Diet and the diseases of the twentieth century

Trowell, Hugh, Denis Burkitt and Kenneth Heaton, eds. Dietary Fibre, Fibre‐Depleted Foods and Disease, London: Academic Press, 1985. xiv + 433 pp. including index. $64.50 cloth.

Bjoerntorp, Per, George V. Vahouny and David Kritchevsky, eds. Dietary Fiber and Obesity. New York: Alan R. Liss, 1985. ix + 115 pp. including chapter references and index. $22.00 cloth.     

Public debt and financial crises in the twentieth century

The costs of wars have been the main driver of public debt in the Western World during the modern era. The late twentieth century stands out as a period that saw a pronounced increase of government debt to GDP ratios in peacetime. This paper assesses the role that financial crises have played in shaping the public debt trajectory in the twentieth century. Focusing on the experiences of 14 industrial economies, I show that financial crises have long and lasting effects on public finances. I provide evidence that the costs of financial crises have increased strongly in the second half of the twentieth century and that the costs of financial crises grow with the size of the financial sector. In many countries, the rising costs incurred from stabilizing the economy after financial crises were an important cause of the peacetime surge of public debt ratios in the late twentieth century. In today's highly financialized economies, financial crises have become a key risk for public finances.     

The pharmaceutical industry in the twentieth century: A reappraisal of the sources of innovation

Abstract

The authors use an historical case‐study of a single line of therapeutic development (in vaccines and serum antitoxins) to bring out salient aspects of the shifting sources of innovation in the pharmaceutical industry during the twentieth century. Their emphasis is on the complex relationships that have evolved between three companies ‐ Mulford, Sharp & Dohme, and Merck & Co., Inc. ‐ and the loosely integrated networks of public, profit‐making, and non‐profit institutions that have been central to the process of innovation in this science‐based industry. Galambos and Sturchio enumerate the characteristics of pharmaceutical organisations that have remained successful innovators over the long term.     

20世纪国内老子研究述评

由于同一定时代背景相联系,20世纪的国内老子研究呈现出明显的阶段性:前期研究有两大特点,一是以西学解老,二是注重校诂与考证;中期研究的突出特点是大陆学者自觉地以马列主义为指导,注重分析老学的阶级属性及哲学性质,1973年马王堆帛书<老子>的出土为这一时期的老子研究提供了新的课题;后期的老子研究是在大陆与港澳台四地研究趋于一体化、国内外老学界交流合作频繁的背景下进行的,80年代初注重反思,80年代中期以后的研究在视域上不断拓展,在层次上不断深入,1993年郭店楚简<老子>的出土使得学术界在诸如<老子>版本及作者、老子的道德价值取向以及先秦儒道关系等问题上的研究取得了一批新成果,并基本达成共识.     

Continuity and change in regional disparities in Belgium during the twentieth century

This paper presents estimates of regional GDP per capita for certain benchmark years during the first half of the twentieth century using the method proposed by Geary and Stark. After testing the robustness of the Geary and Stark methodology for the Belgian situation, these estimates are linked to the official regional GDP figures, available since 1955, so that we can cover the whole of the twentieth century. Next we test the suggestion put forward by many historians of a contrast between a ‘poor Flanders’ and a relatively ‘prosperous Wallonia’ around 1900. For the remainder of the analysis Belgium’s nine provinces are used as a geographical unit to take a broader view than just the Flanders/Wallonia controversy. The analysis shows a dramatic reversal of fortune between the northern and southern provinces. We explain the main causes of this process and assess the effect of state policies on regional development. Finally, the paper considers whether the twentieth century witnessed a process of convergence.     

Population replacement,social mobility and development in Italy in the twentieth century

Abstract

Many scholars have expressed alarm at the low fertility and sustained immigration that have characterized Italy in the last decade (1.3 children per woman and an increase of more than 200,000 immigrants per year). This article takes a different approach, showing how low fertility and strong migratory balances (involving migration both between Italian regions and from abroad) have enhanced the formation of human capital, facilitating family strategies of upward social mobility, the construction of a more balanced labor market, increases in income and a decline in the graying of the population. The combination of low fertility and sustained immigration, therefore, has been and still is a fundamental resource for development of the population and of Italian society, especially in central and northern Italy. The article also discusses modifications in family and immigration policies suggested by these findings.     

