Networking Europe

The paper explores processes of transnational network building in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first section reviews several relevant literatures. It concludes that historiographies of Europe often recognize the pivotal importance of transnational network building, but fail to analyse network developments as well as their entanglement with wider historical processes. Specialized infrastructure studies exist in economic and technological history, but have a distinct (sub)national focus. The networking of Europe has not been investigated. The second section presents a preliminary narrative of transnational network building in the 19th and 20th century. It highlights the relationship between network building and political events in different eras, as well as different types of ambiguities or tensions. The conclusion suggests a number of topics for further research.     

Woman's Work in the Service of Empire: Lady Margaret Field (1905–94) from School Teacher to Governor's Wife

The presence of single and also of married British women in overseas colonies, especially those employed by or married to men in the Colonial Service in the later colonial period, has been the subject of scholarly enquiry. Their lives, roles and values and their distinctive contribution, if any, to the development of empire and of its ending have been debated. Their gendered roles were usually subordinate in a masculine culture of empire, and especially as wives they are commonly regarded as marginalised. The archived records left by Lady Margaret Field reveal her commitment as a single woman to a colonial mission and her sense of achievement as a school teacher and educational administrator, while also acknowledging the independence and career satisfactions she subsequently lost when she married a senior Colonial Service officer who rose to be a governor. But it is also apparent that, though incorporated and subordinate as a governor's wife to her husband's career, she was not marginalised to a separate sphere. As is evident from this case study, governors’ wives had important and demanding political duties, and such responsibilities need to be acknowledged.     

太湖流域史前社会的礼器与礼制

史前太湖流域,礼器出现在社会初步分化的崧泽文化时期;良渚文化时期已经是一个分层的复杂社会,社会成员分化成为不同的等级、阶层,与此相适应,太湖流域史前社会出现了陶质、石质和玉质三种不同质地的礼器,并有着比较严格的使用制度,太湖流域史前社会的礼仪制度初步形成。     

晚清民初现代“文明”和“文化”概念的形成及其历史实践

在晚清民初的历史语境里,中国传统的“文明”和“文化”概念先是大体经历了一个摆脱轻视物质、经济、军事方面的内容,形成内蕴进化理念的新的现代“文明”概念——广义的现代“文化”概念,再从另一维度部分地回归与“武化”、物质化相对的中国传统“文明”和“文化”的关键内涵,进而获取新的思想资源、重建一种新的狭义“文化”概念的过程,最终复构成了一个广、狭义内涵并存的、带有矛盾性的现代“文化”概念结构。这两个重要的现代概念形成和演变的过程,同时也是当时的中国人运用它们进行社会改革的实践过程。戊戌时期,现代“文明”概念已经在趋新士大夫中逐渐流行开来,并携带一系列现代性主导价值观念,成为维新运动得以全方位展开不容忽视的思想依托;而狭义“文化”概念的出现及其与广义概念的合构,则影响了五四新文化运动的进程。     

The culture of reconstruction,European literature,thought and film, 1945–1950

John Trenchard's and Thomas Gordon's ‘Cato’ has generally been seen by historians as the embodiment of neo-Harringtonianism and the polar opposite of Bernard Mandeville's thought. This paper addresses that misreading and places Trenchard and Gordon within a tradition of liberal republican political thought, rather than a civic humanist or neo-roman tradition. It examines the relationship between the political, philosophical and religious beliefs of Trenchard and Gordon and those of Mandeville, arguing that they shared a common framework with respect to the problems of politics.     

The Evolution and Destruction of Oorlam Communities in the Rustenburg District of South Africa: The Cases of Welgeval and Bethlehem, 1850s–1980

Abstract

This is a study of two Oorlam communities in the Rustenburg district. The one, Welgeval, was predominantly rural, the other Bethlehem, otherwise known as the Oorlam Locasie, in Rustenburg town itself, was mostly urban in character. They were situated no more than 60 kilometres apart. They were both off-springs of Boer, later Afrikaner society, and, to a lesser extent, of attachment to missionaries. They both survived for approximately the same duration, and both were victims, in slightly different ways, of apartheid. There was some known contact between the two communities. The emergence of their respective histories has rested in part on land restitution claims, which like many across South Africa, have brought to light previously forgotten or uncovered remembrances. There are, therefore, significant points of similarity and comparison between them. This article further complements the existing literature of previous scholars on the Oorlam by uncovering the experiences of two more sites of Oorlam occupation. Finally a study of the two communities raises interesting issues regarding their identity and the ways in which they have remembered and reconstructed their pasts.