Beyond the American century: Walter Lippmann and American grand strategy, 1943-1950

As the United States became a world Power, journalist and intellectual Walter Lippmann feared that it would become its own worst enemy. During and after the Second World War, he tried to steer the country towards coherent statecraft, to define the national interest and the limits of power, and give geopolitical expression to the role of the United States as the core of an Atlantic strategic system. But in response to world war, the Truman Doctrine, and the Korean War, he became pessimistic about the country's ability to conduct strategy effectively. In the prophetic tradition, he believed that a fatal symbiosis between America's growing strength and domestic politics led it towards crisis. Though at times ahistorical, Lippmann's concept of strategy deserves attention for its dialogue between power and identity, for its questioning of “ends” as well as means, and for its focus on the danger of self-defeating behaviour.

Changes in area and geodetic mass balance of small glaciers, polar Urals, Russia, 1950-2008

Changes in area of 30 small glaciers (mostly <1 km2) in the northern Polar Urals (67.5-68.25 °N) between 1953 and 2000 were assessed using historic aerial photography from 1953 and 1960, ASTER and panchromatic Landsat ETM+ imagery from 2000, and data from 1981 and 2008 terrestrial surveys. Changes in volume and geodetic mass balance of IGAN and Obruchev glaciers were calculated using data from terrestrial surveys in 1963 and 2008. In total, glacier area declined by 22.3 ± 3.9% in the 1953/60-2000 period. The areas of individual glaciers decreased by 4-46%. Surfaces of Obruchev and IGAN glaciers lowered by 22.5 ± 1.7 m and 14.9 ± 2.1 m. Over 45 years, geodetic mass balances of Obruchev and IGAN glaciers were -20.66 ± 2.91 and -13.54 ± 2.57 m w.e. respectively. Glacier shrinkage in the Polar Urals is related to a summer warming of 1 °C between 1953-81 and 1981-2008 and its rates are consistent with other regions of northern Asia but are higher than in Scandinavia. While glacier shrinkage intensified in the 1981-2000 period relative to 1953-81, increasing winter precipitation and shading effects slowed glacier wastage in 2000-08.

Prizes for modernity in the provinces: The Arts Council’s 1950-1951 regional playwriting competition

As part of its contribution to the 1951 Festival of Britain, the Arts Council ran what can be seen in retrospect to be an important playwriting competition. Disregarding the London stage entirely, it invited regional theatres throughout the UK to put forward nominations for new plays within their repertoire for 1950-1951. Each of the five winning plays would receive, what was then, the substantial sum of £100. Originality and innovation featured highly amongst the selection criteria, with 40 per cent of the judges’ marks being awarded for “interest of subject matter and inventiveness of treatment”. This article will assess some of the surprising outcomes of the competition and argue that it served as an important nexus point in British theatrical historiography between two key moments in post-war Britain: the first being the inauguration of the Festival of Britain in 1951, the other being the debut of John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger in May 1956. The article will also argue that the Arts Council’s play competition was significant for two other reasons. By circumventing the London stage, it provides a useful tool by which to reassess the state of new writing in regional theatre at the beginning of the 1950s and to question how far received views of parochialism and conservatism held true. The paper will also put forward a case for the competition significantly anticipating the work of George Devine at the English Stage Company, which during its early years established a reputation for itself by heavily exploiting the repertoire of new plays originally commissioned by regional theatres. This article forms part of a five year funded Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project, ‘Giving Voice to the Nation: The Arts Council of Great Britain and the Development of Theatre and Performance in Britain 1945-1994’. Details of the Arts Council’s archvie, which is housed at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London can be found at http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/wid/ead/acgb/acgbf.html Keywords: Arts Council of Great Britain, regional theatre, playwriting, Festival of Britain, English Stage Company (Royal Court) , Yvonne Mitchell

Earl of Aylesford v Morris (1873)

A Characteristic of a landmark case is that it stands for a proposition of law. In Earl of Aylesford v Morris,1 Lord Selborne held that where there existed an inequality between contracting parties, with weakness on one side and an extortionate advantage taken of that weakness on the other, the contract could not stand unless the party claiming the benefit of the contract could rebut the presumption by establishing that the transaction was ‘fair, just and reasonable’. This chapter examines the historical circumstances behind the formulation of this proposition.

Made in Italy. Made in Britain. Quality, brands and innovation in the European poultry market, 1950-1980.

This paper compares the development of the poultry industry in Italy with the UK. Earlier research has suggested that the UK poultry industry developed a symbiotic relationship with the emerging supermarket retailers. Italy had a retarded supermarket sector. Its distribution system favoured small-scale, independent butchers rather than chains of self-service supermarkets. Despite this the Italian poultry industry also modernised, adopting US technologies. The catalyst for this modernisation was technological innovation in refrigeration technologies that enabled Italian consumers and independent retailers to be persuaded of the merits of the new ‘technological’ chicken. While the Italian market has become dominated by AIA and Amadori in recent years, the key innovators were the entrepreneurs that created the company called Arena.

