The Great Escape: A Review of Robert Fogel's The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700–2100

2006 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angus Deaton

In this essay, I review Robert Fogel's The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700–2100, which is concerned with the past, present, and future of human health. Fogel's work places great emphasis on nutrition, not only for the history of health, but for explaining aspects of current health, not only in comparing poor and rich countries, but in thinking about rich countries now and in the future. I discuss Fogel's analysis alongside alternative interpretations that place greater emphasis on the historical role of public health, and on the current and future role of improvements in medical technology.

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-73
Author(s):  
Rainer Schreg

The perspectives on the medieval village and on the historical role of peasants have changed throughout the history of research. Traditional views on history saw rural life as unchangeable and therefore presumed that villages were rooted in the migration period. Modern research recognised the formation of the medieval village as a complex long-term process that, depending on the region, culminated in the 11th – 13th century. This paper takes a closer look at the situation in southwestern Germany, analysing research history on the one hand and selected episodes of medieval rural history on the other. The paper suggests that due to traditional views on the structure of history, peasants’ agency has been undervalued.  


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 69-90
Author(s):  
Stanisław Ciesielski

Сталин против Покровского. Из истории сталинской «исторической политики»Михаил Покровский в двадцатых годах и в первой половине тридцатых годов ХХ века считался признанным лидером марксистской историографии в СССР. Начатая Сталиным переоценка многих явлений в истории России, связанная со стремлением к интеграции советского общества на основе особого патриотизма и чувства державности привела к оспариванию и отрицанию прежней исторической политики, символом которой был Покровский. Неудача попытки создания учениками Покровского школьных учебников стало для Сталина импульсом для начала кампании, направленной на учёного и его «школу». Во время её взгляды Покровского были признаны антимарксистскими и антиленинскими. Его обвиняли в том, что, исповедуя экономический материализм и когнитивный субъективизм, не понимая диалектики, он проповедовал вульгарный марксизм, трактовал историю как политику возврата в прошлое и оспаривал её объективизм как науки, а как следствие этого стоял на позиции ликвидаторского подхода к истории. Покровскому приписывали игнорирование конкретности исторического процесса, роли выдающихся личностей, антиисторическое понимание отдельных явлений с перспективы современности, а не обстоятельств, при которых они имели место. Важную роль играла критика торгового капитала и его исторической роли. Подвергнуты сомнению были ключевые элементы свойственной Покровскому картины прошлого России. Покровского обвиняли в игнорировании, недооценке или ошибочной интерпретации истории Киевской Руси, строительства «российского народного государства», крестьянских движений, государственных реформ, борьбы с польской интервенцией в начале XVII века и с нашествием Наполеона в 1812 году, восстания декабристов, процесса включения в Российское государство других народов. Stalin against Pokrovsky: On the history of Stalinist “historical policy”In the 1920s and the first half of the 1930s Mikhail Pokrovsky was regarded as a leading Marxist historiographer in the USSR. A revision, initiated by Stalin, of views on many phenom­ena from Russia’s history, connected with a desire to consolidate Soviet society on the basis of a redefined patriotism and feeling of being part of a superpower, led to a questioning and rejection of the historical policy which Pokrovsky symbolised. The failure to prepare new school textbooks by Pokrovsky’s pupils prompted Stalin to launch a campaign against the scholar and his “school.” Pokrovsky’s views were pronounced anti-Marxist and anti-Leninist. As a man allegedly kowtowing to economic materialism and cognitive subjectivism, and not understanding dialectics, Pokrovsky was accused of vulgarising Marxism, treating history as a policy of projecting into the past and questioning its objectivism as a science, and, consequently, of representing an approach to it that was that of a liquidator. Pokrovsky was said to be ignoring the concreteness of the historical process, the role of outstanding individuals, to be following an ahistorical approach to various phenomena from the perspective of the present and not of the circumstances in which they had taken place. An important role was played by criticism of the concept of commercial capital and its historical role. Key elements of Pokrovsky’s picture of Russia’s past were questioned. Pokrovsky was accused of ignoring, failing to appreciate or misinterpreting the history of Kievan Rus’, of the building of the “Russian nation state,” peasant movements, state reforms, fight against the Polish intervention in the early 17th century and the Napoleonic invasion in 1812, the Decembrist Uprising, and the process of incorporating various nations into the Russian state.


Somatechnics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-303
Author(s):  
Michael Connors Jackman

This article investigates the ways in which the work of The Body Politic (TBP), the first major lesbian and gay newspaper in Canada, comes to be commemorated in queer publics and how it figures in the memories of those who were involved in producing the paper. In revisiting a critical point in the history of TBP from 1985 when controversy erupted over race and racism within the editorial collective, this discussion considers the role of memory in the reproduction of whiteness and in the rupture of standard narratives about the past. As the controversy continues to haunt contemporary queer activism in Canada, the productive work of memory must be considered an essential aspect of how, when and for what reasons the work of TBP comes to be commemorated. By revisiting the events of 1985 and by sifting through interviews with individuals who contributed to the work of TBP, this article complicates the narrative of TBP as a bluntly racist endeavour whilst questioning the white privilege and racially-charged demands that undergird its commemoration. The work of producing and preserving queer history is a vital means of challenging the intentional and strategic erasure of queer existence, but those who engage in such efforts must remain attentive to the unequal terrain of social relations within which remembering forms its objects.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 570
Author(s):  
James W. Watts

Leviticus 25:39–46 describes a two-tier model of slavery that distinguishes Israelites from foreign slaves. It requires that Israelites be indentured only temporarily while foreigners can be enslaved as chattel (permanent property). This model resembles the distinction between White indentured slaves and Black chattel slaves in the American colonies. However, the biblical influence on these early modern practices has been obscured by the rarity of citations of Lev. 25:39–46 in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century sources about slavery. This article reviews the history of slavery from ancient Middle Eastern antiquity through the seventeenth century to show the unique degree to which early modern institutions resembled the biblical model. It then exposes widespread knowledge of Leviticus 25 in early modern political and economic debates. Demonstrating this awareness shows with high probability that colonial cultures presupposed the two-tier model of slavery in Leviticus 25:39–46 to naturalize and justify their different treatment of White indentured slaves and Black chattel slaves.


