Forty Thousand Arms for a Single Emperor: From Chemical Data to the Labor Organization Behind the Bronze Arrows of the Terracotta Army

This paper explores the integration of chemical data with metric studies and spatial analyses of archaeological artifacts to investigate questions of specialization, standardization, and production organization behind large-scale technological enterprises. The main analytical focus is placed on the 40,000 bronze arrowheads recovered with the Terracotta Army in the First Emperor’s Mausoleum, Xi’an, China. Based on the identification by portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry of chemical clusters that correspond to individual metal batches, and combined with a study of their context in the tomb complex, we argue that the manufacture of arrows was organized via a cellular production model with various multi-skilled units rather than as a single production line. This system favored more adaptable and efficient logistical organization that facilitated dynamic cross-craft interaction while maintaining remarkable degrees of standardization. We discuss the use of “the batch” as an analytical category and how our method might be applied to other studies of craft organization in complex societies and imperial systems.     

Our Dear Cousins the Americans: Sara Jeannette Duncan in Washington

As a young woman, Canadian author Sara Jeannette Duncan (1861–1922) spent nearly a year writing for the Washington Post on literary and cultural matters, and published many of her assessments of American society in The Week, Goldwin Smith's journal of Canadian affairs. Her articles repay close scrutiny not only for their inherent interest as witty observations of America by an engaged Canadian observer, but also for the manner in which they reveal Duncan's national preoccupations and biases. Approaching the Republic with neither antipathy nor deference, Duncan turned her newspaper sketches into an occasion for wide-ranging cultural comment on the nature of the republican experiment – especially concerning America's claims to freedom and human flourishing. She found the results encouraging, if not without salutary warnings, for Canadian efforts in the same direction.     

Canadiana Abroad: The Department of External Affairs' Book Presentation Programmes, 1949–1963

This article examines one aspect of Canada's early cultural diplomacy. During the late 1940s, the Department of External Affairs frequently received requests for Canadian books from foreign libraries. At the same time, many officials were eager to promote Canadian culture abroad. The Annual Book Presentation Programme was inaugurated with the intention of creating “repositories of Canadiana” which might stimulate interest in Canada among foreign readers. Although the budget for the program was always modest, over the years the department's book gifts did fulfill their aim, creating a basis for the later growth of Canadian studies in universities abroad.     

Libertarian Paternalism as a Tool to Explore Strategic Sub-Regional Planning in England?

Across Europe, a series of revisions and realignments are currently taking place in sub-national governance structures. In England, this involves the creation of a new scalar construct through the dismantling of the regional tier and the creation of new sub-regional institutions. Through focusing on the move towards subsidiarity, this article considers the extent to which libertarian paternalism—or “don't do anything unless you have to”—and the adoption of some of these key principles by the UK government—can help to illuminate and explain such contemporary processes of restructuring and rescaling of governance. In turn, the article considers (i) the form, process and outcomes of planning practices within this restructuring; and (ii) the implications arising in respect of the democratic accountability and strategic efficiency of the new arrangements, and the interests that are being privileged therein.     

The Hawke government and education 1983–1985

Education was a major component of the platform and performance of the Whitlam governments. Under Fraser, projects were abandoned and overall growth ceased. The needs principle for aid to non‐government schools was undermined by the emphasis on unrestricted access to alternatives to the State system. Pressure grew for schooling to reflect and service the needs of the market place.

The 1983 election campaign scarcely mentioned education although special interests ensured that traditional commitments were secured. Once in power, the Hawke government tended to ignore these and maintained constraints on education spending.

Naive attempts in 1983 to implement the policy of reducing grants to wealthy private schools resulted, by 1984, in a bruised and shaken Hawke government having to placate the powerful private school/Catholic bishops lobby with a generously funded ‘historic settlement’ of the State Aid debate. The Participation and Equity Program was introduced to increase participation in post‐compulsory education, particularly by disadvantaged groups. Initially the depressed state of tertiary education was not addressed by the Hawke government which continued the neglect characteristic of the Fraser years. Hawke was returned to office in 1984 on a platform which had as little to say about education as it had in 1983.

The rhetoric and practice of the Hawke government has tended to reflect a view of education which is highly economic and instrumental in orientation. A crude nexus is seen to exist between educational spending and productive employment, a view which excludes any concern for the social benefits of education or a longer‐term perspective about the value of intellectual endeavour. Labor's traditional ideals and objectives of widening access to education and hence social and economic power are in danger of being ignored. If economic considerations alone continue to dominate policy, the legacy of the Hawke government may well be a set of educational policies which are destined, on balance, to increase rather than reduce inequalities in our society.