Baudelaire's “Teacher”: Joseph de Maistre and Le Spleen de Paris

For a total of twenty years (1856–76), Gustave Flaubert corresponded with a woman whom he would never meet and who had first written to him to express her admiration for his novel, Madame Bovary. These forty-five letters are among the most fascinating and important that he was to write, reflecting on his life, on art and esthetics, and on his determined dedication to the practice of writing. The letters to Marie-Sophie Leroyer de Chantepie occupy a central role in Flaubert's Correspondence, between the long series of letters he wrote to two other women, Louise Colet and George Sand. They are all dominated by the idea of the centrality of art, literature, and the activity of writing, and of the subordinate status of all other experiences and interests.     

Pius XII: Romanita,prophesy and charisma

The modern popular cult of the Pope, which originated with the ‘disinherited’ papacy of Pius IX, reached its acme with Pius XII. Phases of intensification of this cult, which was linked to other ‘devotions’, those of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of the Virgin Mary, served to mobilize the Catholic masses at critical junctures for the Catholic Church and in the face of what were perceived as political threats. Pius XII had to animate ‘movement’ in an age proclaimed to be one of a unique crisis of civilization. The projection of him as a charismatic figure was linked to that of Rome as a sacred centre and as the very fulcrum of world history. The Catholic activist ethos of ‘movement’ and also the presentation of the interchange between Pius XII and the Crowd had features in common with Fascist rhetorics, but ultimately the cult of the ‘victim‐Pope’ represented an inversion of the crasser forms of power‐imagery.     

Geography, Spatial Data Analysis, and Geostatistics: An Overview

Geostatistics is a distinctive methodology within the field of spatial statistics. In the past, it has been linked to particular problems (e.g., spatial interpolation by kriging) and types of spatial data (attributes defined on continuous space). It has been used more by physical than human geographers because of the nature of their types of data. The approach taken by geostatisticians has several features that distinguish it from the methods typically used by human geographers for analyzing spatial variation associated with regional data, and we discuss these. Geostatisticians attach much importance to estimating and modeling the variogram to explore and analyze spatial variation because of the insight it provides. This article identifies the benefits of geostatistics, reviews its uses, and examines some of the recent developments that make it valuable for the analysis of data on areal supports across a wide range of problems.     

An Early Assessment of Reagan Defense Policy and Programs

Abstract

Ralph Hancock’s Responsibility of Reason represents an important addition to the literature on the crisis of modernity. This article focuses on his account of the origins and nature of modernity and his claim that Tocqueville exemplifies the best way to work through the crisis of modernity. It then suggests that Hancock’s own reflections on the nature of human existence require a more balanced or even positive assessment of modernity than the one he offers in the book. Finally, it attempts to illustrate this point by showing that elements of Kant’s political thought are akin to Hancock’s.     

Contested Identities: The Dissonant Heritage of European Town Walls and Walled Towns

Town walls have always played a critical role in shaping the identities and images of the communities they embrace. Today, the surviving fabric of urban defences is a feature of heritage holding great potential as a cultural resource but in management terms one that poses substantial challenges, both practical and philosophical. Town walls can be conceptualised as a ‘dissonant’ form of heritage whose value is contested between different interest groups and whose meanings are not static but can be rewritten. Evidence is gathered from walled towns across Europe, including member towns of the WTFC (Walled Towns Friendship Circle) and inscribed UNESCO World Heritage Sites, to explore the cyclical biographies of town walls in their transformation from civic monuments, through phases of neglect, decay and destruction to their current status as cherished cultural resources. To explore this area of interface between archaeology and tourism studies, the varying attitudes of populations and heritage agencies to walled heritage are reviewed through examination of policies of conservation, preservation, presentation and restoration. Areas of commonality and contrast are thus identified.     

Sherborne Old Castle,Dorset. Archaeological Excavations 1930–90

Abstract

THIS is an account of both the history and the recent findings of the Mosfell Archaeological Project. Excavation is part of an interdisciplinary research approach that uses archaeology, history, anthropology, forensics, environmental sciences and saga studies to construct a picture of human habitation, power relationships, religious and mortuary practices, and environmental change in the region of Mosfellssveit in south-western Iceland. The valley system with surrounding highlands and lowland coastal areas has interlocking natural and cultural components which developed from the 9th-century settlement of Iceland into a Viking Age chieftaincy dominated by the family at Mosfell/Hrísbrú. Excavations of both pagan and Christian sites are providing significant information on the changing periods of occupation, with implications for the larger study of Viking North Atlantic. During the Viking Age, Mosfell was a self-contained social and economic unit connected to the rest of Iceland through a network of roads, including a major E.–W. route to the nearby assembly place for the yearly Althing. With its ship's landing or port at Leirvogur, in the bay at the valley's mouth, the region was in commercial and cultural contact with the larger Scandinavian and European worlds.     

Stubborn identities and the construction of socio-spatial boundaries: ultra-orthodox Jews living in contemporary Britain

Despite ultra-Orthodoxy being the fastest growing component of the British Jewish community (and Jewry worldwide), it has received little academic coverage by geographers. This paper provides an in-depth examination of a community of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Broughton Park, Manchester. It maps out the residential concentration of these Jews and, using in-depth qualitative interviews, discusses the construction of socio-spatial boundaries that are used to define and mark out 'them' from 'us'. Through this the paper contributes to wider geographic discussions about identity, segregation and religion. It shows how the power of religion to define people's beliefs and everyday practices remains, for certain groups, extremely strong.     

Aufklärung durch Täuschung,Die Natürliche Magie im 18.?Jahrhundert

Mechanical speaking figures are very popular in the 18th century. Purportedly they are not only able to answer questions but also to divine. The enlightened philosophers are alarmed in the face of apparent fraud fostering superstition. The most successful weapon against the ‘charlatans’ seems to be the public imitation of their tricks. This leads to a ‘division of labour’ between popularisers of science, instrument‐makers and even some showmen, and natural philosophers. The former expose the imposture thanks to their special skills, the latter support these fraudbusting activities with their growing cultural authority. This paves the way for a close alliance between professional magicians and scientists in the 19th and 20th century exposing spiritistic mediums and spiritual healers.