Author(s):  
Ranjeet S. Sawant ◽  
Bharat D. Zinjurke ◽  
Sandeep V. Binorkar

Abstract The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV 2) and unique in various facets. The earlier experience from the past severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemics seem to be insufficient and there is need for better strategies in public health and medical care. Ayurved & Yog are well known for their preventive and therapeutic aspect, but not getting utilized properly for prevention of Covid 19 crisis which may also be helpful as supportive therapy along with current line of management. This paper is aimed at unrevealing the role of Ayurved and Yoga guidelines established by Department of AYUSH for prevention from SARS-CoV-2 by providing help to improving the quality of supportive/prophylactic therapy in relation with their immunity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-313
Author(s):  
Enver Hasani

Kosovo’s Constitutional Court has played a role of paramount importance in the country’s recent history. The author uses a comparative analysis to discuss the role of the Court in light of the work and history of other European constitutional courts. This approach sheds light on the Court’s current role by analyzing Kosovo’s constitutional history, which shows that there has been a radical break with the past. This approach reveals the fact that Kosovo’s current Constitution does not reflect the material culture of the society of Kosovo. This radical break with the past is a result of the country’s tragic history, in which case the fight for constitutionalism means a fight for human dignity. In this battle for constitutionalism, the Court has been given very broad jurisdiction and a role to play in paving the way for Kosovo to move toward Euro-Atlantic integration in all spheres of life. Before reaching this conclusion, the author discusses the specificities of Kosovo’s transition, comparing it with other former communist countries. Among the specific features of constitutionalism in Kosovo are the role and position of the international community in the process of constitution-making and the overall design of constitutional justice in Kosovo. Throughout the article, a conclusion emerges that puts Kosovo’s Constitutional Court at the forefront of the fight for the rule of law and constitutionalism of liberal Western provenance.


1979 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-182
Author(s):  
BOYD T. MARSH

A brief review of the history of food-caused illness in humans and those categories or areas in a foodservice operations that are considered critical by public health personnel are discussed. The role of the foodservice manager is examined with respect to foodborne outbreaks. Some issues divergent from basic sanitation, but nevertheless, important to the foodservice manager and to public health personnel, are presented.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 327-337
Author(s):  
Svetlana A Kirillina ◽  
Alexandra L Safronova ◽  
Vladimir V Orlov

The article analyses the historical role of the movement for defenсe of the Caliphate, which emerged in various regions of the Muslim world as a response to weakening and fall of the Ottoman Empire. The authors also focus on the social and political discussions of the 1920s - 1930s about the destiny of Muslim unity and the role of the future Caliphate. The article also deals with the transformation of conceptions of the Caliphate in the works of eminent ideologists and politicians of the Muslim world - Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi, Muhammad Rashid Rida and Abul Kalam Azad. The authors give an overview of the history of Caliphatist congresses and conferences of 1920s - 1930s. The aims and tasks of the Caliphatist movement among the Muslims of South Asia are also under study. The article examines the reaction of the South Asian princely elites to the weakening of the Ottoman state and explores the interrelation between pro-Ottoman sentiments of Caliphatists and the radicalization of anti-colonial struggle of Indian Muslims. A special attention is given to the role of leaders of Indian Caliphatists in preparation of the antiBritish uprisings in North-Western Hindustan. The authors also examine common and specifi c features of views and political actions of advocates and supporters of the Caliphate in the Middle East and in the Islamic communities of South Asia. The analysis of the source data reveales several patterns of reaction of Muslims in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia to the repudiation of the Caliphate by the Republican Turkey.


2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanna Rankin Bohme ◽  
David Egilman

In his article in this issue, Tee Guidotti casts recent works addressing corporate influence on occupational medicine as “collective act[s] of disparagement … undertaken … for political reasons.” We move beyond the question of reputation to address key conflicts in the history of occupational medicine, including the American Occupational Medical Association's historical role in weakening the beryllium standard and the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine's recent efforts to limit the extent of the Family Medical Leave Act. The corporate practice of externalizing health and safety costs makes industry influence an important ongoing topic of debate in occupational and environmental medicine.


2013 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 451-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
COSTANTINO SIGISMONDI

The role of Venus and Mercury transits is crucial to know the past history of the solar diameter. Through the W parameter, the logarithmic derivative of the radius with respect to the luminosity, the past values of the solar luminosity can be recovered. The black drop phenomenon affects the evaluation of the instants of internal and external contacts between the planetary disk and the solar limb. With these observed instants compared with the ephemerides the value of the solar diameter is recovered. The black drop and seeing effects are overcome with two fitting circles, to Venus and to the Sun, drawn in the undistorted part of the image. The corrections of ephemerides due to the atmospheric refraction will also be taken into account. The forthcoming transit of Venus will allow an accuracy on the diameter of the Sun better than 0.01 arcsec, with good images of the ingress and of the egress taken each second. Chinese solar observatories are in the optimal conditions to obtain valuable data for the measurement of the solar diameter with the Venus transit of 5/6 June 2012 with an unprecedented accuracy, and with absolute calibration given by the ephemerides.


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