Review of Books

JOHN BOARDMAN et al., eds. The Cambridge Ancient History. Volume III, pt. 2: The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries BC. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. xix, 906. $125.00 (us). Reviewed by William M. Calder

H. T. WALLINGA. Ships and Sea-Power before the Great Persian War: The Ancestry of the Ancient Trireme. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1993. Pp. xv, 217. $80.00. Reviewed by J. F. Lazenby

JONATHAN J. PRICE. Jerusalem under Siege: The Collapse of the Jewish State, 66–70 CE. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992. Pp. xiv, 361. $91.50 (us). Reviewed by Uriel Rappaport

ROBERT BARTLETT. The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization, and Cultural Change, 950–1350. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. Pp. 432. $29.95 (us). Reviewed by H. E. J. Cowdrey

ALAN L. KAHRAS and J. R. MCNEILL, eds. Atlantic American Societies: From Columbus to Abolition, 1492–1888. London and New York: Roudedge, 1992. Pp. xi, 274. $16.95 (us), paper. Reviewed by Ian K. Steele

DAVID J. WEBER. The Spanish Frontier in North America. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992. Pp. xx, 579. $35.00 (us). Reviewed by Amy Turner Bushnell

SANJAY SUBRAHMANYAM. The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500–1700: A Political and Economic History. London and New York: Longman, 1993. Pp. xiii, 320. £34.00. Reviewed by André Wink

ROBERT BRENNER. Merchants and Revolution: Commercial Change, Political Conflict, and London's Overseas Traders, 1550–1653. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. Pp. xx, 734. $59.50 (us). Reviewed by Conrad Russell

STEWART P. OAKLEY. War and Peace in the Baltic, 1560–1790. London and New York: Routledge, 1992. Pp. xvii, 222. $59.95 (us). Reviewed by H. M. Scott

ROGER SCHLESINGER, ed. Portraits from the Age of Exploration: Selections from André Thevet's ‘Les vrais pourtraits et vies des hommes illustres’, trans. Edward Benson. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993. Pp. 159. $24.95 (us). Reviewed by Luca Codignola

JANE H. OHLMEYER. Civil War and Restoration in the Three Stuart Kingdoms: The Career of Randal MacDonnell, Marquis of Antrim, 1609–1683. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Pp. xxiii, 357. $69.95 (us). Reviewed by Ian Gentles

MICHAEL DUFFY, ed. Parameters of British Naval Power, 1650–1850. Exeter, UK: University of Exeter Press, 1992. Pp. vi, 144. £11.95. Reviewed by Philip Woodfine

ZDENKO ZLATAK. Between the Double Eagle and the Crescent: The Republic of Dubrovnik and the Origins of the Eastern Question. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs; dist. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Pp. xx, 336. $49.00 (us). Reviewed by F. W. Carter

J. R. JONES. Marlborough. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Pp. 245. $49.95 (us).

MARK PHILP, ed. The French Revolution and British Popular Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 238. $49.95 (us). Reviewed by John Bohstedt

ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. Anglo-Ottoman Encounters in the Age of Revolution: Collected Essays: Volume I, ed. Edward Ingram; Eastern Questions in the Nineteenth Century: Collected Essays: Volume II, ed. Edward Ingram. London: Frank Cass; dist. Portland, OR: ISBS Inc., 1993. Pp. xiv, 351, £35.00; xiv, 272. £35.00. Reviewed by M. S. Anderson

JAMES E. MCCLELLAN III. Colonialism and Science: Saint Domingue in the Old Regime. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. Pp. xviii, 393. $52.00 (us). Reviewed by Hannah Gay

MICHAEL FRY. The Dundas Despotism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1992. Pp. xii, 425. £45.00. Reviewed by Brendan Carnduff

HSI-HUEY LIANG. The Rise of Modern Police and the European State System from Mettemich to the Second World War. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pp. xiii, 345. $49.95 (us). Reviewed by Lucy Riall

GREGOR DALLAS. At the Heart of a Tiger: Clemenceau and His World, 1841–1929. London: Macmillan, 1993. Pp. xiv, 620. £25.00. Reviewed by Marjorie M. Farrar

FRANK J. COPPA. The Origins of the Italian Wars of Independence. London and New York: Longman, 1992. Pp. ix, 188.,£22.00. Reviewed by Richard Bosworth

BRUCE W. MENNING. Bayonets before Bullets: The Imperial Russian Army, 1861–1914. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992. Pp. x, 334. $35.00 (us). Reviewed by John Bushnell

A. HAMISH ION. The Cross and the Rising Sun: Volume II: The British Protestant Missionary Movement in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, 1865–1945. Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1993. Pp. xii, 324. $39.95 (CDN). Reviewed by Peter Lowe

