The Periphery's Terms of Trade in the Nineteenth Century: A Methodological Problem Revisited

Abstract.

There is a major downward bias in the trend of most existing estimates of the periphery's nineteenth-century terms of trade. By using prices from the North Atlantic core as proxies for prices in the peripheral countries themselves, historians ignore the dramatic price convergence that took place during the nineteenth century. Measured correctly, the periphery's nineteenth-century terms-of-trade boom would appear considerably longer, greater, and more widespread than Jeffrey Williamson (2008 Williamson, J. G. 2008. Globalization and the great divergence: Terms of trade booms, volatility and the poor periphery, 1782–1913. European Review of Economic History 12:355–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S136149160800230X.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2011 ———. 2011. Trade and poverty: When the Third World fell behind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [Google Scholar]) supposes, greatly reinforcing his grand narrative about the relation between globalization and the “great divergence.” Many of the details of his narrative, however, must be revised. This is illustrated by the case of India.     

Constructing gender and local morality: exchange practices in a Javanese village

The concept of exchange has been on the anthropological agenda since Marcel Mauss published his book Essai sur le Don in 1925. The nature of gift-giving and exchange practices has since in different ways been developed and criticised (e.g. Bloch and Perry 1989 Bloch M Parry J 1989 Introduction: money and the morality of exchange In M. Bloch and J. Parry (eds), Money and the morality of exchange Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp. 1–33  [Google Scholar]; Bourdieu 1977 Bourdieu P 1977 Outline of a theory of practice Cambridge Cambridge University Press [Crossref] [Google Scholar]; Derrida 1992 Derrida J 1992 Given time: 1. Counterfeit money Chicago and London University of Chicago Press  [Google Scholar]; Dumont 1986 Dumont L 1986 Marcel Mauss: A science in process of becoming In L. Dumont, Essays on individualism. Modern ideology in anthropological perspective Chicago and London University of Chicago Press pp. 183–201  [Google Scholar]; Levi-Strauss 1950 Levi-Strauss C 1987 Introduction to the work of Marcel Mauss Translated by Felicity Baker London Routledge and Kegan Paul  [Google Scholar]; Sahlins 1974 Sahlins M 1974 Stone age economy London Tavistock Publications  [Google Scholar]). However, exchanges are social practices that continue to puzzle and arouse curiosity within anthropology and related fields. The present article focuses on the vivid exchange practices that form part of social life in Sarijati village in Central Java.2 Sarijati is a pseudonym. this article is based on a research project sponsored by the danish research council for the humanities. fieldwork was carried out in central java in 1996–97 and in 1998. View all notes I will argue that exchanges here make up a social domain that articulates gender ideology and the reasoning of local morality.     

Are Methodologies for Children keeping them in their Place?

As participatory methodologies gain popularity and are increasingly adapted to carry out research with ‘children’, I return to the methodological question: is doing research with children different from doing research with adults? (Punch, 2000 Punch, S. 2000. Research with children the same or different from research with adults?. Childhood, 9(3): 321–341. [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]). As a participatory researcher, I raise concerns around methods designed for ‘children’ that stamp a ‘how-to-research’ label upon a diverse group of individuals prior to entering the research space. Rather than continue the well-worn debate around the incompetent/competent/powerless child versus the competent all-powerful adult, I attempt a different approach that aims to dissolve this dichotomy. I draw on hybrid theories of identities (Benhabib, 1992 Benhabib, S. 1992. Situating the Self, New York: Routledge.  [Google Scholar]; Butler, 1990 Butler, J. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, London: Routledge.  [Google Scholar]; Adams, 2006 Adams, M. 2006. Hybridising habitus and reflexivity: towards an understanding of contemporary identity?. Sociology, 40(3): 511–528. [Crossref] [Google Scholar]), that recognise identities as multiple and fluid, and present social identities as unhelpful guides in designing participatory methods, principally the mythical notion of the competent all-powerful adult (Lee, 2001 Lee, N. 2001. Childhood and Society: Growing Up in an Age of Uncertainty, Milton Keynes: OUP.  [Google Scholar]). I present the case that pre-labelling participants contradicts the bottom-up approach of participatory methodologies, particularly when Participation is understood as spatial practice (Kesby, 1999 Kesby, M. 1999. Beyond the Representational Impasse? Retheorising Power, Empowerment and Spatiality, mimeo [Google Scholar]; Cornwall, 2000), and participants are invited into a research space, where identities are performed (Thrift, 2000) and are, therefore, something we ‘do’ not ‘have’ (Butler, 1990 Butler, J. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, London: Routledge.  [Google Scholar]).     

