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This article critically examines the significance of the relationship between past and present for understanding liberal democratic values in the European context. The article starts by reflecting on the terms used to evaluate the apparent decline in the rule of law in Europe, including 'backsliding'. It argues that these terms are indicative of a conceptual framework of analysis that includes a temporal dimension but is only partly historical, demonstrating a presentist focus and a perception of the past as a separate period. The article links this perception with the conceptual construction of the rule of law itself, as well as national and transnational narratives about it, which evoke Europe's non-democratic past as a definitional point of reference that is distinct from the present. Using examples of the legacies of Europe's dark legal past, the article highlights the artificial nature of this distinction for a range of systems with differing historical experiences. The article argues that interpreting the past in terms of segmented and sequential temporal periods is conceptually contestable and it draws on the philosophy of history to show how the past can instead be understood to have 'sedimentary' layers and to endure over time. Ultimately, the article argues that the relationship between law's past and law's present needs to be reconceptualised in terms of metaphorical 'fault lines' in the rule of law, to acknowledge the potentially disruptive effects of history and to facilitate a critical reimagining of the rule of law's theoretical and factual foundations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay coins a term "Judeopessimism," engaging questions of some of the contemporary writing on antisemitism and its claim to be historical in nature through the lens of critical race theory, specifically Afropessimism and its offshoots, which make claims of anti-Blackness as political ontology. Is some of this writing on antisemitism really making theological or political ontological claims of "eternal antisemitism" refracted in a less volatile historical narrative? How can critical race theory and its understanding of anti-Blackness help refine, clarify, and push the discussion on antisemitism to be more forthright about its underlying claims? I explore some examples of ontological antisemitism in the writings of Meir Kahane and Naftali Zvi Berlin who each in different ways offer ahistorical and even ontological views on antisemitism that are mostly shunned by contemporary writing on the subject and suggest that Afropessimism offers a helpful way to see beyond the historical veil of how antisemitism is understood today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its organization in the mid-twentieth century, Colonial Williamsburg (CW) has been an important site for the consolidation of powerful narratives of American exceptionalism, patriotism, and the so-called consensus history of the American Revolution. This article looks at the role that music and performance has played in this historiography, taking as its primary texts two films produced by CW: The Story of a Patriot (1957) and The Music of Williamsburg (1960). With musical contributions by Bernard Herrmann and Alan Lomax, respectively, these films offer an opportunity to analyze the relationship between history and politics in the early Cold War era. Although The Story of a Patriot reflects a static and essentially conservative portrayal of American exceptionalism, the more liberal inclusiveness of The Music of Williamsburg showcases the fraught power dynamics of attempting to showcase historical Black music making in a patriotic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Welfare ministries are key institutions of modern nation-states. However, we still lack knowledge about when and why national welfare ministries were established. In this paper, we argue that both the First and Second world wars were major driving forces behind the establishment of independent welfare ministries. To test our argument, we introduce a novel dataset on the establishment of welfare-related ministries in 30 countries. Our empirical findings suggest that the establishment of independent welfare ministries was a product of wartime turbulence and the political, economic and social shockwaves set off especially by World War I, which affected many countries at the same time. Considering alternative explanations such as the Spanish Flu, the Bolshevik Revolution or the emergence of new nation-states, we argue that war triggered multiple, interrelated and chronologically staggered transnational events and transformations that had major effects on the social welfare systems of the countries involved. In this light, we conclude that World War I was ultimately the root cause behind the establishment of welfare ministries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Although today there is extensive scientific literature on aural myiasis, a historical study of the subject has yet to appear. This short article reports the first description of aural myiasis in the Western medical literature. Methods: Methods involved: (1) scholarship review of ear diseases within Ancient Greek and Roman medical texts (L'Année philologique); (2) linguistic analysis for text identification through the Library of Latin Texts, the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae and the Loeb Classical Library; and (3) translation of the Latin texts that described cases of aural myiasis with commentary. Results: To our knowledge, the earliest case of aural myiasis in Latin medical literature is reported by the Roman encyclopaedist Celsus (first century CE). In his De Medicina , he describes cases of Wohlfahrtia magnifica maggot infestation of the ear and how to treat affected patients. Conclusion: Despite present advances in otology, we believe that much insight can still be gained from this ancient example of