The United States and Latin American Revolution in the 1960s

Book reviewed:
Michael D. Gambone. Capturing the Revolution: The United States, Central America, and Nicaragua.     

A shared imitation: Cistercian convents and crusader families in thirteenth-century Champagne

This article examines the relationship between Cistercian nunneries and the crusade movement and considers the role of gender in light of the new emphasis on penitential piety and suffering prevalent during the thirteenth century. Focused on evidence from the region of Champagne in northern France, it argues that female family members of male crusaders adopted Cistercian spirituality as a means of participating in the experience of suffering and the pursuit of the imitation of Christ that had come to be associated with the act of crusading. The connection between Cistercian nuns and crusaders was further strengthened during this period as the Cistercian order expanded its liturgy to include specific rounds of prayers for success in the east and in southern France, for Jerusalem, and for the well-being of crusaders. Many crusader families in Champagne founded Cistercian nunneries to function as family necropolises, further sharpening the connections between crusaders, memory, and suffering as experienced in female Cistercian houses.     

The ‘new historians’ and the origins of the Arab/Israeli conflict

This article traces the debate surrounding the ‘new historians’ which has continued in Israel since the release of Simha Flapan's work The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities in 1987. Since this time numerous Israeli scholars have entered the discussion around the birth of the State of Israel, representing a large array of viewpoints, factual findings and conclusions. The paper investigates the wider implications of this debate within Israel and how it has profoundly affected not only the way Israelis view their past but, just as importantly, how they look to their future.     

STEADY-STATE LABOR TURNOVER AS OPTIMAL HOUSEHOLD BEHAVIOR*

ABSTRACT. Models of the firm with costly labor turnover and models of migration with location-specific consumption amenities are two standard explanations of the co-existence of persistent wage differentials with extensive labor mobility. Labor turnover models postulate a worker quit function where the quit rate is inversely related to the regional wage differential in the steady state. We use amenity-consumption models of migration to show conditions under which this postulate is consistent with household utility maximization. Our model extends standard amenity-consumption analysis by making the value of amenities contingent on the “state” of the household. These household states are defined in terms of demographic, education, and health characteristics and are assumed to follow a Markov process.     

The Politics of Environmental Policy in the People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China (PRC) has made substantial progress in developing environmental legislation and a complementary regulatory structure. These gains are directly related to the economic reforms and opening to the outside world that began in the 1970s, which introduced a greater emphasis on efficiency and more awareness of the costs associated with pollution and environmental degradation. However, the economic growth and devolution of power unleashed by the reforms have also created new environmental stresses and to some extent reduced the regulatory capability of governmental authorities. As a result, some environmental stresses are increasing even as progress is made on other fronts. Political participation is restricted and environmental issues only occasionally acquire political salience. However, international pressure on the PRC to conform its conduct to international environmental norms is likely to increase, which is likely to affect domestic policymaking.     

Dendrochronology reveals the construction history of an early 19th century farm settlement,southwestern Virginia,USA

The McDonald Farm (also called the Anderson-Doosing Farm) in Catawba Valley, Virginia dates to 1789 and is registered with the National Register of Historic Places maintained by the National Park Service. According to written accounts, oral histories, and architectural analyses, the construction of four structures (a collapsed cabin, a standing cabin, a barn, and a smokehouse) at the farm likely occurred in the early to mid-19th century. To verify and refine the construction dates of the four structures, we absolutely dated the tree rings in logs used in their construction by comparing their ring patterns with a composite reference tree-ring chronology created from four regional locations. We used established graphical and statistical techniques used in dendrochronology to ensure that all tree rings were dated absolutely with 99.99% certainty. We found cutting dates for the collapsed cabin ranged from 1809 to 1810, making the likely builder Samuel Myers and not Joseph Anderson, who is currently given credit for its construction. The logs in the barn had cutting dates ranging from 1830 to 1831, confirming the 1830 construction date estimated by the historical documents and confirming the builder was Joseph Anderson. The logs from the standing cabin and smokehouse had cutting dates ranging from 1838 to 1840, refining the “mid-19th century construction” listed in the register nomination. Furthermore, the nomination gave credit of the construction of these latter two structures also to Joseph Anderson, but the builder was actually John Gish who owned the farm from 1837 to 1845. Our study demonstrates the benefit and reliability of using dendrochronology to verify and refine construction dates and ownership histories of historic structures in the Southeastern U.S.