Salinity changes in the world ocean since 1950 in relation to changing surface freshwater fluxes

Global hydrographic and air–sea freshwater flux datasets are used to investigate ocean salinity changes over 1950–2010 in relation to surface freshwater flux. On multi-decadal timescales, surface salinity increases (decreases) in evaporation (precipitation) dominated regions, the Atlantic–Pacific salinity contrast increases, and the upper thermocline salinity maximum increases while the salinity minimum of intermediate waters decreases. Potential trends in E–P are examined for 1950–2010 (using two reanalyses) and 1979–2010 (using four reanalyses and two blended products). Large differences in the 1950–2010 E–P trend patterns are evident in several regions, particularly the North Atlantic. For 1979–2010 some coherency in the spatial change patterns is evident but there is still a large spread in trend magnitude and sign between the six E–P products. However, a robust pattern of increased E–P in the southern hemisphere subtropical gyres is seen in all products. There is also some evidence in the tropical Pacific for a link between the spatial change patterns of salinity and E–P associated with ENSO. The water cycle amplification rate over specific regions is subsequently inferred from the observed 3-D salinity change field using a salt conservation equation in variable isopycnal volumes, implicitly accounting for the migration of isopycnal surfaces. Inferred global changes of E–P over 1950–2010 amount to an increase of 1 ± 0.6 % in net evaporation across the subtropics and an increase of 4.2 ± 2 % in net precipitation across subpolar latitudes. Amplification rates are approximately doubled over 1979–2010, consistent with accelerated broad-scale warming but also coincident with much improved salinity sampling over the latter period.

A revision of the spider genera Chaetopelma ausserer 1871 and Nesiergus simon 1903 (Araneae, theraphosidae, ischnocolinae)

Chaetopelma Ausserer 1871 and Nesiergus Simon 1903 are revised. Cratorrhagus Simon 1891 is considered a junior synonym of Chaetopelma. Cratorrhagus tetramerus (Simon 1873) and the female of Cratorrhagus concolor (Simon 1873) are conspecific with C. olivaceum (C. L. Koch 1841). Ischnocolus gracilis Ausserer 1871, Ischnocolus syriacus Ausserer 1871, Chaetopelma shabati Hassan 1950 and Ischnocolus jerusalemensis Smith 1990 are also treated here as junior synonyms of C. olivaceum. Chaetopelma adenense Simon 1890 is proposed as a junior synonym of Ischnocolus jickelii L. Koch 1875. Chaetopelma gardineri Hirst 1911 is transferred to Nesiergus. Hence, Chaetopelma comprises three valid species: C. olivaceum (C. L. Koch 1841); C. karlamani Vollmer 1997; C. concolor (Simon 1873) n. comb. from the Middle East and northeastern Africa. Nesiergus, which appears endemic to the Seychelles archipelago, now comprises three valid species: N. gardineri (Hirst 1911) n. comb.; N. halophilus Benoit 1978; N. insulanus Simon 1903.

Science Teacher Education in Brazil: 1950-2000

This paper analyzes the most significant events occurring in Brazil`s educational, social and political areas over the last half century, viewed against a background of relevant worldwide events. The hypothesis presented here is that the relations between the country`s educational policies, the demands of the various segments of academia, and the public school system have always been strained. This strain has contributed positively to the evolution of academic knowledge and production, to the design of more modern curricular projects by institutional authorities, and to the initial recognition of the specific construction of school knowledge by the school system itself. However, the interaction of these major institutions lacks a crucial element-one that would lead to an effective change in the education of science teachers and produce a positive impact on Brazil`s schools-namely, the wholehearted participation of science teachers themselves. With this analysis, we intend to contribute by offering some perspectives and proposals for science teacher education in Brazil.

Missionsförbundets ungdomsförening i Borlänge 1930-1950

Denna uppsats studerar hur en lokal avdelning inom SMU i Sverige påverkas av det som försiggår i omvärlden mellan 1930-1950. De faktorer som studeras är världskriget, sekulariseringen, ungdomsdebatten, bibelsynsfrågan och depressionen. Undersökningen speglar makrofrågor ur ett mikroperspektiv. Uppsatsens resultat är att SMU i Borlänge påverkas väldigt lite under perioden. Verksamheten inom SMU i Borlänge är förhållande vis lika från år till år. Den största förändringen är att församlingen tappar en stor del av sina medlemmar. Minskningen av medlemsantalet är större än motsvarande minskning inom SMF i Borlänge och SMF nationellt. Förutom medlemsminskningen framförs ett krav på ökade bibelstudier och andra aktiviteter av andlig natur 1942. Orsaken till detta krav är svår att fastställa men det finns anledning att tro att samtliga undersökningspunkter kan har varit bidragande faktorer. Troligtvis har debatten om ungdomens moraliska förfall och sekulariseringen varit de mest betydelsefulla faktorerna.

Folkskoleseminariet i Falun : En geografisk rekryteringsstudie av folkskoleseminarister 1875-1950

Denna studie ska undersöka den geografiska rekryteringen av de antagna eleverna vid det kvinnliga folkskoleseminariet i Falun från 1875 till 1950. Resultaten jämförs med två liknade studier samt ställs mot den urbanisering och befolkningsökning som skedde under den studerade perioden. Resultaten visar små förändringar över tiden, där rekryteringen var nära nog rikstäckande med en majoritet från nuvarande Dalarnas län och närliggande län. De antagna var i huvudsak från landsbygden, där det inte skedde några förändringar trots befolkningsökning och urbanisering under den studerade perioden. Detta visar på att Faluns seminarium var betydelsefullt för den lokala bildningen, och då framför allt på landsbygden. Resultatet visar dessutom på en kontinuitet i den geografiska rekryteringen.