DONALD CALMAN. The Nature and Origins of Japanese Imperialism: A Reinterpretation of the Great Crisis of 1873. London and New York: Routledge, 1992. Pp. xxii, 354. $55.00 (us). Reviewed by Hilary Conroy, With Peter Shin

ROSEMARY R. GAGAN. A Sensitive Independence: Canadian Methodist Women Missionaries in Canada and the Orient, 1881-1925. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1992. Pp. xii, 281. $39.95 (CDN). Reviewed by A. Hamish Ion

J. N. F. M. À CAMPO. Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij: Stoomvaart en Staatsvorming in de Indonesische Archipel, 1888–1914. Hilversum: Verloren, 1992. Pp. 756. No Price Available. Reviewed by Maahten Kuitenbrouwer

B. J. C. MCKERCHER, ed. Arms Limitation and Disarmament: Restraints on War, 1899–1939. New York. Praeger, 1992. Pp. xvi, 250. $55.00 (us). Reviewed by John W. Coogan

PAUL BAIROCH. Economics and World History: Myths and Paradoxes. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1993. Pp. xvi, 184. $32.50 (us). Reviewed by Peter J. Cain

CHRISTINE A. WHITE. British and American Commenrcial Relations with Soviet Russia, 1918–1924. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1992. Pp. xii, 345. $39-95 (us). Reviewed by Michael Jabara Carley

ERIK GOLDSTEIN. Winning the Peace: British Diplomatic Strategy, Peace Planning, and the Paris Peace Conference, 1916–1920. New York: The Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, 1991. Pp. xix, 307. $94.50 (CDN). Reviewed by Trevor Wilson

JÓZSEF GALÁNTAI. Trianon and the Protection of Minorities, trans. Ervin Dunay. Boulder, CO: Social Science Monographs; dist. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Pp. x, 185. $36.50 (us). Reviewed by M. B. Biskupski

MARTIN S. ALEXANDER. The Republic in Danger: General Maurice Gamelin and the Politics of French Defence, 1933–1940. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Pp. xiv, 573. $94-95 (us). Reviewed by Robert J. Young

JAMES GOODWIN. Eisenstein, Cinema, and History. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993. Pp. x, 262. $39.95 (us), cloth; $15.95 (us), paper. Reviewed by Philip M. Taylor

VALDIS O. LUMANS. Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German National Minorities of Europe, 1933–1945. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1993. Pp. xiv, 335. $43.95 (us). Reviewed by Carole Fink

GREGOR BENTON. Mountain Fires: The Red Army's Three-Year War in South China, 1934–1938. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. Pp. xlv, 639.- $70.00 (us). Reviewed by Qiang Zhai

DAVID MORGAN and MARY EVANS. The Battle for Britain: Citizenship and Ideology in the Second World War. London and New York: Routledge, 1993. Pp. 193. $62.50 (us). Reviewed by Trevor Burridge

REINHOLD BRENDER. Kollaboration in Frankreich im Zweiten Weltkrieg: Marcel Déat und das Rassemblement national populaire. Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1992. Pp. 338. No Price Available. Reviewed by William D. Irvine

IGNÁC ROMSICS, ed. Wartime American Plans for a New Hungary: Documents from the US Department of State, 1942–1944. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs; dist. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Pp. xvii, 328. $45.00 (us). Reviewed by Bennett Kovrig

JOHN BAYIS. The Dipbmacy of Pragmatism: Britain and the Formation of NATO, 1942–1949. London: Macmillan, 1993. Pp. xi, 194.,£40.00. Reviewed by T. Michael Ruddy

GÜNTER BISCHOF and STEPHEN E. AMBROSE, eds. Eisenhower and the German POWs: Facts against Falsehood. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992. Pp. xvii, 257. $24.95 (us). Reviewed by S. P. Mackenzie

R. J. B. BOSWORTH. Explaining Auschwitz and Hiroshima: History Writing and the Second World War, 1945–1990. London and New York: Routledge, 1993. Pp. xv, 262. $59-95 (us). Reviewed by Martin Kitchen

ELIZABETH A. COBBS. The Rich Neighbor Policy: Rockefeller and Kaiser in Brazil. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992. Pp. xiv, 273. $30.00 (us); Reviewed by Thomas Schoonover

MICHAEL L. CONNIFF. Panama and the United States: The Forced Alliance. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992. Pp. xi, 201. $35.00 (us), cloth; $15.00 (us), paper. Reviewed by Thomas Schoonover

GEORGE W. BALL and DOUGLAS B. BALL. The Passionate Relationship: America's Involvement with Israel, 1947 to the Present. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1992. Pp. 382. $29.99 (CDN); Reviewed by William R. Polk

