Securing the “Interests” of the South: John Mitchel,A.G. Magrath,and the Reopening of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Traditionally scholars have downplayed the importance of southern calls to reopen the transatlantic slave trade in the 1850s. Those who have paid serious attention to this effort see it as another endeavor by aristocratic planters to enshrine their social, economic, and political power in the antebellum South. The advocates were, as one puts it, “no champions of the common white man.” Two Irish-American leaders who supported the reopening, John Mitchel and Andrew Gordon Magrath, complicate this view of the attempt as just a planters’ plot. Their actions and opinions indicate that some proponents did see importing African slaves as something that would benefit all whites and not just the elite, and, as a result, protect the overall “interests” of the South. Mitchel and Magrath's support of Ireland and Irish immigrants and their opposition to British power influenced their positions on the matter.     

In what sense ‘spaces of neoliberalism’? The new localism,the new politics of scale,and town twinning

This paper draws on a study of town twinning in Britain since 1945 to engage with narratives of ‘the new localism’ and ‘the new politics of scale’. It argues that town twinning is often used in technical assistance programmes such as the UK Government's Know How Fund and various schemes of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum. ‘Fast policy’ is a concept that can be usefully applied to these programmes and the broader field of interurban networking, urban policy mobility, and policy transfer. Town twinning plays an active yet overlooked role in fast policy. The paper also argues that town twinning is part of a longer history of bottom-up localism that includes the political arguments of John Stuart Mill, at least two moments of twentieth-century municipal internationalism, the municipal foreign policy movement of the 1980s, and the community development movement of the last three decades. This longer history suggests sources of localism other than statecraft, and problematises the conceptualisation of power and periodisation of history found in regulation theories of devolution.     

Slavic,European, or Asiatic? F. H. Duchinski on the Origins of the Russian People

The emergence of Russia as a dominant force in Europe from the early nineteenth century onward was characterized by growing tensions between Russians and Poles as seen in the recurring Russian suppression of Polish uprisings. F. H. Duchinski (1817–93) who, like other Polish intellectuals, tried to uncover the root causes of these political tensions, concluded that Russians were neither Slavic nor European, but Asians, and it was this fact alone, he believed, that accounted for the continuing Russian hostility toward the Poles.     

Two new books on Fascism. A review,the authors’ responses and the reviewer's comments

This section contains a review by the Italian historian Emilio Gentile of Paul Corner's new book on the Fascist Party and public opinion, and of Christopher Duggan's intimate history of Mussolini's Italy. The review is followed by responses from Corner and Duggan, and the section concludes with comments by Gentile.     

A history of transboundary storm water flows: flooding,tunnels, and the spatial incongruity of the U.S.–Mexico border

The benefits of transnational flows and the concern for national security have framed development in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands since the formative beginnings of both nations. As national discourses, trade and security work against each other in borderland spaces, the former requiring openings in the border, the later seeking to control it. This paper considers the material implications of these discourses on the border landscape with particular attention to historical boundary development, urbanization, and impacts of chronic flooding. It argues that material discursive dynamics not only constitute the contemporary landscape, but create spatial incongruities that influence the impacts of natural processes, such as storm water flow. Using the southern Arizona border as a case study, the paper uses archival research to explore the historical geography of chronic flooding in the twentieth century and the shift in dynamics of flooding due to border boundary build up.     

Aspects of the History of the Nerves: Bell’s Theory,the Bell-Magendie Law and Controversy,and Two Forgotten Works by P.W. Lund and D.F. Eschricht

The French physiologist François Magendie showed, in 1822, that the anterior roots of the spinal nerves are motor and the posterior sensory. The English anatomist Charles Bell claimed the discovery, but his claim was based on republications of papers in which the wording had been altered to be consistent with Magendie’s findings. Bell also appropriated Herbert Mayo’s discoveries of the functions of the fifth and seventh cranial nerves. Bell repeated his claims in a number of influential publications, supported by his brothers-in-law John and Alexander Shaw. And for a century and a half, Bell figured as the discoverer in most references to the subject. During this period, several reviewers did go back to Bell’s original papers, disclosing Bell’s falsifications in the republished texts. But Magendie was not definitely acknowledged as the discoverer of the function of the spinal nerve roots until Cranefield’s (1974) treatise. Cranefield, as did all other reviewers, overlooked accounts from 1825 by P.W. Lund and F.D. Eschricht. They critically reviewed Bell’s early publications and reached conclusions similar to those of Cranefield concerning the roles of Bell and Magendie in the discovery of the function of the spinal nerve roots.     

