Showing papers in "The American Historical Review in 1978"

The Huk rebellion : a study of peasant revolt in the Philippines

Abstract: Chapter 1 Origins of Rebellion Chapter 2 Unrest Chapter 3 The Hukbalahap: Resistance to the Japanese Occupation in Central Luzon Chapter 4 Prelude to Rebellion Chapter 5 Rebellion: 1946-1948 Chapter 6 The Rise and Fall Chapter 7 Conclusion

Obstacles to Economic Growth in Nineteenth-Century Mexico

Abstract: THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF MEXICO HAS ADVANCED dramatically in recent years. The most important revisionist work has concentrated on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, although major works have appeared on the sixteenth, seventeenth, and twentieth centuries as well.' Much of the new research has been quantitative or comparative, linking the study of Mexico's past to methodological currents in the United States and Western Europe.2 It is now possible to revise some of the principal hypotheses about Mexico's relative backwardness since the end of the colonial era. Comparative estimates of Mexican gross national product in the nineteenth century can be used to assess the impact of revisionist work on standard interpretations of Mexico's economic history from the Bourbons to the Revolution of I9IO. By way of introduction, two caveats are worth stressing. First, spurious precision infects all, or nearly all, quantitative historical work. Margins of error are necessarily large in estimates of national product based on fragmentary data, the guesswork of interested contemporaries, and the imagination of the modern researcher. This is even truer of estimates produced to test hypotheses about what might have been, as the "new economic history" has amply demonstrated during the past decade or so in the United States. I take it as a duty, therefore, to issue a clear warning: all of the numbers in this article are, without exception, inaccurate; however, that is not a valid argument against their use. Literary estimates typically contain fewer errors (we

The Miles Literatus in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century England: How Rare a Phenomenon?

Abstract: Must we assume that medieval administrators were always accompanied by clergymen to read to them, write their letters, and figure their accounts? A misconception about the Middle Ages that dies hard is that laymen were by definition illiterate and that the Church alone could provide kings and princes with professional administrators. The growth of a literate laity is usually associated with the rise of towns and tradesmen, not with the nobles and knights of the countryside.1 T. F. Tout, for example, assumed that the miles literatus was a "rare phenomenon" in England even as late as the midthirteenth century. Like too many others, he presupposed the static character of medieval life, unaware that the lives of the nobility changed sharply after about I Ioo. And the myth of lay illiteracy has survived despite the challenge of studies published as long ago as the 9g3os.2 True, the works of both James

Sweden, the nation's history

Abstract: Steven Koblik s epilogue extends Scott s now standard text with an analysis of contemporary Swedish political, economic, and social behavior. In addition to the epilogue, Scott has made a number of alterations in the text in order to maintain the timeliness and comprehensiveness of the work.Using a chronological-topical structure, Scott shows how and why Sweden progressed from times of backwardness to an age of military greatness, through two centuries of cultural development and relapse into poverty followed by a sudden outburst of productive energy and the creation of an exceptionally prosperous welfare state where the ideal is consensus rather than confrontation."

The Byzantine theocracy

Abstract: Foreword, Introduction 1. The christian empire: the image of God upon earth 2. The viceroy of God: the plenitude of imperial power 3. The battle over images: the challenge of popular belief 4. The working compromise: the limits of imperial control 5. The monks and the people: the oppo-position to the palace and the hierarchy 6. Decline and fall: the end of the Kingdom of God on earth Notes Index.

Scotland's relations with England : a survey to 1707

Abstract: Two national identities had established themselves by the end of the 11th century in, respectively, the north and south of Britain. The larger southern nation made several attempts on the independence of the smaller and more dynastically-troubled northern state but, after the time of Edward I of England, Scotland held its own. Then in 1603, with the accession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne, an incorporating union seemed to be in prospect, but more than a century passed before a lasting parliamentary union was achieved amid a flurry of intrigue, corruption and power-broking. The story is told in this book by the author of "Scotland: 1689 to the Present", the fourth and final volume of the "Edinburgh History of Scotland" series.

Indian Labor and New World Plantations: European Demands and Indian Responses in Northeastern Brazil

Abstract: IN RECENT YEARS INTEREST in the early years of European conquest and colonization in the New World has undergone remarkable resurgence. No longer concerned solely or primarily with the effect of this process on subsequent national histories, scholars have increasingly turned their attention to the role that the New World colonies played in the creation of an Atlanticeven a world-economic system. This resurgence of interest has resulted in lengthy and often heated debates on the nature of colonization in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and on the dominant mode of production which prevailed in these colonies. Recently, Immanuel Wallerstein has argued that the Americas, as a peripheral zone of capitalist expansion, experienced certain forms of coerced labor such as chattel slavery and the encomienda, both of which were necessary forms of colonial exploitation that permitted the formation of a surplus sufficient to make such colonial ventures worthwhile.1 A Brazilian scholar, Fernando Novais, has even suggested that European merchants seeking high returns on investments were responsible for imposition of the Atlantic slave trade and that the slave trade created African slavery in the

Anticipatory Association of the Heir in Early Capetian France

Abstract: MODERN HISTORIANS HAVE TRADITIONALLY VIEWED ROYAL SUCCESSION in early Capetian France as a conflict between hereditary and elective principles. Although the operation of these principles can be traced elsewhere in medieval Europe, especially in Germany, they have had a particular interest for France, where the dispossession of the last Carolingians was followed by the reign of a line of kings who lacked dynastic legitimacy. The essential means by which the early Capetians were seen to have kept the throne in their family was through the association of the eldest surviving son in the royalty during the father's lifetime. By this maneuver the elder king could control the proceedings and so extend the rule by his line. In 987, the first year of his reign, Hugh Capet thus thwarted the designs of those who wished for an elective monarchy by having his son Robert consecrated and crowned king. Robert in turn associated his eldest son and, upon the premature death of the first son, had his second son anointed and crowned. Succeeding kings continued the practice until I179, when Philip Augustus was made king with the ailing Louis VII. The practice has been seen as a reflection of the weak hereditary title of the dynasty until the reign of Philip Augustus, who abandoned the custom. The Capetians have been viewed as truly hereditary monarchs only from the time when they were able to discontinue this practice in favor of the automatic or quasi-automatic succession of the son upon his father's death.' Comparison with other medieval European monarchies has seemed to con-