Breaking Ranks: C. P. Snow and the Crisis of Mid-Century Liberalism, 1930–1980

C. P. Snow's identification of ‘two cultures’, as the literary critic F. R. Leavis pointed out in 1962, represents not an insight but a cliché, one that invites the repetition of further clichés about the origins of a divided culture, the need to bridge cultures, the emergence of a third culture, or the reality of one culture. Yet this recurrent feature of ‘two cultures’ talk does not nullify the concept's value as an object of study, if these discussions are treated as revealing points of entry into foreign historical contexts. This article adopts this approach, unearthing the liberal position that Snow developed as a novelist and critic from the 1930s, that he advanced in the form of a disciplinary lament in The Two Cultures (Snow, C.P. 1959 Snow, C.P. 1959. The two cultures and the scientific revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]. The two cultures and the scientific revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.), and that — to his distress — increasingly came under radical critique from the mid-1960s. Ultimately, the technocratic liberalism that Snow associated with science at mid-century came to be closer to American neo-conservatism by 1980. By tracking the fortunes of the ideological position that structured The Two Cultures, rather than lifting that text out of its moment in an attempt to engage its arguments today, this article testifies to the abiding value of contextual analysis at a moment when intellectual historians are increasingly inclined to question and even displace it.     

The Impact and Legacy of the Otterburn Public Inquiry,Northumberland National Park,England

The Otterburn Public Inquiry (1997 and 1999) polarized opinion as to how England’s finest countryside should best be utilized. On the one hand, the Ministry of Defence sought to realize a major development in a protected area, whereas on the other, Northumberland County Council and Northumberland National Park Authority opposed the plans, arguing that conservation and recreation should take priority. This study was undertaken several years later and took a retrospective look at the saga through a recollection of personal accounts, so as to examine the impact and legacy that was borne out of this development. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with a number of stakeholders as part of a wider project on partnership working. It was found that the Ministry of Defence used this planning dispute to affirm that defence of the realm was a greater national interest than environmental protection. The outcome of the Public Inquiry was also found to contribute towards a radical change in the way Northumberland National Park was managed.     

Nothing Lasts Forever: Environmental Discourses on the Collapse of Past Societies

The study of the collapse of past societies raises many questions for the theory and practice of archaeology. Interest in collapse extends as well into the natural sciences and environmental and sustainability policy. Despite a range of approaches to collapse, the predominant paradigm is environmental collapse, which I argue obscures recognition of the dynamic role of social processes that lie at the heart of human communities. These environmental discourses, together with confusion over terminology and the concepts of collapse, have created widespread aporia about collapse and resulted in the creation of mixed messages about complex historical and social processes.     

“The Hunting of the Earl of Rone.” The Emergence of “New” Folklore Motifs: Individual Creativity and Group Control

In 1798, a French expeditionary force under General Humbert landed in County Mayo to support the United Irishmen's rebellion. Both the French and their local allies were eventually defeated by British and Yeomanry troops, but the memory of the events and personalities of “the Year of the French” was still strong when the Irish Folklore Commission started its collecting mission in the 1930s. This article suggests that the folk narratives of these events can be collated into an alternative, and more democratic, version of the rebellion. Popular interest rested not with the French general (except as a scapegoat for defeat) but with local men (and women) of less elevated status. The common people of Ireland were, in their own narratives, less directed from above and more agents in their own right. These are less a corrective to the supposedly “authoritative” histories written by professionals and diffused through the media and education system, than a coherent, alternative historiography.1 The ballad “The Men of the West” was composed by William Rooney, one of the most enthusiastic organisers of the centenary commemorations of 1798. The ballad was set to the air of “Eoghan Cóir,” a song attributed to the eighteenth‐century Mayo poet Richard Barrett [Riocard Bairéad], who was implicated in the Rebellion.      

Notes and News

Abstract

This paper seeks to cast some light on a so-called Green Man ivory knife handle from Perth and on the cultural context from which it sprang. It was made and lost or disposed of during the 14th century and, although its full life-story includes its archaeological recovery and subsequent curation in Perth Museum, its main importance lies in what it can tell us of medieval people. Exploring its material and production, its function as a handle, its iconography and its cultural background reveals this importance. Bringing these strands together gives us a snapshot of medieval cognition, focusing, on the way elements of seasonal ritual were consumed in the medieval burgh of Perth.     

Last Glacial Human Settlement in Eastern Cantabria (Northern Spain)

While the excavation of individual sites remains fundamental to the creation of the Palaeolithic archeological record, increasingly the focus of prehistoric research is on human adaptations to and within natural regions. Such a reorientation implies viewing sites and occupations as samples of different suites of activities in various habitats across space and time; it is dependent on the use of radiocarbon to date and relate occupation residues among sites; and it necessitates the application of methods to uncover patterns of human mobility as an integral aspect of subsistence economy, demographic arrangements and social relations. This paper contributes to the regional study of Last Glacial foragers by presenting preliminary aspects of a case study from the Asón River basin in eastern Cantabria. Assembled here are data from several recent and a few older excavations in sites distributed between the present shore of the Bay of Biscay and the uplands of the Cantabrian Cordillera. The main sites are El Otero, La Chora, La Fragua and El Perro near or at the present mouth of the river, the classic cave of El Valle in the mid-valley, and El Mirón and El Horno near the cave art loci of Covalanas, La Haza and Cullalvera in the upper valley. While the highest density of known sites in the whole drainage area occurs during the Magdalenian and Azilian periods (17–10 kya), there is evidence for substantial abandonment of the montane interior during the Mesolithic, when human settlement was concentrated around the estuary of the Asón, after which time the whole valley was repopulated in the Neolithic.