medical history in ear diseases. A more comparative analysis of the subject is to be considered in the future, which will provide more data from different cultures and times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to an 'historical turn' in security scholarship. It addresses imbalance in security studies' attention to historical empirics, and argues against notions of temporal disjunct prevalent within the discipline. I employ a genealogical framework to clarify the interpellation of past and present; and I introduce the 'conceptual archive' as a lens for pursuing that interpellation in research. My thesis on the 'conceptual archive' represents a twofold contribution. Firstly, a conceptual contribution: I advance the 'conceptual archive' as a way of thinking about past-present interpellation (specifically, existing conceptual logics' remodelling in arguments justifying new practice). Secondly, an analytical contribution: I propose the 'conceptual archive' as a tool for doing genealogy (a research programme with historicising promise, but one suffering nebulous operationalisation at present). I use the field of terrorism studies as an entry-point to these contributions: adopting a mixed-methods research design to trace British counterterrorism practices' roots within an 'archive' of logics on Northern Ireland. I find 1970s British governments remodelled long-standing 'archival' vocabularies in their arguments for new security provisions: framing exceptional practices according to an accepted fabric of concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a devotional part of the eucharistic liturgy, the Agnus Dei also carries a missional aspect. Exegeting the verse Jn 1.29 ('Behold the Lamb of God...') two major theories of the atonement are seen to be involved and are applicable to the meaning of the Agnus Dei. These two theories of the atonement (ransom and substitutionary) in their relationship to each other are noted, and a primary emphasis on the ransom theory and its background of the Passover is argued for. The Passover Lamb focus is seen as liberative and missional. This leads to seeing the Agnus Dei in its referring to the redeeming death of Christ ('Lamb of God') as appropriately accompanied by the fraction of the bread. The history of the Agnus Dei and its Eastern Orthodox roots are brought to bear, as are our modern Anglican liturgical forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the historical policy pathways that have led to the constellation of policies that both reflect and shape the current gender order can reveal reasons for the persistence of gender inequality in paid work and unpaid family care. Bringing together existing research and policy critique with Carol Bacchi's framework of policy as 'gendering practices', this paper focuses on the role of policy as a process that constructs and upholds an unequal gender order. The discussion traces how UK social policies have since the establishment of the post-war welfare state articulated and positioned gendered possibilities for combining paid work and childrearing, shaping gendered and classed work-family life courses. The analysis illustrates that British social policy has not been consistently committed to a more equal gender regime but instead maintained a heteronormative family ideal and thus, despite various policy changes, the gendering of 'the worker' and 'the parent' as conceptualised in UK policy has persisted over the last several decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exorcismos de esti(l)o is one of Guillermo Cabrera Infante’s least studied books. It is nevertheless of essential importance for understanding the entirety of his poetics. It is a book that condenses the pain of the ostracism and the betrayal inflicted by the revolutionary regime that Cabrera had so strongly supported. The purpose of this article is to highlight the implicit elements of the text that support this hypothesis. It considers the strategies used by the author throughout Exorcismos de esti(l)o to practice the language with which he obsessively tries to draw, in his novelas del yo, a portrait of a lost and unrecoverable Havana, the hopeful Havana preceding the Cuban Revolution. It is an impossible yet obstinate mission. This is why the texts that articulate the impossibility of representation and the anguish that this mission generates deserve special attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dobbs appears more extreme when juxtaposed against Roe 's hidden history. Justice Blackmun was the author of Roe, but the opinion was the product of a remarkable collaboration that incorporated the suggestions of many Justices. Thus, Roe 's medical framing embodied the vision of the Court as a whole, not one individual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is the doctrine of providence a guide to interpreting history? The early work of John Milton is optimistic about the possibility of such providential discernment. Milton lived during one of the most turbulent periods of English history and was actively involved in the cause of revolution and social reform. His poems typically centre on moments of historical change that seem to illuminate the ultimate meaning of history. After his revolutionary hopes had been shattered, Milton came to perceive a much more ambiguous relationship between history and providence. What history reveals, he now thought, is mostly a pattern of repetition and decline. Milton ends Paradise Lost with the reflection that belief in providence is not so much a species of knowledge as a practice of life. This article traces Milton's movement from providential optimism to providential pessimism and argues for a conception of history in which even acts of divine intervention do not unambiguously alter the course of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Noise-induced hearing loss is the most prevalent occupational disease worldwide and is historically associated with the