Book reviews‐comptes rendus

Peter GARNSEY & Richard SALLER, L'Empire romain. Economie, société, culture, Paris, La Découverte / Textes à l'appui, 1994.

Morris SLAVIN, The Hébertistes to the Guillotine: anatomy of a ‘conspiracy’ in Revolutionary France, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge and London, 1994, xvii + 280 p., ISBN 0–8071–1838–9.

Philippe BURRIN, La France à l'heure allemande, 1940–1944, Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1995.

Emmanuel LE ROY LADURIE, Le siècle des Platter 1499–1628, t.1 “Le mendiant et le professeur”, Paris, Fayard, 1995, 529 p., 170 FF., ISBN 2–213–01444–2.     

Book reviews—comptes rendus

Themes in Political History—Thèmes en histoire politique

Peter BLICKLE ed., Resistance, Representation and Community, Oxford University Press, Origins of the Modern State in Europe, 13th‐18th Centuries Series, Oxford, 1997, 401 pp. ISBN 0–19–820548–1. £50.00.

J. L. MERRITT ed., The Political World of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford 1621–1641, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996, 307 pp. ISBN 0–521–560–411. £40.00.

Themes in Napoleonic Studies—Etudes sur Napoléon

Malcolm CROOK, Napoleon comes to power: Democracy and Dictatorship in Revolutionary France, 1795–1804, University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1998 ISBN 0–7083–1461–9 (hardback) £15.00, ISBN 0–7083–1401–5 (paperback) £7.95.

Christopher PRENDERGAST, Napoleon and History Painting. Antoine‐Jean Gros's La Bataille d'Eylau, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997, xiv + 223 pp., ISBN 0–19–817402–0 £45.00.

Matthew TRUESDELL, Spectacular Politics. Louis‐Napoleon Bonaparte and the Fête Impériale, 1849–1870, Oxford University Press Oxford, 1997, viii + 238 pp., ISBN 0–19–510689‐X £35.00.

Themes in Twentieth‐Century History—Aspects de l'histoire du vingtième siècle

Götz ALY, Macht‐Geist‐Wahn. Kontinuitäten deutschen Denkens, Argon, Berlin, 1997, 220pp., ISBN 3–87024–361–9.

Holger H. HERWIG, The First World War: Germany and Austria‐Hungary 1914–1918, Modern Wars, Arnold, London, 1997, xx + 490 pp. ISBN 0–340–67753–8 (hb), 0–340–57348–1 (pb) £16.99.

Lonnie R. JOHNSON, Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbours, Friends, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996, xi + 339 pp., ISBN 0–19–510071–9 (hardback) £27.00. 0–19–510072–7 (paperback) £15.00.

Iwao Peter SANO, One Thousand days in Siberia: The Odyssey of a Japanese‐American POW, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1997, xvii + 210pp., ill., ISBN 0–8032–4262‐X £23.95.

Martin THOMAS, Britain, France and Appeasement: Anglo‐French Relations in the Popular Front Era, Berg, Oxford, 1996, x + 268pp., ISBN 1–85973–192–9 £29.95 and £12.95.     

"Pictures with a purpose": the birth control debate on the big screen

In the first half of the twentieth century, birth control advocates used the mass media to reframe contraception from a private, secret matter to an acceptable part of life fit for public discussion. Although their campaign began in print, they quickly embraced the more far-reaching medium of film to deliver their message. This article argues that birth control advocates circumvented the Comstock Act in the early decades of the twentieth century by taking up this new medium as part of a long-running strategy to publicize the birth control movement. Their efforts shaped both the public debate on the topic and the development of motion picture censorship.     

Book reviews—Comptes rendus

State‐building—Formation de l'Etat

P. LE ROUX, Romains d'Espagne. Cités et politique dans les provinces, Paris, Armand Colin, 1995,182 p., cartes, chronologies, glossaire, bibliographie, index.

Janice E. THOMSON, Mercenaries, Pirates and Sovereigns. State‐building and extraterritorial violence in early modern Europe, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1994, xiii + 219 p., ISBN 0691086583.

Isser WOLOCH, The New Regime. Transformations of the French civic order, 1789–1820s, New York & London, W.W. Norton, 1994, 536 p. ISBN 0–393–03591–3.

Marie‐Anne MATARD‐BONUCCI, Histoire de la mafia, Bruxelles, Editions Complexe, 1994, 317 p. ISBN 2–87027–505–6.

Religious history—Histoire religieuse

C. Stephen JAEGER, The Envy of Angels: cathedral schools and social ideals in medieval Europe, 950–1200, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994, xvi + 515 p., ISBN 0–8122–3246–1.

Bodo NISCHAN, Prince, People and Confession. The Second Reformation in Brandenburg, Philadephia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994, 366 p., 21 black & white illustrations, ISBN 0–8122–3242–9.

Marriage and power—Manage et pouvoir

Martin AURELL, Les Noces du Comte. Mariage et pouvoir en Catalogne (785–1213), Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne, 1995, 623 p.

Carole LEVIN, The Heart and Stomach of a King. Elizabeth I and the politics of sex and power, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994, ISBN 0–8122–1533–8.

William G. WAGNER, Marriage, Property and Law in Late Imperial Russia, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1994, xiv + 413 p., ISBN 0198204477.

Northern Europe—Europe du Nord

T. KJAERGAARD, The Danish Revolution, 1500‐I800. An ecohistorical interpretation, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994, xii + 314 p., ISBN 0521442672.

David KIRBY, The Baltic World 1772–1993: Europe's northern periphery in an age of change, London & New York, Longman, 1995, viii + 472 p., 4 maps, ISBN 0–582–00408‐X (hardback), 0–582–00409–8 (paperback).

Contemporary political history—Histoire politique de l'époque contemporaine

François DUCHENE, Jeen Monnet: the first statesman of interdependence, New York & London, W.W. Norton & Co., 1994, 478 p., ISBN 0393034976, 0393314901.

Romain YAKEMTCHOUK, L'adhésion de la Belgique à l'ONU 1944–1945. La contribution belge à la rédaction de la Charte de San Francisco, Bruxelles, Institut Royal des Relations Internationales, 1995, 207 p.

Kenneth MAXWELL, The Making of Portuguese Democracy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995, 250 p., ISBN 0–521–46077–8.

Methodology—Méthodologie

Jean BOUTIER et Dominique JULIA (sous la dir. de), Passés recomposés. Champs et chantiers de l'histoire, Autrement, Série Mutations, no. 150–151, 349 p.     

Short notices—notes de lecture

Richard BRITNELL, The Commercialisation of English Society, 1000–1500 2nd edn, Manchester Medieval Studies, Manchester University Press, Manchester & New York, 1996, xvi + 281 pp., ISBN 0–7190–5042–1.

Desmond SEWARD, Richard III: England's black legend Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1997, ISBN 014–026634–8 £8.99 (paperback).

David GATES, The Napoleonic Wars 1803–1815, ’Modern wars’ series, Arnold, London, 1997, xx+304 p., ISBN 0–340–61447–1 (paperback, £16.99); 0–340–69184–0 (hardback, £45–00).

Sheila PERRY, ed., Aspects of Contemporary France, Routledge, London, 1997, xviii + 258 p., ISBN 0–415–13180–4 (paperback, £13.99); 0–415–13179–0 (hardback, £45.00).