News wire services in the nineteenth-century United States

News wire services were established in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century to gather and distribute news for local newspapers, using the new technology of the telegraph. With that early beginning in the era of electronic communication, the expansion of news wire services spans the change from a society of local communities to a more nationally integrated society. This paper assesses the importanceof changes in the medium's spatial organization which promoted national culture. The first wire services were local, ad hoc groups, organized to achieve greater efficiency in news-gathering. Formal services were first organized on a local basis, but in 1848 they began to sell news to the major urbanized portions of the United States. As the nation grew, the desire for greater efficiency conflicted with the desire for greater autonomy. Regional wire services persisted from the 1860s to the 1880s but after the 1880s, a tenuous national organization was achieved, cementing itself into a national system after the turn of the century. Efficiency in news collection was the primary reason for the increasing scale of news collecting groups. Each step toward larger spatial coverage, fed the growth of a complex interdependent urban system.     

HETEROGENEOUS TASTES AND RESIDENTIAL LOCATION*

ABSTRACT. In a simple urban model, where the only spatial distinction made is between center and suburb, we introduce a uniform distribution of preferences for land. Under a logarithmic utility function, we examine how the location and consumption decisions of individuals differ in consequence of their different preferences for land. Comparative statics indicate that the qualitative response of the city at equilibrium to changes in per capita income and transportation cost is not affected by the introduction of such heterogeneity. Possible extensions are also briefly discussed.     

Mapping population data from zone centroid locations

The author describes the difficulties associated with the use of maps to represent census data. "A review of the problems associated with population mapping is followed by a discussion of [an alternative method known as] a raster method for handling census data, based on population-weighted centroids, and its implications for GIS "[geographic information systems]." The geographical scope is worldwide, with an example provided using data for Wales.     

Bureaucrats and managers,peasants and pastoralists,imperialists and traders: Research on the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods in Mesopotamia

In recent decades the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods of the fourth millennium B. C. in Mesopotamia have been the subject of considerable research by scholars of the ancient Near East. Interests in and interpretations of these periods have focused on their credentials as early states, urban societies, and the immediate antecedents of Sumerian civilization. In this overview, I first present a brief historical background on the study of these periods, followed by a critical review of recent approaches that have had significant impacts on current directions of research and understanding of the fourth millennium. Finally, I suggest some research avenues currently being tentatively explored that may be especially appropriate for developing further our understandings of these periods.     

Australian liberalism and corporatism

George Brandis, Tom Harley and Don Markwell (eds), Liberals face the Future: Essays on Australian Liberalism, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 386, $14.99 (paper) and Katharine West, The Revolution in Australian Politics, Melbourne, Penguin Books, 1984, pp. 116, $4.95 (paper).

John Rickard, H.B. Higgins: the rebel as judge. Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1984, pp.350. $29.95 (cloth).

Stuart Macintyre, Militant: the life and times of Paddy Troy, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1984, pp.225. $19.95 (cloth), $9.95 (paper).

Alan Metcalfe, In Their Own Right: The Rise to Power of Joh's Nationals, St. Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 1984, pp.268. $20.00 (cloth)

Peter Love. Labour and the Money Power: Australian Labour Populism 1890–1950, Melbourne University Press, 1984, pp.240. $9.95 (paper).

L.F. Crisp, George Houston Reid: Federation Father; Federal Failure? Canberra, ANU, 1979; The Later Australian Federation Movement 1883–1901: Outline and Bibliography, 1979; George Richard Dibbs: Premier of New South Wales, Prophet of Unification, 1980; Federation Prophets Without Honour: A.B. Piddington, Tom Price, H.B.Higgins, 1980; The Unrelenting Penance of Federalist Isaac Isaacs, 1897–1947, 1981; Charles Cameron Kingston: Radical Federationist, 1984.

Philip Toyne and Daniel Vachon, Growing Up the Country: The Pitjantjatjara struggle for their land, Melbourne, Penguin Books and McPhee Gribble, 1984, pp.157. $6.95 (paper)

Jim Kemeny, The Great Australian Nightmare, Melbourne, Georgian House, 1983, pp. 130. $14.95 (paper).

Peter Sekuless, The Lobbyists, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1984, pp. 145. $14.95 (paper).

Jennifer Aldred (ed.), Industrial Confrontation, Sydney, Allen and Unwin and Australian Institute‐of Political Science, 1984, pp.111. $15.95 (cloth), $7.95 (paper).

Glenn Withers (ed.), Bigger or Smaller Government? Papers from the sixth symposium of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, 1982, Canberra, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, 1983, pp. ix, 115. $8.50 (paper)

Commonwealth Grants Commission, Equity in Diversity: Fifty Years of the Commonwealth Grants Commission, Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service, 1983, pp. 180. $15.60 (cloth), $9.90 (paper).