DAVID SCHOENBAUM. The United States and the State of Israel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Pp. xiv, 404. $55.95 (CDN). Reviewed by William R. Polk

B. W. MUIRHEAD. The Development of Postwar Canadian Trade Policy: The Failure of the Anglo-European Option. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993. Pp. x, 230. $36.95 (CDN). Reviewed by Robert D. Cuff

LUDWELL LEE MONTAGUE. General Walter Bedell Smith as Director of Central Intelligence, October 1950–February 1953. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992. Pp. xxviii, 308. $14.95 (us). Reviewed by Melvyn P. Leffler

THOMAS BORSTELMANN. Apartheid's Reluctant Uncle: The United States and Southern Africa in the Early Cold War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Pp. ix, 298. $49.00 (CDN). Reviewed by L. H. Gann

G. R. BERRIDGE. South Africa, the Colonial Powers, and ‘African Defence’: The Rise and Fall of the White Entente, 1948–60. London: Macmillan, 1992. Pp. xiii, 234. £40.00. Reviewed by Ritchie Ovendale

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, ed. Dean Acheson and the Making of US Foreign Policy. London: Macmillan, 1993. Pp. xx, 271. £45.00. Reviewed by Robert H. Ferrell

CHRISTOPH BLUTH. Soviet Strategic Arms Policy before SALT. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pp. xiii, 317. $59.95 (us). Reviewed by John Erickson

KIMBERLY MARTEN ZISK. Engaging the Enemy: Organization Theory and Soviet Military Innovation, 1955–1991. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. Pp. x, 286. $39.50 (us). Reviewed by Lawrence Freedman

FREDERICK M. NUNN. The Time of the Generals: Latin American Professional Militarism in World Perspective. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1992. Pp. xv, 349. $50.00 (us). Reviewed by Ronald C. Newton

FARHANG RAJAEE, ed. The Iran-Iraq War: The Politics of Aggression. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1993. Pp. vii, 245. $39.95 (us), cloth; $19.95 (us), paper. Reviewed by Fred Halliday

MICHAEL N. BARNETT. Confronting the Costs of War: Military Power, State, and Society in Egypt and Israel. Princeton. Princeton University Press, 1992. Pp. xiii, 378. $39.50 (us). Reviewed by Stuaht A. Cohen

STEPHEN F. SZABO. The Diplomacy of German Unification. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. Pp. xiv, 162. $22.95 (us). Reviewed by Frank Ninkovich

BRIAN HOLDEN REID, ed. The Science of War: Back to First Principles. London and New York: Roudedge, 1993. Pp. vii, 212. $59.95 (us). Reviewed by T. H. E. Travers     

From dates to demography in later prehistoric Ireland? Experimental approaches to the meta-analysis of large C data-sets

We present a series of iterative methods to examine the problems associated with summed probability functions (SPFs) based on archaeological radiocarbon data. As a case study we use an SPF generated from a substantial radiocarbon data-set from the Irish Later Bronze and Iron Ages. We use simple numerical methods to show that real patterns can be deciphered from SPFs that can be used to trace and evaluate patterns of change. However, our results suggest that SPFs should not be used as a simple index of past human activity.     

Geochemical provenience of 16th–19th century C.E. Asian ceramics from Torres Strait,northeast Australia

Existing insights into the history of southeast Asian contacts with northern Australia prior to British colonization in 1788 are limited to Macassan visitors and the trepang industry beginning in the early 18th century and perhaps 16th century. Neither historical nor archaeological evidence indicate extension of such contacts to Torres Strait of northeast Australia. To shed further light on this issue, a collection of 16 Asian ceramic sherds surface collected and excavated recently from the islands of Pulu and Mabuyag in Torres Strait were compared to a large database of Southeast and East Asian stoneware jars that are well characterised, elementally, typologically and chronologically. This comparison matched a number of sherds with two jar types with likely production origins in Thailand and southern China. While the surface collected sherds from Pulu sourced to Thailand date probably to the 19th century, the small glazed sherd from Mabuyag island is typical of a southern Chinese decorated jar type dating to c. 1500–1600 C.E. This Chinese sherd is the earliest known Asian artefact in Australia and parallels recent archaeological evidence on the antiquity of contacts between Macassan trepangers and Aboriginal Australians. It is unknown if the Chinese sherd came ashore to Mabuyag through direct contact with Asian traders or from a nearby shipwreck through salvage.     

