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This book examines the history and influence of Magna Carta in British and American history. In a series of essays written by notable British specialists, it considers the origins of the document in the political and religious contexts of the thirteenth century, the relevance of its principles to the seventeenth century disputes that led to the Civil War, the uses made of Magna Carta to justify the American Revolution, and its inspiration of the radical-democratic movement in Britain in the early nineteenth century. The introductory essay considers the celebration of Magna Carta's 800th anniversary in 2015 in relation to ceremonials and remembrance in Britain in general. Given as papers to a joint conference of British and Chinese historians in Beijing in 2015, these essays provide a clear and insightful overview of the origins and impact of a medieval document that has shaped the history of the world.

The East Asian Journal of British History is produced by the East Asian Society of British History, and supported by the Institute for Historical Research.\ud \ud The Institute of Historical Research is pleased and proud to be supporting this recent addition to British history scholarship. Developing out of the IHR’s long-standing collaborative partnership with Japanese universities, and now in its fourth year, the East Asian Journal of British History features some of the best emergent scholarship from Anglophone historians working in China, Japan, and South Korea.\ud \ud Divided between an articles section and one devoted to reviews, the journal’s remit wide-ranging covering all fields and periods of British history. It complements the triennial Anglo-Japanese Conference organised by the IHR and Japanese historians based at the universities of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, and the conference of the East Asian Society of British history, in which we are joined by our colleagues from South Korea. In future, we hope that more contributions will be featured in the journal from the Chinese mainland and from Taiwan.

Chapter one provides an overview of nonstatistical dynamics and the methodology presented in this work to search for such effects. Chapters two and three discuss a singlet biradical which was specifically designed to search for nonstatistical effects in the ring opening of a cyclopropylmethyl radical. These effects could be seen experimentally by observing the reactivity of the biradical as a function of the pressure of the supercritical fluid solvent. While several syntheses were designed to synthesise the biradical precursor, they were ultimately unsuccessful. Computational study of the biradical system highlights the convenience and accuracy of density functional theory in studying singlet biradicals. Molecular dynamics carried out on the biradical system is then discussed. The molecular dynamics confirms that this biradical should be a useful systems to search for nonstatistical dynamics. Chapters four and five discuss cyclopentadiene. When cyclopentadiene is formed from bicyclo[2.1.0]pent-2-ene, it can undergo a [1.5] hydrogen shift. We proposed that this hydrogen shift shows evidence for nonstatistical dynamics. Molecular dynamics calculations at the density functional theory level showed that hydrogen shift breaks the expected symmetry of the system. This symmetry breaking is caused by normal mode coupling which is a hallmark of nonstatistical dynamics. We have proposed a mechanism for the transformation of bicyclo[2.1.0]pent-2-ene into cyclopentadiene that explains the oscillatory behaviour of the hydrogen shift which is able to break the symmetry. We have also proposed isotope-labelling experiments that can be used to confirm the existence of nonstatistical behaviour for the cyclopentadiene system.

Inaugural Lecture as Professor of History and Director of the Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London.\ud \ud In this lecture, which will draw on examples from modern British and American History, and from his experience as the Editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Professor Goldman will consider the relationship between historical research and the writing of biography.