Industrial Revolution. This study analyses early descriptions of this disorder during the pre-industrial period in the work of the Italian physician Bernardino Ramazzini (1633–1714). Method: Primary and secondary historical literature were reviewed. Results: Ramazzini described hearing loss in corn millers and in coppersmiths and recognised that this disorder is irreversible and progressive when exposure to noise continues. He also seemed to describe tinnitus. He further suggested the use of earplugs as a preventive measure for these classes of workers. Ramazzini's anatomical and pathological knowledge appears to be based on ancient authors; he did not discuss contemporaneous medical authors' work on hearing function. Conclusion: Despite some limitations, Ramazzini's work appears pioneering for his time and represents an important milestone in the history of otolaryngology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research has shown a strong relationship between hallucinations and suicidal behaviour in general population samples. Whether hallucinations also index suicidal behaviour risk in groups at elevated risk of suicidal behaviour, namely in individuals with a sexual assault history, remains to be seen. Aims: We assessed whether hallucinations were markers of risk for suicidal behaviour among individuals with a sexual assault history. Methods: Using the cross-sectional 2007 (N = 7403) and 2014 (N = 7546) Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys, we assessed for an interaction between sexual assault and hallucinations in terms of the odds of suicide attempt, as well as directly comparing the prevalence of suicide attempt in individuals with a sexual assault history with v. without hallucinations. Results: Individuals with a sexual assault history had increased odds of hallucinations and suicide attempt compared to individuals without a sexual assault history in both samples. There was a significant interaction between sexual assault and hallucinations in terms of the odds of suicide attempt. In total, 14–19% of individuals with a sexual assault history who did not report hallucinations had one or more suicide attempt. This increased to 33–52% of individuals with a sexual assault history who did report hallucinations (2007, aOR = 2.85, 1.71–4.75; 2014, aOR = 4.52, 2.78–7.35). Conclusions: Hallucinations are a risk marker for suicide attempt even among individuals with an elevated risk of suicidal behaviour, specifically individuals with a sexual assault history. This finding highlights the clinical significance of hallucinations with regard to suicidal behaviour risk, even among high-risk populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the origins and developments of Chinese studies in Austria. In addition to factors and institutions that were instrumental in the development of these studies, the lives and works of individuals important to this development are revisited, starting with brief remarks on the scholarly interest in China in eighteenth century Austria and on early efforts to obtain Chinese books and Chinese printing types in the nineteenth century. The achievements of individual scholars are examined against the backdrop of their institutional affiliations and their experiences, if any, in China. In addition, the reasons for the delayed institutionalization of Sinological studies at university level are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intrusive state has long viewed women as fetal containers. The Dobbs decision goes further, essentially causing women to vanish when fetuses are abstracted from their relationships to pregnant persons. The ways in which women are first controlled and then made invisible are clearly connected with the move from obedience to omission that has historically affected black Americans. When personal decisionmaking and participation in democracy are regarded as threats, those threatened restrict decisional freedom and political power, deepening structural injustices relating to sex, race, and poverty. Fear of Dobbs has health effects on conditions unrelated to pregnancy and connects with erasures of human value that are not health-related. We reaffirm solidarity as a countering influence. Taking account of the richly relational context in which issues like abortion and political representation arise should lead to better, more meaningful policies, making so many people impossible to unsee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1970s, both Denmark and Norway passed abortion legislation that is still the basis for the regulation of abortion in these countries. The legislation was fairly liberal with abortion on demand until 12 weeks of gestation and a permission system for later abortions. This article provides a brief history of the developments leading up to these political compromises and an analysis of the reasons why they have proved remarkably stable. It ends by looking at some factors that may now destabilize 50 years of stable compromise about abortion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For centuries, Christians have understood some of the texts included in the New Testament as 'Jewish,' in the sense of them being written by (converted) Jews for other Jews. From a historical perspective, a new development in the academy suggests that such approaches do not do justice to the nature of these texts. Indeed, even more recent attempts at understanding the New Testament against the background of Judaism are also found wanting. Instead, placing these texts within the broader context of the diverse ways of embodying Jewish ancestral customs in the pre-rabbinic Second Temple period, this interpretive trajectory, involving scholars from a wide array of backgrounds, insists that Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Revelation etc., should be understood as expressions of Judaism. This article highlights key issues involved in such re-readings of New Testament texts, including ways