Reviews

ROBERT J. YOUNG. French Foreign Policy, Nineteen Eighteen to Nineteen Forty-Five: A Guide to Research and Research Materials, ed. Christoph M. Kimmich. Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1981. Pp. xv, 242. $17.50 (US). Reviewed by A.S. Kanya-Forstner

CHRISTOPH M. KIMMICH. German Foreign Policy, Nineteen Eighteen to Nineteen Forty Five: A Guide to Research and Research Materials. Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1981. Pp. ix, 293. $17.50 (US). Reviewed by Ulrich Trumpener

ALAN CASSELS. Italian Foreign Policy, Nineteen Eighteen to Nineteen Forty- Five: A Guide to Research and Research Materials, ed. Christoph M. Kimmich. Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources Inc. 1981. Pp. xi, 271. $17.50 (US). Reviewed by Peter C. Kent

VOJTECH MASTNY. Russia's Road to the Cold War: Diplomacy, Warfare, and the Politics of Communism, 1041–1945. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979. Pp. xix, 409. $16.95 (US). Reviewed by Teddy J. Uldricks

R. KEITH SCHOPPA. Chinese Elites and Political Change: Zhejiang Province in the Early Twentieth Century. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982. Pp. 280. $30.00 (US). Reviewed by J. Shrecker

EDWARD M. SPIERS. Haldane: An Army Reformer. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1980. Pp. vi, 240. £10.00. Reviewed by John E. Kendle

IAN NISH, ed. Anglo-Japanese Alienation, 1919–1952: Papers of the Anglo-Japanese Conference on the History of the Second World War. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Pp. 320. $37.50. Reviewed by Ray Jones

JOHN C. G. RÖHL and NICOIAS SOMBART, eds. Kaiser Wilhelm II: New Interpretations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Pp. 319. $39.50 (US). Reviewed by Konrad H. Jarausch

ROBIN FISHER and J.M. BUMSTED, eds. An Account of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in 1785 and 1786 by Alexander Walker. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982. Pp. 319. $24.95. Reviewed by Christon I. Archer

ERIK P. HOFFMANN and ROBBIN F. LAIRD. The Politics of Economic Modernization in the Soviet Union. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982. Pp. 215. $19.50 (US). Reviewed by Cyril E. Black

WERNER G. HAHN. Postwar Soviet Politics. The Fall of Zhdanov and the Defeat of Moderation, 1946–53. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1982. Pp. 243. $19.50 (US). Reviewed by Richard K. Debo

VICTOR ROTHWELL. Britain and the Cold War, 1941–1947. London: Jonathan Cape, 1982. Pp. 551. £16. Reviewed by Gerald Jordan

DAN P. SILVERMAN. Reconstructing Europe after the Great War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982. Pp. vii, 347. $25.00 (US). Reviewed by Keith L. Nelson     

Current perspectives on human evolution: Reaffirming the singular value of fossil evidence

Andrew, Peter, and Jens Lorenz Franzen, eds. The Early Evolution of Man with Special Emphasis on Southeast Asia and Africa. Frankfurt: Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, No. 69, 1984. 277 pp. including chapter references. Price unknown, paper.

Delson, Eric, ed. Ancestors: The Hard Evidence. New York: Alan R. Liss, 1985. xii + 366 pp. including chapter references and index. $49.50 doth.

Smith, Fred H., and Frank Spencer, eds. The Origins of Modern Humans: A World Survey of the Fossil Evidence. New York: Alan R. Liss, 1984. xxii + 590 pp. including chapter references and index. $70.00 cloth.

Tobias, Phillip V., ed. Hominid Evolution: Past, Present and Future. New York: Alan R. Liss, 1985. xxx + 499 pp. including chapter references and index. $38.00 cloth.     

A new dimension for language

Guss, David M., ed. The Language of the Birds: Tales, Texts, and Poems of Interspecies Communication. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1985. xv + 361 pp. including notes and sources. $14.50 paper.

Klein, Harriet E. M. and Louisa R. Stark, eds. South American Indian Languages: Retrospect and Prospect. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985. vi + 863 pp. including chapter notes, chapter references, and index.     

The origin of overpressure in 'old' sedimentary basins: an example from the Cooper Basin, Australia

Overpressure in ‘old’ sedimentary basins that have not undergone rapid, recent sedimentation cannot be easily explained using traditional burial‐driven mechanisms. The last significant burial event in the Cooper Basin, Australia, was the Late Cretaceous deposition of the Winton Formation (98.5–90 Ma). Maximum temperature in the basin was attained during the Late Cretaceous, with cooling beginning prior to 75 Ma. Hence, overpressure related to rapid burial or palaeomaximum temperatures (e.g. hydrocarbon generation) must have developed prior to 75 Ma. Retaining overpressure for 75 Ma in ‘old’ basins such as the Cooper Basin requires extremely low seal permeabilities. An alternative explanation is that overpressure in the Cooper Basin has been generated because of an increase in mean stress associated with an increase in horizontal compressive stress since Late Cretaceous times. Structural observations and contemporary stress data indicate that there has been an increase in mean stress of approximately 50 MPa between Late Cretaceous times to that presently measured at 3780 m. The largest measured overpressure in the Cooper Basin is 14.5 MPa at 3780 m in the Kirby 1 well. Hence, disequilibrium compaction driven by increasing mean stress can explain the magnitude of the observed overpressure in the Cooper Basin. Increases in mean stress (tectonic loading) may be a feasible mechanism for overpressure generation in other ‘old’ basins that have undergone a recent increase in horizontal stress (e.g. Anadarko Basin).