Europe and the American mind∗†

Wells's The New Machiavelli (1911) offers an excellent case study of the use of anti-Machiavellian Machiavellism as both a philosophical and a rhetorical strategy. In Remington, Wells creates a protagonist who follows Machiavellian rules of behaviour and denounces those who do likewise. The novel is structured to show Remington's progress from an idealist refutation of Machiavellism, through a recognition of its necessity, to the formulation of a private and political method for the necessary pursuit of Machiavellian principles under the disguise of anti-Machiavellism, including trenchant criticisms of Fabians as anti-Machiavellian Machiavellians. These stages, culminating in complete personal and public failure, are reflected in Remington's party allegiances, and broadened by Wells into an account of British party ideologies around the turn of the twentieth century. Wells's rhetorical design for mapping and assessing anti-Machiavellian Machiavellism is paralleled by an exploration of that technique in himself, attested by the predominance of autobiographical elements in The New Machiavelli, and by similarities between Remington's and Wells's own deception of others and themselves. Far from incidental, anti-Machiavellian Machiavellism is the motif that unites the shifting party allegiances, political conceits and moral hypocrisies, and private and public failures of Wells, Remington, and of the period of British politics that they intend to encapsulate.     

Molecular evidence of bitumen in the Mousterian lithic assemblage of Hummal (Central Syria)

Evidence for bitumen use in Middle Palaeolithic sites is an exception in Pleistocene archaeology. This paper presents the discovery of three tar-bearing Levallois artefacts found in the Mousterian sequence in Hummal (Central Syria). The organic residues were submitted to geochemical study. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analyses of saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons and isotopic data show the presence of bitumen. The most likely location of natural asphalt provisioning is the Shaaf outcrop in the Bichri desert. The bitumen-bearing stone tools add further important data to the growing knowledge about bitumen processing in the Middle Palaeolithic spring sites of El Kowm. Identification of the provisioning place for natural asphalt enables a more precise assumption about the site's catchment area. From a technological point of view, the tar-bearing specimens provide information on the range of tool forms selected for hafting. Ballistic features arguably indicate that the pointed Levallois blanks seem to be spear points that were fitted to a wooden handle. In at least one case, this technical procedure was seemingly executed during a brief episode of occupation and replacement of worn out implements. This small, bracketed window of detailed insight into Mousterian technology is linked with the more general relationship between Levallois technology and stone tool hafting.     

Caledogonia,a new smooth trigoniacean bivalve from the Triassic of New Caledonia

Caledogonia globosa gen. et sp. nov. is considered to be a member of the Myophoriidae following the classification of Newell & Boyd (1975). It is a more evolved genus than Agonisca Fleming from the Ladinian of New Zealand. Both are probably the descendants of Neoschizodus of the Andean-West Antarctic region, a dispersal route on the southern Gondwanaland coastline. Caledogonia was probably a rapid burrower in a high energy paleoenvironment. It occurs in a rhythmic sequence of greywackes and conglomeratic shell beds that lie on pre-Triassic basement. Like the associated bivalves, Maoritrigonia and Manticula, Caledogonia is an endemic genus of the Late Triassic Maorian Province.

Caledogonia globosa gen. et sp. nov. est a rapporter aux Myophoriidae, d'après la classification de Newell & Boyd (1975). Plus évolué que le genre Agonisca Fleming du Ladinien de Nouvelle Zélande, il descend probablement, comme celuici de Neoschizodus représenté dans la region Andine et West Antarctique, zone de dispersion faunique de la cote Sud des Terres de Gondwana. Caledogonia, était un fouisseur actif dans un paléoenvironnement de haute énergie et de sédimentation rapide. On le trouve aujourdhui dans une séquence rythmique de grauwackes alternant avec des lumachelles et conglomérats, transgressive sur le substratum antétriasique. Comme les bivalves associés Maoritrigonia et Manticula, Caledogonia est un genre endémique de la province máorie du Trias supérieur.     

Widespread Policy Disruption: Terrorism, Public Risks, and Homeland Security

We address theoretical and empirical aspects of policy disruptions that affect multiple areas of policymaking. Our theorizing leads us to consider the effects of widespread disruptions in gaining the attention of elected officials, in affecting policymaking, and in reshaping the involvement of federal agencies. Our empirical analyses concern the threat of terrorism in the United States and its implications for public risk subsystems over the past 25 years. Our analyses of the attention of policymakers and resultant policymaking volatility show selective patterns of subsystem disruption related to the threat of terrorism. We show that capturing the attention of policymakers in multiple subsystems is insufficient to motivate heightened levels of policymaking across the board. In addition, we find more muted impacts for federal agency involvement than might have been expected from the massive reorganization that created the Department of Homeland Security. More generally, the disjunctions we observe show the powerful influence of policy subsystems in buffering against widespread policy disruptions.     

Re‐phasing Neoliberalism: New Labour and Britain's Crisis of Street Homelessness

In this paper we continue the task of fleshing out understandings of "actually existing neoliberalism". More specifically, drawing on the work of Tom Ling, we suggest that Peck and Tickell's recent distinction between periods of roll‐back/roll‐out neoliberalisation can usefully be supplemented by the identification of a second, more powerful moment of roll‐out neoliberalism—described by Ling in terms of the shift from a system of governance to one of "governmentality". Illustrating our argument with an analysis of changing central government responses to a crisis of street homelessness in 1990s Britain, however, we draw attention to the uneven and often contrary effects of recent government policy in this field. The paper therefore concludes with a warning of the need to temper a reading of the juggernaut of roll‐out neoliberalism with an awareness of the incomplete and plain "messy" character of actually existing neoliberalisation.     

Global Hollywood and the Politics of Nationality

Book reviewed:
John Trumpbour. Selling Hollywood to the World: U.S. and European Struggles for Mastery of the Global Film Industry , 1920 – 1950.     

LES CAVERNES À MONTRÉAL, DU GLACIOTECTONISME À L'AMÉNAGEMENT URBAIN

Les cavités naturelles pénétrables sontd'abord présentees comme une partie intégrante de I'espace géographique. Dans les calcaires de I'île de Montréal, aucune grotte importante d'origine karstique n'est connue. Par contre, au Wisconsinien moyen ou antérieurement, la calotte laurentidienne a disloquá ces calcaires et quatre cavernes sont apparues. Ces cavités glaciotectoniques tongues de 418 m se situent aujourd'hui sous un quartier résidentiel de ville Saint-Léonard. L'histoire de leur perception par les riverains est retracée grâce à des textes remontant à 1815. En 1981, une des cavernes est aménagée comme lieu d'attraction à caractére éducatif. Les autres cavernes, qui représented 9/10 de tout le réseau souterrain, ont été découvertes en 1982 sous les infrastructures urbaines récentes. L'analyse des incidences objectives de ces vides sur les immeubles montre que la perception qu'en ont les riverains est négative. Le potentiel récréotouristique possible de ces cavernes est envisagé en fonction des contraintes urbaines.