Caste, class and profession in old regime France: the French army and the Ségur reform of 1781

First published in French in 1974, David D. Bien’s essay on the nature of nobility in old regime France pivoted around the 1781 “Ségur regulation” that required four generations of nobility for most officers entering the army. Once seen as a classic manifestation of the so-called “aristocratic reaction” against commoners, the loi Ségur, in Bien’s deft analysis, instead emerges as a telling sign of tensions within an increasingly divided nobility. While exploding crude myths about class conflict and its causative role in the Revolution, Bien mounts a strong case for viewing eighteenth-century social tensions as the product of professional identity as much as social class. This study is presented here for the first time in English with a short preface by Rafe Blaufarb, and a wide-ranging introduction by Jay M. Smith that places Bien’s work in the wider context of historical thinking over the past half-century on the origins of the French Revolution.Publisher PD

Napoléon et les Amériques

Ce volume présente des travaux récents sur une dimension peu étudiée de l’histoire napoléonienne et atlantique, rassemblant des spécialistes de l’histoire nord-américaine, latino-américaine et européenne. Sans prétendre fournir un traitement exhaustif du véritable choc qu’a produit Napoléon dans le monde atlantique - de la vente de la Louisiane aux Etats-Unis et de la révolution haïtienne jusqu’aux mouvements d’indépendance ibéro-américains - dans l’ensemble les différents chapitres permettent de suivre les conséquences directes et indirectes du retrait français de l’Amérique après 1804-1805, et suggèrent comment les guerres mondiales et les programmes réformateurs de l’ère napoléonienne ont contribué aux sociétés post-impériales qui ont émergé dans l’espace atlantique. En tant que tel, ce livre offre aux spécialistes des études napoléoniennes une nouvelle approche des thèmes classiques de la modernisation dans les domaines militaire, religieux, juridique et administratif et s’étend jusqu’aux politiques artistiques et aux influences culturelles dans les Amériques

Combined angiotensin and endothelin receptor blockade attenuates adverse cardiac remodeling post-myocardial infarction in the rat: possible role of transforming growth factor beta(1)

A. Tzanidis, S. Lim, R. D. Hannan, F. See, A. M. Ugoni and H. Krum. Combined Angiotensin and Endothelin Receptor Blockade Attenuates Adverse Cardiac Remodeling Post-Myocardial Infarction in the Rat: Possible Role of Transforming Growth Factor beta(1). Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology (2001) 33, 969-981. Myocardial infarction (MI) is associated with activation of the vasoconstrictor peptides, angiotensin II (AngII) and endothelin-1 (ET-1), which are thought to contribute to adverse cardiac remodeling and dysfunction. The present study sought to determine whether combined AngII and ET receptor blockade improves cardiac remodeling over individual treatments in an experimental model of left ventricular myocardial infarction (LVMI) in the rat. Groups of eight female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized at 24 h post-LVMI to 1 week treatment with either vehicle, an ET(A/B)receptor antagonist (bosentan), an AT(1)receptor antagonist (valsartan), or combined treatment. Vehicle-treated animals developed LV dysfunction with extensive accumulation of collagen type I and increased alpha(1)(I) procollagen mRNA compared to sham controls. Whilst individual receptor blockade with either bosentan or valsartan reduced LVEDP towards sham control levels, there were no significant changes to myocardial collagen deposition in comparison to vehicle. In contrast, improved ventricular function by combined treatment was associated with reduced type I collagen deposition within left ventricular non-infarct regions, as well as reduced peptide distribution and cardiac gene expression of the profibrogenic peptide, transforming growth factor beta(1)(TGF beta(1)). These data demonstrate that combined AngII and ET receptor blockade has beneficial effects on myocardial fibrogenesis over individual treatments during adverse cardiac remodeling early post-MI