Robin Walker, Under Fire: A History of Tobacco Smoking in Australia, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, pp. 155. $19.50 (cloth).1

Hugh Saddler, Energy in Australia: Politics and Economics, Sydney, Allen and Unwin,1981, pp.205. $7.95 (paper)

Brian Kennedy, A Tale of Two Mining Cities: Johannesburg and Broken Hill 1885–1925, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1984, pp. 146. $25.00 (cloth)

Basile Kerblay, Modern Soviet Society, London, Methuen, 1983, pp.321. $37.50 (cloth), $23.95 (paper).

Gary Littlejohn, A Sociology ofthe Soviet Union, London, Macmillan, 1984, pp.286. $16.95 (paper).

Talal Asad and Roger Owen (eds), Sociology of “Developing Societies”: The Middle East, London, Macmillan, 1983, pp.264. $11.95 (paper).

Richard Mulgan, Democracy and Power in New Zealand: a study of New Zealand politics, Auckland, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp.171. $A12.99 (paper)

Rex Mortimer, Stubborn Survivors, ed. H. Feith and R. Tiffen, Monash Papers on South East Asia No. 10, 1984, pp.xvii, 180. $6.00 (paper).

Philip Lowe and Jane Goyder, Environmental Groups in Politics, London, Allen and Unwin, 1983, pp. 208. $18.95 (paper)

John Surrey (ed.), The Urban Transportation of Irradiated Fuel, London, Macmillan, 1984, pp. 336. $14.95 (paper)

Ian Hancock, White Liberals, Moderates and Radicals in Rhodesia 1953–1980, London and Sydney, Croom Helm, 1984, pp.230. $31.95 (cloth).

Peter Hain, Political Trials in Britain, London, Allen Lane, 1984. pp 318. $29.95 (cloth).

Anthony Hyman, Afghanistan Under Soviet Domination, 1964–1983, London, Macmillan, 1984, pp. 235. $18.95 (paper).

Ivor Crewe and Anthony Fox, British Parliamentary Constituencies: A Statistical Compendium, London, Faber and Faber, 1984, pp.397. $67.95 (cloth).

Frederick C. Teiwes, Leadership, Legitimacy, and Conflict in China: From a Charismatic Mao to the Politics of Succession, London, Macmillan, 1984, pp.167. $21.95 (paper)

John Wong, The Political Economy of China's Changing Relations with Southeast Asia, London, Macmillan, 1984, pp.246. $14.95 (paper)

Adrian Leftwich (ed.), What is Politics? The Activity and its Study, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1984, pp. 172. $25.00 (cloth), $11.95 (paper).

Ted Benton, The Rise and Fall of Structural Marxism: Althusser and his Influence, London, Macmillan, 1984, pp. 259. $14.95 (paper).

Ben Fine, Marx's Capital, London, Macmillan, second edition, 1984, pp. 87. $9.95 (paper).

Stefan Collini, Donald Winch and John Burrow, That Noble Science of Politics: A Study in Nineteenth‐Century Intellectual History, Cambridge University Press, 1983, pp. 385. $25.00 (paper).

William W. Bostock, Approaches to Political Explanation, Melbourne, RDI Press, 1983, pp.123. $9.00 (paper).

Ronald Beiner, Political Judgment, London, Methuen, 1983, pp. 199. $17.95 (paper).

John F. Wilson, The Politics of Moderation: An Interpretation of Plato's Republic, New York, University of America Press, 1984, pp.213. $12.25 (U.S.) (paper).

Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution, trans. P.J. Rhodes, Penguin Books, 1984, pp. 198. $6.95 (paper).

Carol O'Donnell, The Basis of the Bargain: Gender, Schooling and Jobs, Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1984, pp.186. $19.95 (cloth), $9.95 (paper).

Dorothy H. Broom (ed.), Unfinished Business: Social Justice for Women in Australia, Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1984, pp.213. $24.95 (cloth), $10.95 (paper).

S. Fabian and M. Loh, The Changemakers: Ten Significant Australian Women. Milton, Jacaranda Press, 1983, pp. 190. $14.25 (paper).     

TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN MANUFACTURING FURTHER EVIDENCE FROM THE STATES*

In this paper, we first develop a measure of total factor productivity (TFP) growth and summarize a source-of-growth analysis for the manufacturing sector of 48 states. As have others, we find little association between TFP growth differentials and output growth differentials for census regions. At the staterather than the regional level, however, we find a positive association between TFP growth and output growth. We use cross-sectional data to estimate the determinants of the variation in TFP growth. Two results emerge that are important for regional policy and for understanding national productivity trends. First, state investments in education and in transportation infrastructure may affect TFP growth. Second, energy price increases in the early 1970s had no differential effects on productivity growth across states. We also explore the determinants of manufacturing output growth and find that TFP growth, demand growth, wage growth, wage levels, and state corporate income tax rates are significant.