in which they may or may not relate to normative-theological positions among Christians and Jews today. First, the study looks at how the question is asked in our contemporary setting. Then, moving down historical layers, issues related to history and categorisation are addressed before we, finally, return to the present to consider possible implications of our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Andreas Vesalius published his famous anatomy book, De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septum (On the Fabric of the Body in Seven Books), in 1543, with a second edition in 1555. This article explores the importance of this text to contemporary ENT, by demonstrating Vesalius' fresh, precise and hands-on approach to anatomy, and examines how this developed our understanding of ENT. Methods: A second edition of De Humani Corporis Fabrica , held in John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, was examined in its digitised form and supplemented by secondary texts. Results and discussion: Where Vesalius' predecessors were rigid in their interpretation of anatomy, confined to the instruction of the Ancients, Vesalius showed that these teachings could be analysed and built on with careful observation. This is evident in his illustrations of, and annotations on, the skull base, ossicles and thyroid gland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 12 November 1989, three days after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Achille Occhetto, the Secretary of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), announced that the Party needed to transform itself, implicitly including changing its name. His announcement launched a 15-month-long process that culminated in the dissolution of the PCI and the rise of a new political organisation, which became a member of the Socialist International. Drawing on the individual and collective memories of former Turinese PCI officials, this essay examines the complex, tortuous abandonment of the communist reference and the disintegration of the political community surrounding the Party. Because of their highly varied reactions, the dissolution of the PCI caused fragmentation of the subsequent careers and paths of former Party 'comrades'. To this day, the 1989 turning point continues to inspire highly diverse memories among former Italian communists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a textured history of the multivalent term "hindu" over 2,500 years, with the goal of productively unsettling what we think we know. "Hindu" is a ubiquitous word in modern times, used by scholars and practitioners in dozens of languages to denote members of a religious tradition. But the religious meaning of "hindu" and its common use are quite new. Here I trace the layered history of "hindu," part of an array of shifting identities in early and medieval India. In so doing, I draw upon an archive of primary sources—in Old Persian, New Persian, Sanskrit, Prakrit, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, and more—that offers the kind of multilingual story needed to understand a term that has long cut across languages in South Asia. Also, I do not treat premodernity as a prelude but rather recognize it as the heart of this tale. So much of South Asian history—including over two thousand years of using the term "hindu"—has been misconstrued by those who focus only on British colonialism and later. We need a deeper consideration of South Asian pasts if we are to think more fruitfully about the terms and concepts that order our knowledge. Here, I offer one such contribution that marshals historical material on the multiform and fluid word "hindu" that can help us think more critically and precisely about this discursive category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abolitionist movement is perhaps the best-known generator of petitions, but Carpenter demonstrates that petitioning was important to a wide range of causes and that it played a crucial role in fostering civic engagement and building coalitions. Keywords: History; politics; petitions; USA; Canada EN History politics petitions USA Canada 150 153 4 03/10/23 20230301 NES 230301 I Democracy by Petition i takes a big topic and examines it from a novel angle, showing us how much more there is to democracy than electoral politics. Daniel Carpenter's subject is not so much petitions as petitioning, a dynamic process of political engagement and popular assertion. [Extracted from the article]

Prince D.M. Pozharskii, who together with Kuz΄ma Minin helped to end the Time of Troubles in 1612-13, has been the focus of commemoration for centuries and has come to symbolize the defense of the Russian nation. This article focuses on three moments of his commemoration in the nineteenth century: the classical Pozharskii, as seen in the monument on Red Square, the nationalist Pozharskii, which reimagined him almost as a saint of the nation, and the regionalist Pozharskii, which presented him as a heroic forerunner of the zemstvo and the self-directed action of the Russian people. Using a wide variety of sources, the article shows how Pozharskii's grave and its commemoration were the focus of contention over what the Russian nation was and ought to be: composed of loyal and unquestioning subjects of the tsars, saint-like warriors, or a people that was self-governing at the local level. It also argues for the importance of including local narratives and sources in the historical narrative, as this was where the demand for self-government was most clearly made. Dead bodies can spark lively discussions, and when the body is Pozharskii's, the stakes can be as high as the meaning of the Russian nation itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's Europe, commemorations can be times at which to affirm international reconciliation, based notably on the knowledge produced by historians who are becoming progressively cosmopolitan. However, commemorations