Sailors and Slaves: The ‘Poor Enslaved Tar’ in Naval Reform and Nautical Melodrama

This article explores the rhetorical comparison of naval sailors' exploitation to that of African slaves in pre- and early-Victorian discourses on naval reform. It is structured around an analysis of J.T. Haines's nautical melodrama My Poll and My Partner Joe (first performed 1835), in which the hero, having been press-ganged by the navy, risks his life freeing enslaved Africans on the Middle Passage even though he considers himself a slave to his nation. This plot was both timely and provocative: first performed in the immediate aftermath of the illegalization of slavery in Britain's colonies, it dramatizes an analogy between slaves and sailors that was contested by campaigners for naval reform and their opponents. Ultimately, My Poll and My Partner Joe palliates radical commentary on sailors' rights, in its second and third acts, as the sailor patriotically celebrates his freedom in antithesis to African slavery. Rather than read its denouement simply as romantic escapism, I argue that it proposes resolutions to conflicts that had arisen in British understandings of slavery and freedom, and racial and national identity, as a result of the debate on naval reform. To researchers of imperial, humanitarian, and working-class cultures and identities of the nineteenth century, this article reveals the underlying importance of ‘race’ and slavery to debates on maritime labour. It further highlights the complex, dialectical character of pre- and early-Victorian representations of sailors – on the stage and beyond it.     

The Rolt Memorial Lecture 2018: Science and Engineering at War in Orkney

Initially conceived as a contribution to a conference which was to have been based in Caithness and was to have included a visit to Orkney, this paper examines the scientific and technological background to some of the wartime remains associated with the defence of Scapa Flow, the Royal Navy’s principal fleet anchorage in home waters in World Wars I and II. Summarising the surviving evidence of selected aspects of vessel-related, marine and aerial science and engineering around Scapa Flow, it is prefaced by a short account of Tom Rolt’s own wartime career, and concludes with a comparative appreciation of his place in the pantheon of literary engineers.     

天演、进化、进步的内涵及其关系研究述评

<天演论>是中国近代史上一部划时代的著作,一百多年来,人们对它的研究长盛不衰,涉及问题殊多,现就严复译述<天演论>的概念问题进行梳理,包括研究状况、不同观点以及笔者的简评.关于天演、进化、进步之间的关系存在着两种对立的观点:一是对等说,二是非对等说.文中从天演与进化、进化与进步、天演内涵、严复态度四个方面进行了梳理,认为对等说较普遍认同,而非对等说更接近真理,从科学的观点讲,应该严格加以区分,并对具体问题进行具体分析,做到实事求是.     

Forging African American Minds: Black Pragmatism, “intelligent labor,” and a new look at industrial education, 1879–1900

This article examines black thought and black ideas about racial consciousness after Reconstruction in order to rethink the way African American leaders conceived the relationship between work and intellectual achievement in the late nineteenth century. Conventional scholarly accounts of the politics of black knowledge and education – including the still very prevalent paradigm of industrial and classical education – have missed a fascinating transformation of thought among many African American leaders after 1879 who sought to reinvent black identity. At the root of this transformation were shifting ideas about the black worker and a new industrial economy. The leaders who represented the transformation embraced progressive, pragmatist, and very modern approaches to intellectual cultivation – approaches that were more in line with theories of manual training and object-learning than with classical education. In other words, the intellectual rationales for industrial education among black educators were as important as the economic and practical ones. Those rationales were articulated not just by more conservative black voices intent on fitting into a new industrial order, but also by black progressives and radicals who hoped to cultivate black “self-consciousness,” vigorous engagement with the “real world,” and intellectual independence from white norms.     

Spondylolysis in the lower thoracic–upper lumbar spine in a British medieval population

Spondylolysis is generally a condition of the lower lumbar spine, but occasionally it is observed at cranial to L4. It is generally agreed that spondylolysis in the lower lumbar spine represents fatigue failure of the neural arch. However, whether a biomechanical explanation is adequate to explain lesions cranial to L4 is disputed. Morphological aspects of spondylolysis at T12–L3 (five cases) are compared with those of lesions at L4–L6 (24 cases) in a mediaeval English skeletal series with the aim of shedding light upon any differences in aetiology of lesions at the two sites. It was found that spondylolysis at T12–L3 was more often unilateral than in L4–L6. In T12–L3, clefts more often took an angulated, dog‐leg course across the pars interarticularis, whereas most in L4–L6 were fairly straight and had an oblique orientation. In T12–L3, clefts often had facetted opposing surfaces suggestive of a diarthrodial joint, but this was only seen once in L4–L6. It is suggested on morphological grounds that facetted defects are more likely congenital than acquired. The need for consideration of factors in addition to activity regimes when interpreting spondylolysis in earlier populations is emphasised. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