Woman Traveller/Colonial Tourist

I promised to show you a map but you say this is a mural

Then yes let it be these are small distinctions

Where do we see it from is the question1 ?1. Adrienne Rich, cited in Kaplan Kaplan, Karen. 2000. Questions of Travel: Postmodern Discourses of Displacement, London: Duke University Press.  [Google Scholar], Questions of Travel, 8. View all notes     

‘Against the tide’: placing visual art in the Highlands and Islands,Scotland

Within a political context where Gaelic arts are recognised as integral to the configuration of a new Scotland, this paper focuses on the art and artistic practice of a community arts centre in North Uist, Outer Hebrides, and the art of internationally acclaimed Scots artist, Will Maclean, who has worked with this centre, with initiatives to commemorate the land struggle on the Isle of Lewis, and with Gaelic arts. Drawing, at the conceptual level, on ‘the idea of place as a political project’ (Gibson-Graham 2003 Gibson-Graham, J.K. 2003. An Ethics of the Local. Rethinking Marxism, 15(1): 53–78.  [Google Scholar]: 35) and a narrative of resistance that suggests a differential rather than oppositional optic (Braun 2002 Braun, B. 2002. The Intemperate Rainforest. Nature, Culture, and Power on Canada's West Coast, Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.  [Google Scholar]), I examine how art and artistic practice contribute to an aesthetics that works ‘against the tide’ and how, as part of this process, place is re-constituted.     

A Test of the Applicability of NGA Models to the Strong Ground-Motion Data in the Iranian Plateau

The Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) project has now published several new sets of empirical ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) for PGA, PGV, and response spectral ordinates. These models significantly advance the state-of-the-art empirical ground-motion modeling and account for many effects that have not been directly accounted for in the existing Iranian GMPEs. Assuming that the present strong-motion database in Iran is unlikely to drastically change in the near future, the question we ask in this study is: Can the NGA models be applied in Iran? In order to answer this question, the NGA models of Boore and Atkinson [2008] Boore, D. M. and Atkinson, G. M. 2008. Ground-motion prediction equations for the average horizontal 99 component of PGA, PGV, and 5%-damped PSA at spectral periods between 0.01 s and 10.0 s. Earthquake Spectra, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, 24(1): 99–138. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], Campbell and Bozorgnia, [2008] Campbell, K. W. and Bozorgnia, Y. 2008. NGA ground motion model for the geometric mean horizontal 139 component of PGA, PGV, PGD and 5% damped linear elastic response spectra for periods ranging from 0.01 to 10 s. Earthquake Spectra, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, 24(1): 139–172. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], and Chiou and Youngs [2008] Chiou, B. and Youngs, R. R. 2008. An NGA model for the average horizontal component of peak 173 ground motion and response spectra. Earthquake Spectra, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, 24(1): 173–216. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], which are shown to be representative of all NGA models, are compared with the Iranian strong-motion database. The database used in this study comprises 863 two-component horizontal acceleration time series recorded within 100 km of epicentral distances for 166 earthquakes in Iran with magnitudes ranging from 4.0–7.4. The comparisons are made using analyses of residuals. The analysis indicates that the NGA models may confidently be applied within the Iranian plateau. To provide more reliable constraint on finite-fault effects and nonlinear site response in the Iranian equations, it would be useful to drive new GMPEs based on a merger of the NGA and Iranian databases.     