are also used by national-populist political parties for electoral purposes and can lead to tensions with neighbouring states. This was the case in Trieste in September 2019, when the city council executive (controlled by a right-wing national-populist coalition) decided to erect a statue of Gabriele D'Annunzio, 100 years after he had occupied the nearby city of Fiume (now Rijeka) in Croatia. This commemoration led to a series of debates among historians, especially in Italy. Based on a critical discourse analysis and an interdiscursive approach to narratives produced by historians for colleagues and for the broader society, the current research investigates the use of cosmopolitanism in the field of history when in parallel a commemoration is coordinated by national-populist forces in a public space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the so-called "era decolonization" in Africa, few historical events held more salience than what is most commonly known as the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya (which covered the period from 1952 to 1960). This article examines not only how tropes about the nature and origins of Mau Mau were and are deployed across different semiotic landscapes, but also the ways in which their operations are made manifest through practices of reading. I argue that we should consider the idea of Mau Mau—whether it be central to a text or present a mere detail—as a catalyst through which broader claims are made, especially as they relate to the nature of history and the semiotic dimensions of the events that populate it. This article shows this through conducting a "tropology" of Mau Mau, in which the suffix - ology underscores reading its tropes as a particular mode of studying it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Journal of Helminthology (JHL) was first published in 1923 and was originally created as a house journal of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The JHL was devised by its first Editor, Robert Leiper, to allow for rapid publication of results from the Department of Helminthology and its offshoot the Institute of Agricultural Parasitology. From this initial narrow focus the JHL has subsequently become not only internationally recognized but also retained its original emphasis on morphological, taxonomic and life cycle studies while embracing the emergence of new fields and technological advancements. The present review covers the historical development of the JHL over the last century from 1923 to 2023. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dobbs appears more extreme when juxtaposed against Roe’s hidden history. Justice Blackmun was the author of Roe, but the opinion was the product of a remarkable collaboration that incorporated the suggestions of many Justices. Thus, Roe’s medical framing embodied the vision of the Court as a whole, not one individual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The University of Minnesota has played an important role in the resurgence and eventual mainstreaming of human behavioral genetics in psychology and psychiatry. We describe this history in the context of three major movements in behavioral genetics: (1) radical eugenics in the early 20th century, (2) resurgence of human behavioral genetics in the 1960s, largely using twin and adoption designs to obtain more precise estimates of genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in behavior; and (3) use of measured genotypes to understand behavior. University of Minnesota scientists made significant contributions especially in (2) and (3) in the domains of cognitive ability, drug abuse and mental health, and endophenotypes. These contributions are illustrated through a historical perspective of major figures and events in behavioral genetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we begin reflecting on how 'futures literacy' – recently championed by UNESCO as a vital skill that allows people to better understand the role of the future in what they see and do – might be developed in environmental law pedagogy. Law and legal analysis tend to be absent from futures scholarship and we discuss various ways of engaging with environmental law as an important but underexplored site and means of future-making. We consider our shared teaching of an undergraduate module in which students examine historical legislation for what it says about past ideas of the environment's future and the action within the law necessary to safeguard it; and contemporary texts, including science fiction and poetry, imagining a future for the environment on and through which law operates. Futures literacy, we argue, is at its richest when 'historical futures' and 'future futures' are read together, or alongside one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The papers in this forum offer an interdisciplinary assessment of the state of the field of Anglican Studies and perspectives on future trajectories. The first three papers, on liturgy, history, and world Anglicanism, offer an assessment of the respective state of these areas of Anglican Studies. The second set, on theology, sociology of religion, and biblical studies, stake out positions on how these disciplines inform the work of Anglican Studies. A concluding essay offers a synthesis of these papers, focusing on the themes of local contexts for Anglicanism, a further complexification of decolonizing processes in Anglicanism, and the critical role of conversation in Anglican Studies regarding disciplines, languages, and power dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Politzer's tuning fork test is a little-known special examination with a chequered history. Objective: This paper gives Politzer's original description, and explains how he intended it to be used. Methods: The historiographical research in this study is based on primary references. Secondary documentation is only cited when it is necessary to substantiate any historical argument. Results