Britannica on the eve of its 250th birthday: an Encyclopedia’s metamorphosis

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Erica Swenson Danowitz
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
First Century ◽  
Technological Changes ◽  
Business Decisions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Online Source ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
History Of ◽  
Reference Tools

Purpose This paper aims to explore the recent history of the Encyclopedia Britannica: how its contents evolved over the course of the twentieth and early twenty-first century, how technological changes almost led to its demise and its transformation from a print to an online source. Design/methodology/approach This paper traces Britannica’s history during most of the twentieth century to today using relevant literature. It also examines how Britannica’s editors used continuous revision to edit numerous print editions throughout most of the twentieth century. The author used both print and online versions of the Britannica to track how particular entries changed or remained the same over a 106-year span. Findings Although many Britannica entries did not change for decades, it still managed to update numerous encyclopedic articles in an age before computers and instant editing. Britannica persisted despite challenges to its existence that resulted from technological changes and imprudent business decisions. On the eve of its 250th birthday, Britannica has managed to survive as an online product that continues to educate new generations of researchers. Originality/value This paper examines a subject that has been explored in the past but not in recent years. Despite previous missteps and competition from Wikipedia and other online reference tools, this paper argues that Britannica still has relevance today.

scholarly journals Listening to Advisors: A Conversation About Readers’ Advisory Services, Practice, and Practicing

2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Neal Wyatt
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Library ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Public ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Book Group ◽  
Reference Tools ◽  
Second Wave ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

As RA service has moved from its second-wave renaissance during the late twentieth century/early twenty-first century (with a steady stream of reference tools, conference programming, and think pieces) into an often underpromoted but bedrock mainstay of the public library, what do advisors continue to discuss among themselves and see as areas of need? If you could gather a handful of advisors together, over a cup of coffee one rainy morning before book group began, what would they talk about? What would they ask each other? What do they know to be foundational about the service? As important, what might they suggest we all re-think? This column invites you to eavesdrop on such a conversation. It was conducted over email between six advisors: two at the start of their careers, two helping to define the field, and two who have lead the way for librarians, for a combined eight decades. These advisors share research, hard-won and lived-in lessons, showcase the luminous nature of RA work as well as its difficulties, propose a change for RA education, and, of course, each suggests a book to read.

Paradise Lost in Dutch, 1728–2003

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Frans van Dijkhuizen
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Paradise Lost ◽  
First Century ◽  
Religious Dimension ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
History Of ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Verse Form ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter offers a history of Dutch translations of Paradise Lost, from the early eighteenth to the early twenty-first century. The focus is on the question of how Dutch translators have grappled with two issues: the epic’s verse form, especially its lack of rhyme and syntactic idiosyncrasies; and its politico-religious dimension, its complex view of the relationship between earthly and divine authority, as well as its anti-predestinarian stance. The history of Paradise Lost in Dutch, which starts with the translation of Van Zanten in 1728, is characterized by an unresolved formal struggle with Milton’s blank verse, embraced unreservedly only in the early twentieth century, with translator Gutteling. Before 1900, the politico-religious dimension of Paradise Lost was at the fore for translators, yet this aspect of the poem has receded in prominence, with translators after 1900 presenting the poem instead as a timeless and self-contained work of literary genius.

Robot Imams!

2019 ◽  
pp. 438-455
Author(s):  
Eve McPherson
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sound Quality ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
First Century ◽  
Turkish Republic ◽  
The Public ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
History Of ◽  
Call To Prayer ◽  
Turkish Language

Since the beginning of the twentieth century and the establishment of the modern Turkish Republic, the Islamic call to prayer in Turkey has occupied a controversial space, sonically and culturally. Early on, the new Republic attempted to “Turkicize” the call by legally mandating Turkish language recitation, a practice that was maintained for nearly twenty years despite strong popular opposition. Although this particular practice ended in 1950, the call to prayer has continued to engender controversy. One of the more recent debates has grown out of the practice of centralization. Call to prayer centralization refers to broadcasting one muezzin, or caller, from one mosque to other area mosques in an effort to diminish “cacophony” and regulate the sound quality, ostensibly to beautify the call and make it more clearly audible. Although the goals of the centralization program have been to improve the sound quality and distribution of the call, opponents of the program have voiced concerns. Such concerns include the loss of mosque “personalities” and the possible substitution of recordings for live recitation, an especially worrisome prospect in the context of a religious practice that considers live human recitation a direct conduit to the divine. This chapter examines the early twenty-first-century history of centralization and how its implementation fits into the continuing dialogue on the public declaration of faith in the context of a politically secular republic, thus contributing to studies on the use and mediation of public sonic space.

