Book review: A socio-economic study of the Kenya Highlands from 1900-1970: a case study of the Uhuru government

Draft of book review to be published in the African Studies Association's Review of Books: A socio-economic study of the Kenya Highlands from 1900-1970: a case study of the Uhuru government, by Ng'geno Osolo-Nasubo (Washington: University Press of America, 1977) 345 p

New looks at and for Onespa, Buzyges, and Librita (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae: Hesperiinae), with new combinations and descriptions of a new genus and six new species

Thirteen species of skippers (six newly described; Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae: Hesperiinae: Hesperiini) from higher elevations of Mexico and Central America are reviewed. These are included in four genera (one newly described), some with proposed new combinations. Onespa Steinhauser, 1974, originally described as monotypic, is shown to include three species in addition to its type species, Onespa nubis Steinhauser, 1974. One of these, Atrytone gala Godman, 1900, that has been misplaced in several genera since its description, represents a new combination. The other two species, distributed in montane habitats in northwestern Mexico and in Costa Rica, are described as new. Buzyges Godman, 1900, distributed in Mexico and Central America and also formerly considered monotypic, is shown to embrace four species. Besides the type species, Buzyges idothea Godman, 1900, two species long placed in Poanes Scudder, 1872, Pamphila rolla Mabille, 1883, and Poanes benito Freeman, 1979, are included as new combinations. Another species, known only from Costa Rica, is described as new. These are united by several superficial characters, but especially by genital morphology of both sexes. Librita Evans, 1955, was described to include three species of which one, Librita raspa Evans, 1955, was subsequently removed. Augiades heras Godman, 1900 is here also removed from Librita and placed in a new genus with three previously undescribed species. This completes the disintegration of Librita, which is now monotypic. The four genera, although exhibiting similarities suggesting potential alliance, differ in their unique combinations of several superficial and genital traits from each other and other hesperiine skippers

1. International Anarchy (1900-1918)

It is probable that most people, if asked to list the characteristics of the Western World in this century, would place at or near the top of their list something about international rivalries. Curiously enough, a similar poll conducted in Europe and North America in 1900 would likely have given equal prominence to the idea that the world had entered a period of increasing international amity. [excerpt

Deprivation and Disease in Early Twentieth-Century America

This paper explores how early life exposure to poverty and want adversely affects later life health outcomes. In particular, it examines how exposure to crowded housing conditions and impure drinking water undermines long-term health prospects and increases the risk of age-related pathologies such as cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke. Exploiting city-level data from early-twentieth century America, evidence is presented that cities with unusually high rates of typhoid fever in 1900 had elevated rates of heart and kidney disease fifteen years later; also cities with unusually high rates of tuberculosis in 1900 had elevated rates of cancer and stroke fifteen years later. The estimated coefficients suggest that eradicating typhoid fever (through water purification) and tuberculosis (through improved housing and nutrition) would have reduced later death rates from heart disease, cancer, stroke, and kidney disease by 23 to 35 percent.

Sexual transgression on the American stage: Clyde Fitch, Sapho, and the 'American Girl'

Clyde Fitch's play, Sapho (1900), is significant in the history of theatre censorship in America as a result of the arrests of the leading actress, Olga Nethersole, and several of her entourage. Critical analyses have focussed explicitly on the role of Nethersole in the censorship of the production. But the play as a dramatic production and the role of the playwright have been obscured by the media frenzy that led to the arrests and the subsequent furore. This article looks to expand the critical landscape of the censorship of Sapho, exploring the critical reputation of the writer, the public reception and the media reaction that led to its closure and the arrests, in the wider context of the show′s performance. This article argues that Sapho became a moral crusade because Fitch′s drama staged the critical intersection between the erotics of sexual transgression and the cult of the ‘American girl’. Further, Clyde Fitch's version of Sapho recognised the critical link between discourses of sexuality/purity and discourses of ‘nervousness’ that pervaded America at the turn of the century. To survive as the epitome of ‘civilisation’, America required the repeated and continuous modelling of the asexual body of the pure ‘American girl’; Sapho exposed the model and the structuring impulses that participated in its formation

Schooling and the Great Migration

In 1900, 90 percent of America?s black population lived in the South and only 4.3 percent of those born in the region era living elsewhere. By 1950 the proportion of blacks living in the South had declined to 68 percent and 19.6 percent of those born in the region had left it. Using samples drawn from the public use tapes of the 1900, 1940, and 1950 censuses I show that better-educated blacks were far more likely to leave the South than less-educated ones. There was, as well, a feedback effect black school enrollment increased in states that had previously experienced high rates of black out-migration. Econometric analysis of the determinants of black out-migration suggests that the better-educated were more likely to migrate because schooling lowered the costs of migrating, possibly by increasing awareness of distant labor market opportunities and the ability to assimilate into a different social and economic environment.

