History in schools and the problem of 'the nation'

The article examines the enduring popularity of a form of school history which is based predominantly on the idea that the transmission of a positive story about the national past will inculcate in young people a sense of loyalty to the state; a reassuring and positive sense of identity and belonging; and a sense of social solidarity with fellow citizens. England is one of the countries which has to at least some extent moved away from this model of school history; but the past few years have seen suggestions for a move back to a history curriculum which focuses predominantly on the transmission of ‘Our Island Story’; and which presents a positive rendering of that story. The history curriculum in England is currently under review; and public pronouncements by politicians; academic historians and newspaper editorials suggest strong pressures towards a restoration of what is often termed ‘traditional’ school history; which was prevalent in English schools before the advent of what has been termed ‘New history’ in the 1970s. The paper questions some of the arguments which have been put forward in order to justify a return to a history curriculum based on a positive and unproblematic narrative of the national story and suggests that such a course of action is based on some unexamined assumptions and a limited understanding of pedagogy and learning. The final section of the paper outlines several weaknesses and flaws in the arguments for reverting to a traditional (i.e. ‘nation-based’ and celebratory) form of school history; and some of the dangers inherent in such a project

Controversies in the History of the Radiation Reaction problem in General Relativity

This paper examines the historical controversy over whether gravitationally bound systems, such as binary stars, experienced orbital damping due to the emission of gravitational radiation, focusing especially on the period of the 1950s, but also discussing the work of Einstein and Rosen in the 1930s on cylindrical gravitational waves and the later quadrupole formula controversy.Comment: 33 pages, Late

A Feeling for History? Bakhtin and `The Problem of Great Time'

‘Great time’ has usually been seen as a ‘late term’ of Bakhtin’s. However, although it occurs most frequently in works written in the 1960s and 1970s, there is one known instance of its use in the 1940s. This confirms the close association between the notion and Bakhtin’s dominant concerns of the 1930s and 1940s, in particular the ‘becoming’ that he associates with the novel in general and the Bildungsroman in particular. ‘Great time’ thus needs to be examined in the context of the connections between his thought and Hegelian antecedents, as well as his of his approach to time in terms of other models, both philosophical and anthropological

History of the Opium Problem

This is the first scholarly study in which the production, trade and political effects of opium and its derivatives are shown over many centuries, and in many countries (China, India, Indonesia, Japan, all Southeast Asian countries and some in Europe and the Americas). Starting in the 16th century, slavery and opium became the two means with which the bodies and souls of men and women in the tropics were exploited in western imperialism and colonialism. The first waned with the abolition movement in the 19th century, but opium production and trade continued to spread, with the associated serious social and political effects. Around 1670 the Dutch introduced opium as a cash crop for mass production and distribution in India and Indonesia. China became the main target in the 19th century, and only succeeded in getting rid of the opium problem around 1950. Then it had already been transformed from an “Eastern” into a “Western” problem

Can History Teach Us Peace?

The idea that we can learn from history is a recurring one and this essay examines dialectically the arguments for and against the proposition that history can teach us peace. Eight objections to the proposition that we can teach peace through history are discussed: 1) the problem that history implies a social inevitability, 2) the difficulty in ascribing moral or ethical responsibility in historical explanation, 3) the reliance on counterfactual history in attempting to teach peace through history, 4) the war-centred nature of history, 5) the violence-centred nature of history, 6) the depersonalized construction of war in history, 7) the past-centred nature of history, 8) the problem of despair. The conclusion to this essay is that the teaching of peace is possible, although one does need to be mindful of the limitations to such a project and to have a deliberately open view of the future

On the Problem of Economic Power: Lessons from the Natural History of the Hawaiian Archipelago

One of the greatest logicians of the twentieth century, Bertrand Russell, proposed that Economic power, unlike military power, is not primary, but derivative. Curiously, this conjecture has received scarce attention. This paper explores this theory. Our illustrative discourse tests this overlooked theory in the light of evolution: We model Homo evolution by sampling the past ≈1000 years of cultural evolution in the Hawaiian archipelago. Our analysis concludes Russell's theory is true.economic power; military power; evolutionary game theory; cultural evolution; resource holding power; long-distance dispersal; Second Amendment; Kamehameha; Hawaii; sovereignty; annexation