Towards an understanding of local protest: hospital closure and community resistance

The aim of this paper is to suggest an analytical framework through which the complex question of hospital closure and local protest can be further explored. The significance of this area of study lies with the extraordinary events that surrounded a campaign to save the Kidderminster General Hospital from downsizing. Whilst the hospital was not saved, the local campaign committee organizing the protest took their fight into the political arena and were successful in gaining a parliamentary voice in the 2001 general elections. Such an achievement has had considerable political implications, however, the question asked here is how might we begin to interpret the events that took place. To this end, the paper draws on current geographical literature in an attempt to construct a framework that accounts for both national policy debates and the local context within which such campaigns emerge.     

Recent research on Chinese republican history

Chinese republican history has proved to be the most dynamic subject area within Chinese history studies – with the most substantial research achievements – since China adopted its policy of reform and opening up in 1978. This paper provides an overview of new developments and trends in the recent study of Chinese republican history by Mainland Chinese scholars.     

The Bruce dynasty,Becket and Scottish pilgrimage to Canterbury,c.1178-c.1404

In 1187 Alfonso VIII of Castile and his queen, Leonor of England, founded a Cistercian nunnery, Santa Maria Regalis de Las Huelgas, on the outskirts of Burgos. Despite the clear allegiance of the foundation to the Cistercians from the outset, the idea that the abbey was inspired by and even modelled on the nunnery of Fontevraud in Anjou is an encroaching commonplace in accounts of medieval Spanish history and art history around 1200. This study re-evaluates the arguments for that perception and puts forward a different reading of the early years of Las Huelgas, not as a foreign importation but as a peculiarly Iberian, even Castilian, institution.     

Avorio d'ogni ragione: the supply of elephant ivory to northern Europe in the Gothic era

This article accounts for the hitherto unexplained increase in the availability of ivory in mid-thirteenth-century France through an alteration in the medieval trade routes that brought elephant tusks from Africa to northern Europe. A newly-opened passage through the Straits of Gibraltar allowed a small amount of luxury goods to be shipped together with bulk materials necessary to the flourishing textile industries of northern Europe.     

两周金文中的动词同义词连用

同义词连用现象是古汉语复音词产生的主要途径之一,而动词又是词汇中较大的一宗,本文就两周时期金文中的动词同义词连用现象做了一些考察,这些对我们正确理解两周时期的铭文内容都会大有裨益。     

洪保生平事迹及坟寺初考

洪保墓出土的寿藏铭是对其生平事迹及郑和下西洋史料的重要补充。据寿藏铭及相关文献记载,从永乐元年到宣德八年的30年内,洪保曾经一次奉使西域、七次奉使西洋,与郑和、王景弘同列为宣德六年下西洋之正使太监。此外,据记载下西洋船队中确有五千料宝船,至正统六年洪保依然活跃在政坛。洪保墓地所在坟寺即宁海寺。     

《中国共产党历史》第二卷对中华人民共和国史研究的意义

2011年出版的《中国共产党历史》第二卷记载了中国共产党自1949年10月中华人民共和国成立至1978年12月中共十一届三中全会召开这段历史,该书不仅是党史研究的一项重大成果,而且对国史研究也具有重要意义:为正确把握新中国前29年历史的重大问题提供了基本参照;披露了140多件文献档案,整理了一系列统计数据,为深入研究新中国前29年的历史提供了有价值的新史料;其编写方法为研究编纂新中国前29年的历史提供了有益的借鉴和启示。     

晚明华北宗族与族谱的再造——以山东青州《重修邢氏宗谱》为例

山东青州邢氏原是务农的家族,在邢玠科举成功为官之后,转型为官宦之家,成为地方望族。从万历时的邢玠开始,到崇祯时的邢彤庭,邢氏从事宗族建设,制定并实践各种宗族制度,宗族乡约化、组织化。邢氏受到宋代程颐、程灏的宗会思想很大影响,通过"宗会"复兴"宗法"。这是宋以后宗族组织化的一种重要模式,以往的宗族研究重视不够。邢氏也编修了族谱,有家庙或者家堂,将御赐的祭田作为族田,还设置了宗学、义仓,族长实际上就是宗正。邢玠受到苏洵苏氏谱法以及睦族主张的影响较大,邢氏族谱着眼于睦族,收录大量宗族制度的文献,内容非常丰富,面貌大为改观,成为重要的民间文献。晚明不仅再造宗族,也再造了族谱,完成了中国近世宗族与族谱的基本形式。