Beware, the Historian! Hiroshima, the Enola Gay, and theDangers of History

Michael J. Hogan, ed., Hiroshima in History and Memory.
Edward T. Linenthal and Tom engelhardt, eds., History wars: The Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Post.     

REVIEW

In the Realm of the Diamond Queen. By Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing. Princeton N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993. Pp xvi + 350. Price US$49.95 (hard) $14.95 (soft).     

UNCERTAIN INCOME AND HOUSING PRICE AND LOCATION CHOICE*

ABSTRACT. In this paper, we adapt recent developments in uncertainty modeling to the location choice paradigm. In particular, we analyze the impact of income and housing price uncertainty on housing demand and location demand characteristics in a partial equilibrium framework. We begin by recognizing that housing consumption cannot readily be altered in response to changes in income and price. We find that income and house price risk affect housing and location demands in different ways. Additionally, the spatial characteristics of price risk also affect consumer housing and location demands. For example, if housing price risk is lower farther from the central city, housing demand can be greater in those locations even with the higher transportation cost. Thus, over some locations, the expected price gradient could be positive.     

THE PURE THEORY OF HOUSEHOLD LOCATION AN AXIOMATIC APPROACH*

In this paper, I present an axiomatic basis for the neoclassical model of household location in a monocentric urban area. I generalize the existing framework and demonstrate that many of the conclusions derived using parametric models continue to hold even without the popularly assumed well-behaved utility and transportation cost functions.     

Cyprian and his collegae: Patronage and the episcopal synod of 252

The Roman patron–client relationship has been useful for understanding early Christian bishops and their relationships with their own communities. In this paper the question is asked whether that relationship could shed light on the relationships among bishops themselves. Taking the third–century Saint Cyprian of Carthage as the example, his interactions with other North African bishops at the synod of 252 are examined. The author accepts that Cyprian's Epp. 59 and 64 refer to that synod. Whatever else was discussed, we know that the bishops in synod resolved questions about the status of a former presbyter and the timing of infant baptism. In Ep. 59 Cyprian made reference to the college of bishops ( sacerdotum collegium ). The heart of the paper examines Cyprian's understanding of other bishops as collegae and whether he treated them as clients. The evidence that is available suggests that he accepted bishops who all shared in the same office as being responsible to God alone for their communities, but that his ability to exercise some degree of patron–age over them, through his greater prestige and financial base, was a control mechanism by which he sought to keep unity among the African Christian communities.     

The Liverpool cholera epidemic of 1832 and anatomical dissection--medical mistrust and civil unrest

Asiatic cholera reached Britain for the first time in late 1831, with the main epidemic occurring during 1832. The disease caused profuse diarrhea, severe dehydration, collapse, and often death. There was widespread public fear, and the political and medical response to this new disease was variable and inadequate. In the summer of 1832, a series of "cholera riots" occurred in various towns and cities throughout Britain, frequently directed against the authorities, doctors, or both. The city of Liverpool, in the northwest of England, experienced more riots than elsewhere. Between 29 May and 10 June 1832, eight major street riots occurred, with several other minor disturbances. The object of the crowd's anger was the local medical fraternity. The public perception was that cholera victims were being removed to the hospital to be killed by doctors in order to use them for anatomical dissection. "Bring out the Burkers" was one cry of the Liverpool mobs, referring to the Burke and Hare scandal four years earlier, when two men had murdered people in Edinburgh in order to sell their bodies for dissection to the local anatomy school. This issue was of special concern to the Liverpool citizenry because in 1826, thirty-three bodies had been discovered on the Liverpool docks, about to be shipped to Scotland for dissection. Two years later a local surgeon, William Gill, was tried and found guilty of running an extensive local grave-robbing system to supply corpses for his dissection rooms. The widespread cholera rioting in Liverpool was thus as much related to local anatomical issues as it was to the national epidemic. The riots ended relatively abruptly, largely in response to an appeal by the Roman Catholic clergy read from church pulpits, and also published in the local press. In addition, a respected local doctor, James Collins, published a passionate appeal for calm. The Liverpool Cholera Riots of 1832 demonstrate the complex social responses to epidemic disease, as well as the fragile interface between the public and the medical profession.     

Examining social inclusion among pedestrian plans in Canada

Canadian policymakers promote walking to meet several goals related to transportation demand management, public health, and economic welfare. However, unequal pedestrian outcomes stubbornly persist across Canadian society. Recent debates at the intersection of social inclusion and transportation policy underscore the responsibility of stakeholders to address such inequalities and promote social engagement among excluded groups in planning procedures and their outcomes. Pedestrian plans are rare opportunities to strategize across the disparate stakeholders impacting walkable spaces—private developers, transit, parks and recreation—yet the social inclusion measures of pedestrian plans remain understudied in Canada and elsewhere. We examine pedestrian plans from 27 municipalities across the country using a social inclusion framework with participation and policy criteria. Results include that Canadian pedestrian plans fall short in promoting social inclusion with infrequent opportunities for collaborative contributions by the public; lacklustre outreach to socially‐excluded stakeholder representatives; and oversight of socioeconomic groups among accountable policies. We discuss recommendations to augment social inclusion in plan development such that socially‐excluded groups can more substantially benefit from accessible and safe walkable spaces conducive to personal well‐being and engagement with society.