Diasporic identifications: exile,nostalgia and the Famine past in Irish and Irish North-American popular fiction, 1871–1891

During the nineteenth century, “exile” became a key term to describe the Irish-diasporic community in North America. More recently, scholars in the fields of diaspora studies and Irish studies have described this community as a “victim diaspora” with connotations of forced expulsion, exile, and nostalgia for the homeland. Moreover, among scholars and within the Irish-American community, the notion exists that the Great Irish Famine (1845–1851) constitutes the Irish-American “charter myth”, that it was the starting point of an Irish-American identity. This article sheds a different light on these (self-)identifications by discussing the concepts of origin myth, exile and nostalgia and also considers the concept of diasporic belonging in the context of Irish and Irish North-American works of popular “Famine fiction” written between 1871 and 1891. Consequently, the impact of these late nineteenth-century literary considerations on present-day conceptualisations of the Irish-American community as a victim diaspora are discussed.     

Geological constraints on the use of lead isotopes for provenance in archaeometallurgy

The first part of this paper is a brief critical history of the use of Pb isotopes for inferring the geological provenance of archaeological materials, with an emphasis on non-ferrous metals. The second part examines variation in the Pb isotopic ratios of oxide and sulphide ore minerals in selected regions of the world, and relates these to the geological histories of ore formation in each region. This exercise shows that in regions where most ore deposits are of similar geological age—as in the Andes, Europe and the circum-Mediterranean—provenance analysis with Pb isotopes is inherently difficult because geographically distant sources often exhibit similar isotopic ratios. Conversely, regions with many periods of ore formation—such as southern Africa—appear to be very promising regions for future studies of provenance with Pb isotopes. The wider implication of this exploratory survey is that archaeologists should carefully consider the range and clustering of geological Pb isotopic ratios in their regions of interest before investing large sums of money into Pb isotopic analysis of artefacts.     

Made in the Nene Valley? Identifying the origins of mortaria using ICP analysis

The Nene Valley, in eastern central England, was a major pottery production centre in the Roman period. Many kiln sites have been identified in the Lower Nene Valley region and, although comparatively less is known about production in the Upper Nene Valley, substantial amounts of mortaria and other coarse wares have been recovered during excavations at Roman sites in the area, and much of it is thought to be locally made. However mortaria made in the Upper and Lower Nene Valley can be difficult to tell apart, and many also have similar forms and fabrics to mortaria produced in Mancetter–Hartshill, Warwickshire. Therefore ICP analysis was used in an attempt to identify the products of different regions.     

Municipal history and activities

The emergence of synthetic alkali production in Britain during the early nineteenth century was associated with pronounced regional growth. Three areas in particular developed an incipient soda industry: south‐west Lancashire, Tyneside and especially the central valley of Scotland. This paper sets out to evaluate the importance of raw materials and market structures as locational factors at a time when knowledge of this new technology was in the hands of the few and its diffusion was strongly channelled by an emerging chemical fraternity. In doing so some understanding of an industrial legacy which has proved difficult to change and impossible to obliterate is provided.     

Mephisto

This article explores the resonances of objects that travelled between continents and the entangled imaginaries tied to them – here a 30-tonne German military tank captured by Australian soldiers during the First World War in France and shipped to Brisbane to be exhibited at the Queensland Museum. The author ‘reads’ the tank, intriguingly named ‘Mephisto’, as the apotheosis of nature/culture divide entrenched in nineteenth-century colonialism, which exported the taxonomies of the Enlightenment to the antipodes and in return repatriated objects of flora and fauna all over Europe. Mephisto thus also marks the manifestation of a German–Australian modernity: developed from the agricultural tractor, the tank remains a brutal and clumsy device designed purely to subdue and conquer territory.     

Reviews

“MUST WE LOSE AFRICA?” by Colin Legum. (Allen, London) pp. 264: 16/ stg.

ANCIENT FOUNDATIONS OF ECONOMICS IN INDIA, by K. T. Shah, Bombay, 1954. Pp. 175.

THE PROSPECTS FOR COMMUNIST CHINA, by W. W. Rostov, in collaboration with Richard W. Hatch, Frank A. Kierman, jun., and Alexander Eckstein. Technology Press and John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1955. Pp. xx plus 379. $5.00.     

Book reviews

DIPLOMACY IN A WHIRLPOOL — Hungary between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. By Dr. S. D. Kertesz, University Of Notre Dame Press. Notre Dame, Indiana, 1953.

DOCUMENTS AND SPEECHES ON BRITISH COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS, 1931–52, Vols. I and II. By Nicholas Mansergh, R.I.I.A. Oxford University Press, 1953. Pp. xii, 1308 Price 131/‐

THE PROMISE THAT IS NEW CHINA. By K. T. Shah, Vora & Co. Bombay, 1953. 342pp.

APPROACHES TO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: A Symposium introductory to Problems and Methods of Village Welfare in undeveloped Areas. Edited by Phillips Ruopp. W. Van Hoeve Ltd., The Hague, 1953: pp. xvi‐352.

HOW RUSSIA IS RULED. By Merle Fainsod. Published by Harvard University Press, 1953. pp. 574. Price 78s. 9d. (Aust.).

SOVIET POLICY IN THE FAR EAST; 1944–1951. By Max Beloff. Oxford University Press. 278 pp. 34/9.

THE STRUGGLE FOR KASHMIR. By Michael Brecher. Issued under the auspices of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs and the Institute of Pacific Relations. Ryerson Press, Toronto, 1953. 211 and xii pp.

THE WORLD AND THE WEST. By Arnold Toynbee, pp vi and 99. The B.B.C. Reith Lectures 1952 (Oxford University Press 1953).

THE DEPRIVED AND THE PRIVILEGED. By B. M. Spinley (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1953, pp. viii and 208, 18s.).

RUSSIA, PAST AND PRESENT. By Anatole G. Mazour, Professor of History, Stanford University, U.S.A. Third Printing. Macmillan & Co Ltd., London. Printed in U.S.A. Preface. Selected Readings for Chapters. Chronological Table. Index. Maps. Pp. vi and 785. Price 40/: Copy from publishers.