Mobile Peoples: Pastoralists and Herders at the Beginning of the 21st Century

Bruce Trigger's and Adam Smith's comparative studies of state-level societies provide new theoretical approaches and are important components in a resurgence of explicit comparative analysis of early states by archaeologists. Trigger presents a massive systematic comparison of seven ancient states on an unusually large number of themes, whereas Smith carries out more intensive comparisons of a smaller sample on more limited themes. These well-written works make significant contributions to a number of areas, including empirical analysis, theory, and comparative methods.     

MODELLING OF STRUCTURAL ACCELERATIONS AND APPLICATION TO CONTROLLER DESIGN

In this paper a method for the identification of simplified linear models for building structures is applied to the case when acceleration, rather than displacement, is measured. A frame from benchmark structural controller studies is simulated, and from the input-output data of these simulations, simplified models for the acceleration response of the frame are obtained that have far fewer degrees of freedom. One of these simplified models is used to design a controller, which is tested using an evaluation model from the benchmark controller studies and found to be effective.     

THE GEOGRAPHIC IMPLICATIONS OF SCHOOL BOARD REFORM IN QUEBEC

This paper is based on a recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada that will allow the Province of Quebec to restructure the system of education, from one based on religious affiliation to one based on language of instruction. The paper sets forth a number of geographic implications of such a reform, including the historic, demographic, linguistic, political, and territorial aspects of the Education Act of Quebec, known as Bill 107. While the change to linguistic-based boards is applauded, there is no clear understanding of what the new map of school board territories will look like, yet the implications of this decision are far-reaching.
Cet article est basé sur une récente décision prise par la Cour suprême du Canada qui permettra au Gouvernement du Québec de restructurer le système d'éducation, c'est-à-dire de passer d'un système fondé^- sur l'appartenance religieuse à un système fondé sur la langue d'enseignement. L'article démontre quelques une des répercussions géographiques d'une telle réforme, en plus des aspects historiques, démographiques, linguistiques, politiques et territoriaux de la Loi sur l'instruction publique du Québec ou Loi 107. Même si la mise sur pied de commissions administratives à caractère linguistique est approuvée, l'élaboration de la nouvelle carte des territoires desservis par chacune des commissions scolaires demeure ambigue, mais le retentissement de cette décision est d'une portée considérable.     

WHY PHOTOGRAPHY MATTERS TO THE THEORY OF HISTORY

Georges Didi-Huberman's study is concerned with epistemological and ethical questions that arise from visual representations of the Shoah, while Michael Fried's is concerned with the ontological possibilities explored by contemporary art photography. The books have two things in common: an argument against postmodern skepticism, and an insistence that photography has become a field in which questions of history, truth, and authenticity are being explored with particular acuity. Rather than reject even the possibility that photographs have something to tell us about the Shoah, Didi-Huberman shows that they can offer important insights into the difficulties and the possibilities of apprehending some aspects of the past.
Fried shows that contemporary photographic work has taken on the ambitions of high modernism by accepting the challenge of "to-be-seenness." Photography as a "historical practice" does not escape from the difficulties of evidence and of the "constructed" nature of historical understanding; photography functions neither as a pure trace of the past, nor as a mere invitation to spectacle.     

The Savage Science: Sigmund Freud,Psychoanalysis, and the History of Religion

This article analyzes how Freud takes issue with the prioritization of the present over and above the historical past. Significantly, Freud's understanding of history is closely related to his interest in Christianity's historical dependence on Jewish antiquity. He emphasizes the common sources of both religions: both are shaped by the experience of guilt. Christianity, however, relegates the historical past to the realm of the “old Adam.” According to Freud, Jewish culture, by contrast, revolves around the commemoration of a “savage” (i.e. pre‐modern) past. This article thus focuses on how Freud combines his analysis of onto‐genesis (in his psychoanalytical case studies) with a discussion of phylogeny. The manifestation of psychic illness gives body to the unconscious remembrance of phylogenetic history. Thanks to religious and literary documents an irrational past has been put down in writing. According to Freud, this characterizes their historical truth value.     

Party Politics and the Provincial Press in Early Twentieth Century England: The Case of the South West

Based on the evidence of Devon and Cornwall, politicians continuedto regard the provincial press as highly influential in determiningtheir readers' party political affiliations well into the twentiethcentury. Until at least 1914, many of the leading local andregional newspapers were owned by prominent local politicians.After 1918, especially following the amalgamation of the twomain Conservative and Liberal papers, local politicians feltkeenly their lack of a reliable source of press support. Thecost of funding a party political newspaper became too highfor all but the richest politicians. Moreover, the status ofthe provincial press was increasingly undermined by improvedrail communications, allowing the national press to competeeven in farthest Cornwall. The wireless also reduced the importanceof the provincial press from the late 1920s. The real political influence of the provincial press is impossibleto assess with any certainty. Newspapermen believed that, despitethe often substantial expenditure by politicians, a stronglyparty political paper was more likely to alienate non-partisanreaders, leading to neither political nor commerical success.Modern research also suggests that partisan newspapers are probablyonly partially successful, doing more to reinforce their readers'existing opinions than to convert non-believers. ^*I am grateful to the University of Reading Library for permissionto quote from the Lord and Lady Astory papers, and to the WesternMorning News for permission to quote from their records, whichare deposited at the West Devon County Record Office.     

Adulteration and Food Law, 1899-1939

Contemporary concerns about food safety and regulation haveimportant historical antecedents in the Victorian debate aboutfood adulteration which led to the 1875 Sale of Food and DrugsAct, the basis of British food law until 1955. This articlereconsiders the optimistic historiographical view of the Victorianfood legislation, emphasizing its limited impact on the generalprocess of food production and distribution before the SecondWorld War. In the 1930s adulteration was still a significantcommercial ploy. The analysis centres on State-business relations,drawing comparative perspectives from the manner in which bigfood companies shaped the regulatory framework in the USA. InBritain the government assumed a limited regulatory role, persuadedin the 1920s and 1930s that market forces and the commitmentof large producers to quality and scientific research were betterguarantees of safety than statutory legislation. But this wasa risky strategy: big producers were only responsible for aminority of overall output, and the State made no effort toexamine wider manufacturing conditions. ^*This article has been written with the assistance of a grantfrom the Leverhulme Trust.