Baudelaire's literary criticism

In the current debate on republicanism the relationship between republicanism and democracy is an aspect whose historical dimension has thus far hardly been investigated. It offers instead also the chance to clear up ambiguities on the opposition between republicanism and liberalism. In this sense, recent research on the radical Enlightenment, on the link between economics and politics, by a new reading of physiocracy as political discourse, and on the foundations of political representation represent some of the most important advances made by historical research over the last few years. This essay wishes to trace these results back to a long line of research on a modern republicanism that had already been investigated many decades ago by a historian of the Enlightenment interested in republican tradition, Franco Venturi, the author of Settecento riformatore and of Utopia and Reform in the Enlightenment, to which John Pocock dedicated the first volume of his recent Barbarism and Religion. By means of a successful integration of three recent essays by John Israel on the uniqueness of Dutch republican discourse, by Richard Whatmore on the economic roots of French republicanism and by Nadia Urbinati on the foundations of representative democracy in Condorcet, it is possible to isolate the characteristics of a democratic republicanism. Among the various threads that have been followed up, the theme of equality has surfaced in various ways in the search for the characteristics of modern republicanism. These highlight the idea of the emergence in the early modern age of an European political culture and of a democratic and egalitarian republicanism that was encouraged by the contribution from various national situations within which it forged its identity, against the model of an Atlantic republicanism.     

Selective woodland exploitation for charcoal production. A detailed analysis of charcoal kiln remains (ca. 1300–1900 AD) from Zoersel (northern Belgium)

A detailed study of charcoal burning activities has been made for the Zoersel forest (Northern Belgium) based on an inventory of charcoal kiln remains, the analyses of wood charcoal and other charred botanical macroremains and radiocarbon dating of 10 of these kilns. Age determination of the youngest kilns was refined by dendrochronological analysis of trees growing on top of these kiln sites. The results show that, although many kilns were found, charcoal was produced in Zoersel only at certain moments during late and post-medieval times suggesting that charcoal burning was not a part of the regular management practice of these forests. The wood used for the production of charcoal mainly consists of taxa of alluvial (alder) forests while the kilns are situated on sites that currently are rather dry, with an oak dominated vegetation. For the older kilns, this contrast could be explained by an important change in local soil conditions. The younger kilns may be related to the conversion of alder woodland to grassland in the lower parts of the domain, with the kilns being constructed in the nearby dryer woodland areas.     

No Italian Stalingrads. The C.G.I.L. and the working class in the northern industrial heartlands, 1945-1955

ABSTRACT

This article challenges conventional wisdom on the northern Italian industrial heartlands during the first decade after the Second World War. For there still exists a certain mythology about the post-war proletarian north as a region that was both intensely political and united in purpose. What this article demonstrates is that the ‘industrial triangle’ of Genoa, Milan and Turin was far more divided than historians have assumed. By revisiting the manifold (wildcat) strikes, trade union demonstrations, and factory occupations of the early post-war years, it shows the industrial north to be divided along both social and geographical lines. In doing so, it sheds fresh light on the series of defeats that the main Italian trade union confederation (C.G.I.L.) suffered in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It argues that these defeats were due as much to the explicit politicization of labour struggles and their exclusive focus on the interests of skilled workers as to the hostile socio-political climate in which the C.G.I.L. had to operate.     

北京王府井大街消费行为的空间特征分析

根据对北京市王府井大街消费者调查所获数据的分析,以地块为分析单位从空间角度探讨消费者的行为特征,包括人流、停留人次、消费金额、人均消费金额等要素的空间分布的基本特征以及入口、回游、出口各阶段的空间特征,以认识消费行为的复杂性和影响因素的多样性。
研究发现:总消费额与消费者人数的相关性远高于人均消费,显示了商业街经济活动以量取胜的现实;是否位于步行街区域及是否设有大型百货公司的影响在每个层面都得到了很明显的体现;另外由于公共交通所决定的出入口区也影响到了附近地块的商业表现。对出入口位置以及起始、回游、结束三地块消费者的人流分布的分析表明:位于起始消费阶段的消费者的人均消费额要远高于其他阶段。消费者的回游流动特点:①具有沿步行街区域由南向北的明显方向性;②相邻地块回游较为频繁;③步行街内部回游频繁,以外地区,特别是离主要出入口较远的北部区域鲜有人的活动;④大型百货之间的回游,特别是对面地块之间的互串较为频繁,最大的回游出现在新东安市场-北京市百货大楼。     

Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of Ancient Egyptian Pigments

The application of FT‐Raman spectroscopy and visible Raman microscopy to the non‐destructive analysis of pigment specimens excavated from Tell el Amarna by Flinders Petrie in the 1890s has provided information about the chemical composition of the materials used by XVIIIth Dynasty artists in the New Kingdom at the time of King Akhenaten, c. 1340 bc. Comparison of the Raman spectra of the samples labelled ‘red and yellow ochre’ with documented, archival material from geological collections provided a clear indication of the materials used in the iron(III) oxide/hydroxide system, including α‐hematite, goethite, maghemite, magnetite and lepidocrocite. The yellow–orange specimen labelled ‘realgar’ proved to be a mixture of realgar and pararealgar; since the specimen had been sheltered from light since its excavation, this could indicate that the ancient Egyptian artists recognized the colour variation and may have used this to effect in their decorations. A specimen of yellow ochre contained goethite, α‐FeO.OH, with particles of crystalline, highly ordered graphite; in contrast, the red ochre specimens contained amorphous carbon particles.     

皋兰县城郊化过程中土地利用变化响应

城郊化是城市发展过程中的一种普遍存在的地域过程,其与土地利用密不可分。本文结合定性分析与定量计算,并基于建立城郊化过程中的土地利用评判指标体系,探讨皋兰县在兰州市城市发展影响下其县域城郊化过程中土地利用的时空演变,而且通过指标评判,将全县的土地进行了不同城郊化程度的类型划分。