A comparison of the 1889 and the revised 1903 edition of Somerville and Ross's first novel,An Irish Cousin

In 1903, after the publication of the second volume of the Irish R.M. stories, Edith ?. Somerville and Martin Ross revised and republished their first novel, An Irish Cousin (1889 Somerville, E. OE., and MartinRoss. An Irish Cousin. London: Richard Bentley, 1889. [Google Scholar]), under its original name. They reduced it from two volumes to one, made global revisions to the plot, and edited it at the word and sentence level. More interestingly, they modified the representation of the main Irish protagonists of the gothic plot, both landlords and tenants. To date, no extensive comparison between the two editions exists. The 1889 edition is rare, so commentators have relied on the 1903 edition even though they often cite the social context of the first edition. This article compares the two editions and provides explanations for the revisions, examining the authors’ personal and professional reasons for these changes voiced in their published and unpublished letters and diaries within the cultural, social, and political context of the period. The comparison briefly considers the implications of these changes for theorists of the Irish Gothic.     

Dressed for Ritual,Dressed for Life. A Migration-Period Grave from Sande in Norway

A RICHLY FURNISHED GRAVE from the migration period in Norway is our starting point for a discussion of the impact of dress in life and death. The Sande farm is situated on the southern tip of Norway on the Lista peninsula, an area renowned for its many rich finds from the migration period.⁴⁴ Helliksen 2006 Helliksen, W 2006, ‘Rik kvinnegrav og naust fra folkevandringstid på Sande i Herad’, Listamuseet Årbok 2006, 7–9. [Google Scholar], 7; Lund 2008 Lund, W H 2008, ‘Grav, kult og hall i folkevandringstid og merovingertid på Sande i Farsund k, Vest-Agder’, Primitive Tider 10, 7–19. [Google Scholar], 8–10. A high-status grave from Sande in Vest-Agder was excavated in 2005 and was found to be lavishly equipped, not least in terms of jewellery items and dress fittings. Some remarkable textile remains were also preserved. The types of adornment and their position in the grave strongly suggest this was the burial of a woman, while the jewellery and textiles and their composition, style and appearance, all offer valuable information on the story of the individual and the dress code of the time. This article offers the first detailed exploration of this burial and its assemblage and an in-depth discussion of the surviving textile fragments and dress equipment as evidence of a form of dress and display that may have operated in life and death.     

Korea's Aristocratic Moods: Re-examining Chos[obreve]n Social and Political History

Despite the vast influence of “Chinese culture” on Korea, the Chos[obreve]n dynasty (1392–1910) was a distinct cultural sphere governed by its own internal logic that centred on the aristocracy. Over the past twenty years, the importance of this fact has received emphasis in detailed studies by Deuchler (1992 Deuchler, Martina. 1992. The Confucian transformation of Korea: A study of society and ideology, Cambridge, MA and London: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University.  [Google Scholar]), Palais (1996 Palais, B. James. 1996. Confucian statecraft and Korean institutions: Yu Hy[obreve]ngw[obreve]n and the late Ch[obreve]son dynasty, Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.  [Google Scholar]) and Duncan (2000 Duncan, B. John. 2000. The origins of the Chos[obreve]n dynasty, Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.  [Google Scholar]). The recent works by Hwang, Park and Kim that are the subject of this essay constitute a triptych of studies that further illuminate theimplications of social status in Chos[obreve]n and show how South Korea's transformation over the past five decades represents a radical deviation from the defining characteristics of its Confucian past.     

The difference that place makes to methodology: uncovering the ‘lived space’ of young people's spatial practices

While it has been argued that conventional methodological resources are incapable of effectively representing ‘everyday social practice’ (see Latham 2003 Latham, A. 2003. Research, performance, and doing human geography: Some reflections on the diary-photograph, diary-interview method. Environment and Planning A, 35: 1993–2017. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar], Environment and Planning A, 35, 1993), this paper posits that a consideration of the ‘where’ of methodology can go some way to taking social practices seriously. Drawing on research into young people's spatial practices, conventional interview techniques were adopted in a range of different sites: a classroom, a school store-cupboard, and in teenage ‘hang outs’. Through discussion of these emplaced techniques, the paper demonstrates the difference the where of method makes to research. It will argue that, if harnessed appropriately, emplaced methodology can enhance social science's capacity to access the range of intelligences that constitute everyday social practice.     

