Weathering the Storm: Social Policy and the Great Recession

This review discusses recent challenges to the welfare state arising from the Great Recession (GR). The GR was a significant event for social policy analysts, as it tested the responsiveness of welfare systems in the midst of a recent trend toward austerity politics in advanced economies. Social policy changes were part of the toolkit advanced democracies used to respond to the GR, and the welfare state mitigated the consequences of the GR. However, a stark limitation of the social safety net in the United States was the failure to assist immigrant households. The nexus of immigration and social policy is likely to be a significant controversy as we consider the meaning of social citizenship.     

El pulso de Centro América a través de la novela

This article offers a new reading of Miguel de Unamuno's San Manuel Bueno, mártir. Critics have traditionally focused on the question of the protagonist's supposed lack of faith and sought to relate San Manuel's doubts in the novel to Unamuno's own religious views. Although this novel is very much concerned with religion, eschatology, and social issues, it is also an extremely sophisticated literary narration wherein the use of irony and ambiguity remains perhaps unequalled in Spanish contemporary literature. By considering the principles of linguistic pragmatics, this article shows that in her account of San Manuel's life, the female narrator tells the dramatic story of the love she and San Manuel felt for each other. By means of a complex use of ambiguity, Unamuno writes a novel that can be read in two different ways: the religious novel and the love novel.     

Global health ethics: the rationale for mutual caring

Despite spectacular twentieth century scientific and technological progress, the world is more inequitable than it was fifty years ago. This is evident both in terms of access to health care for individuals, and in relation to the health of whole populations. Disparities in wealth and health within and between nations are widening inexorably and the rapidly expanding global economy has failed to reduce poverty among those with little if any access to health care. In this context the Universal Declaration of Human Rights remains an unrealized aspiration for the majority of the world's people. Given these realities, no single discipline, or body of knowledge is likely to make much difference. For example, approaches based only on neo–liberal economics, as exemplified by the structural adjustment programmes of the World Bank, have not been successful in promoting health equity. The authors believe that an interdisciplinary approach is required, and that bioethics, an interdisciplinary field, can make a contribution towards improving health globally. To do this, the scope of bioethics should be expanded towards a results–oriented global health ethics, based upon widely shared and foundational values that could be carried forward through five transformational approaches.     

Gender, representation, and power in San ethnography and rock art

Interpretation of San rock art has been heavily dependent on the various San ethnographies, particularly those of the /Xam, who inhabited the northern Cape Province, South Africa, until the early 20th century. A different reading of these ethnographies enables another avenue of interpretation: the interlinked themes of gender, sexuality, and rain appear to be as important in the art as shamanistic elements (reference to which has been a key development in understanding the art). While interpretation centering on the trance dance, recorded ethnographically from recent and contemporary San groups, has been most productive, many features of the art may be related to other aspects of San culture—to the female initiation ceremony, social organization, and the complex of notions and practices surrounding feminine gender and female sexuality.     

Journeys to Empire: Enlightenment,Imperialism, and the British Encounter with Tibet, 1774–1904

The English by Geoffrey Elton. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992. Pp. xiii + 248, 37 plates, 8 figures. £19.99 (hardback). ISBN 0–631–17681–0.

Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837 by Linda Colley. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992. Pp. x + 429, illustrations. £19.95 (hardback). ISBN 0–300–05737–7.

Myths of the English edited by Roy Porter. Oxford: Polity Press, 1992. Pp. xii + 276. £39.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–7456–08442.

The Tudor Navy: An Administrative, Political and Military History by David Loades. (Studies in Naval History) Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1992. Pp. x + 317, maps. £35.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–85967–922–5.

The Armada of Flanders: Spanish Maritime Policy and European War, 1568–1668 by R.A. Stradling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pp. xx + 276, maps. £35.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–40534–3.

Parameters of British Naval Power 1650–1850 edited by Michael Duffy. Exeter Maritime Studies, Number Seven. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1992. Pp. vi + 144. £11.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–85989–385–5.

The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500–1700: A Political and Economic History by Sanjay Subrahmanyam. London and New York: Longman, 1992. Pp. xiii + 320, maps, tables. £14.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–582–05068–5.

Portuguese Trade in Asia under the Habsburgs, 1580–1640 by James C. Boyajian. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. Pp. xvii + 356, maps, tables. £40.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–8018–4405–3.

A World on the Move: The Portuguese in Africa, Asia, and America, 1415–1808 by A.J.R. Russell‐Wood. Manchester: Carcanet, 1992. Pp. xiv + 230, maps, tables, illustrations. £30.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–85635–994–7.

The Spanish Frontier in North America by David J. Weber. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992. Pp. xx + 579, maps and illustrations. $40.00; £20. ISBN 0–300–05198–0.

The Intellectual Construction of America: Exceptionalism and Identity from 1492 to 1800 by Jack P. Greene. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1993. Pp.xiv + 216, illustrations. $32.95. ISBN 0–8078–2097–0.

Sojourners in the Sun: Scottish Migrants in Jamaica and the Chesapeake, 1740–1800 by Alan L. Karras. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1992. Pp. xv + 231. $37.95. ISBN 0–8014–2691‐X.

Islanders in the Stream: A History of the Bahamian People, Volume 1, From Aboriginal Times to the End of Slavery by Michael Craton and Gail Saunders. Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1992. Pp. xxiii + 455, maps, illustrations. $60.00. ISBN 0–8203–1382–3.

Making the Empire Work: London and American Interest Groups 1690 to 1790 by Alison Gilbert Olson. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press, 1992. Pp. xiv + 261. £31.95. ISBN 0–674–54318–1.

