‘We have to cut our coat according to our cloth’: Hailsham,Chamberlain, and the Struggle for Rearmament, 1933–4

This article seeks to reassess the decision-making processes of the first stages of British rearmament in the early 1930s. In particular, it re-evaluates the role of Douglas Hogg, Viscount Hailsham, Secretary of State for War (1931–5), and his efforts to combat the determination of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Neville Chamberlain, to limit expenditure and resist preparing the Army for continental warfare. Hailsham is presented as the first British cabinet minister to recognise the dangers posed by a resurgent Germany and to understand that this threat could only be resisted by force. It is argued that the conclusions of the Defence Requirements Sub-Committee, including a ‘continental commitment’, were significantly weakened in the course of the subsequent deliberations of the Ministerial Committee to which its recommendations were submitted. A struggle between Hailsham and Chamberlain was the key feature of the meetings of the Ministerial Committee, but has been overlooked by previous historians. Despite Hailsham's best endeavours, it was the power of the Chancellor which prevailed, with significant implications for the evolution of the country's grand strategy over the years before the outbreak of the Second World War.     

Narendra K. Wagle and Olle Qvarnström (eds.), Approaches to Jaina Studies: Philosophy,Logic, Ritulas and Symbols

Indo-Iranian Journal -     

Hobbes in Kiel, 1938: From Ferdinand Tönnies to Carl Schmitt

This article sheds light on intellectual politics under Nazism by looking at a crucial shift in the field of Hobbes studies that was marked in a congress celebrating the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Thomas Hobbes's birth, organised in Kiel, 1938. Before the congress, the decisive voice in Hobbes studies had for almost fifty years been that of Kiel University professor Ferdinand Tönnies. Tönnies was purged from the university upon the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 and died three years later. At the opening of the Hobbes congress in Kiel, its convener, Cay von Brockdorff, declared that the phase of Hobbes studies shaped by Tönnies was ending and that a new phase, represented by Paul Ritterbusch and Carl Schmitt, had emerged. Against the background of a long tradition of Hobbes studies in Kiel, this article summarises Tönnies's contribution to Hobbes studies; analyses organisation and proceeedings of the congress, paying special attention to politico-theoretical disagreements between Ritterbusch and Schmitt and to von Brockdorff's exploitation of their rivalry; and contextualises Schmitt's interpretation of Hobbes published in the aftermath of the congress.     

From Süleyman Pasha to Mehmet Fuat Köprülü: Roman and Byzantine history in late Ottoman historiography

Abstract

The following is a continuation of the task set out in my Note in BMGS 10 (1986) 211–22. Working towards a Bibliography, I have tried to bring together, in a corpus, Ottoman Turkish works of some importance dealing with Roman and Byzantine history (including historical topography) which appeared as books, or part of books, between c.1870 and 1920. A particular aim has been to illustrate the development of this corpus in relationship with ‘westernising’ trends in the historiography of the Ottoman empire over the same period.     

The Transition from the Neolithic to the Copper Age: Excavations at Vésztö-Bikeri,Hungary, 2000–2002

Abstract

The transition from the Neolithic to the Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain (ca. 4500 B.C.) coincides with dramatic changes in house form, settlement layout, settlement distribution, and mortuary customs. These changes affected nearly every aspect of social organization—from the organization of households and villages to the distribution of cultural groups across the landscape. Our current understanding of the various changes that occurred during this important transition is hindered by a lack of systematically excavated settlement sites dating to the Early Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain.

The results of three years of excavation at an Early Copper Age settlement located in the Körös River Valley suggest that, in contrast to the Neolithic, craft activities on Early Copper Age sites are segregated in different parts of the settlements. This general pattern of increasing economic specialization occurs throughout SE Europe at the end of the Neolithic and is associated with a tendency towards increased integration of economic and social units in settlements during the Copper Age.     

Tracing Teams,Texts, and Topics: Applying Social Network Analysis to Understand Archaeological Knowledge Production at Çatalhöyük

Social network analysis (SNA) is an analytical technique rapidly gaining popularity within archaeology for its applicability to a wide variety of issues relating to past communities. Using the 20-year project at Çatalhöyük, Turkey, as a case study, I demonstrate how SNA can be helpfully used to understand knowledge production in archaeology. Balancing network visualization and computation with contextual knowledge, combining SNA with topic modeling, and concentrating on social structures all work to provide a diachronic view of how information flows between disparate research teams at Çatalhöyük as well as the social structures and specific individuals promoting this flow. SNA has the undeniable potential to provide new perspectives on how dispersed datasets are assembled to produce archaeological knowledge, illustrating the value of retaining focus on the social conditions of scientific practice even as significant insights are being derived from instead investigating objects and ontology.