Participant observation in obesity research with children: striated and smooth spaces

This article discusses the value of conducting participant observation in obesity research with children in an Australian community setting. Obesity is highly stigmatized, and the use of activity-based interviews exposed the intellectual and embodied consciousness that children negotiate when they take part in research about food and bodies. Instead of opening up possibilities, interview-based activities can lead to a moral correctness about healthy lifestyles. It was through participant observation, in engagement with what Deleuze and Guattari [1988 Deleuze, G., and F. Guattari. 1988. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London: Athlone Press. [Google Scholar]. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London: Athlone Press] call striated and smooth (or regulated and unregulated) spaces of children's everyday activities, that richer understandings of obesity and children's bodies became apparent. We argue that without participant observation, our understandings of what children say and draw about healthy lifestyles may be limited by the striated spaces in which we conduct our research and the constraints that accompany the cultural politics of childhood and obesity.     

The first European representative of the South American family Xenopteraidae (Insecta: Megasecoptera) discovered in the Guadalupian of Lodève (France)

NEL, A., LAPEYRIE, J. & GARROUSTE, R. May 6 2019. The first European representative of the South American family Xenopteraidae (Insecta: Megasecoptera) discovered in the Guadalupian of Lodève (France). Alcheringa 43, 436–440. ISSN 0311-5518.

A new genus, Sinitshenkovae gen. nov., is described, comprising the Carboniferous species Sinitshenkovae hueneckeni (Pinto & Pinto de Ornellas, 1978 Pinto, I.D. & Pinto de Ornellas, L., 1978. Upper Carboniferous insects from Argentina. 1. Familia Diaphanopteridae (Megasecopteroidea). Pesquisas (Zoologiat) 10, 87–95. [Google Scholar]) comb. nov. from South America and new Guadalupian species S. gallica sp. nov. from France. These two species are attributed to the Paleozoic South American family Xenopteraidae, a previously monospecific family only containing Xenoptera riojaensis Pinto, 1986 Pinto, I.D., 1986. Carboniferous insects from Argentina. 3. Family Xenopteridae Pinto nov. fam. (Megasecoptera). Pesquisas (Zoologia) 18, 23–29. [Google Scholar]. Sinitshenkovae gallica sp. nov. is therefore the youngest representative of this family and the only record outside South America, which suggests that our current knowledge of the palaeobiogeography of Permian and Carboniferous insects remains incomplete.

André Nel [anel@mnhn.fr] and Romain Garrouste [garroust@mnhn.fr], Institut Systématique Evolution Biodiversité (ISYEB), Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, EPHE, 57 rue Cuvier, CP 50, 75005 Paris, France; Jean Lapeyrie [jean.lapeyrie@orange.fr], Corniche de Fontbonne, F-34700 Lodève, France.     

Airports and air-mindedness: spacing,timing and using the Liverpool Airport, 1929–1939

Some popular texts have associated airports with a lack of identity. It is supposed that people are alienated from these ahistorical and interstitial spaces (Augé 1995 Augé, M. 1995. Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, London: Verso.  [Google Scholar]; Castells 1996 Castells, M. 1996. The Rise of the Network Society, Volume 1: The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Oxford: Blackwell.  [Google Scholar]). Other approaches have tended to ignore their sociality, exploring their role within transport networks rather than what goes on within. Through a discussion of the early beginnings of British airport development and the construction of Liverpool Airport at Speke, I attempt to show how there are other contextual geographies to airports. By using the concept of air-mindedness—a moral geographical concept that promoted the belief in the possibilities of aircraft mobility, this paper discusses how social identities became bound to flight, forming the context to the development of the airport and both local and national belonging. This examination will reveal the embeddedness of airports within the times, spaces and uses from which they are produced and consumed. Archival research provides the material for this discussion.

