1. THE DEFINING CHARACTER OF CHINESE HISTORICAL THINKING1

Imbued with profound historical consciousness, the Chinese people are Homo historiens in every sense of the term. To be human in China, to a very large extent, is to be historical, which means to live up to the paradigmatic past. Therefore, historical thinking in traditional China is moral thinking. The Chinese historico‐moral thinking centers around the notion of Dao, a notion that connotes both Heavenly principle and human norm. In view of its practical orientation, Chinese historical thinking is, on the one hand, concrete thinking and, on the other, analogical thinking. Thinking concretely and analogically, the Chinese people are able to communicate with the past and to extrapolate meanings from history. In this way, historical experience in China becomes a library in which modern readers may engage in creative dialogues with the past.     

The Public Policy Process among Southeastern States: Elaborating Theories of Regional Adoption and Hold‐Out Behavior

Having been adopted by legislatures in over a dozen states, postsecondary merit aid programs are largely concentrated in the southeastern United States. The observed clustering pattern seems to support previous evidence that policies spread between proximate states, a phenomenon referred to by political scientists as policy diffusion. Often, however, policy diffusion is not complete, and one or more states in a region fail to adopt. By interviewing policymakers throughout the southeastern United States—including actors in the three states in the region without merit aid—the study addresses the following question: Why do diffusion pressures lead to adoption in some states but not in others? Studying state “hold‐outs” promises not only to uncover the reasons for failed legislation in specific state contexts but also to better our understanding of the limits of diffusion theory.     

Evidence of Stress Fracture in a Homo antecessor Metatarsal from Gran Dolina Site (Atapuerca,Spain)

We present the palaeopathological analysis of a right fourth metatarsal (ATD6‐124) recovered from the Atapuerca–Gran Dolina site (Spain). This fossil, ca. 1 Ma, belongs to Homo antecessor, the earliest known European hominin species. The metatarsal exhibits a proliferative lesion on its medial periosteal surface. Periosteal reaction can be the bone response to a wide number of injurious processes. We describe a lesion on the basis of macroscopic and microscopic analyses, including microtomography and scanning electron microscopy. Externally, the osteoblastic lesion presents a highly porotic and disorganised morphology. Internally, we observe a series of micro‐fractures on the compact bone that do not affect the medullary canal. We provide a differential diagnosis and suggest that the ATD6‐124 lesion could correspond to a pedal stress fracture, also known as fatigue or march fracture. Stress fractures have been related to a load increase and muscular fatigue. This type of fracture has been widely reported in the foot of soldiers and athletes, which are usually engaged in strenuous, excessive or prolonged locomotive activities. Despite its high frequency in these groups, stress fractures have not been reported as such in fossil collections, with the exception of a metatarsal belonging to the Sima de los Huesos site (Atapuerca). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A scientific luther

Francis Bacon. By Perez Zagorin (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998) xvi + 286 pp. $29.95, £19.95

Francis Bacon: The History of the Reign of King Henry VII. Edited by Brian Vickers (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 1998) xlv + 284 pp. £40.00 cloth     

Book reviews

CHINA

TANG KWOK‐LEUNG. Colonial State and Social Policy: social Welfare Development in Hong Kong 1842–1997. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1998. 192 pp. US$36.00, hardcover.

ZHENG YONGNIAN. Discovering Chinese Nationalism in China: modernity, Identity, and International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 208 pp. US$54.95, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

STEVAN HARRELL, BAMO QUBUMO and MA ERZI (photographs by Zhong Dakun). Mountain Patterns, The Survival of Nuosu Culture in China. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2000. Colour and black‐and‐white illustrations. No price given, paper.

PENG XIZHE with ZHIGANG GUO (eds). The Changing Population of China. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000. 312 pp. Figures, tables, index. £50.00, US$68.95, hardcover; £15.99, US$31.95, paper.

ROBERT S. ROSS (ed). After the Cold War: domestic Factors and U.S.‐China Relations. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 1998. xiv, 208 pp. Charts, figures, index. US$59.95, hardcover; US$22.95, paper.

PING CHEN. Modern Chinese: history and Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 229 pp. Introduction, tables, notes, references, index. US$59.95, hardcover; US$21.95, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

MARK R. MULLINS. Christianity Made in Japan: a Study of Indigenous Movements. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998. 288 pp. Illustrations, preface, notes, bibliography, index. US$24.95, paper.

HIROSUKE KAWANISHI (ed). The Human Face of Industrial Conflict in Post‐war Japan. London: Kegan Paul International, 1999. 287 pp. Introduction, chronology of events, translation of Japanese organisational and statutory names, index. US$93.50, hardcover.

YUKIKO KOSHIRO. Trans‐Pacific Racisms and the US Occupation of Japan. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. xi, 295 pp. US$21.50, paper.

PHYLLIS BIRNBAUM. Modern Girls, Shining Stars, the Skies of Tokyo: five Japanese Women. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 255 pp. US$29.00; UK£19.95, hardcover.

ROBIN M. LEBLANC. Bicycle Citizens: the Political World of the Japanese Housewife. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. 246 pp. US$14.95, paper.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

ROWENA ROBINSON. Conversion, Continuity and Change: lived Christianity in Southern Goa. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications, 1998. 236 pp. £27.50, hardcover.

RAJAT GANGULY. Kin State Intervention in Ethnic Conflicts: lessons from South Asia. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998.266 pp. Map, notes, bibliography, index. Rs. 350, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

DANNY UNGER. Building Social Capital in Thailand: fibers, Finance, and Infrastructure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 227 pp. A$90.00, hardcover; A$29.95, paper.

JEFFREY R. VINCENT, ROZALI MOHAMED ALI and ASSOCIATES. Environment and Development in a Resource‐Rich Economy: Malaysia Under the New Economic Policy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997. 364 pp. Foreword, preface, bibliography, index. US$46.95, hardcover; US$22.95, paper.

GENERAL ASIA

ANITA CHAN, B. J. TRIA KERKVLIET and J. UNGER (eds). Transforming Asian Socialism: China and Vietnam Compared. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1999. 240 pp. A$24.95, paper.

KURT W. RADTKE and J. A. STAM et al. (eds). Dynamics in Pacific Asia: conflict, Competition and Cooperation. London and New York: Kegan Paul International, 1998. 287 pp. US$110, hardcover.

YUE‐MAN YEUNG (ed). Urban Development in Asia: retrospect and Prospect. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute of Asia‐Pacific Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. 453 pp. Plates, introduction, notes, index. No price given, hardcover.