The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America

My research into the "Mormon Question" has blurred disciplinary boundaries, demonstrating that legal history occurs outside the confines of law books, out in the world of popular culture, political cartooning, and sermonizing, and even in outbreaks of violence. This article is designed to illustrate how an entire body of constitutional law was made in opposition to the marital and sexual arrangements of Mormons in the Utah Territory in the nineteenth century.     

The Conflict between the Chief Justice and the Chief Executive: Ex parte Merryman

Rarely does the clash of ideas on the scope of governmental authority get reduced to a direct conflict between leaders of the branches of government. However, early in the Civil War period, the Chief Executive and the Chief Justice confronted each other in a direct fashion. The stakes were high, because the issues related to the conflict between national security and personal liberty.     

20世纪70年代美国对波斯湾的“双柱＂政策

从二战结束到20世纪60年代末,波斯湾地区的国际关系发生了巨大变化：英国持续了一个世纪的海湾霸权已成强弩之末。1968年,英国政府宣布将于1971年从苏伊士运河以东(包括海湾地区)撤出,这为美苏进一步的竞争开辟了新场地。美国并未像1956年第二次中东战争后所为,直接填补真空,而是制定了一项新的海湾政策：“双柱”政策,     

Muhammad Ghaffari: The Persian Painter of Modern Life

In the late nineteenth century, Qajar Iran, like its neighbor the Ottoman Empire, faced the dual challenges of colonialism and modernity. This paper considers the role of art education and art production in its response to these forces, focusing on the leading court painter of the late Qajar period, Mirza Muhammad Ghaffari, Kamal al-Mulk (1848–1941), whose career bridged the late Qajar period and the early twentieth century. Early in his career, Ghaffari was recognized as the leading exponent of academic painting, yet by the constitutional period his art had evolved into a style representing contemporary Persian life, a style which was informed by nationalistic discourses current in intellectual and political circles. This paper's consideration of the evolution of his style from a European modernism to an authentic Iranian modernism includes Ghaffari's training as a painter, the role of photography in the development of his style, his travel to Europe, and parallels with the art and career of the Ottoman painter Osman Hamdi.