A Double-Edged Sword: Anglo-American ‘Special Relations,’ 1936–1981

C.A. MACDONALD. The United States, Britain and Appeasement, 1936–1939. New York: St Martin's Press, 1981. Pp. xi, 220. $22.50 (US); DAVID REYNOLDS. The Creation of the Anglo-American Alliance, 1937–41: A Study in Competitive Co-operation. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1982. Pp. xiii, 397. $28.00 (US); H.G. NICHOLAS (ed.). Washington Despatches, 1941–45: Weekly Political Reports from the British Embassy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1981. Pp. xviii, 700. $40.00 (US); TERRY H. ANDERSON. The United States, Great Britain, and the Cold War, 1944–1947. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1981. Pp. xiv, 256. $18.00 (US); ROBERT M. HATHAWAY. Ambiguous Partnership: Britain and America, 1944–1947. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981. Pp. xi, 410. $25.00 (US); JOHN BAYLIS. Anglo-American Defence Relations, 1939–1980: The Special Relationship. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981. Pp. xxii, 259. $25.00 (US).     

Between Vienna,St Petersburg,and Warsaw: August Lobkowitz in Galicia, 1826–32

Abstract

This article analyses the relationships between Austrian imperial bureaucrats and the Polish elites in Habsburg Galicia during the 1820s and 1830s. Its main focus is on Prince August Lobkowitz, who was the governor of Austrian Galicia between 1826 and 1832. Even though he was a representative of the German Habsburg dynasty, with family roots in the Bohemian aristocracy, Lobkowitz switched allegiances in Galicia and declared himself a Pole. Against the instruction of his senior colleagues in Vienna, he supported the idea of an independent Poland as a buffer state between the Habsburg monarchy and the Russian Empire. Between 1828 and 1831, he maintained close contacts with Polish politicians — both in Galicia and in the Russian empire — and promised them Austrian support in the event of a Polish uprising against Russian rule. The article seeks to challenge the historiographical stereotype of a uniform Austrian bureaucracy that enforced its will upon the largely non-German elites in the Habsburg provinces.     

Interpreting Enterprise,State, and Society: A Critical Review of the Literature in Modern Chinese Business History, 1978–2008

This article offers a critical review of literature in the area of modern Chinese business history from 1978 to 2008. It focuses on four interconnected topics: (1) the evolution of industrial capitalism, (2) the adoption of corporate hierarchies and/or social networks, (3) the change of financial institutions and monetary system, and (4) the development of state-owned industries and the formation of the (central) state enterprise system. The review reveals not only significant growth of the field of modern Chinese business history over the last three decades but also the existence of major gaps. The article concludes by considering the implications of its findings for understanding the political economy of business enterprises and enterprise systems in different national and historical contexts.