China's Cities: Tradition and change

Mark Elvin and G. William Skinner, eds. The Chinese City Between Two Worlds. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1974. xiii + 458 pp. Tables, maps, notes, character list, and index. $18.75.     

The chemical identification of baltic amber at the Celtic oppidum Staré Hradisko in Moravia

The Celtic oppidum Staré Hradisko north of Brno in Moravia, SSR, has long been noted for its wealth of archaeological amber artifacts. Since there are several substantial deposits of fossil resins in the immediate vicinity of the site, it has been an open question whether the settlement was a centre of exploitation and exportation of these local raw materials, or whether it was an entrepôt of Baltic amber on its way to southern and southeastern Europe.Because of extensive weathering, many of the amber finds at Staré Hradisko cannot be identified by infra-red spectroscopy. A new analytical method, which determines the amount of succinic acid by means of gas chromatography, has been developed to show that the amber of Staré Hradisko is, in fact, of the Baltic variety called succinite.     

Miners,Masculinity and the ‘Bataille du Charbon’ in France 1944–1948

In 1944, the French provisional government, backed by the Parti communiste français and the Confédération générale du travail, undertook an aggressive propaganda campaign to persuade miners to embark upon a ‘battle for coal’ which raised their efforts in extracting coal to that of a national endeavour. At the same time, miners had great hopes that nationalisation of the coal industry, under discussion at this time, would bring significant improvement to their working lives. In identifying the ways in which publicists posited miners as an ideal of working-class manhood, this article will argue that ‘la bataille du charbon’ marks a crucial moment in the celebration of working-class masculinity and that the ‘statut des mineurs’ which was passed in 1946 as a part of nationalisation enshrined many of the existing gender assumptions about mining life. What does an incorporation of gender to an analysis of the treatment of miners in the years 1944–1948 add to our understandings of the various economic, political and social dynamics around ‘la bataille du charbon’? How do these insights inform our perceptions of French coalfield societies in the mid-twentieth century?     

Security and alienation in contemporary China

Barlow, Tani E., and Donald M. Lowe. Chinese Reflections: Americans Teaching in the People's Republic. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1985. xviii + 250 pp. including index. $17.95 cloth.

Yue Daiyun, and Carolyn Wakeman. To the Storm: The Odyssey of a Revolutionary Chinese Woman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. xxv + 405 pp. including index. $17.95 cloth.