and conclusion: After the apparent disappearance of Politzer's tuning fork test from the otological scene in the 1950s, its consequent resurrection was not what it seemed. This story underlines the need for a standardisation of otological nomenclature, particularly when eponyms are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several years ago, Pat Ebrey, founding editor of this journal, solicited the board for ideas for special issues. I have long been interested in the historiography of different national Sinological traditions and suggested a series of essays on this topic from a host of such historiographical backgrounds. Pat agreed and enthusiastically supported the idea. I had spoken about such a topic in a vague, roundabout manner some twenty years earlier with Martin Kern (Princeton University), and so I consulted him and was extremely fortunate to be given by him a handful of names of scholars who might perform such a task for their countries of origin, mostly in Europe. I was able to gradually compile a list that runs now to fifteen essays. Most of the authors are senior scholars in their fields, although some are mid-career or even junior; one is written by a graduate student. It was, of course, also essential that these authors all be able to write in English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tracks how a trope of middle-class household thrift, grounded on the autarchic Aristotelian oikos, has long fueled derogatory discourses in Britain aimed at low-income urban residents who practice quite different forms of thrift. Since the 1970s this trope has migrated across scales, proving a potent metaphor for national economic policy and planetary care alike, and morally and economically justifying both neoliberal welfare retraction compounded by austerity policies and national responses to excessive resource extraction and waste production. Both austerity and formal recycling schemes shift responsibility onto consumer citizens, regardless of capacity. Further, this model of thrift eclipses the thriftiness of low-income urban households, which emerges at the nexus of kin and waged labor, sharing, welfare, debt, conserving material resources through remaking and repair and, crucially, the fundamental need for decency expressed through kin care. Through a historicized ethnography of a London social housing estate and its residents, this paper excavates what happens as these different forms and scales of household thrift coexist, change over time, and clash. Ultimately, neoliberal policy centered on an inimical idiom of thrift delegitimizes and disentitles low-income urban households and undermines their ability to enact livelihood practices of sustainability and projects of dignity across generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two years, the metaphor of war has often been used in Italy when discussing the fight against the pandemic, to describe the restrictions that have been introduced as a result, from lockdown to the Green Pass. Paradoxically, once the state of emergency ended, just as we were on the cusp of the long-awaited return to normality (to 'peace' in a sense), Russia's sudden invasion of Ukraine meant that war truly became part of Italians' lives through the media. In this context, I have analysed the positions taken by the major Italian periodicals (Avvenire, Corriere della Sera, Il Fatto Quotidiano, Il Foglio, La Repubblica, La Stampa, Il Mattino di Napoli, Il Messaggero and Il Tempo di Roma) between 20 February and 5 March. What becomes clear through examination of the main articles is that the themes that would characterise the subsequent Italian debate – from a strategic, humanitarian, political, and economic point of view – were already present in the two weeks from the end of February to the beginning of March 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few decades, an extraordinary amount has changed in our understanding of the history of international humanitarian law (IHL). This article addresses the latest findings in this new historiography, placing contemporary IHL issues in a broader historical context and sharing the author's own experiences as a researcher exploring the discipline's practice from a historical perspective. Ultimately, he makes a passionate case for history – by showing why this discipline has a lot to offer for practitioners of international law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores how the drafters of international humanitarian law (IHL) incorporated the past into their work between 1860 and 2020, and how they approached time, memory and history as indicators for this view of the past. Its sources consist of the complete series of general conventional and customary IHL instruments as well as the leading commentaries on them. For the IHL view of time, the impact of legal principles on the perception of time is scrutinized. Balancing nonretroactivity against customary international law and the humanity principle broadens the temporal scope towards the past, while balancing legal forgetting against imprescriptibility and State succession broadens it towards the future. For the IHL view of memory, dead persons and cultural heritage are seen as crucial vectors. Attention to the fate of the dead has been a constant hallmark of IHL, while care for cultural heritage has an even longer pedigree. For the IHL view of history, the essay highlights that the International Committee of the Red Cross has consistently advocated State duties to the war dead and has organized an archival infrastructure to satisfy the need – later converted into a right – of families and society to search for the historical truth about them. Furthermore, the responses of IHL drafters to five major historical challenges are examined. First, while in the realm of war crimes impunity prevailed for most of history, after World War II a system of war crimes trials was mounted, culminating in the International Criminal