Making the middle class: schooling and social class formation

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
First Century ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Policy History ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Research ◽  
Middle Class Families

Purpose – As the Australian working class continues its decline, sociological and historical scholarship has begun to focus more on the middle class. The purpose of this paper is to explore the historiography and social theory concerning the middle class, and argues that the ways in which middle class families use schools have been a powerful force in the formation of that class. Design/methodology/approach – This paper reviews the author’s own work on this topic, the work of other scholars, and suggests a number of social practices that middle class families employ as they school their children. Findings – The ways that many families operate in relation to the schooling of their children constitute a significant set of social class practices, that in turn assist in the continuing formation of the middle class itself. The social and policy history of schooling can expose the origins of these practices. Research limitations/implications – This paper originated as an invited key-note address. It retains characteristics associated with that genre, in this case putting less emphasis on new research and more on a survey of the field. Originality/value – In the early twenty-first century, the relevance of social class analysis for understanding a great range of social and historical phenomena is in retreat. This paper argues the continuing importance of that kind of analysis.

scholarly journals Gramofon w kręgu reinterpretacji / Gramophone Reinterpretations

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maciej Białas
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Conceptual Art ◽  
Musical Instrument ◽  
First Century ◽  
Discursive Practice ◽  
Sound Recording ◽  
Industrial Age ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conceptual Revolution

AbstractWhat is most surprising in the 150-year history of the gramophone (phonograph, record player) is that it has not ended even today. It might appear that progress in phonography which took place in the twentieth century should have made the gramophone a relic of the industrial age. Investigating the reasons why this device is still alive, the author argues that if it survived all through the twentieth century and found is place in the digital age on the eve of the new century, it was only owing to its hidden potential, which allowed creative individuals to rediscover it, find its new uses, attribute new functions and assign it new roles; in short, reinterpret it in diverse ways, the outcome being gramophone music - a new discursive practice with a varied esthetic appearance.In the first part of the study the author refers to the history of those gramophone reinterpretations and successively describes early literary impressions of the gramophone, the phonograph postulates of Lászlo Moholy-Nagy, Paul Hindemith’s and Ernst Toch’s Grammophonmusik, John Cage’s Imaginary Landscapes, the art of D.J.’s and turntablists, Christian Marclay “creative gramophony”, and experimental turntablism.The second part of the article analyzes the esthetics of gramophone music. The author distinguishes three trends in it: in the first the gramophone is subordinated to the classical concept of music, in the second it is used to create poly-style sound collages, in the third the gramophone is the tool for the implementations of the principles of conceptual art.In conclusion the author writes that it is chiefly owing to these reinterpretations which made the sound-recording and playback invention a composer’s tool, a musical instrument and finally an object of elaborate artistic experiments that the gramophone was able to carry out a historic, technological and conceptual revolution in the twentieth-century and early twenty-first century culture.

Modernist Dante

2021 ◽  
pp. 633-650
Author(s):  
Daniela Caselli
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
James Joyce ◽  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
Ezra Pound ◽  
First Century ◽  
Djuna Barnes ◽  
Dorothy Richardson ◽  
Anglophone Literature ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of

This chapter traces a history of Dante’s reception in anglophone literature between the 1870s and the 1950s. It acknowledges his importance in Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and James Joyce, but engages more closely with Samuel Beckett, Djuna Barnes, and Virginia Woolf. It shows that the modernist Dante that emerges from these authors’ work is both a formal and political one: recruited as an anti-authoritarian voice from the past and seen anew from feminist and queer perspectives, this is not a twenty-first century Dante forced against his will to virtue-signal, however; on the contrary, this is a Dante anachronistically familiar with key ‘vices’ of twentieth-century authors, readers and commentators. Focusing on sullenness, resistance, and fatigue, the chapter argues for a new understanding of modernist experiments with Dante’s political and formal complexity that refuse to use him as a ‘code or a weapon […] to crush someone’, as Dorothy Richardson put it.

Power in Russia: Modus Vivendi and Artis Imago

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatyana Zlotnikova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Art Criticism ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Theoretical Substantiation ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Modus Vivendi ◽  
History Of ◽  
Creative Experience ◽  
History Of Culture

Contemporary Russian socio-cultural, cultural and philosophical, socio psychological, artistic and aesthetic practices actualize the Russian tradition of rejection, criticism, undisguised hatred and fear of power. Today, however, power has ceased to be a subject of one-dimensional denial or condemnation, becoming the subject of an interdisciplinary scientific discourse that integrates cultural studies, philosophy, social psychology, semiotics, art criticism and history (history of culture). The article provides theoretical substantiation and empirical support for the two facets of notions of power. The first facet is the unique, not only political, but also mental determinant of the problem of power in Russia, a kind of reflection of modus vivendi. The second facet is the artistic and image-based determinant of problem of power in Russia designated as artis imago. Theoretical grounds for solving these problems are found in F. Nietzsche’s perceptions of the binary “potentate-mass” opposition, G. Le Bon’s of the “leader”, K.-G. Jung’s of mechanisms of human motivation for power. The paper dwells on the “semiosis of power” in the focus of thoughts by A. F. Losev, P. A. Sorokin, R. Barthes. Based on S. Freud’s views of the unconscious and G. V. Plekhanov’s and J. Maritain’s views of the totalitarian power, we substantiate the concept of “the imperial unconscious”. The paper focuses on the importance of the freedom motif in art (D. Diderot and V. G. Belinsky as theorists, S. Y. Yursky as an art practitioner). Power as a subject of influence and object of analysis by Russian creators is studied on the material of perceptions and creative experience of A. S. Pushkin (in the context of works devoted to Russian “impostors” by numerous authors). Special attention is paid to the early twenty-first century television series on Soviet rulers (Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Furtseva). The conclusion is made on the relevance of Pushkin’s remark about “living power” “hated by the rabble” for contemporary Russia.

