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.     

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.     

Skeletal biology in the twentieth century: From Piltdown to the present

Spencer, Frank. The Piltdown Papers 1908–1955. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. xii + 282 pp. including references and name and subject indices. $65.00 cloth

Spencer, Frank. Piltdown: A Scientific Forgery. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. xxvi + 272 pp. including references and name and subject indices. $24.95 cloth

I?can, Mehmet ?a?ar, and Kenneth A.R. Kennedy, eds. Reconstruction of Life from the Skeleton. New York: Alan R. Liss, 1989. xv + 315 pp. including chapter references and index. $49.50 cloth.     

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.     

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?     

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.     

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.     

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.     

L.A. Orbeli - outstanding physiologist and science leader of the twentieth century

L.A. Orbeli and his school developed new directions in physiology: evolutionary physiology, the theory of adaptational-trophic functions of the sympathetic nervous system, the theory of coordination of functions, and neuroendocrine regulations in the body. Orbeli enriched the study of the physiology of the cerebellum, the sensory organs, the kidneys, and the study of pain. His name is associated with the development of the foundation of physiology of extreme states (the physiology of deep-sea exploration, high altitude, and high velocity flight).