Court. Second, soul-searching about the atrocities of World War II, including the Holocaust, helped create Geneva Convention IV of 1949, which protects civilians in wartime. Third, the human rights idea was not fully embraced by IHL treaty drafters until 1968. Fourth, the IHL approach to civil wars was slow and incomplete, but its appearance in 1949 and coming of age in 1977 were breakthroughs nevertheless. Fifth, colonial conflicts were not recognized as international wars in 1949, when this could have had considerable impact, but only in 1977, when decolonization was largely over. In all cases, the responses to these historical challenges came after long delays. Clearly, the IHL view of the past has to be assessed on a transgenerational scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For almost 150 years, megascopic structures in siliciclastic sequences of terminal Precambrian age have been frustratingly difficult to characterize and classify. As with all other areas of human knowledge, progress with exploration, documentation and understanding is growing at an exponential rate. Nevertheless, there is much to be learned from following the evolution of the logic behind the biological interpretations of these enigmatic fossils. Here, I review the history of discovery as well as some long-established core members of widely recognized clades that are still difficult to graft on to the tree of life. These 'orphan plesions' occupy roles that were once held by famous former Problematica, such as archaeocyaths, graptolites and rudist bivalves. In some of those cases, taxonomic enlightenment was brought about by the discovery of new characters; in others it required a better knowledge of their living counterparts. Can we use these approaches to rescue the Ediacaran orphans? Five taxa that are examined in this context are Arborea (Arboreomorpha), Dickinsonia (Dickinsoniomorpha), Pteridinium plus Ernietta (Erniettomorpha) and Kimberella (Bilateria?). With the possible exception of Dickinsonia, all of these organisms may be coelenterate grade eumetazoans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an effort to add context to a classroom lesson on celestial navigation, we present a numerical adaptation of Captain T.H. Sumner's 1837 journey into St. George's Channel. The adaptation is programmed into a 'live' web-based map. This allows for a flexible and highly visual presentation that highlights two important topics in celestial navigation: the origin of the line of position and the scale of maps. Considerations driving the numerical adaptation are discussed, as is as an overview of a classroom lesson we have been using. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars dismiss Origen's theology of scriptural inspiration as hopelessly lacking in historical sensibility. They point to his anachronistic attribution to the Old Testament prophets of extensive knowledge of the details of Christ's incarnation and of the allegorical significance of their own writings. I dispute this assessment, arguing that Origen's view of prophetic knowledge is more sophisticated than scholars have recognised and can contribute to contemporary reflection on progressive revelation, both anticipating and chastening it. I conclude with three analogies Origen offers us for conceptualising the development of revelation and doctrine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article engages Thomas F. Torrance's landmark work, Space, Time and Incarnation (1969), suggesting that his approach needs amplification in the light of recent studies emphasising the importance of the affective aspects of theology. The alternative framework of 'place, history, and incarnation' is proposed as a means of safeguarding the important subjective aspects of the incarnation, and the theological task of interpreting its significance. The article makes use of Simeon Zahl's account of 'affective salience' in developing this richer account of the significance of the incarnation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: For centuries, the tympanum has remained the only visible structure of the organ of hearing. This study aimed to trace the understanding of the tympanic membrane from antiquity to the early twentieth century. Methods: A review was conducted of primary and secondary historical and scientific literature describing the tympanic membrane anatomy. Results: Although ancient polymaths sensed that sounds were vibrations that could spread in the air and be perceived by the hearing organ, there were numerous misconceptions about the tympanum until human dissections performed during the Renaissance. The tympanum was correctly described only centuries later when technological advances enabled otologists to understand it as a fundamental part of the hearing organ. Conclusion: The tympanic membrane history reflects key stages in medical knowledge; limited for centuries, a great technological leap was possible in the nineteenth century, contributing to the emergence of otologists and laying the foundations of modern otology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay discusses several books, ancient and recent, on plagues to ask the question: Can we face death without turning away from it through historical narration? Can we write about death, which only afflicts individuals, without stripping death of its individuality? After briefly addressing these questions, I discuss five books, one from the ancient period (Thucydides's Peloponnesian War), one from the late medieval period (Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron), one from the early modern period (Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year), and two from the modern period (Mary Shelley's The Last Man, and Frank Snowden's Epidemics and Society). These books not only come from different eras but also reflect different written responses to death—ancient history, story/fable, reportage, futuristic novel, and contemporary history. The essay