The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific by Gananath Obeyesekere. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992. Pp. xvii + 251. ISBN 0–691–05680–3.

Women Against Slavery: The British Campaigns, 1780–1870 by Clare Midgley. London and New York: Routledge, 1992. Pp. xii + 281, illustrations. £37.50. ISBN 0–415–06669–7.

Religion and Society in Post‐Emancipation Jamaica by Robert J. Stewart. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992. Pp. xxi + 254, maps and illustrations. $42.50 (hardback); $19.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–87049–749–9.

Poverty Abounding Charity Aplenty: The Charity Network in Colonial Victoria by R.A. Cage. Sydney: Hale &; Iremonger, 1992. Pp. 190. $A35 (hardback); $A17.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–86806–437–8; 0–86806–438–6.

Muslims and Missionaries in Pre‐Mutiny India by Avril Ann Powell. London: Curzon Press, 1993. pp. ix + 339, maps. £30. ISBN 0–7007–021–5.

The Light of Nature and the Law of God: Antislavery in Ontario 1833–1877 by Allen P. Stouffer. Montreal and Kingston: McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1992. Pp. xvi + 273. $34.95 (hardback). ISBN 0–7735–0918–6.

Science and the Canadian Arctic: A Century of Exploration 1818–1918 by Trevor H. Levere. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Pp. xiv + 438, map, illustrations and photographs. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–41933–6.

The Voyages of the Discovery: The Illustrated History of Scott's Ship by Ann Savours. London: Virgin, 1992. Pp. xvi + 384, maps, illustrations. £25.00 (hardback). ISBN 1–852227–117–5.

People and Empires in African History; Essays in Memory of Michael Crowder edited by J.F. Ade Ajayi and J.D.Y. Peel. London: Longman, 1992. Pp. xxv + 254, maps. £36.00. ISBN 0–582–08997–2.

Frontiers: The Epic of South Africa's Creation and the Tragedy of the Xhosa People by Noël Mostert. London: Jonathan Cape, 1992. Pp. xxix + 1,355, maps. £25 (hardback). ISBN 0–224–03325–5.

Occasional Papers on the Irish in South Africa by Donald H. Akenson. Grahams‐town: Institute of Social and Economic Research, Rhodes University, Occasional Papers Series, 1991. Pp. 95, figures and tables. R22. ISBN 0–86810–202–5.

The Irish in Southern Africa 1795–1910 edited by Donal P. McCracken. Durban: University of Durban‐Westville, 1992. Pp. 290, maps, tables and illustrations.

Threads of Solidarity: Women in South African Industry, 1900–1980 by Iris Berger. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press; London: James Currey, 1992. Pp. xiv + 369. £35 (hardback); £11.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–8525–5078–2; 0–8525–5077–4.

The Scattering Time: Turkana Responses to Colonial Rule by John Lamphear. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992. Pp. xxiii + 308, maps. £ 40.00. ISBN 019–820226–1.

Strike Across the Empire: The Seamen's Strike of 1925 in Britain, South African and Australasia by Baruch Hirson and Lorraine Vivian. London: Clio Publications, 1992. Pp. v + 117. £5.0 (paperback). ISBN 1–897640–00–5.

National Crisis and National Government: British Politics, the Economy and Empire, 1926–1932 by Philip Williamson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pp. xvii + 569. £60. ISBN 0–521–36137–0.

Trade, Tariffs and Empire: Lancashire and British Policy in India 1919–1939 by Basudev Chatterji. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992. Pp. xiv + 521. Rs. 610; £25.00. ISBN 0–19–562815–2.

The Mystic Life of Alfred Deakin by Al Gabay. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pp. 208. £30.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–41494–6.

Woman Suffrage in Australia: A Gift or a Struggle? by Audrey Oldfield. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Pp. xiv + 263. £35.00 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–40380–4; 0–521–4361–7.

Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People by Judith Brett. London: Macmillan, 1993. Pp. xi + 318. £14.99. ISBN 333–592–859.

L'Afrique noire française: l'heure des Indépendances edited by Charles‐Robert Ageron and Marc Michel. Paris: CNRS Editions, 1992. Pp. 728.

The Internationalization of Colonialism: Britain, France, and Black Africa, 1939–1956 by John Kent. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992. Pp. viii + 365. £45. ISBN 0–19–820302–0.

The Political Inheritance of Pakistan edited by D.A. Low. London: Macmillan, 1992. Pp. vii + 292. £45 (hardback). ISBN 0–333–524373.

Broken Waves: A History of the Fiji Islands in the Twentieth Century by Brij V. Lai. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1992. Pp. xxii + 404, maps, tables, illustrations. $38.00. ISBN 0–8248–1418–5.     

Can argillaceous formations isolate nuclear waste? Insights from isotopic,noble gas,and geochemical profiles

There is considerable interest in the use of thick argillaceous geologic formations to contain nuclear waste. Here, we show that diffusion can be the controlling transport process in these formations and diffusional time scales for δ¹⁸O and δ²H in water, dissolved He, and Cl transport in shale‐dominated aquitards are typically over 10⁶ years, well exceeding the regulatory requirements for isolation in most countries. Our scientific understanding of diffusive solute transport processes through argillaceous formations would benefit from the application of additional isotopic tracers (e.g., using new ⁴He sampling technology), multidimensional diffusive‐dispersive modeling of groundwater flow and diffusive‐dispersive solute transport over long geologic time scales, and an improved understanding of spatial heterogeneity as well as time‐dependent changes in the subsurface conditions and properties of argillaceous formations in response to events such as glaciation. Based on our current isotopic and geochemical understanding of transport, we argue that argillaceous formations can provide favorable long‐term conditions for isolating nuclear wastes.