Between science and empire: the diplomatic struggle over Mesopotamian antiquities in Lisbon (1914–1926)

A powerful curiosity to discover the ancient world – reaching its peak in the nineteenth century – led to British, French, and German museums to enhance their collections with a great number of Mesopotamian antiquities. Most of these were the product of excavation work, which took years, followed by a shipping process fraught with hurdles and delays – much as when Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities were stranded in Portugal over the period 1914–26. In that case Portuguese officials seized the hoard of Babylonian and Assyrian items due to be sent to Germany at the beginning of the First World War by the German Oriental Society, which had carried out excavation works in Ottoman territories in the name of Kaiser II Wilhelm. The extensive British efforts and diplomatic exchanges aimed at bringing the pieces to London after the war, presents us with important clues regarding ownership disputes over antiquities, and the imperial struggle to acquire the cultural heritage of the near east. This study reveals that, under the existing legal framework, the items eventually taken to Berlin actually belonged to the Imperial Museum in Istanbul, and analyzes the discourse of ‘scientific concern’ constructed by British diplomacy.     

Peripheral Players? German Colonial Interests,The Press,and the Spirit of Locarno

The Locarno Conference, held on 5–16 October 1925, represented the culmination of nearly two years of diplomatic communication between the foreign offices of Germany, Britain, and France. The conference was an attempt to normalize relations between the former Allied powers and Germany's new Weimar Republic and more tightly bind Germany's politics and economy to Western Europe. Colonial German lobbies hoped that the Locarno talks heralded the return of empire and an end to Germany's banishment from the work of the ‘civilizing mission’ and the humiliating experience of being a ‘postcolonial state in a still colonial world’. Public scrutiny from false press reports about the restoration of the German colonies emanating from Germany, France, Britain and its colonies and dominions, and even the United States complicated matters for Locarno delegates by forcing discussion of off-agenda topics. This article interrogates how the Colonial German lobby influenced the Locarno Conference through activity in the international public sphere, how they managed a partial victory in the wake of Locarno, and more importantly, the Colonial German lobby learned new and better strategies for playing properly to public opinion and international bureaucracies.     

Looking into the ‘black box’ of heritage protection: analysis of conservation area disputes in London through the eyes of planning inspectors

The paper analyses conflicts associated with policies to protect the built heritage. Such conflicts relate to a host of tensions between private and public concerns and specifically between pro-development and pro-conservation approaches. To examine these cleavages, the paper operationalises private and public concerns over heritage by asking if there is a recognisable set of justifications that policy-makers use for supporting a pro-conservation or alternatively a pro-development approach? To do this, the paper looks at appeals decided by Her Majesty’s Planning Inspectors in London. The findings show that although they are not dichotomous, public and private interests in heritage development can be factually recognised in the setting of appeals. Moreover, the paper finds that Planning Inspectors often channel conflicts through the prism of certain public interests, namely, protecting architectural and physical attributes of the building and its surroundings. Although inspectors are instructed to actively weigh in other (potentially overriding) considerations in heritage appeals, such as socio-economic and proprietary issues, these considerations do not appear to have the same standing within the decision-making process.     

‘How can the people be restricted?’: the Mont Pèlerin Society and the problem of democracy, 1947–1998

Drawing upon archival material, this article offers an overview and discussion of the manner in which the topic of representative democracy was addressed during conferences of the Mont Pèlerin Society in the period between 1947 and 1998. I contend that the most common critique of democracy amongst MPS members was that democratic politics has the tendency to lead to interventions in the economy, thus distorting or even destroying the market mechanism. Yet most members were simultaneously convinced that democracy is a necessary condition of individual liberty, which meant that democracy, rather than being either a mere nuisance or an irredeemable obstacle that must be rejected wholesale, posed a genuine problem for them. Whilst at MPS conferences a myriad of solutions to the problem of democracy was explored, one such solution was suggested most often and theorized most thoroughly, namely the imposition of constitutional limits on popular power; a proposal that often amounted to an attempt radically to circumscribe citizens’ influence on the legislature. I conclude by reflecting upon the implications of these findings for the scholarly study of neoliberal thought on democracy.     

知识人的社会呈现及其意义——关于江南民间社会中南社的考察

以近代思想观念的生产和扩散为职志的南社,与民间社会的近代变迁存在着怎样的关联? 需要我们重新思考。从历史—社会学的视角考察,南社世界以两种方式加以呈现:内向呈现,指向南社自身,局限于团体私域,着力展现的是南社人的生活世界;外向呈现,指向南社圈外的民间社会,由此伸延至作为社团存在环境的公共领域,着力展现的是他们的观念世界。南社世界不同的呈现方式对于民间社会的近代变迁有着完全不同的意义。     

考古发现反映出的成都平原先秦社会经济文化发展

综合分析近数十年来发现的大量考古资料,广泛参证相关文献资料,似乎可以得出这样的认识,在原始社会末期,成都平原的土著先民已经创造出较为发达而具有文明因素的“宝墩村文化”,建立了以渔猎经济为主的父系氏族社会;夏、商至西周,从汉水上游迁徙而来的巴蜀人兴建了虽然仍以渔猎经济为主、但农业经济比重日益增大的古蜀王国,创造出由“三星堆文化”和“十二桥文化”所反映的文明相当发达的“早期蜀文化”;东周时,楚人鳖灵取代蜀王杜宇建立开明王朝,兴农开国而致使蜀国成为以农业经济为主、渔猎经济为辅的富裕国家,致使“晚期蜀文化”成为楚、蜀糅合、多元一体的混融型文化。历秦入汉,基本上华夏化并且体现出华夏文化发展趋向的蜀文化,也就很快消融在汉文化的统一体中了。     

Exploring the Archaeology of the Modern City: Issues of Scale,Integration and Complexity

Historical archaeologists have advocated the need to explore the archaeology of the modern city using several different scales or frames of reference—the household and the district being the most common. In this paper, we discuss the value of comparisons at larger scales, for example between cities or countries, as a basis for understanding archaeology of the modern western city. We argue that patterns of similarity and dissimilarity detected at these larger scales can (and should) become part of our interpretive and explanatory armoury, when it comes to understanding patterns and processes at smaller scales. However, we also believe that these larger scale enquiries do not by any means exhaust (or diminish the importance of) the site- or household-specific questions that continue to demand adequate answers. By reporting some of the thinking behind the work that has been done in Melbourne, Sydney and shortly to begin in London, we seek to more clearly establish the value of this broader comparative agenda in urban historical archaeology.     

评严译《社会通诠》引起的一场风波

严复在《社会通诠》按语中不赞成民族主义,招来了汪精卫和章太炎的攻击。但在实际上,严复反对的是狭隘民族主义,主要针对顽固派。20世纪初中国思想界确实出现了新的狭隘民族主义,批评一下又何妨?严复以学者的眼光看待民族主义,比不上孙中山,但比康有为和章太炎高明得多。