Publications briefly noted

SUEHIRO KITAGUCHI (trans. Alastair McLauchlan). An Introduction to the Buraku Issue: Questions and Answers. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 1999. 213 pp. £35.00, hardcover.

WANG LING‐CHI and WANG GUNGWU (eds). The Chinese Diaspora: selected Essays. Two Volumes. Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1998. Vol. 1: xiv, 287 pp. US$39.00, hardcover; Vol. 2: xii, 300 pp. US$39.00, hardcover.

JOHN S. BOWMAN (ed). Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture. New York: Cornell University Press, 2000. US$85.00; £52.50, hardcover.

PHYLLIS L. THOMPSON (ed). Dear Alice: letters Home from American Teachers Learning to Live in China. Berkeley: The Institute of East Asian Studies, 1998. xiv, 337 pp. US$19.95, paper.

PAUL W. LEWIS and BAI BIBO (PIU BO). Hani‐English English‐Hani Dictionary. London: Kegan Paul International, 1996. 837 pp. £95.00, hardcover.

DONALD DENOON, PHILIPPA MEIN‐SMITH with MARIVIC WYNDHAM. A History of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000. xviii, 523 pp. US$60.00, hardcover; £16.00, paper.

WANG GUNGWU and JOHN WONG (eds). Hong Kong in China: the Challenges of Transition. Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1999. 324 pp. Tables. No price given, hardcover.

JOHN McCREERY. Japanese Consumer Behavior: from Worker Bees to Wary Shoppers. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000. 278 pp. Illustrations. £14.99, paper.

ENGELBERT KAEMPFER. Kaempfer's Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999. 545 pp. US$64.00, hardcover; US$34.95, paper.

HIROMITSU IWAMOTO. Nanshin: Japanese Settlers in Papua and New Guinea 1890–1949. Canberra: The Journal of Pacific History, 1999. 175 pp.

BARBARA BENNETT PETERSON (editor in chief). Notable Women of China: Shang Dynasty to the Early Twentieth Century. Armonk NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. 402 pp. US$74.95, hardcover.

JOSEPH CHENG (ed). Political Participation in Hong Kong: theoretical Issues and Historical Legacy. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press, 1999. xviii, 321 pp. Tables. US$34.00, paper.

NEIL J. DIAMANT. Revolutionizing the Family: politics, Love, and Divorce in Urban and Rural China 1949–1968. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000. xviii, 440 pp. US$55.00, hardcover.

DONALD KEENE. Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century. A History of Japanese Literature, Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. xiii, 1,265 pp. US$32.50, paper.

DONALD KEENE. World within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre‐modern Era, 1600–1867. A History of Japanese Literature, Vol. 2. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. xv, 606 pp. US$25.00, paper.

WM. THEODORE DE BARY and RICHARD LUFRANO (eds). Sources of Chinese Tradition. Second Edition, Vol. II. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. xviii, 636 pp. US$49.50, hardcover.

RAE YANG. Spider Eaters: a Memoir. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998. xi, 285 pp. US$16.95, paper.     

Normative Justifications for Liberal Nationalism: Justice,Democracy and National Identity

The essay examines a prominent normative defence of nationalism, which links shared nationality with the attainment of the goods of liberal justice and democratic governance. The essay first considers the argument that liberal values, and especially the value of social justice, will best be promoted in states whose members share a common nationality. In its strong form, this argument is vulnerable to counter‐instances. A weaker version, which claims that in states divided in terms of national identities, social justice may be precarious over the long term, is more plausible. The second part of the essay argues that there is a close relationship between democracy and shared national identity. This section spells out precisely how a common national identity is helpful both for representative institutions to function properly and for widespread participation on the part of ordinary citizens.     

Integrating Transportation Network and Regional Economic Models to Estimate the Costs of a Large Urban Earthquake

In this paper we summarize an integrated, operational model of losses due to earthquake impacts on transportation and industrial capacity, and how these losses affect the metropolitan economy. The procedure advances the information provided by transportation and activity system analysis techniques in ways that help capture the most important ecomonic implications of earthquakes. Network costs and origin-destination requirements are modeled endogenously and consistently. Indirect and induced losses associated with direct impacts on transportation and industrial capacity are distributed across zones and ecomonic sectors. Preliminary results are summarized for a magnitude 7.1 earthquake on the Elysian Park blind thrust fault in Los Angeles.     

Touchstones: some aspects of their nomenclature,petrography and provenance

Touchstones are pieces of fine-grained black stone which are used for assaying gold by comparing the colour of streaks made on the surface by alloys of known composition with the colour of the streak from an object of unknown composition. The technique has been in use since at least the 6th century BC.The petrographic aspects of the identification of touchstones are reviewed and 42 historical touchstones or museum specimens of similar looking stone are described, most of them including the results of petrographic examination.The results show that touchstones usually consist of sedimentary rock types, of which the most frequently occurring ones are tuffs, cherts and siltstones.     

Debating the Age of Serpent Mound: A Reply to Romain and Herrmann’s Rejoinder to Lepper Concerning Serpent Mound

The debate over the age of Serpent Mound (33AD01) is important because without a cultural context it is impossible to make meaningful statements about what this monumental effigy mound might have meant to its builders. In this response to Romain and Herrmann’s rejoinder, we clarify the provenience of the samples, which yielded the radiocarbon dates that contribute to our argument for a post–Late Woodland age for the effigy. In addition, we extend our critique of Romain and colleagues’ arguments to include the results of an independent study of soil cores extracted from the Serpent and surrounding landscape, which fails to corroborate Romain and colleagues’ assertion that a buried A horizon underlies the mound. Finally, we suggest that the construction of Serpent Mound may be historically linked to droughts in the Mississippi Valley that began at around AD 1100, which resulted in an influx of Mississippian refugees into the region.     

Carrier routes in the Northeast of Scotland 1803–1914: Development and change in a service

During the first four decades of the 19th century carrier services in the northeast of Scotland developed rapidly. Most were centred on Aberdeen, the main city and port of the region, but local networks also existed, focused on other towns in the region. Improved road facilities throughout the region, particularly those formed by turnpike trusts, enabled an increasing number of locations to be served in this way. The rapid economic development that took place in the area at this time led to, and was fostered by, an increasing frequency of service.. The arrival of the railway in the region in the middle of the 19th century, and its gradual extension north and west of Aberdeen, had a major effect on the road‐based carrier network. Long‐distance routes centred on Aberdeen declined rapidly, there was rationalisation within the services provided, new services grew up centred on railway facilities, and the number of short‐distance carriers increased. The flexibility inherent in carrier services, however, ensured that they continued to remain relevant to customers in the 20th century.