Boekbesprekings/Book reviews

Abstract

The departure point of this article is the postmodern critique of my book, The Dead Will Arise. The object of the article is not however to defend either the book itself or the 'constructionist’ school of historiography to which it apparently belongs. The first part of the article seeks to clarify the epistemological basis on which constructionist historians claim the right to engage with and interpret the past. In the process of doing so, it establishes a conceptual framework capable of defining relevance in the context of post-democratic South African historiography. It argues that historians have a duty to prioritise the ‘scars’ and ‘pitfalls’ of South African history failing which they become mere lapdogs, decorative but irrelevant. It is further argued that, although historians have the right to study whatever they choose, there is something intrinsically wrong with institutional mechanisms which produce nothing but lapdogs, and that university history departments need to take more of a lead.     

Reorganization of Agricultural Enterprises in Ukraine in 2000: A Research Note

This paper examines organizational features and problems experienced by the agricultural enterprises created (reorganized) during the farm reform mandated by Ukrainian Presidential Decree 1529 of December 3, 1999, as well as trends in land and non-land asset leasing. The research is based on analysis of summary statistics for the reform collected in early May 2000, as well as an exploratory survey of 16 farm enterprises in Kyiv, Sumy, and Chemihiv oblasts. Some tentative conclusions are drawn regarding the extent to which farm reorganization has fostered fundamental vis-á-vis largely formal changes, as well as its impact on the power of farm directors. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: D20, Q15, R14.1 table, 3 figures, 7 references.     

Reviews

Art and Power. Europe under the dictators, 1930–45 Hayward Gallery, London, 26 October, 1995–21 January 1996; Centro de Cultura Contemporània, Barcelona, 26 February‐6 May 1996; Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, 7 June‐20 August 1996.

Richard Bessel (ed.), Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996, 256 pp., ISBN 0–521–47129x hbk, £35.00,0–521–477115 pbk, £ 12.95.

Alexander J. de Grand, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, The ‘Fascist Style of Rule’, Routledge, London, 1995, 128 pp., ISBN 0–451–105986 pbk, £ 7.99.

R.J.B. Bosworth, Italy and the Wider World 1860–1960, Routledge, London, 1996, 252pp., ISBN 0–415–134773–3, hbk, £40.

Philip V. Cannistraro and Brian R. Sullivan, Il Duce's Other Woman, William Morrow and Co. Inc., New York, 1993, 685 pp., ISBN 0–688–06299–7, pbk, $25.00.

Lino Del Fra, Sciara Sciat. Genocidio nell'oasi. L'esercito italiano a Tripoli, Datanews, Rome, 1995,103 pp., ISBN 88–7981–051–0,15,000 Lire.

Angelo Del Boca, I gas di Mussolini, Il fascismo e la guerra d'Etiopia, Editori Riuniti, Roma, 1996,190 pp., ISBN 88–359–4091–5,15,000 Lire.

Giovanni De Luna, Donne in oggetto. L'antifascismo nella società italiana, 1922–1939, Bollati Boringhieri, Turin, 1995, 435 pp., ISBN 88–339–0932–8, hbk, 50,000 Lire.

Roberto Franzosi, The Puzzle of Strikes. Class and State Strategies in Postwar Italy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995, pp.502, ISBN 0–521–45287–2 hbk, £.40.00.

Adriano and Luca Sofri (eds), Si allontanarono alla spicciolata. Le carte riservate di polizia su Lotta Continua, Sellerio Editorio, Palermo, 1996, pp.183, ISBN 88–389–1228–9, hbk, 15,000 Lire.

Stephen Gundle and Simon Parker (eds), The New Italian Republic. From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to Berlusconi, Routledge, London, 1996, 352 pp., ISBN 0415 12161 2 hbk, £45.00, ISBN 0 415 12162 0 pbk, £14.99.

Marco Innocenti, L'Italia del dopoguerra 1946–1960. Come eravamo negli anni dal boogie‐woogie alia dolce vita, Mursia, Milan, 1995, pp.238, ISBN 88–425–1911–1 pbk, 28,000 Lire.

Richard S. Katz and Piero Ignazi (eds), Italian Politics. The Year of the Tycoon, Istituto Cattaneo/Westview Press, Oxford and Boulder, Co., 1996, 261 pp., ISBN 0–8133–8972–0 hbk, £37.00,0–8133–2976–0 pbk, £13.50.

Gian Enrico Rusconi, Resistenza e postfascismo, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1995, 207 pp., ISBN 88–15–04850–2, pbk, 18,000 Lire.

Giulio Sapelli, Southern Europe since 1945: Tradition and Modernity in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey, translated by Ann Fuller, Longman, London, 1995, 251 pp., ISBN 0–582–07064–3 hbk, £35.00, 0–582–07065–1 pbk, £14.99.

Frank M. Snowden, Naples in the Time of Cholera, 1884–1911, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995, 478 pp., ISBN 0–521–48310–7 hbk, £40.00.

Lucio Sponza and Diego Zancani (compilers), World Bibliographical Series: Volume 30: Italy, Clio Press, Oxford and Santa Barbara, Ca., 1995, xxi + 417 pp., ISBN 0–903450–44–5 hbk, £67.50.

Storia dell'Italia repubblicana. Volume seconda, La. trasformazione dell'Italia: sviluppo e squilibri. I. Politica, economia, società, Einaudi, Turin, 1995, pp.897, ISBN 88–06–1365–6 hbk, 130,000 Lire.

Carlo Tullio‐Altan; Ethnos e civiltà. Identiche etniche e valori democratici, Feltrinelli, Milan, 1995, 181 pp., ISBN 88–07–10193–9 pbk, 30,000 Lire.

Perry R. Willson, The Clockwork Factory: Women and Work in Fascist Italy, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1993, 291 pp., ISBN 0–19–822732–9 hbk, £35.00.     

The Annihilation of Space by Law: The Roots and Implications of Anti-Homeless Laws in the United States

There is a link between changes in the contemporary political economy and the criminalization of homelessness. Anti-homeless legislation can be understood as an attempt to annihilate the spaces in which homeless people must live, and perform everyday functions. This annihilation is a response to the economic uncertainty produced by the current political economy. The process of criminalizing homelessness 1) destroys the very right of homeless people to be; and 2) reinforces particularly brutal notions of citizenship within the public sphere. Such laws are made possible when urban government and surrounding communities and elites seek to promote the urban landscape at the expense of urban public space. This usurpation of public space will have profound impact not only on homeless people but also on how the housed interact with each other.     

Studies on amerindian dogs, 1: Carbon isotopes in relation to maize in the diet of domestic dogs from early Peru and Ecuador

Work initiated purely as a dating project in support of a craniometric and morphological investigation of domestic dogs from early Peru has proved to have much wider implications. The stable carbon isotoperatios (¹³C/¹²C) of hair samples from ten dogs show that maize formed a significant part of their diet. Radiocarbon dates for these remains have confirmed that they belong to the period well after the cultivation of maize was first established. Stable carbon isotope measurements can thus be used to test for the presence of maize as a dietary constituent at earlier sites even where there is otherwise only indirect evidence for its cultivation. Collagen from animal or human bone is a suitable alternative to hair for this purpose and the method has been successfully applied to collagen dating to c. 3000 BC from the Valdivia culture site of Real Alto, Ecuador, as well as to a series of early Peruvian dogs.