Fascist voices: an intimate history of Mussolini's Italy

This is a history of fascist Italy from 1919 to 1945 that explores through the private (and mostly unpublished) diaries, letters and memoirs of ordinary people, how the regime was lived and experienced. It sets out to examine the emotional, cultural and ideological landscape of fascism and to investigate what it was that induced so many millions of people to give their support, in varying degrees, to a regime that led the country ultimately to disaster.

Early–Middle Holocene vegetation history, climate change and human activities at Lago Riane (Ligurian Apennines, NW Italy)

The radiocarbon-dated palaeoecological study of Lago Riane (Ligurian Apennines, NW Italy) presented here forms part of a wider investigation into the relationships between Holocene vegetation succession, climate change and human activities in the northern Apennines. The record of vegetation history from Lago Riane indicates that, since the end of the last glaciation, climate change and prehistoric human activities, combined with several local factors, have strongly influenced the pattern and timing of natural vegetation succession. The pollen record indicates an important change in vegetation cover at Lago Riane at ~8500–8200 cal. years b.p., coincident with a well-known period of rapid climate change. At ~6100 cal. years b.p., Fagus woodland colonised Lago Riane during a period of climate change and expansion of Late Neolithic human activities in the upland zone of Liguria. A marked decline in Abies woodland, and the expansion of Fagus woodland, at ~4700 cal. years b.p., coincided with further archaeological evidence for pastoralism in the mountains of Liguria during the Copper Age. At ~3900–3600 cal. years b.p. (Early to Middle Bronze Age transition), a temporary expansion of woodland at Lago Riane has been provisionally attributed to a decline in human pressure on the environment during a period of short-term climate change

"To strive for economic and social justice": welfare, sexuality, and party politics in San Francisco in the 1960s

This article explores how liberal politicians like Phil Burton of San Francisco joined with welfare rights lobbyists and bureaucrats to embrace late twntieth-century notions of sexual equality through a broader reconception of economic equality brought about by the expansion of the California welfare state in the early 1960s.

The economic dimensions of integrating flood management and agri-environment through washland creation: a case from Somerset, England

In many river floodplains in the UK, there has been a long history of flood defence, land reclamation and water regime management for farming. In recent years, however, changing European and national policies with respect to farming, environment and flood management are encouraging a re-appraisal of land use in rural areas. In particular, there is scope to develop, through the use of appropriate promotional mechanisms, washland areas, which will simultaneously accommodate winter inundation, support extensive farming methods, deliver environmental benefits, and do this in a way which can underpin the rural economy. This paper explores the likely economic impacts of the development of flood storage and washland creation. In doing so, consideration is given to feasibility of this type of development, the environmental implications for a variety of habitats and species, and the financial and institutional mechanisms required to achieve implementation. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.