Industrializing Crusoe: Adventure,Modernity and Anglo-American Expansionism

This essay focuses on two updated, Americanized versions of the Robinson Crusoe story published in the final quarter of the nineteenth-century: Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island and Douglas Frazar's Perseverance Island: or the Nineteenth-Century Robinson Crusoe. The first half of the essay considers how these Robinsonades reworked Defoe's novel as a fantasy of applied technology in an industrialized agrarian context. The second half of the essay engages with recent historical work on nineteenth-century British expansion in order to consider how Verne's and Frazar's adventures might be understood in relation to the flow of migrants and money from Britain to America around the period the novels were written. As a result, the essay proposes The Mysterious Island and Perseverance Island as literary vehicles that inspired visions of agro-industrialization at a time when Victorian subjects were increasingly drawn to the American West as a site in which to sink their labour and finance. Thus linking the circulation of the adventure form with overseas capitalist enterprise, the essay concludes by reflecting upon how such expansionism might be understood with regard to the discriminatory processes of primitive accumulation and uneven development that have characterized the growth of the modern capitalist world system.     

Realpolitik and Jihad: The Iranian Use of Shiite Militias in Syria

The Shi‘a militias that have been involved in the war in Syria since 2011 were dispatched by Iran from neighboring countries, and they have exploited their position as aid‐givers by implementing a long‐term scheme of Iran regarding Syria. This article seeks to define the purpose and modus operandi of the involvement of these militias in Syria, as a case study of Iranian policy throughout the region. The essence and purposes of this regional policy has been analyzed using realistic and soft power approaches, alongside political thought from the Sh'ia Islam and the fundamentals of the Islamic Revolution; the reflection of this policy in Syria is identified by tracing reports and publications regarding the complicity of the Shi‘a militias in the war. The article claims that war‐racked Syria is a sort of test case for Iran protecting itself by attempting to spread its hegemony — and thus deterrence — across the region, a plan that is combined with and carried out through an ideological Jihadist promotion of an Islamic order. Accordingly, the Shi‘a militias are striving to ensure a lasting foothold for Iran in the areas in Syria that are essential to Iranian regional aspirations, by imposing Iranian political, military, and religious influences among these territories and populations.     

近代法国医生的社会经济特征

在19世纪尤其是19世纪中后期,西方主要资本主义国家在政治结构、经济结构乃至生活方式等诸多领域都进行了广泛而深刻的调整,其中重要成果之一即中产阶级的勃兴。而中产阶级自诞生之日起就充满激情地融入并推动着这场社会变革,法国中产阶级所表现出的特征最为显而独特,成为各国中产阶级竞相仿效的模范。法国医生作为中产阶级自由职业的一员,由于思想激进且积极参政而备受西方史家关注。     

The Efficiency of Social and Economic Image Projection in Spatial Configurations

In this paper we examine issues related to the regional images of spatial configurations and their performance in attracting resources that are expressed in terms of regional gross domestic product. The concepts of social and economic image efficiency are introduced and their dual relationship is acknowledged. A non-parametric frontier analysis methodology is proposed for assessing the two types of efficiency, based on the concept of data envelopment analysis. The method is applied to the twenty prefectures of Northern Greece on data that span the period 1981 to 1991.     

Israel–Syria: The Elusive Peace*

For 20 years, as of 1991, multiple rounds of negotiations took place between Syria and Israel. These negotiations revolved around the entire gamut of problems separating the two countries: borders, recognition, finality of the conflict, normalization, security arrangements, the Israeli civilian population in the disputed territory, water, Lebanon, the Palestinian issue, Iran, and terrorism. Israeli Prime Ministers, Syrian presidents, foreign ministers, and senior generals from both sides participated in the talks, and third parties such as the United States and Turkey were also involved. Yet peace was not achieved, although not for a lack of effort. This article tries to shed light on some of the reasons for this continuing failure.