Time to write: convict petitions in the 19th century

Nineteenth-century convicts regularly used their right to petition the state. Their institutionalised lives were spent under repressive and harsh penal systems, designed to inhibit communication, but petitioning provided a channel of expression that must have been sorely absent from the monotony of their life in prison. Convicts commonly used petitions to complain about perceived injustices in their sentencing or to request early release on probation, leaving written records of the different experiences, motivations and objectives of petitioners. These written voices therefore provide the basis for a unique window into convict lives in the 19th century.     

Engineering Europe: big technologies and military systems in the making of 20th century Europe

Big technological projects have long been an object of study within the history of technology. This paper looks at large transnational projects in Europe during the 20th century, a class of projects not dealt with so far in any comprehensive way. It is argued that such transnational projects have characteristics distinct from national ones and that they have, in different ways, contributed to the creation of Europe in the 20th century. After a thematic outline, the paper deals with projects in Europe in a chronological order, indicating that the number of transnational projects increased dramatically during the Cold War period. Some perspectives for further research are then discussed, including areas such as military projects and the role of European institutions.     

多元的时间和空间视阈下的19世纪中国社会——几个区域社会史的例子

Should studies of social history engage in questions of important socio-political changes? The answer is undoubtedly affirmative. So far as the important changes in 19^th century China are concerned, some case studies in regional social history have presented a picture of greater complexity and diversity. The Ningbo case, for example, shows that when a port that has had a history of foreign trade becomes embroiled in conflict between Chinese and foreigners, this conflict may simply become one mode of interaction amongst many between Chinese and foreigners. The case of Turmot is an important turning point in Chinese history, since it marks the reversal of 2 000 years of frequent attempts by nomadic tribes to expand southward. This trend is completely reversed by the Han nationalities’ northward immigration and reclamation, a development as significant as the Western invasion of China in terms of consequent social transformations. These historical traces revealed from within regions deepen our comprehension of these social transformations; consequently, such studies in social history may manage to provide answers different from those offered by the traditional model of political history.     

19世纪末20世纪初奕劻外交活动真相

19世纪末20世纪初,中国外交矛盾交织.庆亲王奕劻以皇族特殊身份进入中央政权,执掌军政外交,参与处理清廷与义和团、八国联军进犯北京和列强签订<辛丑议和条约>等.从中看出奕劻外交中的特点及经验教训,将给人们以启迪.     

Handloom weaving in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire in the 19th century: the building evidence

Abstract

This paper reviews the building evidence for the survival of the home as workplace in 19th-century Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. Handloom weaving prospered rather than declined in the immediate aftermath of the introduction of mechanized spinning, and this prosperity is reflected in the numbers of purpose-built houses containing weaving shops in these two counties. Most were built not by the weavers or clothiers, but by people outside the textile industry as a source of income. The authors have attempted to classify the surviving stock of handloom weavers’ houses into a number of types and to account for their distribution. Documentary evidence has been utilized to determine for how long handloom weaving survived in a domestic context, and it is suggested that in some areas the domestic handloom remained in active use for at least 40 years after the first introduction of the power loom into Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. The paper is therefore a contribution to the archaeology of resistance, showing how this particular group of artisans cherished their illusory independence and resisted integration into the factory system for as long as possible.     

Outer form and internal disease: clinical photography in the late 19th century

Clinical photography in the late 19th century aimed at unveiling the hidden processes invisible to the clinical eye. Changes in the outer form hinted at deeper lying causes, and decoding these forms was supposed to extend the range of the clinical eye in to the realm of invisibility. Two suppositions supported this hope: the belief that each disease as an ontological entity showed typical exterior signs which allowed a diagnosis at sight, and the technological trust in photography as a precise and objective means of representation superior to the human eye. For a short time, clinical photography seemed to be the 'via regia" of diagnosis. Heinrich Curschmann's Klinische Abbildungen and Ludwig Jankau's periodical Internationale medizinisch-photographische Monatsschrift marked the climax of this development in Germany. R?ntgen's discovery and its immediate application in clinical medicine put an end to the optimistic expectations: clinical photography was from now on only one among many different means of documenting clinical signs and findings.     

Aspects of the sugar-refining industry from the 16th to the 19th century

This paper considers some aspects of the sugar-refining industry in Britain from the 16th to the 19th century. The pottery types involved are defined, and illustrated by examples from different parts of the country. The method of manufacturing sugar loaves is discussed, and the technology is placed in a wider context, drawing upon archaeological and historical evidence from the Old and New Worlds.     

Transformation of forest policy regimes in Finland since the 19th century

In this paper, interpretations of sustainable forestry are investigated against the historical background of transformations in the industrial utilisation of forests. Three distinct forest policy regimes in Finland since the 19th century are identified. First, the introduction of the German forestry model, with the central notion of sustained yield, and the establishment of the Finnish Forest Service took place simultaneously in the latter half of the 19th century. These actions aimed at changing patterns of local forest use considered detrimental to long-term forest utilisation. Second, a national forest sector was established during the 20th century. Industrial forestry was seen as a guarantee of economic independence for the new nation-state. Third, during a recent phase the influence of non-governmental organisations and international forest industry companies has increased, and traditional power relations have changed as issues such as biodiversity, forest certification and global investments have been introduced to the debates. It is concluded that the recent transformations in forest management should be read as transformations in industrial forestry rather than as abandonment of industrial forest use models; the legacy of the 19th century German forest science still prevails in forest management.