In a Gilded Cage

The Oxford history of the United States may be the most prestigious series of American history survey volumes in print. Originally launched under the aegis of C. Vann Woodward and Richard Hofstadter, it embraces at least three Pulitzer Prize-winners—James M. McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (1988), David M. Kennedy’s Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945 (1999), and Daniel Walker Howe’s What Hath God Wrought? The Transformation of America, 1815–1848 (2007)—plus two other Pulitzer nominations and a Bancroft Prize in 1997 for James Patterson’s Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945–1974. There have been some misfires. Charles Grier Sellers’ Jacksonian America, 1815–1846 (1991) was so unabashed in its Marxist blatherskite that it was withdrawn from the series and published as a separate volume. H.W. Brands’s account of the Gilded Age, Leviathan: America Comes of Age, 1865–1900 (2007), was yanked at the last minute, too, without comment from Oxford—but not without suggestions that Brands was too complimentary to industrial capitalism. (Oxford published it anyway, as a stand-alone.) Benjamin Schwarz, then the Atlantic’s literary and national editor, gave the series the back of his hand in 2006, dismissing all but the volumes by Robert Middlekauff (on the Revolution) and McPherson as “bloated and intellectually flabby,” lacking “intellectual refinement, analytical sharpness, and stylistic verve.” [excerpt

Convergence Clubs in Latin America: A Hisotical Appoach

Literature on convergence among Latin American countries is still scarce compared to other regions. Almost none of the research connects convergence to the economic history of Latin America and the usual finding is one speed of convergence assuming one globally stable steady-state. In this paper I analyze 32 countries and 108 years, more observations than any other study, which allows me to use chronological events to explain, analyze and validate the historical convergence clubs in Latin America, assuming multiple steady-states. The chronological time-line is divided into three important known phases, from which I find two to three convergence clubs. Following Thorp (1998), the first phase, called “the exporting phase” goes from 1900 to 1930, the second, “the industrialization phase” from 1931 to 1974, and the last one, “the globalization phase” from 1975 to 2007. During the last two phases, I find strong evidence of convergence among those clubs that succeeded in industrializing and or building good institutions. The reason may be that technology diffusion and capital accumulation is easier when these two phenomena occur. Furthermore, I find no evidence that geographical aspects nor integration processes helped countries to converge.Latin America, economic history, convergence, growth.

"Muy señor nuestro Alessandro Varaldo". La ricognizione del mondo spagnolo e portoghese per riscoprire un autore italiano di successo ma dimenticato

Who is Alessandro Varaldo (1876-1953)? This first analysis about what was said, adapted and translated of Varaldo’s work in the Iberian Peninsula and South America, maybe the only areas outside Italy where some traces of Italian author can be found, is a chance to go along his literary paths that overtook two temporal barriers (1900 and 1950), although it has not overtaken the oblivion’s threshold.Questa è una prima ricognizione di ciò che è stato detto, adattato e tradotto di Alessandro Varaldo (1876-1953) nella Penisola iberica e in Sud America, che si sospetta siano gli unici territori stranieri dove si riesca a ritracciare qualcosa dell’autore italiano, ed è un’occasione per ripercorrerne la traiettoria letteraria che ha superato due transenne temporali come il 1900 e il 1950 ma non quella della dimenticanza

The Bicycle in America to 1900

The trend in American History in recent years has been to put a much-needed emphasis on the social history of the American people. Studies have been made of their habits, customs, reform movements, economic problems--in short, anything that informs us of the way our ancestors lived and behaved has become history. With this new interest in social habits, history has ceased to be the chronicle of a series of revolutions, treaties. elections, and wars. It has become a living, breathing story of the rise and development of America and the people who inhabited it. This change is not meant to exclude the importance of political history; on the contrary, an understanding of political movements is enhanced by a thorough knowledge of the social and economic forces in operation at the time. History was made at the cross-roads general store and in the local machine shop as well as in the stately halls of Congress. Today it is our privilege to study the social scene or America\u27s past and from it gain an insight into the way past Americans lived, acted, and thought. What has all this to do with the bicycle? At first thought the bicycle seems a very unimportant, every-day object; but in the era that I am discussing its influence was strongly felt in the economic, social, and even political lite of the people. I have divided the subject into four divisions: I. History, II. Organizations, III. Social and Economic Influence, IV. The Gasoline Age. A brief discussion of these four divisions here will be of aid to the reader in following the story of the bicycle and in understanding the thesis which I develop