and by extending “socialist transformation” to the antiquities market in 1956. However, state control was far from complete, and some trade in antiquities continued outside of official channels. To crack down on this illegal trade, cultural authorities in Shanghai launched a Five-Antis Campaign in 1964 to punish alleged art speculators. Through its cultural institutions and political campaigns, the state controlled culture but did not monopolize it.