Les aéroports et le sens des choses de l'air: l'espace, le temps et l'utilisation de l'aéroport de Liverpool, 1929–1939

Un nombre d'écrits populaires ont dressé un parallèle entre les aéroports et un déficit d'identité. Les gens, suppose t'on, se sentent aliénés par ces espaces ahistoriques et interstitiels (Augé 1995 Augé, M. 1995. Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, London: Verso.  [Google Scholar]; Castells 1996 Castells, M. 1996. The Rise of the Network Society, Volume 1: The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Oxford: Blackwell.  [Google Scholar]). Dans d'autres cas, on a fait fi de leur socialité, explorant alors leur rôle au sein de réseaux des transports plutôt que de s'intéresser à ce qui se passe dedans. Une discussion sur les tout débuts de l'expansion des aéroports britanniques et de la construction de l'aéroport de Liverpool à Steke tente de montrer comment les aéroports sont situés dans des contextes géographiques différents. Grâce au concept du sens des choses de l'air—un concept moral en géographie qui renforçait la croyance dans les possibilités de mobilité qu'offre l'avion, cet article traite de la façon dont les identités sociales se rattachent au vol créant ainsi le contexte dans lequel se situe le développement de l'aéroport et de l'appartenance locale et nationale. Dans cette étude, il est question de l'enchâssement des aéroports dans les époques, espaces et usages à partir desquels ils sont produits et consommés. La discussion fait état des résultats d'une recherche en archivistique.

Mots-clefs: aéroports, géographie, contexte, mobilité, identité, sens des choses de l'air.

Aeropuertos y air-mindedness: espacio, tiempo y el uso del aeropuerto de Liverpool 1929–1939

Algunos textos populares asocian los aeropuertos con una falta de identidad. Se supone que la gente se siente distanciada de estos espacios ahistóricos e intersticiales (Augé 1995 Augé, M. 1995. Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, London: Verso.  [Google Scholar]; Castells 1996 Castells, M. 1996. The Rise of the Network Society, Volume 1: The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Oxford: Blackwell.  [Google Scholar]). Los enfoques de otros no tienen en cuenta el aspecto social y exploran el papel del aeropuerto en las redes de transporte en vez de explorar lo que pasa dentro del mismo aeropuerto. Por un estudio de los inicios del desarrollo del Aeropuerto Británico y la construcción del aeropuerto de Liverpool en Speke, pretendo mostrar que, con respecto a los aeropuertos, hay otras geografías contextuales para explorar. Haciendo uso de la idea de ‘air-mindedness’—un concepto geográfico moral que fomentaba confianza en las posibilidades de movilidad aeronáutica—este papel habla de cómo las identidades sociales llegaron a ser vinculadas a la aviación, así formando el contexto para el desarrollo del aeropuerto y un sentido de pertenencia, tanto local como nacional. Este estudio revela hasta qué punto los aeropuertos se han arraigado en los tiempos, espacios y usos de los cuales son producidos y consumidos. Hago uso de investigaciones de archivos para este debate.

Palabras claves: aeropuertos, geografía, contexto, movilidad, identidad, air-mindedness.     

Catulliana

Today's consensus on the text of Ecl. 6. 33-34 may arguably be contested as line 34 will fit the context better when omnis (gen. extracted from P) is read instead of omnia. As to G. 1. 36, the author believes that the consensus on sperant (indicative) is misplaced and that the neglected reading¹1. Among my own latest examples I would mention here: auris (instead of auras) at A. 6. 561), omnes (instead of omnis acc. pl.) at 2. 598, ne (instead of ni) at 3. 686, caelo (instead of caeli) at 5. 851, reliquit instead of relinquit at 746, exiliis (instead of exitiis) at 7. 129, relinquit (instead of reliquit) at 12. 470. See Kraggerud (2011 Kraggerud, E. Marginalia to a New Aeneis recensaSymbolae Osloenses201185210225 doi: 10.1080/00397679.2011.631360[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). sperent, taken as a potential subjunctive and parallel to veniat (37), ought to be preferred. At A. 1. 458 Seneca's Atriden should replace the plural Atridas transmitted by the codices.     

