Contestation and negotiation: regionalism and the politics of school textbooks in Ukraine's eastern borderlands

ABSTRACT. This paper aims to explore the (re)construction of identities in three regions adjacent to the Russian–Ukrainian border. The article analyses the areas' historical and political development and argues that placing such areas within a mega‐region term such as ‘eastern Ukraine’ fails to recognise important differences between them. Content analysis of regional history textbooks reveals that the ‘official’ state historical narrative found in school history textbooks is heavily negotiated, with regional elites in each area ‘picking and choosing’ which parts of the ‘official’ state narrative to accept and which parts to reject. In this way, the article demonstrates how the notions of ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ are highly debated topics in the Ukrainian classroom as the central and local state elites are both part of the dynamic process of (re)definition of national identities.     

The early history of the Hejaz: a response to Garth Bawden

Despite Dr. Bawden's criticisms - some of which seem to be based on his misunderstanding of previous arguments - the author reaffirms his view that the development of "oasis urbanism" in the Hejaz at the end of the 2nd millennium was at least in part the result of Egyptian trading contacts with the region. The available evidence does not allow us to conclude that this phenomenon survived into the early 1st millennium, however, and it is more likely that the area became nomadized for several centuries, perhaps until the Neo-Babylonian occupation of Tayma in the mid-sixth century.     

Wholesalers' Location Patterns within Metropolitan Areas

Wholesaling is an important marketing and urban function which has been neglected in the literature. Yet wholesaling is a key distribution function, similar to retailing. A theory which explains links between merchandising strategies and location strategies is outlined. Limited empirical testing of the theory using three types of independent wholesalers tends to support the existence of the strategies and of the resulting aggregate location patterns.     

Britain's External Economic Policy in the Early 1950s: The Historical Significance of operation Robot

In February 1952 the British Cabinet met to consider implementinga series of proposals that would have transformed the postwarinternational political economy. The policies, code-named OperationRobot, centred on introducing sterling convertibility on a floatingexchange rate allied to the blocking of sterling balances andthe reopening of the London gold market on budget day, 11 March.To assess whether the defeat of Robot is of historical significancethis article analyses the likely impact of the plan on the internationalpolitical economy in the 1950s looking in particular at itseffect on the Sterling Area, Europe, and the United States.It concludes that the plan would have changed fundamentallythe existing international order leading most probably to theclosure of the European Payments Union and the InternationalMonetary Fund. Robot would also have undermined Franco-Germanco-operation and provided support for the British conceptionof European collaboration with sterling at the heart of an enlargedCommonwealth/European trading area.     

MATERIAL SYMBOLS AND THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURAL CHANGE

Changes in economic patterns, such as in subsistence practices, settlement organization, and trade, are accompanied by changes in people's view of their world and their place in it. In contexts for which the economic bases and social configurations are fairly well understood, it should be possible to identify and interpret changes in symbolic systems. The case presented involves transformations in the character and decoration of ceramic vessels of the European Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. This line of inquiry can provide insight into shifts in attitudes and perceptions that came about as the result of newly developing economic and political configurations.