Microelectrode Investigations of the Visual System at the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology,Freiburg i.Br.: A Historical Account of the First 10 Years, 1951–1960

The history of the first ten years of neurophysiological science (1951–1960) at the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology in Freiburg i.Br. (Germany) is described by some of the participants. We describe the concepts of Richard Jung for the development of an experimental neurophysiology, the technical conditions which helped to realize these ideas, and the integration of the newly emerging German neurophysiological science into the international community, through the large number of foreign visitors. A short account is given of the young scientists working at the Freiburg laboratory during this period, their main lines of research, as well as the results of their studies.     

On the Text of Ovid,Met. 13.692–696

The structure and meaning of the passage are analysed, and its variants and textual proposals discussed. A way of understanding the text as transmitted is presented.     

New Labour,new electoral system,new electoral geographies?: A review of proposed constitutional changes in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom electoral system remained virtually unchanged throughout the twentieth century but three reports (two of them commissioned by the Labour government elected in 1997) published in late 1998 propose significant changes in: the administration of elections, with specific reference to increasing turnout rates; the funding of political parties and electoral campaigns; and the electoral system itself—with a recommendation for a system that is broadly proportional but retains the link between (most) MPs and single-member constituencies. This paper reviews those reports, relates them to the geography of electoral behaviour in the UK, and explores the geographical implications of their major recommendations.     

Holothuroidea: new records from the Lower Cretaceous of the Agrio Formation,Neuquén Basin,Argentina. An integrated study with foraminifers and calcareous nannofossils

CaramÉs, A., Martinez, M., Concheyro, A., RemÍrez, M. & Adamonis, S., 6 August 2019 2019. Holothuroidea: new records from the Lower Cretaceous of the Agrio Formation, Neuquén Basin, Argentina. An integrated study with foraminifers and calcareous nannofossils. Alcheringa XX, xx–xx. ISSN 0311-5518

New records of holothurian ossicles (Echinodermata) from the Lower Cretaceous Agrio Formation, Mendoza Group, in the northern Neuquén Basin, west-central Argentina, represent, excepting some general mention of ossicles, the first collection from the Lower Cretaceous of South America. The discovery is one of the few worldwide records of holothurian remains from this age. The analysed skeletal elements are associated with other microfauna and nannoflora retrieved from washed residues of claystones and marlstones of the lower strata of the Pilmatué Member, in Área 3000 and Puerta Curaco sections. The calcareous microfossil assemblage is composed almost exclusively of the foraminifera Epistomina loncochensis, suggesting quiet marine environments and low levels of dissolved oxygen in the bottom/water interface. A late Valanginian age is confirmed by the nannofossil assemblage found together with the holothurian ossicles. Analysis of ossicle shapes allows their attribution to molpadiids (Molpadida: Molpadiidae): one two-armed racquet-like single ossicle that remains as an indeterminate molpadiid and a new genus and species proposed for the abundant cross-shaped and star-shaped ossicles. The latter, owing to the presence of four holes and the lack of a spire or some elevation projecting well out from surface in the centre of the plates, resemble two known species of the genus Cruxopadia Reich, but they differ in their arm morphology.

Andrea Caramés [carames@gl.fcen.uba.ar], IDEAN—Instituto de Estudios Geológicos Andinos ‘Don Pablo Groeber’, CONICET, Ciudad Universitaria Pabellón II, Intendente Güiraldes 2160-C1428EHA Buenos Aires, Argentina; Mariano Martinez [mmartinez@macn.gov.ar], Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’, CONICET, A. Gallardo 470-C1405DJR Buenos Aires, Argentina; Andrea Concheyro [andrea@gl.fcen.uba.ar], IDEAN—Instituto de Estudios Geológicos Andinos ‘Don Pablo Groeber’, CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria Pabellón II, Intendente Güiraldes 2160-C1428EHA Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Instituto Antártico Argentino, Argentina; Mariano Remírez [mremirez@cig.museo.unlp.edu.ar], CIG—Centro de Investigaciones Geológicas, CONICET, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Diagonal 113 N° 275-B1904DPK, La Plata, Argentina; Susana Adamonis [suad@gl.fcen.uba.ar], Departamento de Ciencias Geológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, IDEAN. Ciudad Universitaria Pabellón II, Intendente Güiraldes 2160-C1428EHA Buenos Aires, Argentina.