A Shooting Incident at Insein Prison,Burma, in 1947

On 9 February 1947, a detachment of armed police was called into the Insein Central Gaol in the northern suburbs of Rangoon to quell a serious disturbance. The police fired into the rioting prison wards, killing four inmates—a further prisoner died of heart failure—and wounding three others. The inspector-general of prisons, Burma, the superintendent of the Insein Gaol, and the district superintendent of police were subsequently suspended from duty. This paper examines the background to the Insein Gaol shootings, the incident itself, the government-ordered enquiry into the shootings, the government's response to the enquiry's report, and the final fate of the three senior prison and police officials. The paper sets the Insein prison shootings, in all their aspects, in the context of the fierce struggle between the Burmese nationalists and a weakening British administration in the final months of colonial rule.     

Remarks on the pattern of septal insertion in rugose corals

Wang, G., Percival, I.G. & Li, R., 25.2.2015. Remarks on the pattern of septal insertion in rugose corals. Alcheringa 39, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

Well-preserved specimens of the Hirnantian (latest Ordovician) rugose coral Lambeophyllum? corniculum He from the Yangtze Platform of South China, clearly show how catasepta (minor septa) are inserted, confirming the model proposed by Weyer in the 1970s. Our observations indicate the insertion of counter lateral septa and their neighbouring catasepta on the counter side takes place in exactly the same manner as that of the subsequent metasepta and catasepta. We propose abandoning the use of the term counter lateral septa. Therefore, exclusion of the pair of counter lateral septa reduces the number of protosepta from six to four.

Guangxu Wang [gxwang@nigpas.ac.cn], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), 39 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, PR China; Ian G. Percival [ian.percival@trade.nsw.gov.au], Geological Survey of New South Wales, 947–953 Londonderry Road, Londonderry, NSW 2753, Australia; Rongyu Li [lir@brandonu.ca], Department of Geology, Brandon University, Manitoba R7A 6A9, Canada.     

The Mechanism and Kinetics of In Situ Conservation of Iron Cannon on Shipwreck Sites

Analysis of the pre‐disturbance values of the in situ corrosion parameters on historic iron shipwrecks and artefacts has established that the arithmetic product of the pH and corrosion potential is dependent on the burial environment and provides a unique insight into the objects' state of decay. The value of the product changes during in situ conservation treatment with sacrificial anodes, and reaches a minimum at which point the treatment is completed. Treatment times vary with water‐depth, being faster on shallower sites and shorter for more extensively corroded artefacts. The model was developed using data from the Duart Point wreck (1653), the Monitor‐styled warship HMVS Cerberus (1926) and a series of wrecks in Australia and the USA.     

The Australian Historic Shipwreck Preservation Project: In situ Preservation and Long-Term Monitoring of the Clarence (1850) and James Matthews (1841) Shipwreck Sites

Increasingly, archaeologists are opting for on-site examination, reinterment, and in situ preservation of underwater cultural heritage sites as the first option in the management of sites at risk, as opposed to the more traditional excavation, recovery, conservation, and display/storage methods. This decision will inevitably be based on significance assessment, degree of perceived risk, and resourcing issues. However, long-term monitoring must become an integral part of these management programmes in order to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of the in situ preservation techniques employed. In 2012 the Australian Historic Shipwreck Preservation Project (AHSPP) was awarded a large Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant, enabling ten partner organizations and three Australian universities to collaborate in one of the largest multi-organizational maritime archaeology projects to be undertaken in Australia to date. One of the major aims of the project is to develop a protocol for the excavation, detailed recording and reburial of significant shipwrecks under threat, fostering a strategic national approach for the management of underwater cultural heritage (UCH) sites at risk. Two historically significant shipwreck sites that are considered under threat were chosen for this longitudinal comparative study — the Clarence (1850) located in Port Phillip Bay, Victoria; and the James Matthews (1841) which lies in Cockburn Sound, Western Australia. Both sites have been preserved in situ using two very different but innovative remediation strategies. More importantly, long-term monitoring programmes have been implemented on both sites, which will characterize changes in the reburial environment and the effect on the reinterred materials. In this way, the efficacy of both in situ preservation techniques will be systematically tested, providing a comparative analysis of practical protocols for the long-term protection and management of underwater cultural heritage.     

The Electoral Politics of Economic Reform in Australia: The 1998 Election

Like many other advanced industrial democracies, Australia has experienced major and ongoing economic reform over the last two decades, the pace of which has, if anything, increased since the election of the Liberal‐National government in 1996. These developments have led to a growing sense of economic insecurity among many voters. Many of these concerns were focused on the 1998 election, when the Liberal‐National Coalition advocated the introduction of a goods and services tax. This paper uses the 1998 Australian Election Study (AES) survey to examine the impact of economic evaluations, economic insecurity and economic issues on voting in the election. The results demonstrate the existence of widespread economic concerns across the electorate, but that the Coalition gained a marginal electoral advantage on the tax reform issue. Economic issues were also a cause of defection to the new One Nation Party, although further analysis reveals that its support was motivated more by race and ethnic concerns than by economic discontent.