Honouring Saint Louis in a small town

The cult of Saint Louis of France has traditionally been regarded as largely limited to royal shrines and aristocratic patronage, but two documents published here provide some tentative evidence that patronage may have been wider. Evidence of this sort may be rare not because non-aristocratic patronage was rare but because so few records of parish church endowments have survived.     

Undergraduate geography internships in the United States: national survey and case study

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a survey of internships offered in undergraduate geography programmes in the United States and discusses a required internship for undergraduate geography majors at Illinois State University. Our survey reveals internships to be widespread in the United States, and the Illinois State internship programme is one of the few in the country that is a requirement for the major. The programme appears to be quite successful.     

Explanations of firm survival in renewable energy in the United States: a study of ethanol refineries

ABSTRACT

Firm survival is key in understanding the evolution of industries and the larger economy. Although exit and entry are common occurrences during an industry’s life cycle, it is not always easy to predict who will survive. Literature suggests a range of factors, both internal and external to the firm, and corresponding measures as determinants of survival or exit. However, these measures do not directly explain firm-level strategies such as internal adjustments to external conditions. In this paper, we use the U.S. biofuel industry to examine firm survival. As a resource-based industry focused on process innovation, biofuel production attracted farmer-entrepreneurs and related-industry investors after policies mandates and subsidies generated a dedicated market for the fuel. Despite support, not all firms survived a period of industrial sorting that followed the 2007–2008 recession. This study shows that local connections/embeddedness, knowledge base and knowledge sharing, and entrepreneurial efforts were critical for firm survival in addition to age, capacity, ownership, and location.     

Variation in strontium isotope ratios of archaeological fauna in the Midwestern United States: a preliminary study

Strontium isotope values (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) in bone and tooth enamel have been used increasingly to identify non-local individuals within prehistoric human populations worldwide. Archaeological research in the Midwestern United States has increasingly highlighted the role of population movement in affecting interregional cultural change. However, the comparatively low level of geologic variation in the Midwestern United States might suggest a corresponding low level of strontium variation, and calls into question the sensitivity of strontium isotopes to identify non-local individuals in this region. Using strontium isotopes of archaeological fauna, we explore the degree of variability in strontium ratios across this region. Our results demonstrate measurable variation in strontium ratios and indicate the potential of strontium analysis for addressing questions of origin and population movement in the Midwestern United States.     

Trade and culture: the United States

ABSTRACT

The US government has long held that cultural goods and services represent an economic sector like any other and should be liberalized. The American cultural and digital industries enjoy a strong competitive advantage and constitute a leading export sector. This US stance has antagonized many countries pursuing cultural policies. This has led the US government to soften its trade strategy and accept financial measures, as well as a broader array of ‘traditional’ cultural regulatory instruments. At the same time, the United States insists on the absence of restrictions in digital networks, through which cultural contents are to be increasingly distributed and accessed. Under the negative-list negotiating approach, whereby everything is liberalized save for specific exceptions, states parties to US trade agreements have secured a varying array of measures. However, only a handful, essentially industrial countries, have secured digital exceptions, the latter coupled with conditions raising questions concerning their applicability.     

The United States, The United Nations and Iraq: 'Multilateralism of a kind'

Much is made of the need for any second war against Iraq (following Desert Storm of 1991) to be sanctioned by a resolution of the UN Security Council, approved necessarily by all five Permanent Members. Yet only two of the five, the USA and the UK, show any enthusiasm for renewed war in the Persian Gulf; and British policy is undeniably following rather than leading American actions on the diplomatic and military fronts. What are the sources of this American policy? Some critics say oil; the latest arguments of proponents invoke humanitarian concerns; somewhere between the two are those who desire ‘regime change’ to create the economic and political conditions in which so‐called western political, economic and social values can flourish. To understand the present crisis and its likely evolution this article examines American relations with Iraq in particular, the Persian Gulf more generally and the Middle East as a region since the Second World War. A study of these international relations combined with a critical approach to the history of American actions and attitudes towards the United Nations shows that the United States continues to pursue a diplomacy blending, as occasion suits, the traditional binaries of multilateralism and unilateralism—yet in the new world‐wide ‘war on terrorism’. The question remains whether the chosen means of fighting this war will inevitably lead to a pyrrhic victory for the United States and its ad hoc allies in the looming confrontation with Iraq.     

Africa and the United States

Peter J. Schraeder. United States Foreign Policy toward Africa: Incrementalism, Crisis, and Change . New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.     

鲁宾逊对美国历史教育的贡献

美国新史学家鲁宾逊提出了实用主义的历史教育论 ,设计了新的课程体系 ,编写了一系列历史教科书 ,对二十世纪美国的历史教育做出了重要贡献