INTELLECTUAL HISTORY CONFRONTS THE LONGUE DURÉE

This review of John Potts's Ideas in Time: The Longue Durée in Intellectual History discusses the advantages and disadvantages of writing intellectual histories that embrace the longue durée. It applauds Potts's concise account of historiographical discussions of continuity and discontinuity in the history of ideas in the last seventy-five years but laments his failure to discuss the contributions of historians of science and scholarship to the practices of knowledge-making and to the transmission of ideas. It suggests that the study of discontinuities can also be rich and revealing, and it proposes one approach to understanding the ways in which ideas go out of fashion. It concludes by noting, first, that the models that contemporary historians of ideas adopt also have to do with book-market opportunities and pressures and, second, that we have work to do to engage our contemporaries and students in whatever form of intellectual history we choose to write.     

Stitching Together the Fabric of Industrial Houses: Investigating the Origins and Development of Cotton Workers’ Accommodation in the Derwent Valley,Derbyshire

At the close of the 18th century, the first purpose-built industrial communities connected to mechanised cotton spinning were created in the Derwent Valley, Derbyshire. Across four sites at Cromford, Belper, Milford and Darley Abbey, three mill-owning families constructed a wide variety of purpose-built accommodation in order to house their growing workforces. This article uses a buildings-led approach to investigate the complex influences acting on the form and design of these houses. Through the analysis of historic building fabric, this research demonstrates that workers’ housing in the Derwent Valley comprised both innovative and traditional influences, reflecting the experimental character of early cotton manufacture. Ultimately, this research suggests that the array of approaches to house-building within the valley were the result of a highly nuanced interaction between the agenda, requirements and expectations of both occupant and patron.     

服务于创意生活的博物馆设计

博物馆设计包括建筑设计和展览设计两方面。20世纪,欧洲和美国的博物馆原先丰富的实物展示逐渐被叙事展览取代,后者集空间、媒体、藏品和故事于一身,形成复杂的高感官体验。博物馆应该是一个拥有多样化复杂资源的集合体,为民众的创意生活服务。在服务于商业开发的社会下,博物馆的公共服务观念在渐渐消失。所以我们要重新思考博物馆的作用、责任和社会(或空间)形态。博物馆设计是一项社会艺术,建筑形态是对社会关系和多元经历的积极回应。以研究为导向的博物馆设计能推进博物馆的建设和发展,使之为我们共同的社会增添意义。     

Blurred images: Indro Montanelli’s anti-politics

Through a close reading of Indro Montanelli’s 1944/1945 novel Here They Do Not Rest, this article argues that the famous and popular Italian journalist Montanelli contributed significantly to a particular Italian form of ‘anti-politics’ after the fall of fascism. It argues that anti-politics in Italy provides the foundation for the county’s right-wing populism and that it makes a significant contribution to political and historiographical revisionism of the fascist past. Indro Montanelli is read as an important architect of this revisionism and as such read against his popular image.     

Welfare Reform and Economic and Housing Capacity for Low-Income Households, 1997–1999

The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) marked the continued devolution of social policy to state and local government in addition to restructuring an ailing welfare system. Despite concerns that welfare recipients would find greater obstacles to economic stability as a result, declining welfare rolls have been accompanied by declining poverty rates over the past seven years. An important question is whether low‐income families have gained greater employment and housing capacity following welfare reform. Moreover, does capacity vary across states with different welfare policies? In addition, do families face greater economic vulnerability with respect to food scarcity and health care? This article uses the data from the 1997 and 1999 waves of the National Survey of America's Families to systematically assess differences in capacity and vulnerability among lower income families across different policy regimes. Using two measures of capacity for housing and employment, and quality of life, findings suggest that more stringent welfare rules are related to greater job and housing attainment but a reduced quality of life.     

On Pins and Needles: Tracing the Evolution of Copper-base Alloying at Tepe Yahya, Iran, via ICP-MS Analysis of Common-place Items

From 1967 to 1975 a team of archaeologists excavated the site of Tepe Yahya in southeastern Iran under the direction of C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky. Although there are two forthcoming “final reports” (Hiebert (in progress), and Magee (in press); see also Lamberg-Karlovsky & Potts, 2001), analysis of the materials continues as opportunities allow. Metal artefacts, most especially those made of copper and its alloys, are found at this site from the late Neolithic through the Iron Age. Archaeometallurgical analysis, radiocarbon chronologies, and archaeological interpretation allow one to state when and how a type of metal or a style of object was invented, its use as a trade item, and its function and value to an ancient community. In the hopes of establishing a framework for future archaeometallurgical studies, most of the metal artefacts from Tepe Yahya, Iran, stored in the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, were analysed for elemental composition to complement stylistic and metallographic data.     

Development of a systems model to visualise the complexity of children's independent mobility

Substantial changes to the built environment, urbanisation patterns, and societal norms have contributed to limiting children's opportunities for being independently mobile. Several linear causal pathway models have been developed to understand the influences on children's independent mobility; however feedback loops between and within the various levels of influence cannot be modelled using such an approach. The purpose of this paper is to refine the interrelationships of factors related to children's independent mobility, taking into account earlier models, broader contextual factors, recent children's geographies literature, and feedback loops. Systems model components were informed by attributes known to influence children's independent mobility, related qualitative findings, and the development of a framework that could lend itself to multilevel modelling approaches. This systems model may provide a useful structure for identifying how best to develop and monitor interventions to halt the declining rates of children's independent mobility.