对众多不同国家的一个相同政策--浅析中国对发展中国家的政策

中国外交已走过了半个世纪的历程,其间有多次大的外交政策调整.与对美、苏主要国家政策的不断调整和变化不同,中国对发展中国家的政策更多地表现出连续性.在处理与这些国家的关系时,中国一直认为自己是这些国家群体中的一员,而且常常把这些国家当做一个整体看待.但实际上中国与这些国家内部都存在着很大的分歧.中国对这些国家的政策在很大程度上受中国与主要大国,特别是美、苏关系和中国战略的影响,在不同时期有着不同的内容,呈现不同的特点.     

The Archbishop of Canterbury,the Episcopal Bench,and the Passage of the 1911 Parliament Act

The passage of the 1911 Parliament Bill ended the power of the British house of lords to veto any legislation passed by the house of commons. Henceforth, it could only delay the passage of a measure. The bill was carried by a mere 17 votes and friction between Unionists who took up die‐hard opposition, advised abstention, or actively sought to aid passage was bitter. The role which the archbishop of Canterbury played in canvassing the episcopal bench and helping to ensure final passage of the bill has not attracted much attention. Prior to the debate, the archbishop advised abstention but did not dissuade others from encouraging bishops to support the bill to help ensure passage. Before the vote, therefore, ‘die‐hards’ opposing any concession to the government, ‘hedgers’ advising Unionist abstention in the vote, and ‘rats’, Unionists willing to vote for the bill to ensure passage despite personal reservations, attempted to sound out and pressure the bishops in their direction. At the debate, the archbishop changed his mind and decided he must support the bill in order to avoid a greater crisis, and 12 other bishops joined him in the government lobby, helping to create the final majority of 17 by which the measure passed. Consideration of the role of the bishops adds to the understanding of the mechanics by which the bill passed, amidst considerable intrigue, pressure and acrimony, as well as further illuminating the extent and intensity of the divisions within the Unionist party at this critical moment.     

‘The Party Hack,and Tool of the British Government’: T.P. O'Connor,America and Irish Party Resilience at the February 1918 South Armagh By‐Election

The common view of Irish electoral politics for the 1916 to 1918 period is one of major decline for the traditional nationalist representatives, the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP), and the meteoric rise of the newly reconstituted Sinn Féin party; culminating in the latter's overwhelming victory at the December 1918 general election. By examining the February 1918 South Armagh by‐election campaign, this article argues that the Irish Parliamentary Party, which won the contest, was much more resilient than is often acknowledged. Through detailed analysis of election pamphlets, newspaper articles, private correspondence and committee minutes, it considers the significance of the grass‐roots strength of both in the form of their local organisations, the role of the Roman catholic church, and the election strategies of the two parties; in particular Sinn Féin's vilification of the IPP member, T.P. O'Connor, who was in America at the time of the contest.     

Survivorship of Earthworks Mapped by T. H. Lewis in Iowa 1884–1894

ABSTRACT

Between 1884 and 1894, Theodore Hayes Lewis mapped 370 prehistoric American Indian mounds and earthworks in Iowa as part of a larger survey of mounds in the upper Midwest. Georeferencing remapped Lewis survey notes allows their comparison with modern GIS data including lidar topographic maps, aerial photos, and land records. Of the 370 mounds, 190 (51.4%) are clearly visible in lidar, 160 (43.2%) are probably destroyed, and 20 (5.4%) are undetermined. Data analyses explore the factors that influenced mound survivorship. By far the strongest correlations for survivorship are modern land use, modern ownership, and local landform, with mounds most likely to survive in wooded areas, on public land, and on islands. Iowa data are compared with Lewis map data from Minnesota, revealing Iowa has a far higher survivorship, 51.4% versus 25.6%, likely attributable to land use in the late nineteenth century. Further comparison with Minnesota data suggests perhaps twice as many mounds stood in modern agricultural fields of Iowa before Lewis made his surveys.