Montesquieu's Shadow: Debating reform in the Austrian Netherlands

Under the pressure of governmental reform, beginning in 1740 and intensifying from the 1770s, opponents of reform in the Austrian Netherlands employed arguments derived from The Spirit of the Laws to contest the need for reform. However, reform had also been advocated by local powers using truisms publicised by The Spirit of the Laws, and during the political upheaval of 1789–1790, democrats and traditionalists clashed bitterly over the form of the new Belgian state, both citing Montesquieu to suit their purposes. This article seeks to trace and account for the influence and use of Montesquieu's thought in the Belgian context.     

History,Memory, and Moral Knowledge: William Godwin's Essay on Sepulchres (1809)

In 1809 the radical English philosopher, novelist, and historian William Godwin published Essay on Sepulchres—a proposal to mark the burial sites of the morally great with a simple wooden cross. This paper explores Godwin's essay in terms of his evolution as moral philosopher and historian. While Godwin is commonly renowned as a utilitarian rationalist given to optimistic assertions on human perfectibility, this essay demonstrates the extent to which his moral theory depended on emotion and intuition and how he came to posit an alternative mode of historical perception which queried the progressivist assumptions of ‘Enlightenment’ historiography.     

国共第三次“围剿”与反“围剿”探微

1931年国共在中央苏区展开的第三次“围剿”与反“围剿”,开场和结局都颇具戏剧性,整个“围剿”、反“围剿”进程,直接受制于国内外形势的变化。在国共两大主角的角力过程中,宁粤冲突和九一八事变,某种程度上成为国共武力斗争的搅局者。事实上,1930年代前后,国共之间的许多故事,都可以看到如是因素的介入,国共两大力量之外的“第三者”,为历史的走向增添了更多的变数。