Doing Things with Legal History

2018 ◽  
pp. 922-940
Author(s):  
Alfred L. Brophy
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
First Century ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Alternative Vision ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
History Of ◽  
Support Property ◽  
Late Twentieth

This chapter discusses the role of historical analysis in property law. The history of property has been used to offer support for property rights. Their long history makes the distribution of property look normal, indeed natural and something that cannot or should not be challenged. However, historically in the U.S there have been competing visions of property. From the Progressive era onward especially, the history of property has been used to show the unequal distribution of property and to offer an alternative vision that expands the rights of non-owners of property. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, the history of opposition to feudalism and protection of the rights of non-owners was used to protect the rights of non-owners. Thus, the history of property has been a tool of judges and legislators to support property rights and it has also been, less frequently, a tool of critique.

Buddhist Constitutionalism in Thailand: When Rājadhammā Supersedes the Constitution

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugénie MÉRIEAU
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Functional Equivalent ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Constitutional Thought ◽  
Classical Account

AbstractThis article adds nuance to the classical account depicting Thailand as a secularized country by documenting how Buddhism informs constitutional thought and practices in contemporary Thailand. Throughout the twentieth century, Buddhist discourses have been used to bypass constitutional provisions in the name of ‘dhamma’ through the reliance on the rediscovery of the doctrine of thedhammarāja(the righteous King). In the early twenty-first century, a second rebirth of the discourse of thedhammarājaled to a further devaluation of the constitution as the supreme norm. The principles of a righteous King (totsapitrājadhammā)were reconceptualized as a functional equivalent to constitutionalism – as constraining the King’s power. This article first examines how modern lawyers used Buddhism as the vehicle to import Western constitutional ideas into the Siamese polity while reconstructing them as part of a royal legacy through the doctrine of the Ten Royal Virtues. It then turns to an analysis of the ever-increasing enshrinement of Buddhism in successive Thai constitutions since 1932. It concludes with an account of the politicization of the righteous King doctrine and its impact on constitutional practices.

scholarly journals Status gazety „Politika” w Jugosławii Karađorđeviciów (1918–1941)

2014 ◽  
pp. 106-124
Author(s):  
Konrad Sebastian Morawski
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Strong Influence ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
First Century ◽  
Royal Court ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
The Status ◽  
Twenty First Century

Status of the newspaper “Politika” in Karađorđevićs’ Yugoslavia (1918-1941)The newspaper Politika was founded on 25 January 1904 by Vladislav F. Ribnikar. Since that time the Serbian Press market has begun to develop, and the Politika permanently has taken the important role up to this day. The newspaper witnessed important events in the Balkans in the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century but at the same time it was also under strong influence of Serbian centers of political authority. One example of such an influence was the status of the Politika in the period during the reign of Karađorđević dynasty in Yugoslavia, in 1918-1941. The newspaper then served a propaganda function for the royal court, particularly in 1929-1934. Then king Aleksander ruled in an authoritarian way and Politika played an important part in the country. The mechanism of functioning of the newspaper in the period of the royal authoritarianism, as well as in the remaining years of the interwar Yugoslavia was thus discussed in the article to help clarify the status of Politika under the rule of Karađorđevićs. Status gazety „Politika” w Jugosławii Karađorđeviciów (1918–1941)Gazeta pod nazwą „Politika” została założona 25 stycznia 1904 roku przez Vladislava F. Ribnikara. Od tego czasu zaczął kształtować się serbski rynek prasowy, w którym „Politika” trwale zajmuje istotne miejsce do dzisiejszego dnia. Gazeta była świadkiem ważnych i doniosłych wydarzeń na Bałkanach w XX wieku i na początku XXI wieku, ale zarazem znajdowała się również w strefie ścisłych wpływów politycznych serbskich ośrodków władzy. Jednym z przykładów takiego wpływu był status „Politiki” w okresie panowania dynastii Karađorđeviciów w Jugosławii w latach 1918–1941. Gazeta pełniła wtedy funkcję propagandową dworu królewskiego, co dało się szczególnie zauważyć w latach 1929–1934. Wtedy bowiem król Aleksander I sprawował autorytarne rządy w państwie, których ważną częścią stała się „Politika”. Mechanizm funkcjonowania gazety zarówno w okresie autorytaryzmu królewskiego, jak i w pozostałych latach międzywojennej Jugosławii został więc poddany omówieniu, które umożliwiło wyjaśnienie statusu „Politiki” pod panowaniem Karađorđeviciów.

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