Reconstruction of diffusion processes at local scales: the 1846, 1882 and 1904 measles epidemics in northwest Iceland

Because medical records of individuals contracting measles were not kept in northwest lceland for epidemics before 1904, the spread of the disease in 1846 and 1882 has been traced from notifications of death recorded in burial registers and census returns. Using this evidence, a time-space matrix of measles deaths has been constructed and the dynamics of the diffusion process through a necklace of small communities strung along the coast has been analysed. In each of the three epidemics the mortality curve corresponded closely to an S-shaped logistic model, each new epidemic passing through the area more rapidly than its predecessor. The operation of a neighbourhood effect from a single point of introduction implies that the disease should move in a wave-like form through the area. Whereas the 1882 epidemic advanced steadily as a wave-front progression characteristic of the neighbourhood effect, those of 1846 and 1904 had strong spatial biases towards the parish of Eyri. The intense localization of the outbreaks in 1846 and 1904 appears not to be related directly to distinctive features in the demography or form of the settlement. In 1904 a confirmation service held in Eyri church brought many victims into contact with a measles carrier, but no special circumstances have been reported or can be deduced for 1846.     

Reconstruction of diffusion at local scales: the 1846, 1882 and 1904 measles epidemics in northwest Iceland.

Because medical records of individuals contracting measles were not kept in northwest lceland for epidemics before 1904, the spread of the disease in 1846 and 1882 has been traced from notifications of death recorded in burial registers and census returns. Using this evidence, a time-space matrix of measles deaths has been constructed and the dynamics of the diffusion process through a necklace of small communities strung along the coast has been analysed. In each of the three epidemics the mortality curve corresponded closely to an S-shaped logistic model, each new epidemic passing through the area more rapidly than its predecessor. The operation of a neighbourhood effect from a single point of introduction implies that the disease should move in a wave-like form through the area. Whereas the 1882 epidemic advanced steadily as a wave-front progression characteristic of the neighbourhood effect, those of 1846 and 1904 had strong spatial biases towards the parish of Eyri. The intense localization of the outbreaks in 1846 and 1904 appears not to be related directly to distinctive features in the demography or form of the settlement. In 1904 a confirmation service held in Eyri church brought many victims into contact with a measles carrier, but no special circumstances have been reported or can be deduced for 1846.     

The "Trial" of Lee Benson: Communism, White Chauvinism, and The Foundations of the "New Political History" in the United States

Lee Benson was one of the first American political historians to suggest a “systematic” revision of traditional political history with its emphasis on narrow economic class analysis, narrative arguments, and over‐reliance on qualitative research methodologies. This essay presents Benson's contributions to the “new political history”—an attempt to apply social‐science methods, concepts, and theories to American political history—as a social, cultural, and political narrative of Cold War‐era American history. Benson belonged to a generation of ex‐Communist American historians and political scientists whose scholarship and intellectual projects flowed—in part—out of Marxist social and political debates, agendas, and paradigmatic frameworks, even as they rejected and revised them. The main focus of the essay is the genesis of Benson's pioneering study of nineteenth‐century New York state political culture, The Concept of Jacksonian Democracy, with its emphasis on intra‐class versus inter‐class conflict, sensitivity to ethnocultural determinants of political and social behavior, and reliance on explicit social‐science theory and methodology. In what follows, I argue that The Concept of Jacksonian Democracy has its roots in Benson's Popular Front Marxist beliefs, and his decade‐long engagement and subsequent disenchantment with American left‐wing politics. Benson's growing alienation from Progressive historical paradigms and traditional Marxist analysis, and his attempts to formulate a neo‐Marxism attentive to unique American class and political realities, are linked to his involvement with 1940s radical factional politics and his disturbing encounter with internal Communist party racial and ideological tensions in the late 1940s at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.     