Lost primacy: crime in Italy at the end of the twentieth century

This article attempts to answer four questions. First: has Italy today, or has it had in the last thirty years, rates of theft, robbery and homicide that are higher than those in other western European countries? Second: have crime statistics in Italy followed the same pattern as in other European countries in the same period? Third: have crime statistics become more or less comparable in the western European countries in this period? Fourth: what factors have determined changes in crime rates in Italy in recent decades?     

Prospero and Caliban,North/South relations at the end of the twentieth century

Caliban Naufragé: Les Relations Nord‐Sud à la Fin du XXe Siècle. By Pierre Moussa (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1994) 329 pp. n.p.g.     

20世纪上半叶河南烟草生产及其运销格局初探

20世纪上半叶,烟草是河南经济作物的一大特色。期间,河南烟草生产迅速发展,形成了烟草种植区域化、专业化的生产模式,并成为全国三大烤烟产区之一,一定程度上改变了河南农业单一的种植结构;同时,河南烟草生产的商品化程度不断提高,不仅满足了国内外卷烟加工工业的市场需求,而且还扩展了河南农村市场的发展空间;在此基础上,烟草集散市场的网络体系初步形成,烟草运销格局也因铁路运输方式的出现而发生重大变化。近代河南烟草的产销不仅提高了农民的生活水平,增强了农民的市场意识,且刺激了河南金融业的发展,并推动了豫中城镇的近代化进程,对河南乃至华北农村的近代社会转型产生了较为深远的影响。     

‘Time of Troubles’: Arnold J. Toynbee's twentieth century

Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) has long been neglected or discounted by scholars of international relations and historians of international thought. Yet his contributions to International Affairs, as well as his Surveys of international affairs and his A study of history demonstrate both his capacity for acute interpretation of contemporary events and the depth of his learning about past international societies. This article examines his analysis of mid‐twentieth century international relations, that ‘Time of Troubles’ which he believed would only be escaped through a recovery of ‘creativity’ and profound change in the ways in which world politics were practised. It explores the foundations of his approach to the field, demonstrated both in his Surveys of international affairs and his twelve volume magnum opus, A study of history, as well as his essays in journals. It analyses his diagnosis of the causes of our contemporary ‘Time of Troubles’, in the light of past episodes in world history Toynbee thought analogous to that present condition of international relations. And it traces his retreat from political solutions to the challenges faced in the twentieth century and his movement towards religious responses as a putative alternative. It concludes by arguing that Toynbee deserves recognition, not simply as a pioneering world historian or a controversial interpreter of the politics of the Middle East, but as an acute commentator on the international relations of a troubled age.     

Coming of age in uniform: The Foundling Hospital and British army bands in the twentieth century

Abstract

This article examines the experiences of former pupils at the Foundling Hospital who served as British Army regimental bandsmen. It is based on interviews conducted by the author, published written accounts and documentary evidence in the Foundling Hospital Archives. The formative experience of institutionalisation at the Foundling Hospital is considered in the first section. The second section describes the transitional process of leaving the Hospital and enlisting in the Army. The final section discusses institutional experiences in the Army and how these affected the former pupils' life choices. It will be argued that the Hospital's authoritarian regime placed significant limitations on the children's social horizons and produced a strong orientation toward institutional life. It will be shown however, that the experience of serving in Army bands at a time of tremendous social change allowed former pupils featured in this study to make alternative life choices which short circuited this institutional bias.     

The causes and impact of changes in fish stocks in the waters around Fair Isle during the twentieth century

Drawing considerably from records of fish catches made by the fishermen of Fair Isle during the 20th century, this article highlights the dramatic decline in fish stocks in the waters around the Isle. It argues that the major cause has been the continuous intensification of the commercial fishing industry outside Fair Isle. Assessment is also made of the socio‐economic and cultural impact on the community of Fair Isle, and means are proposed to retain and regain links with the sea.     

Simultaneous love: an argument on love,modernity and the feminist subject at the beginning of the twentieth century

This article explores an argument on love as it was articulated within the framework of the ‘New Ethics’ sexual reform in Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century. While many commentaries on the alienating impact of modernity projected authenticity onto the ‘non‐modern’ woman and her love, the feminist authors at issue in this article promote ‘modern love’ as a medium of women's participation in modernity. Furthermore, they address the problem of love's temporality and non‐exclusivity. Yet, the engagement with these topics is a tricky one because non‐exclusivity and impermanence are at the same time dismissed as ‘decadent’ ways of loving and attributed to ‘archaic’ Europe and non‐European cultures.