Swiddening Practices in the Micronesian Past: Macrocharcoal Quantification From a Gardening Site in Pohnpei

A recent publication (Levin and Ayres 2015 Levin, M. J., and W. S. Ayres. 2015. Managed agroforests, swiddening, and the introduction of pigs in Pohnpei, Micronesia: Phytolith evidence from an anthropogenic landscape. Quaternary International. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.12.027.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) presented evidence for cyclical swiddening over a 700-year sequence at an old gardening site on Temwen Island, Pohnpei, Micronesia, using phytolith and microcharcoal evidence. Here, we corroborate this evidence by quantifying macroscopic charcoal from flotation occurring at the same site. Notably, the macrocharcoal provides evidence for burning in the immediate local area rather than the regional evidence that microcharcoal can provide. This method allows for a more robust interpretation of gardening microenvironments.     

A l'attac. Globalisation and Ideological Renewal on the French Left

The question of globalisation has become a focus of intense debate on the French Left with growing attempts to redefine the nature and forms of leftist opposition. More than any other grouping Attac, created in 1998, has been at the centre of a movement of opposition that contests the terms of neo-liberal globalisation and posits an alternative vision of social and political change. This article focuses on Attac's role in constructing a new discourse of opposition in relation to a global economic order. Whilst Attac seems to offer the possibility for ideological renewal on the Left, it has so far been unable to mobilise widespread support behind its political project. For some observers, Attac has failed to make explicit the connections between particular social problems and grievances in France and a universal context of change at international level. It tends to treat globalisation as an abstract ‘scientific’ problem, a distant and reified phenomenon rather than a social reality affecting millions of French citizens in their everyday lives.

Comment cela s'appelle-t-il, ce moment o[ugrave] un autre monde devient possible? Cela a un très beau nom, camarades. Cela s'appelle l'aurore.1 ?[1] Ramonet, I. (2002 Ramonet, I. 2002. “Cela s'appelle l'aurore”. In Attac au Zénith, 13–25. Paris: Mille et Une Nuits.  [Google Scholar]) ‘Cela s'appelle l'aurore’, in Attac au Zénith, Attac, Mille et Une Nuits, Paris, p. 21. The slogan un autre monde est possible was first devised by Attac and has since become the main symbolic reference for the French anti-globalisation movement.      

Dark Nightmare: The Shooting of William Alexander as Canon Scott Saw it

Frederick G. Scott's World War I war memoir, The Great War As I Saw It, contains the sole unofficial eyewitness recording of a court martial execution that we possess. The case of William Alexander 20726 Alexander, William. 20726. Service records. Library Archives Canada, RG24, vol. 2538 HQS 1822, RG 150/acc 1992-93/166/Box 83-992 and RG24-C-1, 1946 Central Army Registry R112-553-X-E, Reel C-5053 90,  [Google Scholar], executed in October 1917, for desertion in the face of the enemy compelled Scott to devote more printed space to it than to the death of his own son, Henry. A discussion based upon a close reading of Scott's memoir and an exposition from archival sources of Alexander's case demonstrates the ways in which Scott evades the case's disturbing implications echoes wider aspects of Canada's early memorialization of the Great War.     

Breaking Ranks: C. P. Snow and the Crisis of Mid-Century Liberalism, 1930–1980

C. P. Snow's identification of ‘two cultures’, as the literary critic F. R. Leavis pointed out in 1962, represents not an insight but a cliché, one that invites the repetition of further clichés about the origins of a divided culture, the need to bridge cultures, the emergence of a third culture, or the reality of one culture. Yet this recurrent feature of ‘two cultures’ talk does not nullify the concept's value as an object of study, if these discussions are treated as revealing points of entry into foreign historical contexts. This article adopts this approach, unearthing the liberal position that Snow developed as a novelist and critic from the 1930s, that he advanced in the form of a disciplinary lament in The Two Cultures (Snow, C.P. 1959 Snow, C.P. 1959. The two cultures and the scientific revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]. The two cultures and the scientific revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.), and that — to his distress — increasingly came under radical critique from the mid-1960s. Ultimately, the technocratic liberalism that Snow associated with science at mid-century came to be closer to American neo-conservatism by 1980. By tracking the fortunes of the ideological position that structured The Two Cultures, rather than lifting that text out of its moment in an attempt to engage its arguments today, this article testifies to the abiding value of contextual analysis at a moment when intellectual historians are increasingly inclined to question and even displace it.