Civil society,political society and politics of disorder in Cambodia

This paper questions under what conditions the social foundation necessary for the construction and sustenance of civil society are present in post-colonial social formations, and the extent to which there has been a need to develop concessionary politics to maintain a project of rule. It utilizes Partha Chatterjee's usage of Gramsci's political society to understand how Cambodia's ILO-led garment factory monitoring regime secures legitimacy not by the participation of worker citizens in the matters of the state, but by claiming to provide for their well being. I argue that the hegemonic project is fraught by virtue of the fact that consent-seeking forms of regulation, which aim to prevent strikes through trade union membership and tripartitism, have reached their limit and spilled over and into a disaggregated, messier terrain of struggles akin to political society. To develop the argument that workers' politics cannot be expressed in state-civil society relations, I present case studies of two forms of protest. The first form is distinguished by mass faintings, which I characterize as ‘visceral protest’ against the terms of workers' insertion into industrial capitalism. The second is large-scale, worker-led strikes that signal a ‘politics of social disorder’ is emerging, characterized by extra-legal, disruptive, and sometimes violent protest. The paper calls for a re-politicization of labor, and research attuned to workers' ambitions that cannot be reduced to a stable location or sphere within state-civil society relations.     

Religion,society, and culture

Morris, Brian. Anthropological Studies of Religion: An Introductory Text. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. ix + 369 pp. including chapter notes and references, selected bibliography, and index. $42.50 cloth, $12.95 paper.

Webster, Graham. Celtic Religion in Roman Britain. Totowa: Barnes & Noble, 1987. 205 pp. including chapter notes and references, photographs and illustrations, abbreviations, classical sources, selected bibliography, and index. $30.00 cloth.

Weller, Robert P. Unities and Diversities in Chinese Religion. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1987. viii + 215 pp. including appendices, notes, references, and index. $22.50 cloth.     

Loyalists and lairds: The politics and society of Upper Canada reconsidered

The Lion, the Eagle, and Upper Canada: A Developing Colonial Ideology by Jane Errington. Kingston and Montreal: McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1987. Pp.272. $30.00.

The Idea of Loyalty in Upper Canada, 1784–1850 by David Mills. Kingston and Montreal: McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1988. Pp.x + 238. $27.95.

Becoming Prominent: Regional Leadership in Upper Canada, 1791–1841 by J.K. Johnson. Kingston and Montreal: McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1989. Pp.ix + 277. $29.95.

Attitudes to Social Structure and Mobility in Upper Canada 1815–1840: ‘Here We Are Laird Ourselves’ by Peter A. Russell. Lewiston/ Queenston/Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 1990. Pp.213. US$59.95.     

Alexis de Tocqueville: Selected letters on politics and society

This article reflects on the relationship between historical writing and enquiry and philosophy, and more particularly the manner in which the pursuit of a particular natural philosophy can influence historical narratives. The article begins with a comparison of Roman and Greek approaches to history, employing a distinction between narrative and logic. It goes on to consider the impact of Christianity, the relationship between enlightenment narratives and philosophical developments regarding the nature of causation, and the Hegel/Marx critique of the kinds of empiricism associated with Hume. The article ends by considering the counterfactual historical analysis and the proper relationship between history and philosophy for modern historians.     

Popery,politics, and play: visual culture in succession crisis England

This article assesses the place of graphic satire in the burgeoning news culture of late seventeenth-century England. It argues that historians who have used visual sources as typical of party positions in a manner similar to modern political posters underestimate the sophistication of their interventions into politics. Graphic satires did not simply distil already existing ideologies into easily digestible images, but made significant contributions to political culture: through the repetition of key images from the Popish Plot (1678–1682) Whig graphic satire created a narrative which asserted control over the interpretation of events in a bitterly contested news culture. In response, Tory satirists developed sophisticated visual strategies to undermine that narrative, and it is argued that the graphic element of graphic satire – the skilful playfulness with which it parodied, commentated upon, or mocked other elements of news culture – was vital to its unleashing biting political commentary.     

Region, culture and society: understanding antiquity from the field

Approaches to the finds, monuments and settlements of past and present landscapes in different parts of Europe, and the contributions of their regional archaeological traditions, are briefly evaluated from a historical perspective. The point of departure is the work of the Dane, Ole Worm, in the early seventeenth century, on the whole of Denmark and Norway. Worm pioneered systematic large-scale topographical recording of monuments, and so provided data for the earliest archaeological distribution maps. Another Dane, N.F.S. Sehested, in the mid-eighteenth century, led the development of intensive small-scale regional studies. In conclusion, the methods of large scale active survey (e.g. in the Mediterranean) are reconsidered, and the particular role of Communist Eastern Europe in pioneering early large-scale excavation is emphasized.