莫高窟第196窟前室北壁题记《毘尼心》考释

莫高窟第196窟前室北壁共有三方题记,本文依据敦煌写卷S．490和P．2148,对照出第一、二方题记是据敦煌写卷《毘尼心·学戒法第一》的第一段及第三段原文抄录,进而依据《毘尼心》文本推测出最东侧第三方题记之内容是《毘尼心·学戒法第一》的结语段落。昆尼是戒律之义,“毘尼心”顾名思义指戒律心要。《毘尼心》说明了戒律传承、持受重点、趋向涅榘解脱之要义。本窟的三方题记选择《昆尼心》要义,阐释戒律,明示戒律内容,再配合高僧传戒图,不仅说明了本窟具有传戒功能,也更加左证了本窟功能之一是戒坛窟。     

The "rights" of husbands and the "duties" of wives: power and desire in the American bedroom, 1850-1910

Historians of the nineteenth-century family have long argued for the dominance of a patriarchal model of marital relations in which demanding husbands subjected their passionless wives to a continual grind of emotional and sexual brutalization. This perspective has been challenged by revisionist historians who have argued that the compasionate marital ideal, characterized by considerate husbands and sexually satisfied wives, best reflected the experiences of middle-class married men and women. Based on the sexual experiences described in the pamphlets, letters, and newspaper articles written by sexual radicals known as "Free Lovers," this article argues that the late nineteenth-century marriage bed still was a site of conflict. Opening the door into the Victorian bedroom, the Free Lovers provide a unique view of both marital models in operation and transition that sheds light on the dynamic of change in which married couples struggled, failed,and sometimes achieved the erotic relationships promised by the companionate ideal.     

潍县城:晚清民国时期一个区域性大都会的城市地域结构(1904—1937年)

作为晚清民国时期的一座区域性大都会,潍县城市地域结构表现为"西绅东商"的特征:士绅主要聚居于主城,东关西半部和白浪河西侧则是工商业最为繁盛之地。这种地域结构特征实际上在晚清以前即已形成,1904年胶济铁路的通车并未在潍县火车站一带形成可观的城市地域,"西绅东商"特征表现出强烈的稳定性。士绅近官署而居的居住习惯、潍县城輨毂胶东的交通区位特征、晚清民国时期颇具规模的城市建设运动和东关因有城墙环绕而表现出的安全优势,是造成这种稳定性的四个内在原因。     

Chinese Students in White Australia: State,Community, and Individual Responses to the Student Visa Program, 1920-25

A recent archival discovery reveals that around four hundred visas were issued to students from China to study in Australia from 1920 to 1925. This article explains and explores the significance of this little-known initiative under the White Australia Policy by reference to China's global resurgence, the role of the Chinese consulate-general in local community affairs, and support and resistance among Chinese community leaders in response to these developments. It highlights a paradox associated with the students' arrival, specifically the Melbourne publication of fabricated ‘Chinese letters home’ at a time when literate students were writing personal letters to their families and friends in China about their impressions of Melbourne, their understanding of local labour and gender relations, and their engagement with the big political and business issues of the day. The recently-released letters and papers of a contemporary student, Joe Tong, tell an untold story of Chinese Australians in the postwar era.     

Charitable collaborations in Bronzeville, 1928-1944: the "Chicago Defender" and the Regal Theater

In the twentieth century, race-based residential and commercial segregation that supported racial oppression and inequality became an elemental characteristic of urban black communities. Conflict-ridden, black-white relationships were common. However, the Chicago Defender Charities, Inc., the entity that sponsors the largest African American parade in the country and that emerged in 1947, embodied a tradition of charitable giving, self-help, and community service initiated in 1921 by Chicago Defender newspaper founder and editor, Robert S. Abbott. The foundation of this charitable tradition matured as a result of an early and sustained collaboration between Chicago’s white-owned Regal Theater and the black-owned Chicago Defender newspaper. Thus, in segregated African American communities, black and white commercial institutions, under certain conditions, were able to find important points of collaboration to uplift the African American communities of which they were a part.