concludes by considering a counterargument to its focus on death, an argument developed by Baruch Spinoza which claims that humans should think nothing less than of death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the teaching of history, oversimplification is, perhaps, unavoidable. In certain cases, however, that oversimplification can be deadly. There are some lessons that are too complex, some stories that are too nuanced, to be reduced in such a way. By their contours and particularities, they resist easy digestion. In the spirit of this particularity, my contribution to the colloquy is specific, but hopefully applicable to contexts beyond its specificity: I argue that the US Black Freedom Movement (or civil rights movement) and its music is a story that must be taught in all its complexity, for oversimplifying it does concrete harm to the ongoing struggle against white supremacy in the present. Teaching the US Black Freedom Movement and its music is also vital if we hope to enable our students to be forces of understanding, healing, and justice in the world, and should be an integral component of any undergraduate music curriculum that hopes to be antiracist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the rise of operationalized diagnostic criteria and the creation of DSM-III were influenced in the USA by a neo-Kraepelinian 'revival' of interest in psychiatric nosology, Kraepelin was only a distal influence on the specific diagnostic criteria proposed. The historical origins of the DSM-III criteria for mania and major depression (MD) are traceable back to the 1950s and contain no direct link to Kraepelin's writings. George Dreyfus, a student and assistant to Kraepelin, authored in 1907 a monograph on Involutional Melancholia which reviewed cases seen by Kraepelin in Heidelberg. In this monograph, Dreyfus presents the 'characteristic' symptoms for mania and depression 'as described by Kraepelin.' This historical finding provides the unprecedented opportunity to examine the resemblance between the criteria proposed for mania and depression in DSM-III, inspired by Kraepelin's nosologic vision, and those specifically suggested by Kraepelin 73 years earlier. Kraepelin's symptoms and signs for mania paralleled seven of the eight DSM-III criteria (except the decreased need for sleep), with two not included in DSM-III (increased mental activity and short bursts of sadness). Kraepelin's signs and symptoms paralleled six of the nine DSM-III criteria for MD, lacking suicidal ideation and changes in appetite/weight and sleep but including obsessions, reduced expressive movements, and decreased mood responsiveness. Although Kraepelin's overall approach to mania and depression emphasized their close inter-relationship in the cyclic course of manic-depressive illness, it is noteworthy Kraepelin's 'characteristic' symptoms for mania and depression as described by Dreyfus, bear substantial but incomplete resemblance to the criteria proposed in DSM-III. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores the long Western history of anxieties about feigned illness connected specifically to social policy. There is a remarkable consistency of such anxieties across time, as they appear in almost every major historical period in the West since the Middle Ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It was in twentieth-century Britain that the two distinct surgical disciplines, otology and laryngology, became united under the title oto-laryngology. Aural departments were established in general hospitals in the hands of specialists long before throat departments. The development and politics of the specialty occurred in London, while provincial services commenced in the early eighteenth century, with ophthalmologists, setting up a clinic or dispensary, progressing onto a hospital. Methods: The following resources were used: the Nottinghamshire Archives; Manuscripts and Special Collections at the University of Nottingham Libraries and The Local Studies Library, Nottingham Central Library. Results: The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Hospital for Diseases of the Throat, Ear and Nose was established in 1886, staffed by part-time general practitioners. The Nottingham Children's Hospital appointed two qualified surgeons in the 1910s and subsequently the General Nottingham Hospital appointed them as honorary assistant surgeons. Both hospitals provided access to beds, not available to the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Hospital for Diseases of the Throat, Ear and Nose. Following The Education Act of 1907, Nottingham created a School Health Services. By the 1920s, Nottingham had four institutions providing clinical and surgical ENT services. The National Hospitals Survey conducted in 1945 recommended that the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Hospital for Diseases of the Throat, Ear and Nose be closed and amalgamated with The General Hospital Nottingham. Conclusion: The General Hospital Nottingham was slow to create a service for the diagnosis and treatment of ENT diseases and disorders, but established a Departmental Service by 1927. The surgical staffing was common to all four of the ENT services from mid-1930. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shows how the rise of printed news media during the opening decades of the seventeenth century fomented and fragmented authority in the polycentric Spanish Habsburg empire. Analyzing the making, dissemination, and reception of transatlantic news from Madrid to Mexico and from Lisbon to Lima, the article explores how the influx of fragments of unverifiable information from overseas undermined the possibility of complete knowledge. While the Spanish Crown exploited news media to create a sense of a unified imperial space, the dynamics of distance resulted in uncertainty and the spread of conflicting narratives that fractured central control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]